Privacy Notice

River's Retreat — dog walking, grooming, daycare and boarding.
Last updated 12 August 2026.

What we collect

About you

• Name, email address, phone number and home address
• The name and phone number of your emergency contact
• Whether you pay by cash, are billed weekly, or pay online
• Your password, stored only as a cryptographic hash — we never see it and cannot recover it

About your dog

• Name, date of birth, breed, and whether they're neutered
• Vaccination status and expiry, and photographs of vaccination records
• Medical notes, medication and dietary requirements
• Behavioural notes, including any history of biting, how they are with other dogs, and anxiety
• Photographs of your dog, where they sleep, favourite toys, and anything else you tell us

About your bookings

• Service, dates, time slot and any notes you add
• Price, what's owed, what's been paid and when
• Whether a booking was confirmed, cancelled or refunded
• If your dog travels in our van, which crate they were in that day and whether we confirmed them present before setting off

Only if you agree to it

• Whether you've agreed to your dog's photos appearing on our website and social media, when you agreed, and the exact wording you agreed to. This is optional — saying no has no effect on your bookings, and you can withdraw at any time from Terms & conditions in your account. We keep a record of a withdrawal as well as an agreement, so we can show we acted on it.

Kept so we can correct our own mistakes

• The last few versions of details our staff have edited — your name, phone number, address and your dog's details — so a mis-typed change can be put back without having to ask you for it again. Only our staff can see these, and they're deleted along with everything else if your account is deleted.
• A record of significant things our staff do to your account — deleting it, exporting your data, issuing a refund, suspending you — showing which staff member did it and when. We keep this to hold ourselves accountable and to investigate if something goes wrong. Our lawful basis is legitimate interests.

Why, and our lawful basis

We don't sell your information, we don't send you marketing emails, and we don't make automated decisions about you. The one marketing use is photos of your dog on our website and social media — and only if you've specifically agreed to it, which is optional and which you can withdraw at any time.

Who else sees it

Card details never reach us. Payments go straight to Stripe, who are a separate controller for the payment itself. We only see whether it succeeded and for how much.

Your records are stored in the United Kingdom. Our website runs on servers in the United States, so information is processed there when you use the site. Netlify is certified under the UK Extension to the EU–US Data Privacy Framework, which is the legal mechanism covering that transfer. Stripe may likewise transfer payment data internationally under their own safeguards.

We'll also share information where we're legally required to — for example with the local authority in connection with our licence, or with a vet in an emergency involving your dog.

How long we keep it

• Your account and your dog's records — while your account is open, and for 3 years after your last booking, then deleted automatically. Three years is the minimum our animal activity licence requires us to keep them for
• Booking and payment records — a booking never stores your email address or your name; it refers to your account. If you paid for it by card, we keep it for 7 years because tax law requires it, and when your account is deleted the reference to you is replaced with a random code that can't be linked back to you — leaving only a date, a service and an amount. If no card payment was taken, the booking is deleted outright along with everything else
• Photographs — deleted when your account is deleted, and removed from our storage as soon as you or we delete an individual photo
• Daily records about your dog — when we have your dog for boarding or daycare, our licence requires us to check them each day and write down how they were: whether they've been to the toilet, and anything unusual. You can read these in your account once they're finished. If we later correct one, we keep what it said before, with the record, for the same 3 years — that older version isn't shown in your account, but ask for a copy of your data and it's included. We have to keep them for 3 years from the day they were written, so if you ask us to delete your account these particular records stay — with your name and account removed from them, leaving your dog's name, the date and what we observed. Records we made for a walk or a groom aren't required by the licence, so those are deleted with your account
• Van travel records — 90 days, then deleted automatically. Removed sooner if your account is deleted
• Previous versions of edited details — only the last few per field, and only while your account exists
• Our record of staff actions on your account — 6 years, matching the financial records, then deleted automatically
• Your photo/marketing consent — for as long as your account exists, so we can show what you agreed to and when. Deleted with your account
• Backups — our licence requires us to keep backups of our records. We take an encrypted copy of everything each night and keep the last 30, and we also keep encrypted copies outside the system. If you ask us to delete your data we remove it from our live records straight away, but it stays in those backups until they age out. We won't restore it into use, and if we ever do restore a backup we re-apply any deletions made since it was taken

How we protect it

• Everything is sent over an encrypted connection
• The database itself enforces that one client cannot see another client's records
• Photographs are held in private storage and reached only through short-lived links — they aren't publicly accessible
• Only staff accounts can see client records or change prices, billing arrangements or account status
• Prices and payments are verified on our server, never in your browser
• Our backups are encrypted, so a lost or mislaid copy can't be read by anyone who finds it

Your rights

You can ask us to:

• Give you a copy of everything we hold about you — usually the same day
• Correct anything wrong; most of it you can edit yourself in your account
• Delete your account and everything with it. We remove your profile, your dog's records, your photographs and your login. Booking and payment records are kept because tax law requires it, but with your name, email, dog and notes removed
• Restrict or object to how we use it, or ask for it in a portable format

We'll respond within one month, free of charge. Ask at riversretreat@protonmail.com.

If you're unhappy with how we've handled your information you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113. We'd rather you told us first so we can put it right.

Cookies

We don't use tracking or advertising cookies, and there's no cookie banner because there's nothing to consent to. Your browser stores a login token so you stay signed in — that's strictly necessary for the service to work, and it's cleared when you log out.

Changes

If we change this notice we'll update the date at the top, and tell you directly if the change is significant.

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