Privacy Policy
Privacy Policy
Lost Paws Dog Rescue & Rehoming CIC
CIC Registration Number: 13321903
Registered Address: 40 Weston Park Avenue, Shelton Lock, Derby, DE24 9EQ
Website: www.lostpawsdogrescue.org.uk
Privacy Contact: info@lostpawsdogrescue.org.uk
Last updated: January 2026
1. Introduction
Lost Paws Dog Rescue & Rehoming CIC ("Lost Paws", "we", "us" or "our") is committed to protecting your privacy and handling your personal information responsibly, securely and transparently.
This Privacy Policy explains what personal information we collect, why we collect it, how we use it, when we may share it, how long we retain it and the rights you have in relation to your personal information.
We aim to collect only information that is relevant and reasonably necessary for the purpose for which it is requested.
This policy applies to information collected through our website, adoption and fostering applications, homechecks, communications with us and our interactions with adopters, prospective adopters, foster carers, volunteers, supporters and other individuals who contact or work with Lost Paws.
2. Who is responsible for your information?
Lost Paws Dog Rescue & Rehoming CIC is responsible for the personal information covered by this Privacy Policy.
Our details are:
Lost Paws Dog Rescue & Rehoming CIC
CIC Registration Number: 13321903
40 Weston Park Avenue
Shelton Lock
Derby
DE24 9EQ
For any questions about your personal information or this Privacy Policy, please contact:
Email: info@lostpawsdogrescue.org.uk
3. What personal information do we collect?
The information we collect depends on how you interact with Lost Paws.
Adoption and fostering applications
If you apply to adopt or foster one of our dogs, we may collect information including:
- Your name
- Your address
- Telephone number
- Email address
- Details of other people living in your household
- Ages of children and other household members where relevant
- Employment information and working patterns
- Details of your daily routine and lifestyle
- Information about previous dog ownership or experience
- Information about other animals living in your household
- Information about your home and garden
- Information about fencing, access and security
- Information relevant to exercise and training arrangements
- Information about your ability to meet the individual needs of the dog you are applying for
- Information provided during conversations, correspondence or assessments
- Photographs or videos of your home and garden where required as part of a homecheck
- Any other information reasonably necessary to assess the suitability of the proposed home.
We may also collect information necessary to arrange a dog's transport, collection, microchip registration or ongoing welfare.
4. Why do we collect this information?
We collect and use personal information for purposes connected with the responsible rescue and rehoming of dogs.
Assessing adoption and foster applications
We use the information provided by applicants to determine whether a particular dog is suitable for their household and whether the applicant can reasonably meet that dog's needs.
Every dog is an individual and may have different requirements relating to exercise, training, behaviour, other animals, children, household circumstances or the physical environment.
For this reason, we may ask questions about household members, children's ages, work patterns, existing pets, previous dog experience, daily routines, gardens and other circumstances that may be relevant to the particular dog.
We do not request this information simply because we want to know it. It is used to help us make responsible rehoming decisions and reduce the risk of placing a dog into a home that is unsuitable for its individual needs.
Carrying out homechecks
Homechecks are an important part of our adoption and fostering process.
We may request photographs or videos of relevant areas of a property, including the garden and, where appropriate, areas inside the home.
This allows us to assess matters such as:
- Garden security
- Fencing
- Gates and access
- Potential escape routes
- The suitability of the environment for the particular dog
- Other relevant safety considerations.
Where photographs or videos are requested, they are used for the purpose of assessing the proposed home and are not intended for public use.
Matching dogs with suitable homes
We use information supplied by applicants to match individual dogs with homes that are appropriate for their age, size, temperament, behaviour, exercise requirements and other welfare needs.
Safeguarding and animal welfare
We may use information to help protect the welfare of our dogs and the safety of adopters, household members, children, existing pets, foster carers, volunteers and others involved in the rescue and rehoming process.
Arranging transport and collection
Where necessary, relevant contact and address information may be used to arrange the transportation or collection of a dog.
Maintaining rescue records
We maintain appropriate records relating to applications, homechecks, adoptions and fostering.
These records allow us to administer our rescue activities, provide ongoing support and respond appropriately to future enquiries.
Providing post-adoption or fostering support
We may use your contact information to communicate with you about the dog you have adopted or are fostering, including providing advice, support or assistance where appropriate.
Meeting legal and regulatory requirements
We may process or disclose information where this is necessary to comply with applicable legislation, animal welfare requirements, importation requirements, regulatory obligations or official requests.
Preventing unsuitable placements
Where appropriate, we may retain relevant information to help ensure that dogs are not repeatedly placed into circumstances that are known to be unsuitable for their welfare or safety.
5. Our lawful basis for processing personal information
UK data protection law requires organisations to have a lawful basis for processing personal information.
