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Privacy Policy

Personal information submitted to Hugs and Kitties is only used to contact you regarding Hugs and Kitties activities.

Information about visitors to the Hugs and Kitties website domain is automatically logged for the purposes of statistical analysis. Such information includes the IP address from which you visit, referral address, and other technical information such as browser type and operating system. Your email address is not automatically logged without your knowledge.

We will not distribute, sell, trade or rent your personal information to third parties. Hugs and Kitties may provide aggregate statistics about our website’s users, traffic patterns and related site information to reputable third-parties such as Hugs and Kittiess’s funding bodies or potential partners. Such statistical information will not include personally-identifying information.

Hugs and Kitties follows the relevant legal requirements and takes all reasonable precautions to safeguard personal information.

1. INTRODUCTION

Hugs and Kitties is committed to protecting your privacy and security. This policy explains how and why we use your personal data, to ensure you remain informed and in control of your information.

You can decide not to receive communications or change how we contact you at any time. If you wish to do so please call us +44 7828 029277 (Lines open 9.30 am – 6 pm, Mon – Fri).

We will never sell your personal data, and will only ever share it with organisations we work with where necessary and if its privacy and security are guaranteed.

Questions?

Any questions you have in relation to this policy or how we use your personal data should be contacted us by phone to +44 7828 029277 (Lines open 9.30am – 6pm, Mon – Fri).

2. ABOUT US

Your personal data (i.e. any information which identifies you, or which can be identified as relating to you personally) will be collected and used by Hugs and Kitties.

3. THE INFORMATION WE COLLECT

Personal data you provide

We collect the data you provide to us. This includes information you give when you have contacted by our contact form and order form. For example:

  • personal details (name, address, email and orders) when you submit to our shop.
Sensitive personal data

We do not normally collect or store sensitive personal data (such as information relating to health, beliefs or political affiliation) about those connected to Hugs and Kitties. However, there are some situations where this will occur (e.g. if you have an accident on one of our events). If this does occur, we’ll take extra care to ensure your privacy rights are protected.

Accidents or incidents

If an accident or incident occurs on our property, at one of our events or involving one of our staff then we’ll keep a record of this (which may include personal data and sensitive personal data).

4. HOW WE USE INFORMATION

We only ever use your personal data with your consent, or where it is necessary in order to:

  • enter into, or perform, a contract with you;
  • comply with a legal duty;
  • protect your vital interests;
  • for our own (or a third party’s) lawful interests, provided your rights don’t override these.

In any event, we’ll only use your information for the purpose or purposes it was collected for (or else for closely related purposes).

Administration

We use personal data for administrative purposes (i.e. on our research and events programmes). This includes:

  • maintaining databases of those signed up to our newsletter;
  • fulfilling orders for goods or services (whether placed online, over the phone or in-person);
  • helping us respect your choices and preferences (e.g. if you ask not to receive marketing material, we’ll keep a record of this).

5. DISCLOSING AND SHARING DATA

Your personal data – which may include your name, address and email address are not shared to any of the third parties.

MARKETING

Hugs and Kitties will ask for indiviuals to “opt-in” for most communications. This includes all our marketing communications (the term marketing is broadly defined and covers information shared in our newsletter.)

We use personal data to communicate with people, to promote Hugs and Kitties and to help with fundraising activities. This includes keeping you up to date with information from Hugs and Kitties on our research, events, news and other information relating to our work.

You can decide not to receive communications or change how we contact you at any time. If you wish to do so please please call us +44 7828 029277 (Lines open 9.30 am – 6 pm, Mon – Fri).

What does ‘marketing’ mean?

Marketing does not just mean offering things for sale, but also includes news and information about:

  • our research programme, including details of recent reports or blogs;
  • our events and activities;

When you receive a communication, we may collect information about how you respond to or interact with that communication, and this may affect how we communicate with you in future.

7. HOW WE PROTECT DATA

We employ a variety of physical and technical measures to keep your data safe and to prevent unauthorised access to, or use or disclosure of your personal information.

Electronic data and databases are stored on secure computer systems and we control who has access to information (using both physical and electronic means). Our staff receive data protection training and we have a set of detailed data protection procedures which personnel are required to follow when handling personal data.

Of course, we cannot guarantee the security of your home computer or the internet, and any online communications (e.g. information provided by email or our website) are at the user’s own risk.

8. STORAGE

Where we store information

Hugs and Kitties’s operations are based in England and we store our data within the European Union.

How long we store information

We will only use and store information for so long as it is required for the purposes it was collected for. How long information will be stored for depends on the information in question and what it is being used for.

We continually review what information we hold and delete what is no longer required. We never store payment card information.

9. KEEPING YOU IN CONTROL

We want to ensure you remain in control of your personal data. Part of this is making sure you understand your legal rights, which are as follows:

  • the right to confirmation as to whether or not we have your personal data and, if we do, to obtain a copy of the personal information we hold (this is known as subject access request);
  • the right to have your data erased (though this will not apply where it is necessary for us to continue to use the data for a lawful reason);
  • the right to have inaccurate data rectified;
  • the right to object to your data being used for marketing or profiling;
  • and where technically feasible, you have the right to personal data you have provided to us which we process automatically on the basis of your consent or the performance of a contract. This information will be provided in a common electronic format.

Please keep in mind that there are exceptions to the rights above and, though we will always try to respond to your satisfaction, there may be situations where we are unable to do so.

If you would like further information on your rights or wish to exercise them, please call us +44 7828 029277 (Lines open 9.30 am – 6 pm, Mon – Fri).

Complaints

You can complain to Hugs and Kitties directly by contacting our Head of External Affairs using the details set out above.

If you are not happy with our response, or you believe that your data protection or privacy rights have been infringed, you can complain to the UK Information Commissioner’s Office which regulates and enforces data protection law in the UK. Details of how to do this can be found at www.ico.org.uk

10. COOKIES AND LINKS TO OTHER SITES

Cookies

We use cookies on our website. Cookies files are downloaded to a device when certain websites are accessed by users, allowing the website to identify that user on subsequent visits.

The only cookies in use on our site are for Google Analytics. Google Analytics are tools employed by organisations to help them understand how visitors engage with their website, so improvements can be made. Google Analytics collects information anonymously – and reports overall trends, without disclosing information on individual visitors. By using our site you are consenting to save and sending us this data. You can opt-out of Google Analytics – which will not affect how you visit our site. Further information on this can be found here: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout

Our website uses local storage strictly for system administration to provide you with the best possible experience – used in order to create reports relating to web traffic and user preferences. This includes your IP address; details of which web browser or operating system was used; and information on how you use the site.

Links to other sites

Our website contains hyperlinks to many other websites. We are not responsible for the content or functionality of any of those external websites.

If an external website requests personal information from you (e.g. in connection with an order for goods or services), the information you provide will not be covered by the Hugs and Kitties’ Privacy Policy. We suggest you read the privacy policy of any website before providing any personal information.

11. CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY

We’ll amend this Privacy Policy from time to time to ensure it remains up-to-date and accurately reflects how and why we use your personal data. The current version of our Privacy Policy will always be posted on our website.

This Privacy Policy was last updated on 09.09.2019