​​Privacy Policy

Animal Protection Agency and Animal Protection Agency Foundation

The Animal Protection Agency and the Animal Protection Agency Foundation are committed to keeping your personal information safe. We value your support and respect your privacy.

By submitting any information to us, either via our website or otherwise, you are agreeing to the terms of this privacy policy.

​Who we are

​The Animal Protection Agency is a non-governmental, not-for-profit organisation that conducts investigations and runs evidence-based campaigns to end the trade in wild animals as pets. We also work to safeguard the welfare of those animals already in trade. Registered company no: 5180872.

Our sister organisation, the Animal Protection Agency Foundation, is a charity that carries out or commissions research into issues related to the trade in wild animals as pets and conducts awareness-raising programmes on those issues. Registered company no: 6371987, registered charity no: 1123569.

All references to ‘we’, ‘us’ and ‘APA’ apply to both of the above organisations.

What information will APA collect about me?

We may collect personal information about you when you:

• Ask about our activities
• Use our website
• Subscribe to receive updates
• Donate or buy goods
• Become involved a campaign
• Volunteer for us
• Apply for a job with us

This can include a record of your name, postal and email addresses and any optional information you have provided such as your phone number or information regarding whether you are a taxpayer to allow us to claim gift aid. We also keep a record of
donations, subscriptions and any goods orders that you make. Sometimes we may need to collect information about other people
you name when dealing with us, e.g. when you order a gift for someone. Our website uses technology to collect information about its use, which means that when you visit our website, cookies will be placed on your computer or other device.

If you apply to volunteer or work with us, we will hold the personal information you provide in order to process your application. We will only hold your personal information for the purposes of that application and for no longer than is necessary. As part of the volunteer/job application process we may need to disclose your information to a third party in order to seek a reference or obtain
disclosure from the Disclosure and Barring Service. If you express an interest in volunteering for us, we may hold and process your personal information so that we can contact you about future volunteering opportunities.

If you take part in our online campaigns, we will record which petitions and actions you have signed. This is so that we can tailor our communications specifically to you. We do not hold personal information about our supporters unless there is a clear reason for doing so.​​

In the context of our investigations, we may also collect and process personal information about individuals, including from publicly available sources, for law enforcement purposes.​How will APA use my information?
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Financial details: If you provide us with your card details to make a donation or buy goods, these will be used in order to process payments but your card details are never stored on our database. We use the payment service providers, Stripe and PayPal – their privacy policies are available here: Stripe privacy policy and Paypal privacy policy. 

Postal address: If you have given us your postal address, you may receive updates from us throughout the year. We promise we will send no more than eight items of postal mail. If you would prefer not to receive any postal mail from us, you can let us know by emailing: info@apa.org.uk or telephoning: 01273 674253. Funds that we raise through postal appeals allow us to continue our work to protect wild animals in the pet trade. We receive no government funding and rely entirely on the generosity of our supporters. We may write to you to respond to any queries you have raised with us, to process your subscription or to thank you for a donation. We will also use your address to send you any information, campaign materials or goods you have requested.
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Email address: If you have signed up to receive email updates, we will regularly report on our campaign progress - no more than once monthly - and infrequently send action alerts (usually no more than once per week). You can unsubscribe to our emails from the link at the bottom of any email. We may also use your email address to respond to any queries you have raised with us.

Telephone numbers: If you have given us your telephone number, we may use it to answer any queries you have raised with us. We may also use it to ask if you have a new address, if a mailing is returned to us saying that you have moved. We may occasionally call you to thank you for a donation, or to ask if you would like to renew your support for APA if we haven’t heard from you in a while. In exceptional circumstances, we may telephone you to ask for urgent, non-financial help but this would be very rare (e.g. if someone contacted us about an animal-related issue in your area).
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We may also telephone you if we have a query about your goods order, e.g. if we need more information about the product you’d like, to inform you of an unavailable item or if the payment details are incomplete (e.g. card expiry date is missing).

Details of past donations: We will use these records to make sure that the correspondence you receive from us is appropriate for you. For example, if you have previously donated more than £500, we may invite you to special events for major donors. We will also use these records to determine who might be interested in other types of giving, such as leaving a legacy to APA. If you would prefer not to be included in this process, you can let us know by emailing info@apa.org.uk or telephoning 01273 674253.

