DATA PROTECTION
Our commitment to care doesn’t stop at our dogs. We care about your personal data and ensuring you’re informed about how we use it. DGCRC promises to protect your data, and to manage any information you share with us in line with data protection laws.
This Privacy Policy sets out how and why DGCRC will collect and use your personal data and our legal basis for its use, to ensure you remain informed and in control of your information.
Please read this policy carefully to understand how we collect, use and store your personal information.
If you have any questions about how DGCRC processes your information, please get touch using the details in the “Contact us” section below.
TYPES OF PERSONAL DATA WE COLLECT
Depending on your interaction with DGCRC, we’ll collect the following types of information about you:
- Your contact details, such as name, postal address and email address
- Your date of birth
- Your financial information such as bank account details
- Your Gift Aid declaration
- A record of our communications with you
- Your communication preferences
- Your giving history
- Your interests, and reasons for your support
- Information collected as part of our rehoming service, such as details relating to your personal circumstances
- Information about your dog, such as their behaviour, medical conditions and treatments as part of the gifting process
- Third party contact details for registering your dog’s microchip
Sensitive information
Under data protection law, certain categories of personal information are recognised as sensitive, including health information, race, religious beliefs. DGCRC will sometimes collect sensitive personal data in connection with our rehoming services (for example that the right animal is rehomed with you), or where you volunteer or apply for a job with us. In these cases we will obtain your consent to process this data, or alternatively ensure that we have a valid legal basis for doing so, such as when it is in the substantial public interest.
WHERE DOES THIS INFORMATION COME FROM?
Rehoming dogs
- If you have registered to rehome a dog from us we will use the information you provide us to help us find you the right animal
- To provide you with aftercare services once you have rehomed a dog
- To communicate with you regarding our wider work and how you might support DGCRC in other ways
Taking in dogs
- If you have contacted us to hand in your dog for rehoming, we will use the information you provide us to establish how we can best look after your dog while it is in our care
- To assess how we might safely and permanently rehome your dog
- To enable us to meet the relevant legal requirements where they apply to dogs brought into our care
Reporting lost or found dogs
- To register details of a lost or found dog for the purposes of reuniting owners with their pet
Volunteering
- To enable us to recruit volunteers and foster carers
- To support and train volunteers and ensure their safety
- To enable us to communicate with volunteers regarding their volunteering work, the wider work of DGCRC and how they might support in other ways
Marketing and Fundraising
- To send you marketing including behind the scenes news, updates about our animals, general information about rehoming, volunteering and various ways you can support DGCRC, including fundraising, events and campaigning
- To efficiently raise the fundraising income to allow us to be here for every dog
- To manage, facilitate and record financial transactions associated with fundraising
- To manage events and fundraising activities
- To manage membership including renewal
- To ensure that as many supporters as possible maximise the value of their donation through Gift Aid
Legacies
- If you have got in touch with us about leaving us a legacy, we will manage and administrate your legacy pledge
Events
- To process registration fees, administer events
Media & PR
- Contacting you about press enquiries and case studies to help promote our work
Donations
- To process your donation and send you a thank you letter
- We may also use your personal information for the recovery of Gift Aid (where you have completed a Gift Aid declaration)
Retail trading and online purchases
- To fulfil orders for goods and services
Enquiries
- To enable us to record, consider and reply to enquiries
Research
- To send you surveys
To carry out research in relation to our supporters and services
Employment
- To enable the Centre to select and recruit staff
Most personal data we process is given to us directly by our supporters, customers and volunteers in the course of their interactions with us.
We may also receive your personal information when you donate to DGCRC through third-party services such as Virgin Money Giving.
In some situations, we may update our supporters’, customers’ and volunteers’ personal information using information from public registers or other agencies. For example, we might do this to check we have a valid and deliverable postal address for you, or to check if you are on Telephone Preference Service (TPS) or Fundraising Preference Service (FPS).
