Privacy Policy

Pawsitively Purrfect Pet Services & Training Academy Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy describes how Pawsitively Purrfect Pet Services & Training Academy (“we”, “us”), collect and use personal information about you in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR). It contains important information on how and why we collect, store, use and share personal information, your rights in relation to your personal information and on how to contact us and supervisory authorities in the event you have a complaint. We collect, use and are responsible for certain personal information about you. When we do so we are regulated under the UK GDPR and we are responsible as ‘controller’ of that personal information for the purposes of those laws.

Section 1 – How We Collect Personal Information About You
Section 2 – What Personal Information Do We Use?
Section 3 – How and why will we use your personal information
Section 4 – Lawful Bases
Section 5 – Communications for marketing / promotional purposes
Section 6 – Children’s Personal Information
Section 7 – How long do we keep your personal information?
Section 8 – Will we share your personal information?
Section 9 – Security storage of and access to your personal information
Section 10 – International Data Transfers
Section 11 – Exercising your rights
Section 12 – Changes to this notice

Section 1 – How We Collect Personal Information About You

We collect personal information about you: a) When you give it to us directly e.g. personal information that you give to us when you communicate with us by email, phone or social media. B) When we obtain it indirectly For example, your personal information will be shared with us by training/learning providers after you enrol for a course in relation to which we provide the relevant qualification. c) When you visit our website, we automatically collect the following types of personal information: (a) Technical information, including the internet protocol (IP) address used to connect your device to the internet, browser type and version, time zone setting, browser plug-in types and versions and operating systems and platforms. (b) Information about your visit to the websites, including the uniform resource locator (URL)
clickstream to, through and from the website (including date and time), services you viewed or searched for, page response times, download errors, length of visits to certain pages, referral sources, page interaction information (such as scrolling and clicks) and methods used to browse away from the page. We collect information to analyse the performance of our websites and how different parts of our website are used.

Section 2 – What Personal Information Do We Use?

We may collect, store and otherwise process the following kinds of personal information: a) your name and contact details including postal address, telephone number, email address and emergency contact details b) information regarding your pet(s) including name, breed, age, health status c) unique candidate identifiers/unique learner numbers d) details of your qualifications/ experience. The UK General Data Protection Regulation (“UK GDPR”) recognises certain categories of personal information as sensitive and therefore requiring more protection, for example information about your health, ethnicity and religious beliefs. In certain situations, we may collect and/or use these special categories of data (for example, information on candidates’ medical conditions so that we can make arrangements for reasonable adjustments and/or special considerations). We will only process these special categories of data if there is a valid reason for doing so and where the UK GDPR allows us to do so.

Section 3 – How and why will we use your personal information

Your personal information, however provided to us, will be used for the purposes specified in this Notice. In particular, we may use your personal information: a) to register you as a candidate and allow you to access our training b) for assessment administration purposes c) to issue certificates and maintain records of achievement d) to carry out any reviews or appeals e) to otherwise provide you with services, products or information you have requested f) to communicate as necessary with qualification providers g) to provide further information about our work, services or activities (where necessary, only where you have provided your consent to receive such information) h) to answer your questions/ requests and communicate with you in general i) to audit and/or administer our accounts j) to satisfy legal obligations which are binding on us, for example in relation to regulatory, government or law enforcement

Section 4 – Lawful Bases

The UK GDPR requires us to rely on one or more lawful bases to use your personal information. We consider the grounds listed below to be relevant: a) Where you have provided your consent for us to use your personal information in a certain way (for example, we may ask for your consent to collect special categories of your personal information so that you may sit an exam with reasonable adjustments and/or special considerations) b) Where necessary so that we can comply with a legal obligation to which we are subject (for example, where we are obliged to share your personal information with regulatory bodies which govern our work and services) c) Where necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are a party or to take steps at your request prior to entering a contract (for example, to provide you with a certified award after sitting an assessment) d) Where there is a legitimate interest in us doing so. The UK GDPR allows us to collect and process your personal information if it is reasonably necessary to achieve our or others’ legitimate interests (as long as that processing is fair, balanced and does not unduly impact your rights as an individual). In broad terms, our “legitimate interests” means the interests of running of Pawsitively Purrfect Pet Services & Training Academy as a commercial entity.

