Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Rescue Finder ("we", "our", or "us") collects, uses, and protects your personal information when you use our website, including the public adoption directory and the Charity Portal used by approved rescue organisations.

1. Who We Are

Rescue Finder is a UK-based website that helps users discover dogs available for adoption from rescue charities across the UK. Approved charities and rescues may use our Charity Portal to manage their public charity profile and dog listings on Rescue Finder.

Our postal address is Rescue Finder, Courtenay House, Pynes Hill, Exeter EX2 5AZ, and you can email us at contact@rescuefinder.co.uk.

2. What Personal Data We Collect

We may collect and process the following information:

• Contact Information – if you submit a form or email us
• Email Address – if you sign up for New Dog Alerts (emails about dogs matching your preferences), along with the search preferences you choose and your plan (Weekly Updates or Daily Updates)
• Technical Information – such as IP address, browser type, and pages visited (via analytics tools)
• Usage Data – how users interact with the website (e.g. which breeds and locations are most popular)

Daily Updates payments. If you subscribe to Daily Updates, you pay through our payment provider, Stripe. You enter your card or payment details directly with Stripe, and we never see or store your full card number. We keep:

• Reference numbers Stripe gives us for you and your subscription
• Your subscription status, when it started, when your next payment is due, and whether you've cancelled
• Records of payments, cancellations, and refunds

Stripe also holds your name, billing details, and payment method. We can see some of this in our Stripe account (for example, your name, card type, and the last four digits of your card), but we only use it to manage your subscription and deal with any problems with payments or refunds.

Charity Portal accounts. If you register for or use the Charity Portal, we may also collect:

• Charity or rescue name, your name, email address, and password (stored in hashed form, not as plain text)
• Website or social media page URL submitted with your application
• Optional message content submitted with your registration
• Profile information you provide (e.g. description, location, charity number, public contact details, logo image)
• Dog listing information and images you upload (e.g. name, age, sex, breed, description, location)
• Login and account activity (e.g. last sign-in time, application review status)

Information you publish through the Charity Portal (such as your charity profile and live dog listings) may be displayed publicly on Rescue Finder. We do not ask you to provide sensitive personal data. Please do not include sensitive information in free-text fields (such as messages or dog descriptions).

Charities are responsible for ensuring that information, images, and content uploaded through the Charity Portal are accurate and that they have the right to publish them.

3. How We Collect It

We collect data in the following ways:

• When you contact us via a form or email
• When you sign up for New Dog Alerts or subscribe to Daily Updates (including from Stripe, when you pay)
• When you register for, sign in to, or use the Charity Portal
• When you browse the site (via first-party Umami analytics, as described in section 10)
• When third-party services we use process your interaction with the website (e.g. security checks on forms)

4. Why We Collect It

We use your data to:

• Operate and improve the website
• Respond to enquiries
• Display dog adoption listings from rescue charities
• Review charity portal applications and operate approved charity accounts
• Publish and manage charity profiles and dog listings submitted through the Charity Portal
• Send account-related emails to charities (e.g. application updates, approval or decline notices, optional weekly summaries)
• Understand how the site is used so we can improve the service
• Send New Dog Alerts when dogs matching your selected criteria are added (if you have opted in)
• Take payments for Daily Updates and manage your subscription, including reminders, cancellations, and refunds
• Keep the financial records we are required to keep by law
• Protect the website from abuse and automated submissions

5. Legal Basis for Processing

Under the UK GDPR, we rely on the following legal bases:

• Legitimate interest – to run and improve the website, including understanding usage patterns, reviewing portal applications, and keeping the service secure
• Contract (and steps prior to contract) – to provide the Charity Portal and related account services to approved organisations, and to provide Daily Updates to subscribers (including taking payments, sending your alerts, and emails about your subscription)
• Legal obligation – to keep records of payments and refunds for tax and accounting purposes, and to send the subscription information and reminders the law requires
• Consent – for free Weekly Updates, free daily alerts for people who signed up before Daily Updates were introduced, and optional weekly Charity Portal summary emails. Where you sign up for Weekly Updates, you will be asked to confirm your email address (double opt-in). You can unsubscribe from emails at any time using the link in those messages.

