Privacy policy & cookies

1. Introduction

1.1 The website www.houndheartcollars.co.uk/ (the “website”) is owned and operated by Hound Heart Collars (“us” or “we”), a company in Scotland, registered address 18 Kirk Place, Cults, Aberdeen, AB15 9RD.

1.2 We are committed to protecting your privacy and will only use the information that we collect about you lawfully. This policy is intended to give you an understanding of how and why we use the information you give us.

1.3 Please read the following carefully to understand our practices regarding your personal data and how we will treat it. By using our website or providing us with your personal information you agree to your personal information being used and stored in the manner set out in this. We may update this policy from time to time without notice to you, so please check it regularly.

2. How we collect information about you

Information you give us

2.1 We may collect information from you in the following ways:

(a) our use of cookies (please see the Cookies section below);

(b) you apply for a job with us or become an employee or provide services via an agency or provide consultancy services directly to us

(d) you request any marketing materials from us;

(e) you subscribe to our newsletter;

(f) you register a website account; or

(g) you contact us with enquiries or other correspondence (including via social media) or become involved with us in another way.

2.2 If you interact with us in one of the ways listed above, we may collect and process personal information about you such as:

(a) your name, address, email address, telephone number and other contact information (including details of your social media accounts/profiles);

(b) financial information such as your bank or card details;

(d) records of your correspondence with us, if you have contacted us;

(e) details of your visit to our website, including your IP address.

Information we receive from other sources

2.3 Your information may be shared with us by third parties, for example socila media sites like Facebook. They will do so pursuant to their own policies on data protection and privacy. It’s a good idea to check their privacy policy when you provide your information to them to fully understand how the will process your data and may share it with others.

2.4 Where the law allows us to do so, on occasion we may also collect information (such as your telephone number) from the public domain, either directly or from third parties and combine that with the information we currently hold.

2.5 Where possible we may use publicly available sources to keep your records up to date (e.g. using the Post Office’s National Change of Address database and postcode validation) and check against deceased records.

3. Why and how we use your information and on what basis

We will process your personal information in accordance with our obligations under applicable data protection laws and regulations, for the following reasons:

(a) to provide you with the services, products or information you have asked for;

(b) to administer your purchase or donation or membership or support your fundraising, including processing Gift Aid;

(d) for our own internal administrative purposes and keep a record of your relationship with us;

(e) for the purposes of research such as supporter satisfaction research;

(f) for marketing purposes, to provide you with information about us, our fundraising campaigns, our events (including challenge events) our services, and any other information, products or services that we provide or provide access to (e.g. supporter or membership updates);

(g) to provide essential event information where you have signed up to take part;

(h) to manage your communication preferences with us generally;

(i) to provide you, or permit selected third parties to provide you, with information about goods or services we feel may interest you;

(j) to notify you about changes to our service and/or membership/donor benefits;

(k) to ensure that content from our website is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer/mobile device.

3.2 We may use profiling and screening techniques to analyse your personal information and create a profile of your interests and preferences. This allows us to ensure communications are relevant and timely, and provide an improved experience for our supporters. It also helps us understand the background of our supporters so that we can make appropriate requests to those who may be willing and able to give more than they already do, enabling us to raise funds sooner and more cost-effectively and proportionately than we otherwise would.

3.3 When building such a profile we may make use of additional information about you, including geo-demographic information and measures of affluence, when it is available from external sources to help us do this effectively. We may use third party suppliers to undertake these activities on our behalf and share your information with them to the extent required. Such information is compiled (either by us or our suppliers) using publicly available data e.g. addresses, information available from public registers, such as listed Directorships, typical earnings in a geographical area, information from the electoral roll, press reports and social media posts.

3.4 We may participate in Facebook’s “Custom Audience” program which enables us to display ads to our existing supporters when they visit Facebook. We provide personal information such as your email address to Facebook to enable them to determine if you are a registered account holder with Facebook. Our adverts may then appear when you access Facebook and on your Facebook feed. Your data is sent in an encrypted format that is deleted by Facebook if it does not match with a Facebook account. For more information please see https://www.facebook.com/business/help/744354708981227 and Facebook’s Data Policy at https://en-gb.facebook.com/policy.php.

3.5 Whilst generally we will seek consent to process your data at the point we collect it, in some cases we may process data without consent where we are legally allowed to do so, and where we have legitimate reasons for doing so (e.g. to process a donation you have made), provided we respect your legal rights.

3.6 If you request to receive no further contact from us, we will keep some basic information in order to avoid sending you unwanted materials in the future, and to ensure that we do not accidentally store details for the same person multiple times. If we did not retain this information then this could result in us contacting you again as we would no longer have a record of your request not to be contacted.

