Privacy Notice

For any privacy question, access request, correction, deletion request or complaint, contact us through the contact page and mark it as a privacy or data concern, or write to us and we will direct your message to the person responsible for data protection. You can also raise a data-protection complaint through our complaints route.

We only collect information you give us, or that we need to run the rescue and care for dogs. The main categories are:

• Contact messages — your name, email, phone (optional), the reason for your enquiry and your message, plus any structured answers you choose to give (for example the dog you are asking about or your availability).
• Adoption applications — name, contact details, address, household and lifestyle information, experience, children and other pets, and a short note about you.
• Foster applications — name, contact details, address, detailed household, children, other pets, experience and expectations, and photographs of your home, garden and vehicle.
• Rehoming / handover requests — your name and contact details, address, details about your dog (including medical and behavioural history, microchip and any bite history), and the reason for rehoming.
• Emergency welfare submissions — your name and contact details, what has happened, where the dog is, and how urgent it is. Some categories (for example domestic abuse) are sensitive.
• Emergency referrals from official bodies — contact details for the referring officer and organisation, the dog, and any documents you upload (such as vet records, microchip paperwork or legal documents).
• Volunteer, fundraising, business and professional enquiries — your name, contact details, and the information you choose to share about your offer or proposal.
• Donations and sponsorship — your name, email and payment details are handled by our payment processors (Stripe and Donorbox or PayPal). We store your name, email and sponsorship preferences, but never your full card or bank details.
• Newsletter and monthly journal subscriptions — your email address and optional name, with your consent record and preferences.
• My LUOSKO access requests — your name, contact details, postcode and the dog or relationship you are linked to, so we can verify access to the private portal.
• Knowledgebase contributions — if you submit a correction or subject suggestion, your name, email, optional qualification, the point you are challenging or suggesting, and any evidence you provide. Contact details are private and are not published.
• Photographs, stories and publication consent — if you submit a Forever Loved, Rainbow Bridge or success story, we hold your name, email, the story, photographs and your permission to publish.
• Animal records — our dog records may contain information about former owners or applicants (for example intake history, medical and behavioural notes). These are held internally and only the curated public profile is shown on the website.

We use your information for the reason you gave it to us:

• To assess adoption, foster and rehoming applications and to match dogs with the right homes.
• To respond to your enquiry, provide support, and arrange handovers, foster placements, transport, veterinary care and appointments.
• To process donations and sponsorship and keep you updated on the dog you sponsor if you asked us to.
• To send the newsletter or monthly journal you signed up for, and to respond to your volunteer, fundraising or professional enquiry.
• To review and publish stories and photographs you submitted, where you gave permission.
• To review and act on safeguarding, welfare and complaints information, and to keep records for the lifetime of the dog and our duties as a charity.

We do not rely on consent for everything. The lawful bases we rely on are:

• Contract — to take forward adoption, foster, sponsorship and rehoming applications and any agreement you enter with us.
• Legal obligation — where we must keep records (for example microchip information, dog bite history and charity records).
• Legitimate interests — to run the rescue, care for dogs, respond to enquiries, keep people and animals safe, and prevent fraud. These interests are balanced against your rights.
• Vital interests — to protect a person or animal where there is a welfare or safeguarding risk. Safeguarding may also engage special-category conditions; the precise lawful basis for special-category data is being confirmed as part of our data-protection review.
• Consent — for newsletter and monthly journal subscriptions, marketing communications, journey updates about a dog you sponsor, and for publishing photographs and stories you submit.

Where consent is the basis, you can withdraw it at any time. Withdrawing consent does not affect anything we have already done lawfully.

Some information we hold is sensitive — for example health information about a dog or a person, bite history, domestic-abuse emergency categories, or safeguarding information about a child or adult at risk. We only collect and use this where it is necessary, on an appropriate lawful basis (the precise condition for special-category safeguarding data is being confirmed as part of our data-protection review), and we restrict access to people who need it for their role. We do not knowingly collect personal information directly from children under 13; information about children is normally provided by a parent or carer as part of an application or safeguarding disclosure.

We share information only where necessary:

• Processors we use — Base44 (the platform this website runs on), Stripe (payments), Donorbox and PayPal (donations), and email delivery where we send messages. Each processor only receives what it needs for its task. We expect our processors to protect information under appropriate terms; our processor arrangements are being confirmed as part of our data-protection review.
• Veterinary practices and other animal-care partners — where needed to care for, transport, assess or treat a dog.
• Official bodies — police, local authorities, dog wardens, the RSPCA, social services and similar authorities, where we receive a referral or where we must report a welfare or safeguarding concern.
• Foster carers, adopters and the LUOSKO family network — information needed to place or support a dog.
• Authorised staff and trustees — only people who need access for their role.

We never sell your personal information.

Some of our processors (including Base44, Stripe, Donorbox and PayPal) may process data outside the UK. Where that happens, we look to use appropriate safeguards, such as recognised UK adequacy decisions or standard contractual clauses where applicable. These arrangements are being confirmed as part of our data-protection review and we will update this notice when they are finalised.

We keep personal information only as long as we need it for the purpose it was collected. In practice: contact messages are kept until resolved and then archived; application and case records are kept for the lifetime of the dog and a defined period afterwards so we can provide lifelong support and meet our legal obligations; newsletter and subscription records are kept until you withdraw consent or unsubscribe; and stories and photographs are kept while published or until you ask us to remove them. Specific retention periods are reviewed as part of our data-protection review and are available on request.

Access to personal data is restricted to authorised staff and trustees and is controlled by role. Records that contain personal data are not publicly readable. The website is served over HTTPS. We do not store full card or bank details — payments are handled by our payment processors. We review our access controls as part of good governance.

You have the right to:

• be informed about how we use your information (this notice);
• access the personal information we hold about you;
• ask us to correct it if it is wrong;
• ask us to erase it, or restrict or object to its use, in certain circumstances;
• receive a copy of your information in a portable format; and
• object to decisions based solely on automated processing that significantly affects you.

To use any of these rights, contact us through the contact page and mark your message as a privacy or data request.

Where we rely on consent — newsletters, the monthly journal, marketing messages, journey updates about a sponsored dog, and publication of your story or photographs — you can withdraw it at any time. Newsletters and journals include an unsubscribe link. You can also change your preferences by contacting us. Withdrawing consent does not affect information already lawfully processed.

If you are unhappy with how we handle your information, please tell us first through our complaints route and mark it as a data-protection complaint. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK's independent data-protection regulator. You can contact the ICO at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113. You can check whether an organisation is registered as a data controller on the ICO website. If you have a question about our registration, please contact us.

We use a small amount of strictly necessary storage to run the website and performance caches that contain no personal data. Analytics and the donation form are off until you choose to allow them. Rejecting is as easy as accepting, and we do not record consent you have not given. The table below lists every tool, its category and its consent state.

We use AI assistance to help staff assess some rehoming and handover requests and to assist with historic archive research. These tools support human review; a member of the LUOSKO team reviews the result before any decision is made. We do not make decisions about you solely by automated processing that have a legal or similarly significant effect.

Photographs and stories (including Forever Loved, Rainbow Bridge and success stories) are only published with your explicit permission. You can ask us to remove a published story or photograph at any time by contacting us, and we will honour that request as soon as practical.

This notice was last updated on 20 July 2026. It is reviewed by the LUOSKO trustees. A named data-protection contact is being confirmed and formal data-protection review is in progress. It is a public notice and is not a trustee-approved policy. If this notice changes in a significant way, we will update the date above.