Animal Rescue and Care Privacy Policy

Who we are

Animal Rescue and Care (A.R.C.) is a charity dedicated to the health and wellbeing of animals in the Richmond-upon-Thames area. We primarily rescue, foster and rehome animals such as cats, rabbits, guinea pigs and small furries.

A.R.C. is a charity registered in England and Wales, number 1095004.

This Privacy Policy explains how and why we use your personal information. It applies to all personal data gathered when you engage with A.R.C. as a supporter, volunteer, service user or as an enquirer. If you have any questions about anything that’s detailed here or want to know more about how we’re making privacy a priority, please get in touch through arc@animalrescueandcare.org.uk.

The type of personal information we collect

The information we hold about you might include the following:

Your personal details such as name, email address, postal address and phone number
Your enquiry about a pet or our services
Information collected as part of our rehoming service, such as details relating to your personal circumstances
Your interests and reasons for your support
Information about your pet, such as their behaviour, medical conditions and treatments
Photography and transcripts, such as images at events, case studies, testimonials and other marketing materials

How we collect your personal data

Most of the personal information we process is provided to us directly by you – our supporters, adopters and volunteers. This data is collected both online and via post or phone call.

Your information will be collected when:

You make a donation
You volunteer, foster or enquire about volunteering with us
You enquire or register for us to rehome an animal
You enquire or register to adopt an animal
You become a member of A.R.C.
You purchase goods, services or register for an event with us
You may also, from time to time, supply us with personal information indirectly – for example when you use our website and engage with our social media

Why we collect your data

As a charity, it is important for A.R.C. to be able to collect your data to process your enquiries, donations and any other interactions you may have with us. We need information to ensure we offer the highest level of support to people and their pets and to provide the best possible service. We rely on continued donor interest, monetary contributions and your goodwill.

The main purposes for gathering your personal information are for: pet services (e.g. rehoming, fostering and adoption), pet support, advice and volunteering, for marketing activities, for membership services and for fundraising and transaction processing.

How we use your data

your personal data may be used to help us effectively deliver our charitable services or raise funds for those charitable services, and/or deliver the best service for a pet.

We do not share, sell or swap your personal information to any third parties or organisations, except when required by law, where it is necessary to administer the relationship between us or where we have another legitimate interest in doing so.

How we use your data for these purposes will depend on the nature of our relationship with you. Below are some examples.

Rehoming a pet

Registered to rehome a pet

To provide you with aftercare services
To communicate with you regarding the wider work of A.R.C. and how you might support us

Bringing in a pet

If you have brought a pet to A.R.C. to be rehomed
To enable us to meet the relevant legal requirements where they apply to animals brought into our care

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 A.R.C. and how people might support in other ways

Membership services

To facilitate the provision of membership services

How the law applies to Animal Rescue and Care

Under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the lawful bases we rely on for processing this information are:

Your consent. You are able to remove your consent at any time. You can do this by contacting arc@animalrescueandcare.org.uk

We have a contractual obligation. In some cases, we will contact you under the legal bases for processing under Contract. For example, when you support A.R.C. by completing a Direct Debit form, rehome a pet with us, or enquire about our services.

We have a legitimate interest. Under GDPR, A.R.C. will use this legal basis for processing, if we feel that the use of personal data is legitimately in the interests of the charity, provided there is no disproportionate impact of our activities on you.

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.

We have a legal requirement. Sometimes we may have a legal obligation to process information about you – for example, we are obliged to keep financial records regarding Gift Aid for six years.

How we store your personal information

Your information will be held online on databases, computer files, in email records, or as paper records. Our website is secure.

We will only retain your personal data for as long as is necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it is collected.

When assessing what retention period is appropriate for your personal data, we take into consideration:

the requirements of our business and the services provided
any statutory or legal obligations
the purposes for which we originally collected the personal data
the lawful grounds on which we based our processing
the types of personal data we have collected
the amount and categories of your personal data
whether the purpose of the processing could reasonably be fulfilled by other means
whether you are adopting or have applied to adopt to adopt an animal from us
whether you are volunteering for us

Your data protection rights

Under data protection law, you have rights including:

Your right of access. You have the right to ask us for copies of your personal information.

Your right to rectification. You have the right to ask us to rectify personal information you think is inaccurate. You also have the right to ask us to complete information you think is incomplete.

Your right to erasure. You have the right to ask us to erase your personal information in certain circumstances.

Your right to restriction of processing. You have the right to ask us to restrict the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.

Your right to object to processing. You have the the right to object to the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.

Your right to data portability. You have the right to ask that we transfer the personal information you gave us to another organisation, or to you, in certain circumstances.

You are not required to pay any charge for exercising your rights. If you make a request, we have one month to respond to you.

Please contact us at arc@animalrescueandcare.org.uk if you wish to make a request.

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.

Cookies

When we provide services, we want to make them easy, useful and reliable. Where services are delivered on the internet, this sometimes involves placing small amounts of information on your device, for example, computer or mobile phone. These include small files known as cookies. They cannot be used to identify you personally.

These pieces of information are used to improve services for you through, for example:

enabling a service to recognise your device so you don’t have to give the same information several times during one task
recognising that you may already have given a username and password so you don’t need to do it for every web page requested
measuring how many people are using services, so they can be made easier to use and there’s enough capacity to ensure they are fast

We currently only use “strictly necessary” cookies. As and when this changes, this cookie policy will be updated to reflect that.

How to complain

If you have any concerns about our use of your personal information, you can make a complaint to us at arc@animalrescueandcare.org.uk.

You can also complain to the ICO if you are unhappy with how we have used your data.

The ICO’s address:

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Helpline number: 0303 123 1113

ICO website: https://www.ico.org.uk