About our data
Who we are
Rescue Pet Finder lists cats and dogs that UK rescues are rehoming, so more of them find homes. We are the data controller for the information described here. You can reach us through the contact page.
Listings
Each listing comes from a rescue's public adoption pages, checked daily: the animal's name, age, sex, breed, description and photos, and the rescue's name and location. Every listing links to the rescue's own page.
We don't copy or store photos without permission from the rescue centre. The photos are shown directly from the rescue's own listing unless the rescue gives us permission to do otherwise.
Listings are about animals, not people, and we don't set out to collect personal information. Phone numbers and email addresses are removed automatically. If a listing still mentions you, ask us and we'll remove it.
When an animal leaves a rescue's website, its page stays here for six months, marked "No longer listed" and without photos.
Messages you send us
If you use the contact page, we hold your name (if you give it), your email address and your message.
Why: to reply and to act on what you ask. Lawful basis: legitimate interests. How long: as long as we need it to deal with what you asked, and longer only when it records something we must honour later, such as a rescue's permission or request, or a complaint.
When we write back, the email services we use to receive and send mail process your email address and the messages we exchange, in order to deliver and store them. They may do so outside the UK; where they do, the data is protected by safeguards approved under UK law. You can ask for a copy of them through the contact page.
Visiting the site
There are no accounts and no tracking cookies. We count how many visitors each listing sends to its rescue; the count contains no personal information.
When you search, our own list answers cities and areas. A postcode is sent from your browser to postcodes.io, a free lookup service, so distances are measured from it, and so is the name of a town or village we don't have; postcodes.io also receives the technical data your browser sends, such as your IP address. The result is used only to sort listings by distance. We don't receive your searches: your browser keeps your recent searches, and the cities you open, until you close the tab, so you can go back to them from the search box. Your location is never kept.
The maps on location pages load their map images from OpenStreetMap, which receives the same technical data from your browser.
Our hosting provider stores and serves the site and the messages sent to us, and processes the technical data every website receives, such as your IP address, in order to deliver and protect it. It may do so outside the UK; where it does, the data is protected by safeguards approved under UK law, and you can ask us for a copy of them the same way. We don't sell or share data with anyone else.
Your rights
You can ask to see the personal data we hold about you, to correct it, to delete it, to restrict how we use it, or to object to our using it. Use the contact page. We aim to act within two working days, and always within one month.
If you run a rescue and don't want your animals listed here, tell us the same way. We'll take your listings down once we're satisfied the request genuinely comes from the rescue itself.
If you're unhappy with how we handle your data, please tell us first through the contact page, and we'll try to put it right. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office.
How you may use the site and what's on it is covered by our terms of use.