Privacy,
explained simply.

Who is responsible for your information?

Congleton Dog Rescue decides why and how personal information supplied for rescue activities is used. In data-protection language, this normally makes the rescue the data controller.

Third-party services may also be controllers for parts of their own activity—for example, account security, fraud prevention or payment processing. Their privacy notices explain those activities.

2. What does this notice cover?

This notice covers personal information used by Congleton Dog Rescue in connection with:

• adoption, fostering and home-check applications;
• requests to surrender a dog or ask for rescue support;
• volunteering, fundraising and partnership enquiries;
• donations and payments where the payment provider gives us transaction details;
• post-adoption support and ongoing welfare contact;
• emails, messages and other direct communications with the rescue.

It does not replace the separate privacy information supplied by Atlassian, Youform, PayPal, Amazon, Facebook or any other external service you choose to use.

3. What information may we receive?

The exact information depends on why you contact us. It may include:

• your name, email address, telephone number and home address;
• details about your household, property, garden, working pattern, experience and existing animals where relevant to adoption, fostering or a home check;
• information about the dog you wish to adopt, foster, surrender or request help with;
• notes, photographs, videos, veterinary information and communications relevant to animal welfare or placement support;
• volunteer availability, skills, role preferences and references;
• donation amount, payer name, email address and transaction reference supplied by a payment provider—we do not receive your full card or bank-account details;
• technical information that a hosting or form provider records for security and service operation, such as IP address, device or browser information.

Please do not send personal or sensitive information that is not needed. If information about health, accessibility or another sensitive matter is relevant to a safe placement, we will use only what is necessary and handle it with additional care.

4. Why do we use personal information?

We use information only for relevant rescue purposes, including to:

• review applications and assess whether a home may be suitable for a particular dog;
• contact applicants, arrange conversations, home checks, meetings and handovers;
• protect the welfare and safety of dogs, applicants, adopters, foster carers and volunteers;
• manage veterinary, kennel, transport, rehabilitation and post-adoption support;
• respond to enquiries, surrender requests and requests for help;
• coordinate volunteers, foster carers and trusted rescue partners;
• record donations, administer payments and meet accounting or legal requirements;
• keep appropriate records of decisions, agreements, incidents and ongoing rescue backup;
• establish, exercise or defend legal claims and respond to lawful requests from authorities.

We do not sell personal information. We do not use application information for unrelated advertising.

5. Our lawful bases

UK data-protection law requires a lawful basis for using personal information. Depending on the situation, Congleton Dog Rescue may rely on:

Legitimate interests

To assess and manage suitable placements, operate the rescue, respond to enquiries, coordinate support and protect animal welfare, provided those interests are not overridden by your rights.

Steps before or performance of an agreement

Where information is needed to consider or manage an adoption, fostering, volunteering, service or other arrangement with you.

Legal obligation

Where records or disclosures are required by tax, accounting, animal-welfare, court or other applicable law.

Vital interests

In rare emergencies where using or sharing information is necessary to protect someone’s life.

Consent

Where consent is the appropriate basis—for example, optional communications or a specific use that you can freely accept or refuse. You can withdraw consent at any time, although this does not make earlier lawful use invalid.

6. Who may receive your information?

We limit access to people who need information for the relevant task. This may include:

• authorised rescue volunteers and coordinators;
• home checkers, foster carers or transport volunteers involved in your application or a dog’s care;
• veterinary practices, kennels, behaviour professionals and other welfare partners where necessary;
• Atlassian for adoption, fostering and general enquiry forms;
• Youform for volunteer expressions of interest;
• email, website-hosting, storage and administrative service providers;
• PayPal or another payment provider for donations and payments;
• insurers, professional advisers, law-enforcement bodies, courts or regulators where disclosure is lawful and necessary.

We share the minimum reasonably necessary for the purpose. Some providers may process information outside the United Kingdom. Where they do, we consider the safeguards offered by the provider and use an approved international-transfer mechanism where the law requires one. The provider’s privacy notice explains its locations and safeguards in more detail.

7. How long do we keep information?

We keep personal information only for as long as it is reasonably needed for the purpose it was collected, animal-welfare continuity, rescue backup, dispute handling and applicable legal or accounting requirements.

• Applications and enquiries: reviewed periodically and deleted or anonymised when they are no longer needed for matching, follow-up, safety, complaint handling or record-keeping.
• Adoption and fostering records: may be kept for the duration of the placement and afterwards where needed for lifelong rescue backup, welfare history and the adoption or fostering agreement.
• Volunteer records: kept while the relationship is active and for an appropriate period afterwards to manage safeguarding, references, incidents or legal obligations.
• Donation and transaction records: retained for the period required for accounting, tax, fraud prevention and legal compliance.

Retention is not indefinite by default. When information is no longer needed, we delete it securely or remove identifying details. You may ask us about the retention decision that applies to your record.

8. This website, external links and cookies

The public Congleton Dog Rescue website is primarily a static information site. It does not currently use an on-site application form, advertising tracker or audience-analytics service. Core styles, scripts and images are served from the rescue website. The hosting provider may create essential security and server logs.

The website uses locally hosted or system fonts and does not contact Google Fonts when pages are loaded.

The site links to external services including Atlassian for rescue forms, Youform for a volunteer expression-of-interest form, PayPal for payments, Amazon for wish-list purchases and Facebook for the rescue’s social page. It also links to third-party organisations for information and welfare guidance. When you follow an external link, that provider may receive technical information and may use cookies under its own privacy and cookie notices.

Applications are completed on the relevant external provider’s page rather than embedded in this website. The provider controls the cookies, account security and technical operation of its service. Congleton Dog Rescue controls how application or enquiry information it subsequently receives is used for rescue work.

If non-essential analytics, embedded media or marketing cookies are introduced later, this notice must be updated and consent requested where the law requires it.

9. Your data-protection rights

Depending on the circumstances and lawful basis, you may have the right to:

• ask for a copy of your personal information;
• ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete information;
• ask us to delete information;
• ask us to restrict how information is used;
• object to processing based on legitimate interests;
• receive certain information in a portable format;
• withdraw consent where processing relies on consent.

These rights are not absolute and exemptions may apply. To make a request, email CongletonDogRescue@gmail.com. We may need to confirm your identity before releasing or changing information.

10. Questions, concerns and complaints

Please contact us first if you have a question or concern about your personal information. We will take it seriously and try to resolve it.

You can also complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK data-protection regulator:

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF
Make a data-protection complaint to the ICO

We will review this notice when our forms, service providers or information-handling practices change. The latest revision date appears at the top of the page.