3.7 We will keep your personal data for no longer than is necessary for the purposes for which it is processed, in accordance with our internal policies.

4. Where is your information stored

4.1 The information we collect from you may be transferred to and stored at a destination outside the European Economic Area (“EEA”). It may also be processed by persons operating outside of the EEA. If we send your personal data outside the EEA we will take reasonable steps to ensure that the recipient implements appropriate measures to protect your information. By submitting your details you agree to this use of your data.

4.2 All information you provide us is stored on secure servers in accordance with best practice security policies. Any online payment transactions will be encrypted. Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password which enables you to access certain parts of our site, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share a password with anyone.

4.3 The transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure (though note that online payment transactions are securely encrypted). Although we will do our best to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to our site; any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your information, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access.

5. Who has access to your information/ who we share your data with

5.1 Any information we collect may be used by both our charity and our wholly owned trading company (Hound Heart Collars).

5.2 We may allow our staff, consultants and/or external providers acting on our behalf to access and use your information for the purposes for which you have provided it to us (e.g. to deliver mailings, for research, to analyse data and to process payments). We only provide them with the information they need to deliver the relevant service, and we make sure your information is treated with the same level of care as if we were handling it directly.

5.3 We do not sell your data to third parties for the purposes of marketing.

5.4 In other cases we will not share your personal data with third parties except in accordance with this policy or when we have your permission.

5.5 We share some of your information with micro-chip companies and with others (for example pet insurance providers and veterinarians) in the course of the rehoming process.

5.6 We may disclose your information to other organisations and agencies if we are under a duty to disclose or share it in order to comply with any legal obligation, or in order to enforce or apply any agreements; or to protect the rights, property or safety of us or others. For example, we will share your information with HMRC for the purpose of administering Gift Aid.

6. Your rights

6.1 To request details of the information we hold about you, if you have provided us with your personal information, but decide at a later date that you no longer want to receive information from us, or if you wish to update us that your contact details have changed or change your preferences, simply let us know by:

(a) sending an email to houndheartcollars@yahoo.com;

(b) writing to Elaine Chadwick, 18 Kirk Place, Cults, Aberdeen, AB15 9RD; or

6.2 Instructions for unsubscribing from emails will also be included in each email communication we send.

6.3 If you are unhappy with the way in which your personal data has been handled you are entitled to make a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office.

7. Cookies

For more information on how cookies are used on our website, please see our cookies policy below.

8. Changes to our privacy policy

We may make changes to this policy from time to time, so we encourage you to check it frequently. By continuing to use our website you will be deemed to have accepted those changes.

Cookies policy

1. What are cookies

Like most websites, we use cookies. Cookies are tiny pieces of data saved on your computer or mobile device. There are several types of cookie and they each have different functions or uses.

2. How do we use cookies

2.1 We use the following types of cookies:

(a) Essential cookies – these are required for the operation of our website and include, e.g. to enable you to log in to secure areas of the website or make use of a shopping cart and e-payment services.

(b) Analytic/performance cookies - these allow us to recognise and count the number of visitors and to see how visitors move around our website when they are using it. This helps us to improve the way our website works, for example, by ensuring that users are finding what they are looking for easily.

(c) Functionality cookies – these are used to recognise you when you return to our website so that we can personalise our content for you and remember your preferences, e.g. whether you are signed up to email alerts.

(d) Targeting cookies – these record your visit to our website, pages you have visited and links you have followed. We may use this information to make our website and the advertising displayed to you more relevant to your interests, and may share this information with third parties for this purpose.

2.2 The information below provides more information about the cookies we use and why:

Type of cookieFunction and further information

Google analytics and Square Space, these are common performance cookies that many websites use. It allows us to collect anonymous information about how you and other users use our website and helps us to improve the Website.

Facebook PixelTo monitor how useful our Facebook advertising is to users and enable them to be served Facebook adverts that are relevant to them.

3. 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.

4. Disabling cookies

4.1 By using our website you consent to our use of cookies as updated from time to time and the cookies we use will be stored on your device (unless rejected or disabled by your browser).

4.2 Internet browsers normally accept cookies by default. However, it is possible to set an internet browser to reject cookies. If you do not accept our use of cookies as set out in this policy, please set your internet browser to reject cookies. This may impair your ability to use our website so that some features may not work.

5. Changes to this policy and further information

5.1 We may update our use of cookies, and this policy, from time to time, so please check this policy regularly.

5.2 You can find out more about cookies generally and how to disable them at www.allaboutcookies.org.