Section 5 – Communications for marketing / promotional purposes

We may use your contact details to provide you with information about our work, events, services and/or activities which we consider may be of interest to you (for example, about other certified awards we offer or training/learning providers we work with). Where we do this via email, SMS or telephone, we will not do so without your prior consent (unless allowed to do so via applicable law). Where you have provided us with your consent  previously but do not wish to be contacted by us about our work, events, services and/or activities in the future, please let us know.

Section 6 – Children’s Personal Information

When we process children’s personal information, where required we will not do so without the consent of a parent/ guardian. We will always have in place appropriate safeguards to ensure that children’s personal information is handled with due care.

Section 7 – How long do we keep your personal information?

We will only retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. We will hold personal data for the period we are required to retain this information by applicable UK tax law (currently 6 years). In some circumstances we may anonymise your personal information so that it can no longer be associated with you, in which case we may use such information without further notice to you. However, if before that date (i) your personal information is no longer required in connection with such purpose(s), (ii) we are no longer lawfully entitled to process it or (iii) you validly exercise your right of erasure, we will remove it from our records at the relevant time. If you request to receive no further contact from us, we may keep some basic information about you on our suppression list in order to comply with your request and avoid sending you unwanted materials in the future. This is not personally identifiable information.

Section 8 – Will we share your personal information?

We do not share, sell or rent your personal information to third parties for marketing purposes. However, in general we may disclose your personal information to selected third parties in order to achieve the purposes set out in this Notice. These parties may include (but are not limited to): a) training/learning providers b) individual examiners c. educational authorities c) professional service providers such as accountants and lawyers d) the police, for example in sharing data in relation to malpractice cases linked to fraud e) regulatory bodies who govern our work, such as Ofqual, SQA

Section 9 – Security storage of and access to your personal information

Pawsitively Purrfect Pet Services & Training Academy is committed to keeping your personal information safe and secure and we have appropriate and proportionate security policies and organisational and technical measures in place to help protect your information. Your personal information is only accessible by appropriately trained staff, and stored on secure servers which have features to prevent unauthorised access

Section 10 – International Data Transfers

We are a UK-based organisation and will not transfer your personal information outside of the UK.

Section 11 – Exercising your rights

Where we rely on your consent to use your personal information, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. This includes the right to ask us to stop using your personal information for marketing purposes or to unsubscribe from our email list at any time. You also have the following rights: a) Right of access – you can write to us to ask for confirmation of what personal information we hold on you and to request a copy of that personal information. Provided we are satisfied that you are entitled to see the personal information requested and we have successfully confirmed your identity, we will provide you with your personal information subject to any exemptions that apply b) Right of erasure – at your request we will delete your personal information from our records as far as we are required to do so. In many cases we would propose to suppress further communications with you, rather than delete it. c) Right of rectification – if you believe our records of your personal information are inaccurate, you have the right to ask for those records to be updated. You can also ask us to check the personal information we hold about you if you are unsure whether it is accurate/up to date. d) Right to restrict processing – you have the right to ask for processing of your personal information to be restricted if there is disagreement about its accuracy or legitimate usage. e) Right to object – you have the right to object to processing where we are (i) processing your personal information on the basis of our legitimate interests (see section 4 above), (ii) using your personal information for direct marketing or (iii) using your information for statistical purposes. (i) is necessary to enter into/perform a contract between you and us/another organisation. For more information, we suggest that you contact us using our contact details. We encourage you to raise any concerns or complaints you have about the way we use your personal information by contacting us using the details provided. You are further entitled to make a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office – www.ico.org.uk.

Section 12 – Changes to this notice

We may revise this Privacy Policy through an updated posting. We will identify the effective date of the revision in the posting. Often, updates are made to provide greater clarity or to comply with changes in regulatory requirements. If the updates involve material changes to the collection, protection, use or disclosure of Personal Information, we will provide notice of the change through a conspicuous notice on this site or other appropriate way. Continued use of the site after the effective date of a posted revision evidences acceptance. Please contact us if you have questions or concerns about the Privacy Policy or any objection to any revisions.

Last Updated 30 October 2024