Privacy and Cookie Policy

Privacy Policy

Who we are

Pawprints to Freedom Ltd is a non-profit rescue for dogs who are in need of a loving home. We cover the whole of the UK. Our aim is to help as many rescue dogs as possible regardless of their background.

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Pawprints to Freedom is a not-for-profit company registered in England and Wales (company no. 12501343) and a charity registered in England and Wales (charity no. 1194754) whose registered office is at 86-90 Paul Street, London, EC2A 4NE.

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Data Protection

We care about your personal data and ensuring that you are informed about how we use it. Pawprints to Freedom will protect your data and manage any information you share with us in line with data protection laws.

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Pawprints to Freedom will process your personal data in accordance with the legal requirements set out in the following Data Protection legislation:

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• Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA2018)

• UK General Data Protection Regulations (UK GDPR)

This Privacy Policy sets out how and why Pawprints to Freedom will collect and use your personal data in line with the legislation above, to ensure you remain informed and in control of your information.

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If you have any questions about how Pawprints to Freedom will process your information, please contact us using the details in the “Contact us” section below.

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Types of personal data we collect

Depending on your interaction with us, Pawprints to Freedom may collect the following types of information about you:

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• Your name, address, telephone number and email address

• Your date of birth

• Your financial information, such as bank account details

• Your Gift Aid declaration

• Your communication preferences

• A record of our communications with you

• Your interests, and reasons for your support

• Information collected as part of our rehoming service, such as details relating to your personal circumstances and the type of animal you are looking for

• Information collected as part of the surrender process, such as information about why you may be looking to give up your pet where appropriate, and information specifically about your pet, such as their behaviour, medical conditions and treatments

• Photography and videography, such as photos and videos of your pets, which may or may not include you and other person(s)

Under data protection law, certain categories of personal information are recognised as sensitive, otherwise known as ‘Special Category Data’, and include health information, race and religious beliefs, and criminal conviction data. Pawprints to Freedom may collect this data for the following purposes:

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• We may ask you about your health when applying to adopt or foster or to volunteer with us in order to assess whether any medical condition(s) you have may impact your ability to care for an animal or volunteer with us.

• We may ask you about your criminal record when applying to adopt or foster or to volunteer with us in order to assess whether any conviction(s) you have may impact your ability to care for an animal or volunteer with us

We will not collect any Special Category Data without a valid legal basis for doing so.

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Where does this data come from?

Most personal data we process is directly given to us by prospective adopters, fosterers, volunteers, and supporters. We may also process personal data received from third parties such as Stripe Payments or GoCardless where data is provided to them, by you, for Pawprints to Freedom.

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How we use your data

Your personal data is used to help us effectively deliver our charitable services or to help us raise funds for those charitable services.

We have summarised below the different reasons why we do this. These reasons are referred to as ‘purposes’. How we use your data for these purposes will depend on the nature of our relationship with you.

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Adopting or fostering an animal

If you have applied to adopt or foster an animal from us, we will use the information you provide to assess your suitability for adopting or fostering an animal. This may include a virtual or in-person home check, where required.

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Where an animal is adopted from us, we will use your data to register your animal with the relevant national microchip databases.

Surrendering an animal

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If you have applied to surrender your animal to us, we will use the information you provide to assess how we might rehome your animal.

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Volunteering with us

If you have applied to volunteer with us, we will use the information you provide to assess your suitability for a volunteering role, and to decide which role is best suited for you.

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Sponsoring us

If you have agreed to sponsor us with a one-time or recurring donation, we will use the information you provide to track our sponsorship agreements.

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Fundraising (including online shop orders and auctions)

If you have purchased an item through our online shop or one of our auctions via our social media accounts, we will use the information you provide to fulfil any purchases made.

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Marketing

If you have opted in to receive marketing communications from us, we will use the information you provide to send these communications to you. Consent to receive these communications can be withdrawn at any time using the 'Unsubscribe' function.

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Website tracking and analysis

If you have opted in to the use of cookies on our website, we may use non-identifiable data to track your activity on our website in order to analyse website performance and user activity.