Website cookies: We may track information provided to us by your browser or by our mobile application when you view or use our website. For example, we may track the website you came from (known as the “referring URL”); the type of browser you use; the device from which you connected to the website; the time and date of access; and other information that does not personally identify you.

We use this information to maintain the operation and quality of the website and to provide general statistics regarding its use,     as  well as for other business purposes. We track this information using cookies, or small text files which include an anonymous   unique identifier. Cookies are sent to your browser from our servers and are stored on your computer hard drive. Sending a   cookie to your browser enables us to collect non-personal information about you and keep a record of your preferences when   you use our ​website – this is on both on an individual and aggregate basis.

We may use both persistent and session cookies; persistent cookies remain on your computer after you close your session and until you delete them, while session cookies expire when you close your browser.

If you would prefer to switch off cookies, you can do this by setting your browser preferences. Visit the help menu on the browser that you use for instructions. You can find out more about cookies by visiting https://www.aboutcookies.org/. If you choose to disable cookies, some areas of the website may not work properly.

Our website is hosted by Weebly. Your information, including personal information, may be stored through Weebly’s servers. By using the website, you consent to Weebly’s collection, disclosure, storage, and use of your personal information in accordance with Weebly’s privacy policy available at https://www.weebly.com/privacy   

We will only keep your information as long as necessary: this is either by law or in accordance with our own retention rules.

Will APA pass my information on to anyone else?

If you have given your contact details to the Animal Protection Agency then these will be automatically shared with the Animal Protection Agency Foundation, which shares the same office space and staff, and adheres to the same data protection policies.
We never sell or rent your information to any other companies or organisations, or arrange to provide our supporters’ details in exchange for theirs.

When you are using our secure online donation pages or ordering goods from our secure online shop, your donation is processed by third party payment processors (Stripe or PayPal), who specialise in the secure online capture and processing of credit/debit card transactions. If you have any questions regarding secure transactions, please contact us. If you have signed an online petition, letter or pledge, the details you have filled in will be sent to the recipient. For example, if you have signed a petition to asking the Environment Minister to change a policy, your details will be sent to the Environment Minister.

We may disclose your personal/sensitive information when required to do so by law e.g. to HMRC for tax purposes or to the police or local authority for the prevention or detection of crime.

Data Protection Act 2018

The Data Protection Act 2018 controls how your personal information is used by organisations to ensure that it is used fairly, lawfully and transparently. At least one of the following must apply when we are processing your personal data:

• Consent: If you have given us your consent to process your personal data for a specific purpose. For example, if you have subscribed to our updates.

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• Contract: If we have a contract with you. For example, if it is necessary for us to process your data in order to fulfil a merchandise order.
• Legitimate interest: If we feel it is reasonable to presume you have interest in the information we provide. For example, if you donate to a campaign and we send you updates on our progress.

Legal obligation: If the processing of your data is necessary for us to comply with the law. For instance, we would need to retain information about whether you are a taxpayer in order for us to claim Gift Aid for the charity.

We are registered as data controllers with the Information Commissioner’s Office as follows:

Animal Protection Agency – Registration number: Z9609908
Animal Protection Agency Foundation – Registration number: ZA547655

Can I request to see the data you hold about me?

Yes, of course. If you would like to see a copy of the data we hold about you, please let us know. We may charge a statutory fee of £10 to provide this information to you. We may also require proof of identity of the person making the request. From May 2018 we will be legally obliged to answer your request within a month, but we will aim to do so much sooner.

What if I am not happy with how you have used my personal information?

Please talk to us, we are committed to treating you fairly, lawfully and in an open way. If you have spoken to us and are still not happy, you can talk to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) - ICO Make a complaint. You can lodge a complaint with the ICO at Wycliffe House, Wycliffe Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF (Telephone: 0303 123 1113).

This Privacy Policy was last updated on 23 November 2024. We reserve the right to modify the Policy at any time, so please review it frequently. We may also contact you if any significant changes areo edit.