Please read the below Privacy Notice. If you would like a copy for your records, you can download the Privacy Notice here.

GDPR – Privacy Notice Clients

The purpose of this Notice

This notice explains how Dogs for Good (the “Charity”), will collect and use your personal data.  “Personal data” means any information which can be used to identify you as an individual.

The Charity has appointed a Data Protection Officer, and her contact details are as below:

Donna Cook, Data Protection Officer at [email protected] or you can write to her using the postal address of:

Dogs for Good
The Frances Hay Centre
Blacklocks Hill
Banbury
OX17 2BS

The Data Protection Act 2018 and the General Data Protection Regulation require us to provide you with the information below.

If you have any questions concerning our collection or use of your personal data, please contact our Data Protection Officer in the first instance.

The reason you have received this notice

You are either applying to the Charity for an Assistance Dog, or have already been accepted into its Assistance Dog partnership programme.

If you are applying for an Assistance Dog, we need to collect personal data from you to enable us to respond to your request, and to decide whether we are able to help you in the way you have asked.

If you already have an Assistance Dog, we need to collect personal data so that we can continue to support you and your dog, and to enable compliance with the Assistance Dog contractual agreement between us.  As legal owner of the dog, we also have continuing responsibilities.

No obligation to provide personal data

If you are making an application for an Assistance Dog, you are not under any legal obligation to provide us with personal data.

However, should you decide that you prefer not to provide us with the personal data we request, we may not be able to provide Assistance Dog services to you.

The categories of personal data we may obtain and use

Most of the information we will collect and use will be directly provided by you, and you will therefore be aware what it is.

Examples of other categories of information which may be obtained from third parties, may include:

  • medical information such as information about your and / or your child’s disability, medication and physical capacity
  • information about your employment, workplace and working hours
  • information about your and / or your child’s current education provider, place of education and school hours
  • letters to and from your landlord, employer and education provider confirming your permission to have an Assistance Dog
  • information from your GP or other medical practitioner about your and / or your child’s disability and medical history
  • correspondence with other Assistance Dog International service providers seeking information about previous Assistance Dog applications to that organisation

The purposes for which we may use personal data

As a Charity bringing dogs and people together to help overcome challenges, enrich and improve the lives of both, we need to keep and process information about you and / or your child to pursue the legitimate interests of the Charity and for the proper provision of Assistance Dog services.

Examples of these legitimate interests are:

  • to give you and / or your child information about relevant services which we provide, and to enable you to make an enquiry or express an interest in one of our Assistance Dog services
  • to book your place onto an Information Session for one of our Assistance Dog services
  • to receive, process and assess your and / or your child’s application for one of our Assistance Dog services
  • to match you and / or your child to an appropriately trained Assistance Dog that will help to meet your and / or your child’s needs
  • to undertake home placement training
  • to qualify your and / or your child’s Assistance Dog Partnership or Team
  • to provide you with aftercare in line with your needs and Assistance Dogs International standards
  • for administrative purposes

We will not use your data in a way which adversely affects your interests.

The legal basis we will rely on when using your data

Of the permitted legal reasons for “processing” (meaning “using”) your personal data, the following are the ones most likely to be relevant:

  • The legitimate interests of the Charity
  • A contract or proposed contractual relationship with you
  • Express consent
  • A legal obligation of the Charity.

The legitimate interests of the Charity

It will be in the legitimate interests of the Charity to use personal data for a purpose for which it was supplied, and any related purpose which in furtherance of the Charity’s objects.  Examples are given above.

A contract of proposed contractual relationship with you

Use of personal data is permitted where it is for the purpose of performing a contract or anticipated contract.  If the Charity provides you with an Assistance Dog, a contract will be entered into with you.

Express consent

Personal data can be used when we have your express consent to use it.

We will not process externally or share with others (except in a medical or other such emergency) any sensitive personal data without your prior consent. Examples of sensitive personal data are:

  • medical and biometric data
  • sexual orientation
  • information relating to your racial or ethnic origin
  • political opinions
  • religious or philosophical beliefs
  • Trade Union membership

Where your consent to processing data is relied on, you can withdraw it whenever you wish.

A legal obligation of the Charity

An example of a relevant legal obligation arises from the fact that if you are provided with an Assistance Dog, the Charity remains the legal owner and continues to have some legal responsibilities as a result.

Sources of personal data

Much of the information we hold will have been provided by you, but some may come from other external sources, such as your and / or your child’s GP or relevant medical professional, your landlord or housing provider, your employer, your and / or your child’s educational institution, other Assistance Dogs International Assistance Dog service providers and, in some cases, referees.

Sharing personal data with others

Other than as mentioned below, we will only disclose information about you to third parties if we are legally obliged to do so, or where we need to do so to provide you and / or your child with an Assistance Dog service.

This may include providing: your name and address to other Assistance Dogs International service providers to seek details of previous applications for an assistance dog; your address or contact details to one of the Charity’s volunteer drivers for the purposes of collecting or delivering a dog; and your name, address and contact details to our Insurer (The Insurance Emporium) for the purposes of activating your partnered dog insurance policy; your name and address to our preferred dog food supplier.

We may, on occasion and with your express consent, disclose your contact information to puppy socialisers, re-homers, other individuals or organisations who may care for a dog which you or your child have been partnered with, after it has been withdrawn as an Assistance Dog, or following its retirement as a working Assistance Dog.

Your rights regarding your personal data

Right to withdraw consent

Where the Charity is relying on your consent for its use of personal data, you may withdraw that consent at any time.

Additional rights

Please note that the following do not apply in all circumstances and that if you tell us that you wish to use any of them, we’ll tell you at that time whether they apply or not:

  • to be informed about the processing of your personal data
  • to have inaccurate data corrected
  • to have incomplete personal data completed
  • to restrict processing
  • to have personal data erased
  • to request access to your data
  • to move, copy or transfer to another organisation, your personal data
  • certain rights related to automated decision making (if and when applicable)

and

  • the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office if you consider that we have not adequately dealt with a request or complaint at https://ico.org.uk. Please also note the contact details of our Data Protection Officer on page 1 who should be contacted in the first instance.

Retention and storage of personal data

Your personal data will initially be stored securely within the Dogs for Good Dogs Databases for the period of your and / or your child’s application to partner with an Assistance Dog  Should you be unsuccessful in this application, or if the application is withdrawn, your personal data will be retained for a further period of three months in order to allow you to appeal any decision made in relation to your application, and thereafter it will be destroyed..

Should your and / or your child’s application to partner with an Assistance Dog be successful and a contract for the provision of an Assistance Dog is entered into between you and the Charity, your and / or your child’s personal data will be stored securely within the Dogs for Good Dogs Databases for the period of your and / or your child’s Assistance Dog contract.  For example, until you and / or your child discontinue the Partnership / Team by returning the dog to Dogs for Good, the dog is retired and rehomed or the dog dies, and for one year after the contractual relationship ends.