STAR Privacy & Cookie policy

Privacy

Stronger Together Animal Rescue (STAR) takes your privacy seriously. We are committed to protecting your personal information. This policy sets out how STAR uses the information that you provide us with in order to help further our work in rescuing and rehoming abused and abandoned dogs.

Who we are

Stronger Together Animal Rescue (STAR) is a dog & cat rescue and rehoming charity. We promise never to put a healthy dog or cat down.

The processing of your personal information is carried out by Stronger Together Animal Rescue (STAR), the Data Controller. By Stronger Together Animal Rescue (STAR) we mean the charity, Stronger Together Animal Rescue (STAR) (registered charity number 1168941). If you have any questions regarding our Privacy and Cookie Policy or how we use your personal information, please write to us at: Stronger Together Animal Rescue, Brooklands Cottage, Nuneaton Road, Mancetter, Warwickshire, CV9 1RF or email us at: adoption@staradopt.org

What information we collect and how we store it

STAR collects information from you in a number of different ways. For example, we will collect personal information directly when you make a donation to us, purchase goods or services, register for an event, volunteer or fundraise with us, adopt or foster a dog or cat from us, enquire about our activities or request dog care advice. The personal information we collect might include name, date of birth, email address, postal address, telephone number, mobile number, IP address, communication preferences or bank account details so we can process donations, or information as to whether you are a taxpayer to help us to claim gift aid. Sometimes, if relevant, information related to accessing our services, e.g. Microchip registration, veterinary treatment, and the personal circumstances around giving up a dog may also be collected. Information may also be collected indirectly for example when you use our website or engage with our social media. 

Your information will be held on computer files, in email records or as paper records. If for financial or technical reasons we need to use a supplier of the European Economic Area (EEA) we will take steps to put in place suitable safeguards to protect your personal data.

We do not collect sensitive personal information about our supporters unless there is a clear reason for doing so, for example, relating to your health, and only where appropriate – such as participation in a marathon or similar fundraising event, or where we need to ensure that we provide appropriate support to enable you to participate in an event or support us in some other way.

We take appropriate measures to ensure that the information disclosed to us is kept secure, accurate and up to date. We will only keep the data for as long as necessary for the purposes for which it was collected. It should be noted that we cannot guarantee the security or integrity of any personal information which is transferred from you or to you via the internet. Any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have retrieved your information, we will use strict procedures to try and prevent unauthorised access. Our online donation is via PayPal, Total Giving or online banking with Metro Bank. 

How the law applies to use of personal information

The law on Data Protection is covered in various pieces of legislation, including the Data Protection Act and the May 2018 General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The GDPR states that personal data (information relating to a person that can be individually identified) can only be processed if there is a legal ground to do so. Collecting, storing and using personal information come under the GDPR’s definition of processing. The GDPR provides six legal grounds (reasons) under which personal information can be processed (used) in a way that is lawful. For the processing to be lawful, at least one of the legal grounds must apply.

The four legal grounds that are most relevant to STAR use of your personal information are:

Consent

Contract

Legitimate Interest

Legal Obligation

How we may use your information

STAR will only process (use) your personal information in the following circumstances:

where you have provided your consent to allow us to use your data in a certain way;

where the processing is necessary to carry out the performance of a contract with you e.g. to send you an item that you have requested;

where it is in our legitimate interests to perform our functions, for example, processing donations or sending you administrative communications where our legitimate interest is to raise funds and to deliver our charitable purposes;

where the processing is necessary in order for us to comply with a legal obligation, e.g. we are required by law to keep records of gifts that are given to us with Gift Aid for 4 years.

Using your personal information in these ways helps us provide and improve our services as a charity and to keep a record of our communications with you e.g.:

to promote the aims of charity;

to process donations received from you;

to process gift aid declarations;

to enable us to enquire about dogs that have been fostered or adopted and provide guidance and support when required;

to prepare and process your adoption agreement with all regulated requirements such as TRACES, PETrac, Microchip registration and transportation. 

In extreme situations, such as an accident or medical emergency, we may share your personal details with the emergency services if it is essential for the preservation of life (yours or another persons’) for us to do so. This is the ‘vital interest’ ground for using your personal information. After the emergency, we will always try to inform you about how we had to use your information in that extreme situation. 

Like all organisations, we comply with requests for the disclosure of personal information where this is required or permitted by law. This could include requests from law enforcement or tax agencies. In these circumstances, the request must be submitted in writing and in accordance with the relevant legal requirements.

We will not unduly prioritise our interests as a charity over your interests as an individual. We will always balance our interests with your rights. We will only use personal information in a way and for a purpose that you would reasonably expect in accordance with this Policy.