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How the law applies to our use of personal information

Data Protection legislation requires us to make sure that we have a valid legal basis for processing your data. The law sets out six different grounds for when personal data can be processed (plus additional ones where sensitive data is used) The legal grounds that are most relevant to Pawprints to Freedom's use of your personal information are:

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• Where you have provided specific Consent

• Where we have a Legitimate Interest to do so that has been balanced and does not adversely affect your rights;

• Where we have a Contract in place that cannot be fulfilled without processing your information;

• Where we have a Legal Obligation to use or disclose information about you; or

• We believe it is in the Public Interest to, and this interest is supported by law.

The law sets out an additional ground for processing not listed above, that Pawprints to Freedom is not currently using. Any changes or additions to the grounds for processing in the future will be updated above.

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Visiting a Pawprints to Freedom site

You may have cause to visit one of our sites if you are using one of our services, such as adopting or fostering an animal. In most cases visits should be pre-arranged, and your name, contact details, and arrival and departure times will be recorded by Pawprints to Freedom for Health and Safety purposes, as well as other information that may be important depending on the nature of your visit.

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Financial transactions

If you donate to us, or buy something from us, we will process your debit or credit card details. We will also pass your card details securely to our payment processing partner as part of the payment process. We do this in accordance with the Payment Card Industry Security Standards and do not store the details on our website or databases.

If you have kindly added Gift Aid to your donation to us, we must record the fact that you are a UK taxpayer and will maintain a record of the amount of Gift Aid we have claimed from your donation.

When you purchase an item from our online shop, we will collect certain information from you including your name, address, phone number, email address and payment details, so that we can process and send you your item or contact you if we have any queries regarding your purchase.

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Data retention

We will retain personal information for different periods of time depending on your relationship with us, and in line with our Retention Policy and Schedules, relevant laws and best practice recommendations. For example, if you donate to us, we will keep your financial information for at least seven years after your last interaction with us. If necessary, records can be kept longer than the retention periods covered in our Schedules, in which cases justifications will be appropriately documented and regularly reviewed. When we no longer need to retain your information we will ensure it is securely erased. If you would like more information on our Retention Policy and Schedules, please contact us.

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Data storage

Pawprints to Freedom's operations are based in the UK and the European Economic Area (EEA) and we endeavour to store all our data in the UK or within the EEA where possible.

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Some organisations which provide services to us may transfer personal data outside the EEA for processing purposes, but we will only allow them to do so if your data is adequately protected and in line with legal requirements. This includes, for example, ensuring that appropriate safeguards in relation to international transfers of data are included in contracts, and conducting Data Protection Impact Assessments on the processing activity.

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Data sharing

Pawprints to Freedom will not exchange or sell your personal information to another organisation for their own marketing purposes.

However, there are some situations where we may have to share your personal information with other organisations, such as to update national microchip databases. In some cases, we may have to share data about you when requested to do so by statutory agencies, such as the police.

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We will also share your data with our contracted suppliers, and external service providers, such as our email service providers and advertising platforms such as Facebook and Google.

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Your data protection rights

When Pawprints to Freedom is using your personal information, you have the right to withdraw consent at any time. You also have the right to ask Pawprints to Freedom to stop using your personal information for direct marketing purposes. Simply contact us and we will amend your contact preferences.

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You also have the following rights:

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RIGHT TO BE INFORMED

You have the right to be told how your personal information will be used. This policy, and shorter summary statements used on our communications, are intended to be a clear and transparent description of how your data may be used.

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RIGHT OF ACCESS

You can ask what information we hold on you and request a copy of that information.

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RIGHT OF ERASURE

You have the right to be forgotten (i.e. to have your personally identifiable data deleted). We will still be required to keep an appropriate record of the request if we can delete your information and in some instances, a legal basis will override the right to erasure.

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RIGHT OF RECTIFICATION

If you believe our records are inaccurate you have the right to ask for those records concerning you to be updated.

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RIGHT TO RESTRICT PROCESSING

In certain situations, you have the right to ask for processing of your personal data to be restricted because there is some disagreement about its accuracy or legitimate usage.

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RIGHT TO DATA PORTABILITY

You can ask us to send a copy of your information to another organisation.

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RIGHT TO OBJECT

You have an absolute right to stop the processing of your personal data for direct marketing purposes, as well as the right to object to other processing activities.

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What to do if you have any queries

In the first instance, please talk to us directly so we can help resolve any problem or query. You can reach us via email at enquiries@pawprints2freedom.co.uk.

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You also have the right to contact the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) if you have any concerns about the way your information is being processed using their help line 0303 123 1113 or at www.ico.org.uk.