1. Introduction

The Doggo Foundation is committed to protecting your personal information and respecting your privacy. This Privacy Notice explains how we collect, use, store, and protect personal data when you interact with our website or engage with our charitable activities. We process personal data in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

2. Who We Are

The Doggo Foundation is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO – Foundation Model) operating in England and Wales. Our website address is: https://thedoggofoundation.co.uk

3. What Information We Collect

We may collect and process the following personal data:

• Contact details such as name, email address, telephone number, and postal address
• Information provided through contact forms, applications for support, referral forms, or general enquiries
• Information about dogs and their welfare needs where relevant to our charitable purposes
• Financial hardship information where required to assess eligibility for support
• Records of communications with us

Website Interactions

Comments

Where commenting is enabled on the website, we collect the data shown in the comments form, along with the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string. This information is used to help detect spam and protect the security of the website. An anonymised string (hash) created from your email address may be shared with the Gravatar service to determine whether you have an associated profile image. The Gravatar service is operated by Automattic, and its privacy policy is available at: https://automattic.com/privacy/. If your comment is approved, your profile picture may be visible publicly in the context of your comment.

Media uploads

If you upload images to the website (where this functionality is available), you should avoid uploading images containing embedded location data (EXIF GPS), as visitors to the website may be able to download and extract this information.

Embedded content

Pages on this website may include embedded content (such as videos or images). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the same way as if you visited those websites directly and may collect data about you or track your interaction in accordance with their own privacy policies.

4. How We Use Your Information

We use personal data to:

• Assess applications for charitable support
• Communicate with applicants, donors, partners, and professionals
• Arrange and manage approved support
• Maintain records for governance, safeguarding, audit, and reporting purposes
• Protect the welfare of dogs and the safety of people
• Operate and secure our website

5. Lawful Bases for Processing

We process personal data where one or more of the following applies:

• Processing is necessary for our charitable purposes
• Processing is required to comply with a legal obligation
• Processing is necessary to protect vital interests
• Consent has been provided, where required

6. Sharing Information

We may share personal data where lawful and necessary, including with:

• Approved professional partners (such as veterinary practices, trainers, or welfare providers) where required to assess or deliver charitable support
• Service providers who support the operation, hosting, and security of our website (for example, automated spam detection services)
• Regulators or public authorities where we are legally required to do so
• Others where sharing is necessary to protect animal welfare, human safety, or vital interests

We do not sell personal data and only share information in accordance with data protection law.

7. Data Retention

We retain personal data only for as long as necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, including legal, regulatory, safeguarding, and accounting requirements. For example:

• Website comments and related metadata may be retained to allow moderation and follow-up
• Application, referral, and case records are retained in line with audit and governance requirements

8. Your Rights

Under UK data protection law, you have rights including the right to:

• Request access to the personal data we hold about you
• Request correction of inaccurate or incomplete data
• Request deletion of your personal data, where applicable
• Object to or request restriction of processing in certain circumstances
• Request a copy of your personal data in a commonly used format

These rights are not absolute and may be limited where we are required to retain data for legal, regulatory, safeguarding, or security purposes.

9. Where Your Data Is Processed

Some website-related data (such as comments) may be processed by automated services used to protect the website from spam or abuse. These services may process data outside the UK, subject to appropriate safeguards.

10. Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Notice or how we use your personal data, please contact us using the details provided on our website. You also have the right to raise a concern with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK’s data protection regulator.