STAR will not rent, swap or sell your personal information to other organisations for them to use in their own marketing activities. If you believe your privacy rights have been violated, you may file a complaint with us or with the Information Commissioners office https://ico.org.uk/

Consent

STAR will always ask for your consent before we communicate with you for certain purposes. For example, we will only email or phone you about our fundraising activities if we have an accurate record of your recent and freely given consent to do so. If you have given us your consent, we will contact you with information and updates on our work, products (such as raffles and calendars), and services and how you can support us, (such as fundraising). This may be by post, email, telephone, or text message, depending on your preferences. We will also continue to ask about your marketing preferences, to ensure that you are still happy to be contacted by us and by which means.

You can withdraw your consent at any time by emailing adoption@staradopt.org

There are times when it is not practical to obtain and record consent. At those times, we will only process personal information if that processing would meet another legal ground e.g. legitimate interests, in which case we would only process in accordance with the law’s strict rules on legitimate interest processing.  

Legitimate Interest

Organisations can process your personal information if they have a genuine and legitimate reason for doing so and that use does not harm any of your rights and interests as an individual. We believe that STAR supporters are connected to our mission and want to know how they can continue to help us to achieve our charitable aims. Our supporters can be categorised as follows:

supporters who have pledged lifetime support e.g. by leaving us a gift in their will;

supporters who have adopted a dog with us;

supporters who have fostered a dog with us;

supporters who have provided financial donations;

supporters who have demonstrated an interest in our cause by contacting us for more information, e.g. to find out more about one of our services.

This categorisation allows us determine the length of time we will process (keep and use) your personal information. Unless you tell us not to, we think you are content for us to process (keep and use) your personal information for these lengths of time. This is not the length of time that we will continue to contact you – this could be a shorter period of time.

What we have a Legitimate Interest to do

For supporters who have indicated a lifetime interest in STAR, we need to keep your information to ensure that your wishes are fulfilled.

For supporters that adopt a dog with STAR we think that you and the dog you adopted from us would like to remain in contact with us throughout their lifetime and we will therefore keep your personal information to allow for this.

For those supporters that foster a dog(s) with STAR we think that you would like to remain in contact throughout the foster period and in-between fosters and we will therefore keep your personal information to allow for this.

For those supporters that help or have helped us with financial gifts we recognise that a supporter’s pattern of giving can often change over time. Irrespective of their financial circumstances, these supporters still hold the same principles and values; and continue to be connected to STAR and our mission. We believe that supporters of our mission never stop believing in the importance of improving the lives of dogs, but we will stop using the personal information of these supporters 5 years after their last donation. 

For those supporters who have demonstrated an interest in our cause by contacting us for more information we think that someone would like us to provide that information; perhaps a little more information; and even some support in fulfilling their initial query or request. To support this, we keep your personal information for a period of 2 years. Supporters demonstrate their support in a number of ways and so could be in more than one, or even all, of the above categories. We will review and refresh these categories and the timescales on a rolling basis to ensure that as times and needs change we continue to do the very best by our supporters. It is always your choice. You can tell us to change your communication preferences and our use of your information. You can do this at any time by emailing adoption@staradopt.org 

Legitimate Interest to send you direct mail

Unless you tell us not to, we will rely on our Legitimate Interest ground (explained above) for sending you direct mail. From time to time, we might post you updates about our work, products, services and how you can support us, including fundraising activities and research.  But you’re in control so if you want to ensure that we do not send this type of communication anymore, you can update your preferences by emailing adoption@staradopt.org

Legitimate Interest to process your information

We aim to be clear about what information we collect, to enable you to make meaningful choices about how it is used. When it is necessary we will contact you for administrative purposes, e.g. to contact you regarding a payment. We will also hold the minimum personal information required to support our ability to respect your preferences for communication with us. 

To help you to understand when and why STAR would use Legitimate Interest to process your personal information we provide the following examples:

to send postal communications (as explained above);

to enhance, modify, personalise and improve our services and communications for the benefit of our supporters;

to improve security of our websites and systems;

to prevent fraud when transacting on our website;

to process your donations;

to fulfil online transactions; process adoptions and deliver your order(s). To take payment and arrange delivery, we need to collect personal information, including your payment details, your full name, delivery address and contact details;

to analyse your personal information to ensure that our communications are relevant to you. 

The above list of examples are on the basis that the processing will not be done if it harms your rights and interests as an individual, or if you tell us that you’d like us to stop. You can do this at any time by emailing adoption@staradopt.org

Legal Obligation

We may disclose your personal/sensitive personal information when required to by law, for example, to HMRC for tax purposes or to police forces for the prevention or detection of crime. If you post or send any content that we believe to be inappropriate, offensive or in breach of any laws, make defamatory statements on our forums or social media, we may use your personal information to inform relevant parties such as your internet provider or law enforcement agencies.