HOW WE USE YOUR DATA
In simple terms, your personal data may be 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 are often referred to as ‘purposes’). How we use your data for these purposes will depend on the nature of our relationship with you.
REHOMING
When you adopt one of our dogs we ask you to provide us with information about your home, personal circumstances, and in some cases health or mobility requirements so that we are better able to match you with an animal that is going to best meet its, and you or your family’s needs.
When you ask us to find a new home for your dog, we will ask for certain information about your animal and you (including the reason or circumstances that led to you needing to rehome your pet, and any information about your pet's behaviour towards yourself and others in the household that will help us with their care or onward rehoming).
We also ask for this information so that we can comply with the relevant legal requirements when rehoming an animal such as establishing the legal ownership of animals or updating microchip details.
VOLUNTEERING
Volunteers provide invaluable support across all aspects of DGCRC. Where you have provided us with your information to volunteer, we process this in order to recruit volunteers and foster carers (for example, by reviewing volunteering applications), support/train volunteers and communicate with you generally about the work we do to ensure that you are kept well informed about DGCRC, your own volunteering and how you can get more involved.
As mentioned, in some cases we may collect sensitive data about you so that we can ensure that you are matched with the most appropriate animal (where you are fostering a dog), meet any access, health or dietary needs you may have and to monitor equality and diversity.
MARKETING AND FUNDRAISING
DGCRC’s marketing activity helps to find more dogs permanent and loving homes, and helps us to raise the income we need which enables us to do this. Our marketing activity also helps us to provide help to dogs beyond our gates, such as through community engagement work, educational and campaigning activity.
DGCRC may seek your consent to send you marketing via email, phone or text message (SMS). If you choose to hear from us in this way, you’ll receive behind the scenes news, updates about our animals, general information about rehoming, volunteering and various ways you can support DGCRC, including fundraising, events and campaigning. Examples emails inviting you to events, and email updates on our campaigning activity
DGCRC will rely on legitimate interests to send you marketing and fundraising communications by post, if you have provided a postal address. Unless you tell us not to, we’ll contact you by post with communications we believe you’ll be interested in. If you would like to opt out of these communications, you can let us know by writing to or emailing us.
When you register to attend or take part in one of our fundraising or challenge events we will use your information to process the registration fees (if any), administer your participation in the event and provide you with information about the event.
We will never rent, swap or sell your details for marketing purposes.
You’re free to change your contact preferences at any time, just let us know.
FINANCIAL TRANSACTIONS
If you donate to us, or buy something from us, we’ll 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 Standard and don’t store the details on our website or databases.
If you have kindly added Gift Aid to your donation to DGCRC we must record the fact that you are a UK taxpayer and we have to maintain a record of the amount of Gift Aid we have claimed.
When you purchase an item from our centre or one of our shops, 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.
HOW THE LAW APPLIES TO DGCRC’S USE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION
We are required under law to make sure that we have a valid ground 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 four legal grounds that are most relevant to DGCRC’s use of your personal information are:
- Consent
- Legitimate Interest
- Contract
- Legal Obligation
Overview
DGCRC will only process your personal information if any of the following apply:
- We have asked you for your express consent and have a record of this (for example, we will ask for your consent to send you marketing communications by email)
- We have a legitimate interest to do so. Our use will be fair and balanced and never unduly have an impact on your rights (for example, it may be in our legitimate interests to analyse the data you provide so that we can improve our services and tailor our communications to you)
To allow us to provide the best possible care for every dog
- To assess suitability for rehoming and to follow up with you about your rehoming enquiry
- To capture the information we need when we take in an animal, to allow us to care for that animal and ultimately rehome it
- To provide you with aftercare services once you have rehomed an animal from us
- To conduct home visits to assess suitability as part of the rehoming process
- To register new owners’ details with microchip databases
To raise the fundraising income to allow us to be here for every dog
- To process your donations and Gift Aid where you have asked us to do so
- To send you marketing communications by post
For administration purposes
- To provide you with information necessary to an event you have signed up for
- To provide you with information about any fundraising activities you have agreed to take part in
- To follow up with you about your enquiry
To conduct research
- To conduct supporter satisfaction research
- To invite you to take part in surveys or research to help improve our services
- To conduct desk research to help identify high value supporters
To recruit and manage volunteers
- To assess volunteer (including foster carer) applications and recruit volunteers
- To communicate with volunteers about information that is essential to their role, and about the wider activities of DGCRC
- To process volunteers and foster carers data to effectively administer their close relationships with DGCRC and provide them with appropriate care and support
- We have a contract with you which we can only fulfil by using your personal information (for example, if you purchase something from our shop)
- We have a legal obligation to use or disclose information about you (for example, we are required by law to keep a record of Gift Aid declarations for six years).