Depending on the circumstances, Lost Paws may rely on one or more of the following lawful bases:
Legitimate interests
We may process information where it is reasonably necessary for our legitimate interests in operating our rescue, assessing adoption and foster applications, safeguarding animal welfare and making responsible rehoming decisions.
Contractual necessity
Where an adoption or fostering arrangement is entered into, certain information will be necessary to administer that arrangement and meet the responsibilities associated with it.
Legal obligation
We may process information where we are legally required to do so or where information must be provided to a relevant authority to comply with applicable legislation or regulatory requirements.
Consent
Where appropriate, we may ask for your consent to process information for a specific purpose.
Where we rely on consent, you may withdraw your consent at any time. Withdrawal of consent does not affect processing that has already taken place lawfully.
6. Home photographs and videos
We understand that photographs or videos of someone's home can feel personal and that prospective adopters may have concerns about providing them.
Where photographs or videos are requested as part of a virtual homecheck, they are requested because they can help us assess whether the environment is appropriate and safe for the particular dog being considered.
We appreciate that not everyone will be comfortable providing photographs of the inside of their home. If an applicant has concerns about providing particular photographs or videos, they are welcome to discuss those concerns with us.
We will consider whether another reasonable way of obtaining the information required for the home assessment is possible.
Photographs and videos supplied as part of an application or homecheck:
- Are used for the purpose for which they were provided
- Are not published publicly by Lost Paws
- Are not used for marketing purposes
- Are not sold
- Are not provided to unrelated third parties
- Are stored securely
- Will normally be retained for no longer than 12 months after the relevant application or assessment has ended.
After this period, they will normally be securely deleted unless there is a legitimate reason to retain them for longer.
7. Application forms and Jotform
Our adoption and fostering application forms are provided through Jotform, an online form and data management service.
When you complete an adoption or fostering application, the information you provide is submitted to and stored through Jotform on our behalf. This may include personal information such as your name, address, contact details, household information, employment and working patterns, information about other pets, previous dog ownership, information about your home and garden, and other information provided as part of the application.
Jotform acts as a data processor in relation to information that we collect through our forms. Lost Paws remains responsible for determining why your information is collected and how it is used.
We use the information submitted through Jotform solely for legitimate Lost Paws purposes, including assessing adoption and fostering applications, carrying out homechecks, matching dogs with suitable homes, safeguarding and animal welfare, administering adoptions and providing appropriate post-adoption support.
Access to application information is restricted to people who have a legitimate need to access it as part of Lost Paws' adoption and rescue activities.
Our Jotform account is currently on the Bronze plan.
Jotform is an international service provider. As we have not selected a specific data-centre location for our Jotform account, information submitted through our forms may be stored or processed in data centres used by Jotform in different locations, including locations outside the United Kingdom.
Where personal information is processed outside the United Kingdom, appropriate safeguards should be in place to protect that information in accordance with applicable data protection requirements.
We will take reasonable steps to ensure that service providers processing personal information on our behalf provide appropriate safeguards for that information.
Application information held within Jotform will normally be retained for 12 months after the relevant application or assessment has ended, unless there is a legitimate reason for retaining it for longer. Information will then be securely deleted in accordance with our retention procedures.
Further information about how Jotform processes personal information is available through Jotform's own privacy documentation.
8. Who do we share your information with?
Lost Paws does not sell, rent or provide personal information to third parties for marketing purposes.
We do not routinely share full adoption applications or homecheck information with outside organisations.
Where information does need to be shared, we aim to provide only the information that is reasonably necessary for the particular purpose.
This may include sharing relevant information with the following:
Flight agents
Where necessary to arrange the transportation of a dog, relevant address and contact information may be provided to flight agents.
Pet couriers and transport providers
Relevant information, including delivery or collection details, may be provided to pet couriers or transport providers where necessary to arrange the safe transportation of a dog.
DEFRA, APHA and other government authorities
Information may be provided where necessary to comply with animal transport, importation, regulatory or other legal requirements, or where requested by an appropriate government authority.
Microchip databases
Relevant information may be provided to a microchip database where necessary to register or update the microchip details of a dog.
We will not disclose information to another person or organisation simply because they ask for it. Where information is shared, we will consider whether there is a legitimate reason for doing so and seek to limit the information disclosed to what is necessary.
9. Information we do not share
Lost Paws does not sell personal information.
We do not provide applicants' personal information to unrelated organisations for their own marketing purposes.
We do not publish applicants' home photographs or videos on our website or social media.
We do not use adoption or fostering application information to send marketing communications.
We will not disclose your personal information to another person or organisation without a legitimate reason to do so, except where disclosure is required or permitted by law.
10. Social media
Lost Paws operates social media accounts, including Facebook and Instagram.
