Privacy Policy

The Dog Friendly Map is owned and operated by Sarah Forrester (“we”, “us” and “our”).

We believe privacy information should be understandable without needing a law degree. This policy explains what information we collect, why we use it, when we may share it and the choices you have.

1. Information we collect

Depending on how you use The Dog Friendly Map, we may collect:

your email address;
your dog’s birthday, where you choose to provide it;
information you provide when subscribing to our emails;
information you provide when ordering a personalised map or other service;
information you send to us through forms, enquiries or correspondence;
technical and usage information about how our website is used, including information collected through cookies and analytics tools; and
payment and transaction information relating to purchases, although payment card details are normally processed by our payment provider rather than by us directly.

A dog’s birthday is not usually personal information by itself, but when it is connected with information such as your email address we treat that information carefully as part of your customer or subscriber record.

2. How we use your information

We may use your information to:

send you The Dog Friendly Map newsletter, updates, recommendations and other information you have asked to receive;
tell you about new dog-friendly places, towns, days out, products, services and offers;
provide personalised maps and other services you purchase from us;
respond to questions and enquiries;
understand how people use The Dog Friendly Map and improve the website and our services;
manage payments, purchases and customer records;
prevent misuse of the website and keep our systems secure;
meet our legal and regulatory obligations; and
where you have agreed to it, share or sell certain information to commercial partners as explained below.

3. Commercial partners and the sale of information

The Dog Friendly Map may work with businesses whose products or services may be relevant to dog owners and people interested in dog-friendly travel and leisure.

Where you have given the appropriate consent, we may share, license or sell information such as your email address and information you have chosen to provide about your dog to third-party businesses for commercial or marketing purposes.

We will tell you clearly when we are asking for permission to do this.

We will not assume that subscribing to The Dog Friendly Map automatically gives us permission to sell your information for another business to market to you.

Where another organisation intends to contact you directly by email or another electronic marketing method, we will obtain any consent required by law and identify the organisation or organisations relying on that consent.

You can choose to receive The Dog Friendly Map's own emails without agreeing to your information being sold or shared with other businesses for their marketing.

You can withdraw a marketing or data-sharing consent at any time. Withdrawal will not affect any processing that lawfully took place before you withdrew your consent.

4. Other organisations we share information with

We may also share information where reasonably necessary with organisations that help us operate The Dog Friendly Map, including:

website and hosting providers;
email and newsletter platforms;
payment processors;
analytics and technology providers;
professional advisers; and
other suppliers who process information on our behalf.

These service providers are not being given your information so they can independently market to you. They may only use it to provide the services we have asked them to provide, subject to the appropriate contractual and legal safeguards.

We may also disclose information where required by law, to protect our legal rights or to prevent fraud, misuse or security threats.

5. Our legal basis for using your information

UK data protection law requires us to have a lawful reason for using personal information.

Depending on what we are doing, we may rely on:

Consent
For example, where you sign up to receive marketing emails or specifically agree to information being shared with a commercial partner.

Contract
Where we need information to provide a service you have purchased, such as a personalised map.

Legitimate interests
Where reasonably necessary to operate, understand, improve and protect The Dog Friendly Map, provided those interests do not override your rights and interests.

Legal obligations
Where we need to keep or disclose information to comply with the law.

Where electronic marketing or cookies require consent under applicable privacy laws, we will obtain that consent separately.

6. Dog birthdays

If you provide your dog's birthday, we may use it to personalise The Dog Friendly Map communications, understand our audience and, where you have separately agreed, support relevant commercial offers or communications.

7. How long we keep information

We keep personal information only for as long as we reasonably need it for the purpose for which it was collected.

If you unsubscribe from our marketing, we will stop sending marketing emails to you. We may retain limited information on a suppression list so that we know not to contact you again.

Information relating to purchases may need to be retained for longer for accounting, tax, legal or record-keeping purposes.

We periodically review the information we hold and delete or anonymise information that we no longer need.

8. Your choices and rights

Depending on the circumstances, you have the right to:

ask what personal information we hold about you;
ask us to correct inaccurate information;
ask us to delete information;
ask us to restrict how information is used;
object to certain uses of your information;
withdraw consent where we rely on consent;
ask for certain information to be provided to you in a portable format; and
complain to the Information Commissioner's Office if you believe your information has been used unlawfully.

You can unsubscribe from The Dog Friendly Map marketing at any time using the unsubscribe link in our emails.

You can also contact us at:

hello@thedogfriendlymap.co.uk

The ICO requires people to be told about these uses when their information is collected, rather than quietly introducing a new commercial use later.

9. Cookies and analytics

The Dog Friendly Map may use cookies and similar technologies to operate the website, remember preferences, understand website traffic and improve our services.

Some cookies are necessary for the website to work. Where the law requires permission for other cookies or tracking technologies, we will ask for it.

You can also manage cookies through your browser and, where available, our website cookie settings.

10. Security

We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect personal information from loss, misuse, unauthorised access, alteration or disclosure.

No website or online system can guarantee absolute security, but we take proportionate measures appropriate to the information we hold.

11. Children

The Dog Friendly Map is intended primarily for adults.

We do not knowingly collect personal information from children for marketing purposes. If you believe a child has provided personal information to us inappropriately, please contact us and we will investigate and, where appropriate, delete it.

12. Links to other websites

The Dog Friendly Map contains links to websites operated by other organisations.

Once you leave our website, that organisation is responsible for its own handling of personal information. We recommend checking its privacy information where appropriate.

13. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy when The Dog Friendly Map, our services or the law changes.

If we make an important change to how we intend to use information we already hold, we will provide any further information or obtain any additional permission required by law before beginning that new use.

The latest version of this policy will always show the date it was last updated.

14. Contact us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or how we use personal information, please contact:

The Dog Friendly Map
Email: hello@thedogfriendlymap.co.uk

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) about the way your personal information has been handled.