Privacy Policy

At Freshfields Animal Rescue, we’re committed to protecting and respecting your privacy, and to ensuring that our website is safe for you to use.

This Policy explains when and why we collect personal information, how we use it, the conditions under which we may disclose it to others and how we keep it secure.

In this policy you or your means you as a user of our website, and/or as a volunteer, supporter, prospective supporter or adopter of one of our animals.

We may change this Policy from time to time so please check this page occasionally to ensure that you’re happy with any changes. By using our website, you’re agreeing to be bound by this Policy.

Any questions regarding this Policy and our privacy practices should be sent by email to feedback@freshfields.org.uk or by writing to Freshfields Animal Rescue, East Lane, Ince Blundell, Liverpool L29 3EA. Alternatively you can telephone 0151 931 1604.

Who are we?

Freshfields Animal Rescue is a community focussed non-profit making charitable organisation caring for abandoned, abused and unwanted domestic and small farm animals along with sick and injured wildlife. We are registered with the Charity Commission as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation number 1160348. We were formerly registered charity number 508579. Freshfields operates two rescue centres, one in Ince Blundell near Formby, close to Liverpool, the other in Nebo, near Caernarfon North Wales

How do we collect information from you?

We obtain information about you when you; use our website, apply for a job or as a volunteer, adopt, make a purchase, make a donation, claim gift aid, play the Freshfields Lottery, participate and/or attend an event and if you register to receive our regular news updates.

What type of information is collected from you?

The information we collect will depend on the relationship we have with you, for example as a website user, a prospective animal adopter, a volunteer, or an attendee at one of our events. 

The personal information we collect might include your name, address, email address, IP address, and information regarding what pages are accessed and when on our website.  We may ask for additional information for some of our services such as the type of home you live in, as well as personal information that data protection laws define as special category data such as medical history or criminal convictions.  If you make a donation online or purchase a product from us, your card information is not held by us, it is collected by our third party payment processors, who specialise in the secure online capture and processing of credit/debit card transactions.

How is your information used?

We may use your information to:

  • Make decisions for rehoming services.
    If you apply to rehome an animal from us we will use the information you provide us to assess your suitability for rehoming, including conducting home visits where appropriate, and to help us find the right animal for you, and to provide you with aftercare services, including registering new owners’ details with microchip databases.

If you contact us to surrender your animal to us for adoption, we will use the information you provide to establish how we can best look after them in our care, to assess how we might safely and permanently rehome them, and to enable us to meet the relevant legal requirements that may apply. 

  • Process a donation that you have made.
  • Process orders that you have submitted.
  • Carry out our obligations arising from any contracts entered into by you and us.
  • Deal with entries into a competition.
  • Seek your views or comments on the services we provide.
  • Notify you of changes to our services.
  • Recruit and train volunteers.
  • Communicate with you, when you have consented to receive communications, and to provide  information we think will be of interest to you. These may include information about the difference your support is making, the impact of your donation, campaigns, appeals, other important fundraising initiatives, events or notices.
  • Process registration and administration of events, including collecting and storing images and videography with the purposes to promote future fundraising events, and where necessary to obtain relevant information on health or medical conditions, to support the safe participation of the event.
  • Better understand you, so that we can make our communications more tailored for you and improve the services we provide, we may use data analysis, and segmentation methods. This involves the gathering of information about an individual or a group of individuals and analysing their characteristics, behaviour and preferences, in order to understand them and their interests.  We may also use publicly available information.   This means we can then contact you with communications most relevant to you.
  • Process a grant, volunteer or job application.

We review our retention periods for personal information on a regular basis. We are legally required to hold some types of information to fulfil our statutory obligations (for example the collection of Gift Aid). We will hold your personal information on our systems for as long as is necessary, for example when you adopt an animal from us we will hold your information for the lifetime of the animal, for the relevant activity, or as long as is set out in any relevant contract you hold with us.

Our legal basis for how we process and  use your information

Data protection requires us to have a valid ground for processing your data.  We will only use your information where:

You have provided consent.

Where we have a legitimate interest to do so, where there is no disadvantage to you or your personal information.

Where we have a contract in place and we need to use your personal information in order to fulfil that.

Where we have a legal obligation to use it or disclose it. 

Who do we share your personal information with? 

