Privacy Policy

PetMD understands how important the privacy of personal information is.

Web Sites Covered

This Privacy Policy applies to PetMD.com. You should read the privacy policy at each Web site that you visit after you leave one of our sites. We are not responsible for how other Web sites treat your privacy, once you leave PetMD.com.

Information We Collect from Unregistered Visitors

Visitors to each of our Web sites can access the Web site's home page and browse some areas of the site without disclosing any personally identifiable information. We do track information provided to us by your browser, including the Web site you came from (known as the "referring URL"), the type of browser you use, the time and date of access, and other information that does not personally identify you. You must register with us to use the entire site.

Information We Collect When You Register

When you register for services on our Web sites you are asked to provide us with identifying information, such as your name, gender, contact information, and other personal information. On our registration screens, we clearly label which information is required for registration, and which information is optional and may be given at your discretion. You will also be given a choice about whether or not you want to receive newsletters and other information that we distribute from time to time. We will explain how personally identifiable information will be used and ask for your consent before collecting it.

Children's Privacy

We are committed to protecting the privacy of children. Our Web sites are designed and intended for use by adults, and are not intended for, nor designed to be used by children under the age of 18. We do not collect personally identifiable information from any person we know is under the age of 18.

Aggregate Data

We create aggregate data about visitors to our Web sites for product development and improvement activities. We also use it for market analysis. We may provide information from our Web sites in aggregate form, with identifying information removed, to third parties.

Any third party that receives aggregated data must agree not to attempt to reidentify the people it belongs to. For example, we may provide information to a potential advertiser of a product that would appeal to a particular pet owner about what percentage of our users have pet's with a disorder. Depending on our agreement with the third parties, we may or may not charge for this information.

Marketing and Advertising

We may target our advertising or marketing depending on information we have about you. For example, a user we know is a woman may receive advertising for products targeted at women that a male user will not see, or a user that we know is a Veterinarian professional may receive advertising for pet therapies (although in neither case will the advertiser have access to any individually identifiable information about you).

We may also personalize our Web site based on your interests. For example, you may see different articles in different places on our Web site based on information you have shared with us, or information we have gained by observing your previous behavior, or information we may have gained from your interactions with a third party that shares information with us. We use information for our own internal marketing, research, and related purposes.

When we share information with third parties, we ask that they agree in writing to abide by our Privacy Policy.

If we discover that a third party inadvertently disclosed personal information about any of our users, we will take immediate action to prevent further occurrences.

General Policies

We have implemented technology and security policies, rules and other measures to protect the personal data that we have under our control from unauthorized access, improper use, alteration, unlawful or accidental destruction, and accidental loss. We also protect your information by requiring that all our employees and others who have access to or are associated with the processing of your data respect your confidentiality.

We use security methods to determine the identity of its registered users, so that appropriate rights and restrictions can be enforced for that user. Reliable verification of user identity is called authentication. We use both passwords and usernames to authenticate users. Users are responsible for maintaining their own passwords.