Privacy policy

This policy explains what we do with your personal information when you use this website, when you send us an enquiry, and when we look after your dog. It is written to be read, not to be waded through — if anything here is unclear, please ask us.

Who we are

The Fairy Tails is a trading name of THE FAIRY TAILS DC LTD, a company registered in England and Wales with company number 12379620. Our registered office is The Barn, Barley Lane, Fairlight, Hastings, TN35 5DT.

We decide how the information described here is used, which makes us responsible for it in law — the legal term is that we are the “data controller”. If you have any question about this policy, or about what we hold on you and your dog, call us on 01424 300668 or email info@thefairytails.co.uk.

We are registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office, the UK’s data protection regulator, under registration reference ZC242164.

We have not appointed a Data Protection Officer. A business of our size and type is not required to have one. Any question about your information should come to us using the details above and it will reach the right person.

What we collect when you use this website

When you send us an enquiry. Our enquiry form asks for your name, your email address, your telephone number and your postcode; which service you are interested in; your dog’s name, breed and age; what you would like help with; how and when you would prefer to be contacted; and anything else you choose to write in the message box. We also record which page of the site you sent the enquiry from, so we know what you were reading.

Please only tell us what you are comfortable telling us. The message box is free text, so what goes in it is entirely your choice.

When you simply browse. Our hosting provider keeps ordinary web server logs, which include the internet address (IP address) your device used, in order to run the site securely. We also use the cookies described in the next section — but only the necessary ones, unless you tell us otherwise.

Cookies, analytics and advertising

We use Google Tag Manager on this site. It is the tool that loads our measurement and advertising tags, which are:

• Google Analytics — so we can see how many people visit, which pages are read and how people find us. We use this to improve the site.
• Google Ads — so we can tell whether an advert we paid for led to an enquiry.
• The Meta (Facebook and Instagram) pixel — so we can tell whether an advert on Facebook or Instagram led to an enquiry, and so that Meta can show our adverts to people more likely to be interested.

None of these run until you agree to them. When you first arrive, analytics and advertising storage are switched off, and a banner asks you to choose. If you choose “Essential only”, they stay off. If you choose to accept, they are switched on and your choice is remembered in your browser so you are not asked again.

We rely on your consent for these, and you can change your mind at any time. At present the way to withdraw your consent is to clear this site’s cookies and stored data in your browser settings, which resets your choice and makes the banner appear again. You can also block or delete cookies in your browser at any time, and you can opt out of Google Analytics specifically using Google’s own browser add-on.

The necessary parts of the site — the pages themselves, and remembering the cookie choice you made — do not need your consent, because the site cannot work properly without them.

What we hold once your dog is with us

If you go on to book a service, we hold rather more, because we need it to look after your dog safely:

• About you: your name, home address, telephone numbers and email address, and — if you gave us one — the name, mobile number and email address of a second contact for your household.
• About your emergency contact: their name, address, postcode, telephone number and email address.
• About your dog: their name, breed, age, sex, colour and description, microchip number, and any photographs you have given us or we have taken in our care.
• About your dog’s health: vaccination and treatment dates, worming and flea treatments, medication and dosage, allergies, medical and dietary notes, whether they are neutered, your veterinary practice and your insurance details.
• About their care: feeding requirements and portions, behaviour notes, and anything else you have told us they need.

Information about your dog’s health is not “special category” data under data protection law — that term covers information about people, not animals.

Why we hold it, and our lawful basis

We rely on the following lawful bases in Article 6 of the UK GDPR.

• To answer your enquiry — our legitimate interest in responding to someone who has asked us to get in touch. You asked; it would be odd not to reply.
• To provide the service you booked — performance of our contract with you. This covers your contact details, your dog’s care requirements, and their feeding and medication instructions.
• To keep licensing and animal welfare records — our legal obligation. We operate under a licence issued by Hastings Borough Council.
• To hold an emergency contact, and to keep records long enough to deal with a claim or complaint — our legitimate interests. We have weighed those against your own interests and hold only what is needed.
• For analytics and advertising cookies — your consent, which you give or refuse on the banner and can withdraw.
• To send you our newsletter — our legitimate interest in keeping our own clients up to date about the centre, where you are already a client; otherwise your consent. Either way you can unsubscribe or tell us to stop at any time.

Who else sees it

• A vet, if your dog needs treatment while in our care.
• Your emergency contact, if we cannot reach you.
• Our insurer, if there is a claim, and our local authority licensing officer on inspection, where they are entitled to see our records.
• The suppliers who run our systems for us. This website and our automation are hosted with Hostinger. Our client and booking records are held on JotForm’s European service and, as we move our systems across, on Supabase, whose database is in London. Appointments are booked through Acuity Scheduling. Email we send is delivered through Resend, and text messages through Twilio. Our backups are held with Backblaze in the EU. Payments are handled by Square. We also use Google and Telegram for operational tooling. They act on our instructions and may not use your information for their own purposes.
• Google and Meta, in connection with the analytics and advertising described above, and only if you consented to it. For that advertising they act for their own purposes as well as ours.

Some of those suppliers are companies based outside the United Kingdom, although the services we use are generally hosted in the UK or Europe. Where your information is handled outside the UK, it is protected by the terms of our contracts with them, which require them to keep it secure and to use it only as we instruct.

We do not sell your information.

Emails and messages we send you

About your dog’s stay. While your dog is with us we send you messages about their care — daily reports, photographs, route and collection times, and anything you need to know. These are part of the service you booked, not marketing, and they are not something you can unsubscribe from while your dog is in our care. They reach you by email and, for collection and drop-off times, sometimes by text message.

Our newsletter. We also send an occasional newsletter about the centre. Every newsletter carries an unsubscribe link, and if you use it we add you to a suppression list so you are not contacted again. You can also simply ask us to stop and we will. You can object to marketing at any time and we will act on it — there is no need to give a reason.

How long we keep it

We keep your dog’s record for six years after the last time they came to us, and then we delete it. Six years is the period in which a claim about a contract, or about negligence, can normally be brought in England and Wales, so keeping records that long means we can answer one properly. Where the law requires us to keep something for longer — financial records, for example — we keep that item for as long as the law says and no longer.

If you send us an enquiry and do not go on to book anything, we keep your enquiry for up to two years and then delete it. You can ask us to delete it sooner and we will.

Your cookie choice is stored in your own browser until you clear it. The analytics records held by Google are kept for 14 months.

Your rights

You have the right to see a copy of the information we hold about you, and to have anything wrong put right. You can ask us to delete your information where we do not have to keep it, and you can ask us to restrict how we use it or object to a particular use — including anything we do on the basis of legitimate interests. You can also ask for a portable copy of the information you gave us, in a common format. Where we rely on your consent, you can withdraw it at any time.

To use any of these rights, call us on 01424 300668 or email info@thefairytails.co.uk. We will respond within one month, and there is no charge.

How to complain

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, please tell us first — we would much rather put it right.

You can also complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint. Complaining to us first does not affect your right to go to them.

Changes to this policy

If we change how we use your information, we will update this page and change the date at the top. This policy was last updated on 16 September 2026.