We may pass your information to our third party service providers, agents subcontractors and other associated organisations for the purposes of completing tasks and providing services to you on our behalf (for example to process donations and send you mailings). However, when we use third party service providers, we disclose only the personal information that is necessary to deliver the service and we have a contract in place that requires them to keep your information secure and not to use it for their own purposes.

When you are using our secure online donation pages, your donation is processed by a third party payment processor, who specialises in the secure online capture and processing of credit/debit card transactions. If you have any questions regarding secure transactions, please contact us.

We will not sell or rent your information to third parties.

We will not share your information with third parties for marketing purposes.

We will not release your information to third parties beyond the Freshfields Animal Rescue Network for them to use for their own purposes, unless you have requested us to do so, or we are required to do so by law, for example, by a court order or for the purposes of prevention of fraud or other crime.

Your rights

You have a choice about whether or not you wish to receive direct marketing communications from us.   When we collect your personal information we will ask you for your consent to receive such communications from us and by which means.

We will not contact you for marketing purposes by email, phone or text message unless you have given your prior consent. We will not contact you for marketing purposes by post if you have indicated that you do not wish to be contacted. You can change your marketing preferences at any time by contacting us by email: feedback@freshfields.org.uk or by telephone on 0151 931 1604.

The accuracy of your information is important to us., if you change email address, or any of the other information we hold is inaccurate or out of date, please contact us on the details below.

You can ask for a copy of the information we hold about you.

You have the right to object or restrict the use of your personal data or ask for deletion of your information.

You can contact us by email at: feedback@freshfields.org.uk or write to Freshfields Animal Rescue, East Lane, Ince Blundell, Liverpool L29 3EA. Alternatively you can telephone 0151 931 1604

Please be aware that by implementing some of these rights it will make it impossible for us to continue to deliver some services to you.  In addition, we may not be able to comply with your request.  For example, to delete your personal information for reasons such as our own obligations to comply with a contract we have with you or other legal requirements.

You also have the right to make a complaint about our data processing activities with the Information Commissioner if you feel your rights have been infringed.

A full summary of your legal rights over your data can be found on the Information Commissioner’s website ico.org.uk

 Security precautions in place to protect the loss, misuse or alteration of your information

When you give us personal information, we take steps to ensure that it’s treated securely. While we strive to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of any information you transmit to us, and you do so at your own risk. Once we receive your information, we make our best effort to ensure its security on our systems. Where we have given (or where you have chosen) a password which enables you to access certain parts of our websites, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share your password with anyone.

Use of ‘cookies’

Like many other websites, the Freshfields website uses cookies. ‘Cookies’ are small pieces of information sent by an organisation to your computer and stored on your hard drive to allow that website to recognise you when you visit. They collect statistical data about your browsing actions and patterns and do not identify you as an individual.

It is possible to switch off cookies by setting your browser preferences. Turning cookies off may result in a loss of functionality when using our website.

Links to other websites

Our website may contain links to other websites run by other organisations. This privacy policy applies only to our website‚ so we encourage you to read the privacy statements on the other websites you visit. We cannot be responsible for the privacy policies and practices of other sites even if you access them using links from our website.

In addition, if you linked to our website from a third party site, we cannot be responsible for the privacy policies and practices of the owners and operators of that third party site and recommend that you check the policy of that third party site.

16 or Under

We are concerned to protect the privacy of children aged 16 or under. If you are aged 16 or under‚ please get your parent/guardian’s permission beforehand whenever you provide us with personal information.

Transferring your information outside of Europe

As part of the services offered to you through this website, the information which you provide to us may be transferred to countries outside the European Union (“EU”). By way of example, this may happen if any of our servers are from time to time located in a country outside of the EU. These countries may not have similar data protection laws to the UK. By submitting your personal data, you’re agreeing to this transfer, storing or processing. If we transfer your information outside of the EU in this way, we will take steps to ensure that appropriate security measures are taken with the aim of ensuring that your privacy rights continue to be protected as outlined in this Policy. If you use our services while you are outside the EU, your information may be transferred outside the EU in order to provide you with those services.

How can we be contacted?

By email to feedback@freshfields.org.uk or by writing to Freshfields Animal Rescue, East Lane, Ince Blundell, Liverpool L29 3EA. Alternatively you can telephone 0151 931 1604.

Review of this Policy

We keep this Policy under regular review. This Policy was last updated 27TH April 2023.