1. Who We Are
London Walking Paws ("we", "us", "our") is a dog walking and care service based in Parsons Green, London SW6. We are the data controller for personal data collected through our website and services. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, store, and protect your personal data in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.
2. Data We Collect
We collect the following types of personal data:
Information you provide directly
- Account details: Name, email address, phone number, password (encrypted).
- Dog information: Dog name, breed, age, weight, health conditions, behavioural notes, vaccination records.
- Booking data: Service type, dates, times, special instructions.
- Payment information: Payment card details are collected and processed securely by our payment provider, Stripe. We do not store your full card details on our servers.
- Communications: Messages sent through our contact form, emails, or phone calls.
Information collected automatically
- Usage data: Pages visited, time spent, browser type, device type.
- IP address: Collected for security and rate-limiting purposes.
3. How We Use Your Data
We use your personal data for the following purposes:
- Providing our services: Managing bookings, caring for your dog, communicating about walks and visits.
- Account management: Creating and maintaining your online account.
- Payments: Processing payments and issuing invoices.
- Communication: Responding to enquiries, sending booking confirmations and service updates.
- Safety & security: Protecting against fraud, abuse, and unauthorised access.
- Improvement: Analysing usage patterns to improve our website and services.
Our lawful bases for processing under UK GDPR are:
- Contract: Processing necessary to provide our services to you.
- Legitimate interests: Improving our services, security, and fraud prevention.
- Consent: Where you have opted in to marketing communications.
- Legal obligation: Where required for tax, accounting, or regulatory purposes.
4. Cookies
Our website uses essential cookies to keep you logged in and maintain your session. We do not use advertising or tracking cookies. Essential cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off.
5. Third Parties
We share your data with the following trusted third-party services, solely for the purposes described in this policy:
- Neon (database) -- Your account data and booking information is stored securely in a Neon-hosted Postgres database. Neon processes data in compliance with GDPR.
- Clerk (authentication) -- Account sign-in and identity verification is handled by Clerk. Clerk processes data in accordance with their Privacy Policy.
- Stripe (payment processing) -- Payment card details are processed directly by Stripe. Stripe is PCI DSS Level 1 certified and processes data in accordance with their Privacy Policy.
- Resend (transactional email) -- Booking confirmations, invoices, and account notifications are sent via Resend, which processes the recipient email address and message content.
- DigitalOcean (image storage) -- Photos you upload of your dog are stored on DigitalOcean Spaces.
- Vercel (website hosting) -- Our website is hosted on Vercel. Vercel may process access logs including IP addresses.
We do not sell your personal data to any third party. We will never share your data with third parties for marketing purposes without your explicit consent.
6. Your Rights Under UK GDPR
Under the UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018, you have the following rights:
- Right of access: Request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
- Right to rectification: Request correction of inaccurate or incomplete data.
- Right to erasure: Request deletion of your personal data ("right to be forgotten").
- Right to restrict processing: Request that we limit how we use your data.
- Right to data portability: Request your data in a structured, machine-readable format.
- Right to object: Object to processing based on legitimate interests.
- Right to withdraw consent: Where processing is based on consent, you may withdraw it at any time.
To exercise any of these rights, contact us at hello@londonwalkingpaws.com. We will respond within one month. If you are not satisfied with our response, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).
7. Data Retention
We retain your personal data as follows:
- Active accounts: Data is retained for the duration of your account and active use of our services.
- Inactive accounts: Accounts inactive for more than 2 years may be deleted after notification.
- Financial records: Retained for 7 years in line with HMRC requirements.
- Contact form enquiries: Retained for up to 12 months unless you become a client.
When data is no longer required, it is securely deleted or anonymised.
8. Data Security
We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data, including encryption in transit (TLS/SSL), encrypted password storage, access controls, and regular security reviews. However, no method of transmission over the internet is 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.
9. International Transfers
Some of our third-party service providers (Neon, Clerk, Stripe, Resend, DigitalOcean, Vercel) may process data outside the UK. Where this occurs, we ensure appropriate safeguards are in place, such as Standard Contractual Clauses or adequacy decisions, in compliance with UK GDPR.
10. Changes to This Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Material changes will be communicated via email or through your account. We encourage you to review this page periodically.
11. Contact Us
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or how we handle your data, please contact us:
You may also view our Terms of Service for additional information about using our services.