Data Analysis

In order to communicate with you more effectively, better understand your preferences and ability to support our work, we may analyse your data. We like to find out about your personal motivation for supporting STAR and your experiences as a supporter. This helps us to give you the information about products and services most relevant to you. STAR do not share, sell or swap your information with other organisation for their own marketing outside of our group.  In some circumstances it is necessary for STAR to give relevant staff at our service providers access to your personal information. This access is only granted to the extent necessary for them to perform their services for us. We require all service providers to comply with strict rules to protect the information you have given us.

Changes to your data

We want to ensure that your personal information is accurate and up to date. If any of the information that you have provided us with changes, e.g. if you change your email address; or if you wish to change any of your preferences please let us know by writing to us at: Stronger Together Animal Rescue, Brooklands Cottage, Nuneaton Road, Mancetter, Warwickshire, CV9 1RF or email us at: adoption@staradopt.org 

COOKIES & WEB PRIVACY

We are committed to respecting and protecting your online privacy. This includes your need and your right to know what we do with the personal information you share with us.

“STAR” refers to the web pages. By accessing this website you are consenting to the way information is collected and used, as described within this Privacy Policy. In return, STAR gives the commitment that we will use the personal data you provide only in ways that are compatible with our Privacy Policy.

Our site may contain links to and from the websites of our partner networks, advertisers and affiliates. If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that these websites have their own privacy policies and that we do not accept any responsibility or liability for these polices. Please check these policies before you submit and personal data to these websites.

The collection of information

Every time you log on to our website your IP (Internet Protocol) address registers on our servers. Your IP address reveals no information other than the number assigned to you. We do not use this technology to get any personal data against your knowledge or free will (i.e., automatically recording e-mail addresses of visitors). Nor do we use it for any purpose other than to help us monitor traffic on our website, or (in case of criminal activity or misuse of our information) to cooperate with law enforcement. 

Cookies

We use a number of different cookies on our site. If you do not know what cookies are, or how to control or delete them, then we recommend you visit http://www.aboutcookies.org for detailed guidance. The list below describe the cookies we use on this site and what we use them for. Currently we operate an ‘implied consent’ policy which means that we assume you are happy with this usage. If you are not happy, then you should either not use this site, or you should delete the cookies having visited the site, or you should browse the site using your browser’s anonymous usage setting (called “Incognito” in Chrome, “InPrivate” for Internet Explorer, “Private Browsing” in Firefox and Safari etc.)

First Party Cookies

These are cookies that are set by this website directly.

Google Analytics: We use Google Analytics to collect information about visitor behaviour on our website. Google Analytics stores information about what pages you visit, how long you are on the site, how you got here and what you click on. This Analytics data is collected via a JavaScript tag in the pages of our site and is not tied to personally identifiable information. We therefore do not collect or store your personal information (e.g. your name or address) so this information cannot be used to identify who you are. Find out more about Google’s position on privacy as regards its analytics service.

Third Party Cookies

These are cookies set on your machine by external websites whose services are used on this site. Cookies of this type are the sharing buttons across the site allow visitors to share content onto social networks. Cookies are currently set by LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and Pinterest. In order to implement these buttons, and connect them to the relevant social networks and external sites, there are scripts from domains outside of our website. You should be aware that these sites are likely to be collecting information about what you are doing all around the internet, including on this website. You should check the respective policies of each of these sites to see how exactly they use your information and to find out how to opt out, or delete, such information.

Emails

Some emails that we send you have no tracking in at all e.g. service emails with invoices attached. Other emails we send we can track, at an individual level, whether the user has opened and clicked on the email. We do not use this information at a personal level.

Web Security

We like other organisations may also gather general information about the use of our website, such as which pages users visit most often and which services are of most interest. We may also track which pages users visit when they click on links in emails. We may use this information to personalise the way our website is presented when users visit, to better understand what they are interested in and likely to respond to and to make improvements to our website and to ensure the best service for users.

Financial transactions made online to STAR using this site are secure. No one can access your credit card details via the internet.

How our website works

When you have completed your donation or sponsorship, your web browser will be connected directly to our secure server. You can see that the connection is secure by looking at the padlock or key icon in the bottom left hand corner of your browser. Your browser may also alert you to the fact that you are connecting to a secure server, and if so, it will also tell you when you are closing the secure connection once you have donated. This is for your information only. Our secure server communicates with your browser using SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) protocols, so that all your personal information, including credit card number and your name and address, is encrypted. This process takes the words and figures you enter, and converts them into bits of code that are then securely transmitted over the internet.

Your rights

You have the right to ask for a copy of the information we hold about you. This is called a Subject Access Request. If you wish to make a Subject Access Request please write to us at: Stronger Together Animal Rescue, Brooklands Cottage, Nuneaton Road, Mancetter, Warwickshire, CV9 1RF or email us at: adoption@staradopt.org

Please note that we will require information on what you want to see as well as proof of your identity. We will respond to you within a month of your request.

This information was last updated in April 2018. From time to time, we will make changes to the information on this page. The amended information will apply from the date it is posted on the site and will govern the way in which we collect and use personal information from then on.