Consent
In some cases we will rely on consent, for example, to send you or make marketing and fundraising emails, phone calls and text messages. In addition, if you register as a DGCRC volunteer it can be very helpful if you share information on any medical conditions that may affect your ability to perform your voluntary work. You can withdraw consent for these channels and activities by contacting us.
Legitimate Interests
This legal ground for processing means that we can process your personal information if we have a genuine and legitimate reason for doing so, and that reason is not overridden by your rights and interests as an individual.
Examples of the legitimate interests processing activities we undertake are:
We have considered and balanced our legitimate interests against individuals’ privacy rights in these scenarios and we do not believe that any adversely affect our supporters’ rights or interests. If you would like to find out more or ask us to stop processing your data in these ways, you can do this at any time by contacting us.
Contractual Relationships
In some cases, we will be under a contractual obligation to provide you with goods and services, which means that we have to process your data in order to fulfil those obligations. Some examples of this include if you are a Member, or if you are rehoming a from us, or purchasing something from our shop.
A legal obligation
Sometimes we may have a legal obligation to process information about you – for example we are obliged to keep financial records including Gift Aid for six years. We’re required to notify the local dog wardens about strays that come into our care, and we’re also required to keep a record of your communication preferences, in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation.
DATA RETENTION
We’ll retain personal information for different periods of time depending on your relationship with DGCRC.
For example, if you donate to us, we’ll keep your financial information for up to seven years after your last interaction with us. If you rehome an animal, we’ll keep details relating to your rehoming circumstances for 15 years (the average lifetime of the dog).
We will keep some data indefinitely (for example, your name and giving history). It’s important for us to retain this information as a majority of DGCRC’s legacy income comes from people we weren’t aware would leave us a gift in their will. Sometimes this legacy is left decades after the supporter’s last interaction with DGCRC. Knowing that the individual was a supporter in the past is important for us to know in case that will is contested.
In these cases, we’ll only retain data that is necessary for these purposes, and we will delete or anonymise other parts of the record.
If you decide you no longer wish to hear from us, we’ll need to keep a note of that on our suppression list indefinitely.
DATA STORAGE
DGCRC’s operations are based in the UK and we currently store our data within the UK
Some organisations which provide services to us may transfer personal data outside the EEA for processing purposes, but we’ll only allow them to do so if your data is adequately protected (for example, the insurance company which provides 4 weeks cover post adoption).
DATA SHARING
DGCRC 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. An example could be sharing your details to reunite you with a lost animal via a Local Authority Dog Warden, or to update microchipping databases. In some cases, we may have to share data about you when requested to do so by statutory agencies, such as the police.
We may also share your data with our contracted suppliers, and external service providers, such as our veterinary surgeon or our email service providers.
In these situations, the relationship between DGCRC and the third-party will be governed by a contract and strict security requirements will be in place to protect your personal information.
COOKIES
DGCRC’s website only uses one type of essential site cookie (SSESS) in order to recognise users as they move from page to page within our website and remember any information they may have entered such as a Homefinder application. This is only in use whilst you are on our website.