If you interact with our social media accounts, the relevant platform may collect and process information about you in accordance with its own privacy policy.
Lost Paws is not responsible for the privacy practices of Facebook, Instagram or other third-party social media platforms.
We will not publish private information supplied as part of an adoption or fostering application, including homecheck photographs or videos, for public viewing without an appropriate lawful basis and, where required, your consent.
11. Our website, analytics and cookies
Our website is hosted and operated using IONOS and is available at:
We use analytics provided by IONOS to help us understand how visitors use our website and to monitor and improve its performance.
Depending on the configuration of the website and the analytics service, this may involve the collection of technical information such as information relating to website usage, device or browser information, IP address or other technical data.
We do not use our website to take payments and we do not collect or process payment card details through our website.
Where our website uses cookies or similar technologies, these may include cookies that are necessary for the website to function and analytics cookies.
We do not use website analytics to identify individual adoption applicants or analyse adoption applications for marketing purposes.
We do not sell personal information collected through our website and we do not use personal information collected through adoption or fostering applications for marketing.
IONOS and other technical service providers may process limited technical information where this is necessary to operate, secure or analyse the website.
12. How we protect your information
We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect personal information against:
- Unauthorised access
- Accidental loss
- Misuse
- Unauthorised disclosure
- Alteration
- Destruction.
Access to personal information is limited to individuals who have a legitimate need to access it for Lost Paws activities.
We also seek to ensure that information shared with third parties is limited to what is reasonably necessary for the relevant purpose.
However, no method of electronic storage or transmission can be guaranteed to be completely secure. While we take reasonable steps to protect your information, we cannot guarantee absolute security of information transmitted electronically.
13. How long do we keep your information?
We follow the data protection principle that personal information should not be kept for longer than is reasonably necessary.
Our general retention periods are as follows.
Adoption and fostering applications
We intend to retain application information for approximately 12 months after the application or assessment has ended.
This allows us to deal with reasonable follow-up enquiries, complaints, safeguarding matters and questions relating to decisions made during the application process.
Homecheck photographs and videos
Photographs and videos supplied as part of a homecheck will normally be retained for 12 months after the relevant application or assessment has ended.
Successful adoption and fostering records
Where an application results in an adoption or fostering arrangement, some information may need to be retained for longer.
This may include information forming part of the dog's permanent rescue, adoption or welfare records, information necessary to administer the adoption agreement, or information required to provide appropriate ongoing support.
Legal, insurance or safeguarding matters
Information may be retained for longer where reasonably necessary to deal with an ongoing legal matter, complaint, safeguarding issue, insurance matter or other legitimate requirement.
Once information is no longer required, it will be securely deleted or otherwise disposed of.
14. Your data protection rights
Under UK data protection law, you may have a number of rights in relation to your personal information.
These can include:
Right of access
You may ask us for a copy of the personal information we hold about you.
Right to rectification
You may ask us to correct personal information that is inaccurate or incomplete.
Right to erasure
In certain circumstances, you may ask us to delete your personal information.
This right is not absolute and may not apply where we have a legitimate or legal reason to retain information.
Right to restriction
In certain circumstances, you may ask us to restrict how we process your information.
Right to object
You may have the right to object to certain types of processing, including processing based on legitimate interests.
Right to data portability
In certain circumstances, you may have the right to receive personal information that you have provided to us in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format.
The rights available to you depend on the circumstances and the lawful basis on which we process your information.
15. How to exercise your rights
If you have a question about your personal information or would like to exercise one of your data protection rights, please contact:
Please provide enough information for us to understand your request and identify the information concerned.
For security reasons, we may need to verify your identity before providing personal information or making certain changes.
We will respond to valid requests within the timeframe required by applicable data protection legislation.
16. Complaints
If you have concerns about the way Lost Paws has handled your personal information, we encourage you to contact us first so that we have the opportunity to investigate and resolve your concern.
Please contact:
You also have the right to complain to the UK's data protection regulator, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), if you believe your personal information has been handled unlawfully.
Further information about your rights and making a complaint is available from the ICO.
17. Changes to this Privacy Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes to:
- Our organisation
- Our website
- The information we collect
- How we use information
- The organisations we work with
- Applicable data protection legislation.
The most recent version of this Privacy Policy will be made available on our website.
We recommend checking this policy periodically to ensure that you are aware of how we handle personal information.
18. Contact us
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, the information we hold about you, or how we process your personal information, please contact us.
Lost Paws Dog Rescue & Rehoming CIC
CIC No. 13321903
40 Weston Park Avenue
Shelton Lock
Derby
DE24 9EQ
Email: info@lostpawsdogrescue.org.uk
Website: www.lostpawsdogrescue.org.uk
Last reviewed: January 2026