Privacy Policy

Last updated: June 2025. PawLocal ('we', 'us', 'our') is committed to protecting your personal data. This policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, and your rights under UK data protection law, including the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.

1. Who We Are

PawLocal is the data controller for personal data collected through this platform. For any data-related enquiries, contact us at pawlocalinfo@yahoo.com.

2. What Data We Collect

We collect the following categories of personal data: (a) Account information — name, email address, password (hashed), phone number and profile photo; (b) Walker profile data — biography, postcode, service areas, pricing, experience, and verification documents (DBS certificate, insurance proof, ID); (c) Dog information — breed, age, size, health conditions and emergency contacts provided by Owners; (d) Booking data — service type, dates, location, pricing and booking status; (e) Communications — messages sent between Owners and Walkers through the platform; (f) Payment data — transaction records and payout information (full card details are not stored by PawLocal); (g) Technical data — IP address, browser type and usage data collected automatically.

3. How We Use Your Data

We use your personal data to: (a) create and manage your account; (b) facilitate bookings between Owners and Walkers; (c) process payments and issue payouts; (d) verify Walker documents and qualifications; (e) send booking confirmations, updates and service notifications; (f) respond to support enquiries; (g) prevent fraud and ensure platform safety; (h) comply with legal obligations.

4. Legal Basis for Processing

We process your data on the following legal grounds: (a) Contract — to fulfil our obligations to you as a user of the platform; (b) Legitimate interests — to operate and improve PawLocal safely and effectively; (c) Legal obligation — where required by applicable law; (d) Consent — where you have explicitly agreed to a specific use, such as marketing communications.

5. Sharing Your Data

We share relevant personal data between Owners and Walkers to facilitate bookings. We do not sell your personal data to third parties. We may share data with: (a) payment processors to handle transactions; (b) email service providers to send notifications; (c) platform infrastructure providers who host and maintain the service; (d) law enforcement or regulatory authorities where required by law.

6. Data Retention

We retain personal data for as long as your account is active and for a reasonable period thereafter to comply with legal obligations. Booking records may be retained for up to 7 years for accounting and legal purposes. You may request deletion of your account data by contacting pawlocalinfo@yahoo.com.

7. Your Rights

Under UK GDPR, you have the right to: (a) access the personal data we hold about you; (b) correct inaccurate or incomplete data; (c) request deletion of your data ('right to be forgotten'); (d) restrict or object to certain uses of your data; (e) data portability — receive your data in a structured, machine-readable format; (f) withdraw consent at any time where processing is based on consent. To exercise any of these rights, email pawlocalinfo@yahoo.com.

8. Data Security

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data against unauthorised access, loss or disclosure. These include encrypted data storage, access controls and secure payment processing.

9. Cookies

We use cookies and similar technologies as described in our Cookie Policy below. You can manage cookie preferences through your browser settings.

10. Identity Verification and Fraud Prevention

To keep PawLocal safe we operate a verification and fraud-prevention programme. As part of this we process: verification status records for identity, DBS and insurance checks; the documents you choose to submit as evidence; account security information such as email verification status, risk flags raised for administrator review, blocked-contact attempts detected in messaging, and a record of administrative decisions. We use this information to confirm who our providers are, to detect and investigate suspicious or abusive behaviour, to prevent fraud and scams, and to meet our legal obligations. Legal basis: our legitimate interests in keeping the marketplace safe, and compliance with our legal obligations. Identity verification is a manual review by a PawLocal administrator and is separate from email verification, which only confirms that you can receive email at an address.

11. Identity Documents, Storage and Access

Identity, DBS and insurance documents are stored in private, access-controlled storage. They are never published on a public profile, returned in search results, or made available to other customers. Only authorised PawLocal administrators can access submitted documents, and only for the purpose of reviewing a verification requirement. Every access and decision is recorded in an audit log with the administrator, the decision, the date and the reason. Viewing access is time-limited, and documents are served through short-lived links rather than permanent public URLs.

12. Retention and Deletion of Verification Records

We keep identity and verification documents only for as long as necessary to evidence that a check was carried out, and we do not keep them longer than needed. Administrators can delete a stored document at any time while retaining the minimal verification record (the requirement, the decision, the date and the reviewer), so we can still evidence that a check took place after the document itself has been destroyed. When you delete your account, submitted verification documents are deleted. Where an account is suspended or a report is under investigation, we may retain the relevant records for longer as evidence, and we tell you if that applies. You can ask us to delete your verification documents at any time by emailing pawlocalinfo@yahoo.com.

13. Identity Verification Providers

Where PawLocal works with an external identity-verification provider, that provider processes your identity evidence on our instructions. Before any provider is used we assess its UK data protection compliance, including its security measures, sub-processors, international transfers and retention practices. We do not send identity documents to any provider that has not been assessed. We do not collect more information than the verification process requires.

14. Suspicions, Reports and Account Action

If our systems detect behaviour that may indicate fraud, a scam or abuse, we raise a flag for an administrator to investigate. A flag does not by itself suspend or ban an account, and we do not make automatic decisions that significantly affect you solely by automated means. Where we take action such as suspending an account, we record the reason and notify you. You can ask us to review a decision, and we record the outcome of any appeal.

15. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy periodically. We will notify you of significant changes where possible. Continued use of PawLocal after changes take effect constitutes acceptance of the revised policy. Questions? Email pawlocalinfo@yahoo.com.