6. Sharing Your Data

We do not sell your personal data.

We may share it with trusted services we use to operate this site:

• Vercel – hosting
• Supabase – database and file storage (e.g. images uploaded through the Charity Portal)
• Resend – email delivery (contact form, New Dog Alerts, and Charity Portal account emails)
• Stripe – payment processing for Daily Updates
• Cloudflare Turnstile – security checks on forms such as contact, New Dog Alerts, and charity registration
• Umami Analytics – first-party, cookieless usage tracking on our own domain (privacy-focused, no personal data sold)

These providers process data on our behalf and are required to handle it in accordance with applicable data protection laws.

Stripe also uses payment information for its own purposes, such as preventing fraud and meeting its legal obligations. For those purposes, Stripe is responsible for your data, as explained in Stripe's privacy policy.

Some of our service providers may process data outside the United Kingdom. Where this occurs, appropriate safeguards are used in accordance with UK data protection law.

7. Email Notifications

New Dog Alerts. If you sign up for New Dog Alerts, we will use your email address to notify you when dogs matching your selected preferences are added to Rescue Finder.

If you choose free Weekly Updates, you will only receive these emails after confirming your email address via a confirmation link (double opt-in). If you choose Daily Updates, your alerts start once your payment has gone through, so you don't need to confirm separately.

If you subscribe to Daily Updates, we'll also send you emails about your subscription: a welcome email when it starts, a reminder every 6 months before a payment, and emails when you cancel or when your subscription ends. Stripe may also email you receipts or tell you if a payment fails. These are service emails, so you'll get them for as long as you subscribe.

You can unsubscribe at any time using the link provided in every email. If you're subscribed to Daily Updates, unsubscribing also cancels your subscription.

We do not use your email address for marketing unrelated to these alerts and do not share it with third parties for advertising purposes.

Charity Portal. If you register for the Charity Portal, we may email you from support@rescuefinder.co.uk about your application (for example, to confirm we received it, or to tell you if your account has been approved or declined). You can reply to those emails if you need help.

If you opt in on your charity dashboard, we may also send you a weekly account summary from alerts@rescuefinder.co.uk about your live listings and any dogs due to expire soon. You can unsubscribe from weekly summaries using the link in those emails or change your preference in the portal.

Charity Portal emails are service messages related to your account, not unrelated marketing.

8. Your Rights

Under the UK GDPR, you have the right to:

• Access your data
• Request correction or deletion
• Withdraw consent (where applicable)
• Lodge a complaint with the ICO (Information Commissioner's Office)

To exercise any rights, contact us here.

9. Data Retention

We only keep your personal data for as long as necessary for the purpose it was collected.

New Dog Alerts data (your email address, preferences, and plan) is kept while your alerts are active. If you unsubscribe or your alerts stop, we keep a record of your email address and that your alerts have ended, so we don't email you by mistake. You can ask us to delete it at any time.

If you have subscribed to Daily Updates, we keep records of your payments, cancellations and refunds for as long as tax and accounting law requires, usually up to 6 years after the end of the tax year they relate to. We may keep these even if you ask us to delete your other data. Stripe keeps its own records under its privacy policy.

Charity Portal account data is kept while your account is active or while we need it to operate the service (for example, to review an application or maintain listing history). If an application is declined or an account is closed, we may retain certain records for a reasonable period for security, legal, or operational purposes before deletion or anonymisation.

10. Cookies and Analytics

Charity Portal login. If you sign in to the Charity Portal, we use a strictly necessary session cookie to keep you logged in. This cookie is only set for users who have signed in and is required for the portal to work.

Umami Analytics. We use a first-party analytics tool on our own domain to understand how the site is used (for example, which breeds are popular and how many people click through to charities). Umami does not use cookies, does not track you across other websites, and is not used for advertising or to sell your data. We use it to operate and improve the service.

We do not use advertising or third-party analytics cookies, so we do not show a cookie banner.

You can block cookies in your browser settings or through privacy tools. The Charity Portal login cookie is strictly necessary, so the portal may not work if it is blocked.

11. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time.

Please check this page for the latest version.

Questions?

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, contact us here.