Cookies Policy

Cookies are small text files stored on your device (computer, tablet or smartphone) when you visit a website. They allow the site to recognise your device on future visits and store browsing preferences. Cookies do not contain viruses or access to information stored on your device beyond what was previously placed by the cookie itself.

Under Directive 2002/58/EC (ePrivacy Directive) and Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (GDPR), the use of non-essential cookies requires your prior, free, specific, informed, and unambiguous consent. When you first visit our website, a cookie notice is displayed where you can accept, reject, or customise your preferences. Refusing is as easy as accepting and does not restrict access to any content on the site. Your consent is stored for 182 days (about 6 months), after which we will ask again. You may withdraw it sooner, as easily as you gave it, without affecting the lawfulness of processing based on consent given before withdrawal. When you withdraw consent for a category, the corresponding cookies are deleted from your device. Data controller: Serpa Pinto Veterinary Clinic, Rua Serpa Pinto 542, 4250-464 Porto, Portugal, info@vetserpapinto.pt. You may exercise your rights of access, rectification, erasure, restriction, portability and objection through this contact, and lodge a complaint with the Portuguese Data Protection Authority, CNPD (www.cnpd.pt).

Essential cookies (no consent required) Necessary for the basic functioning of the website and to record your own privacy choices. They do not identify you or track you across websites. • cc_cookie: first-party cookie (vetserpapinto.pt). Stores the categories you allowed, the date of consent, and the notice version you responded to. Duration: 182 days. Analytics cookies (consent required) Allow us to understand how visitors interact with the website, which pages are most visited, and detect potential errors. We use Google Analytics 4, from Google Ireland Limited, with IP truncation and advertising signals disabled. • _ga: pseudonymous device identifier. Duration: 2 years. • _ga_<ID>: measurement session state for this property. Duration: 2 years. • _gid: distinguishes visitors over a single day. Duration: 24 hours. • _gat: throttles requests to the measurement server. Duration: 1 minute. Marketing cookies (consent required) Let us measure how our campaigns perform and show more relevant content. We use Google Ads, from Google Ireland Limited. • _gcl_au: links an action on the site (such as a booking) to the ad that led to it. Duration: 90 days. • _gcl_aw: stores the click identifier when you reach the site through a Google ad. Duration: 90 days. Enhanced conversions: with marketing cookies allowed, Google Ads may send Google a pseudonymised (hashed) email address present on the page at the moment of a measured action, to improve conversion attribution. We never send names, contact details or clinical data. International transfers: data collected by Google Analytics and Google Ads may be transferred to the United States under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, which the European Commission has recognised as providing an adequate level of protection.

In addition to the cookies above, which depend on your permission, the site counts how it is used, anonymously. This count uses no cookies, stores nothing on your device and does not record your IP address or any identifier: each visit or click simply adds one to a daily total. What we count, as daily totals: • the page visited and the type of source of the visit (Google ad, search, social media, another website or direct access); • the type of device (mobile or computer) and the site language; • clicks on phone, WhatsApp, email, directions and booking, and bookings completed in the calendar, without any booking details; • the choice made in the cookie notice (accept, reject or choose); • pages not found and how fast pages load (good, average or poor). This tells us which pages and campaigns bring requests to the clinic, including from people who refuse cookies, and helps us fix errors and slow pages. The totals are stored on the server that hosts the site and do not identify anyone. Legal basis: the clinic's legitimate interest in understanding and improving how the site works (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR). If your browser sends the Global Privacy Control signal, we count nothing.

You can manage or change your cookie preferences at any time via: • Cookie management panel: click "Manage Cookies" in the website footer to review and update your choices. • Browser settings: most browsers allow you to block or delete cookies in privacy settings. Refer to your browser's help for instructions. Note: disabling essential cookies may affect the proper functioning of the website.

Map on the contact page: served by OpenStreetMap, which sets no cookies on your device. Online booking (Digitail): the calendar on the "Book an Appointment" page is embedded from the Digitail platform (vet.digitail.io), the practice management system we use. When you open that page, your browser loads content directly from Digitail's servers, which may set their own cookies and use their own measurement and diagnostic tools (Google Tag Manager, Google Ads, Microsoft Clarity and Sentry), governed by Digitail's privacy policy, over which we have no control. The data you enter in the calendar is processed by Digitail as a processor on behalf of the clinic. If you would rather not load this content, you can book by phone or WhatsApp, listed on the same page. Google Analytics and Google Ads: the cookies listed in the previous section are set by Google Ireland Limited, and only after you allow them. Their privacy policy is available at policies.google.com/privacy. WhatsApp: the contact button opens a conversation in the WhatsApp app or website, in a new tab, at which point Meta's privacy policy applies.

We reserve the right to update this Cookies Policy at any time, particularly to reflect legislative changes or updates to our services. The latest version will always be available on this page, with the date of last update. Porto, October 2026.