THIRD PARTY WEBSITES AND SOCIAL NETWORKS
If you click on a hyperlink from our website to any third party websites (e.g. if you ‘share’ content from our website with friends or colleagues on social media), you may be sent cookies from these third party websites. They will do so pursuant to their own policies on privacy and cookies. It’s a good idea to check their privacy policies to fully understand their use of cookies.
YOUR DATA PROTECTION RIGHTS
When DGCRC is using your personal information on the basis of your consent, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. You also have the right to ask DGCRC to stop using your personal information for direct marketing purposes. Simply contact us and we will amend your contact preferences.
Presuming that these rights are not overridden by our legal obligations, or where our legitimate interests are not overridden by your rights and interests as an individual, you have the following data protection rights:
- Right to be Informed - You have the right to be told how your personal information will be used. This policy document, and shorter summary statements used on our communications, are intended to be a clear and transparent description of how your data may be used.
- Right of Access - You can contact us to ask what information we hold on you and to request a copy of that information. From May 2018 we will have 30 days to comply once we are satisfied you have rights to see the requested records and we have successfully confirmed your identity.
- Right of Erasure - From May 2018, you have the right to be forgotten (i.e. to have your personally identifiable data deleted). We’ll be required to keep an appropriate record (such as a suppression list) so that we can make sure you don’t receive future communications. In some instances a legal basis will override the right to erasure. An example of this would be the legal requirement to record financial transactions for six years.
- Right of Rectification - If you believe our records are inaccurate you have the right to ask for those records concerning you to be updated.
- 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.
- Right to Data Portability - Where we are processing your personal data under your consent the law allows you to request data portability from one service provider to another. This right is largely seen as a way for people to transfer their personal data from one service provider to a competitor.
- Right to Object - You have an absolute right to stop the processing of your personal data for direct marketing purposes.
- Right to object to automated decisions - In a situation where a data controller is using your personal data in a computerised model or algorithm to make decisions that have a legal effect on you, you have the right to object. This right is more applicable to mortgage or finance situations; DGCRC does not undertake complex computerised decision-making that produces legal effects.
If you want to exercise any of these rights, please contact us.
FILMING AND PHOTOGRAPHY AT EVENTS
Please note that DGCRC (or our authorised service providers) may film or photograph participants, volunteers and spectators attending or taking part in events and use such footage or photographs.
We do this in order to publicise the event for commercial and/or fundraising purposes including, but not limited to: television broadcasts, advertising, publications, marketing material, merchandising, social media, personalised direct mail and other media that may be made available to the public.
No personal details (including names) of any under 16-year-old participants will be used in any publicity materials without the written consent of their parent or legal guardian, but we may use images where children are incidentally included (for example, images of mass participation in our Fun Day Dog Show, or sponsored walks.
NOTIFICATION OF CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY
This Privacy Policy may change from time to time. For example, we will continue to update it to reflect new legal requirements. Please visit this website page to keep up to date with the changes to our Privacy Policy.
WHAT TO DO IF YOU ARE NOT HAPPY
In the first instance, please talk to us directly so we can help resolve any problem or query.
You can also register with the fundraising preference service (FPS). This service is run by the Fundraising Regulator and allows you to stop email, telephone, addressed post, and/or text messages from a selected charity or charities by using the online service at www.fundraisingpreference.org.uk or by calling 0300 303 3517. Once you have made a request through the FPS, we will ensure that your new preferences take effect within 28 days.
You also have the right to contact the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) if you have any concerns about Data Protection using their help line 0303 123 1113 or at www.ico.org.uk
CONTACT US
If you have any questions about this Policy, or about how DGCRC manages your data, please contact us
Phone: 01387 770210 (between 12 and 4)
Email: info@caninerescue.co.uk
Post: GDPR, Dumfries and Galloway Canine Rescue Centre, Dovecotewells, by Glencaple, Dumfries DG1 4RH.