1. Introduction

The Hound Spot (“we”, “us”, “our” in this policy)

We respect your privacy and are committed to protecting your personal data. This policy explains what personal information we collect, how and why we use it, how we store and protect it, your rights, and our cookie usage.

2. Data Protection and Governing Laws

We handle your personal data in line with:

• UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR)

• Data Protection Act 2018

• PECR (Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations)

ICO Registration Number: ZB992817

If you have any questions or concerns about our processing of personal data please contact us at:
Email: info@houndspot.com

3. Our Principles

When handling your data, we commit to:

1. Lawfulness, fairness and transparency – we only collect and use your data when we have valid legal reasons.

2. Purpose limitation – we only collect data for specified, explicit and legitimate purposes.

3. Data minimisation – we only process data which is adequate, relevant and necessary.

4. Accuracy – we will keep your data up to date and allow you to correct errors.

5. Storage limitation – we’ll not keep personal data longer than is needed.

6. Integrity and confidentiality – we have security measures in place to protect your data.

4. What Data We Collect & How

We may collect different types of personal data in different circumstances:

• Contact details such as your name, email address and phone number when you get in touch with us, complete a booking form, or sign up to our newsletter. We use these details to respond to your enquiries, arrange and deliver our services, and, if you have opted in, to send you newsletters and updates.

• Payment information when you purchase our training services or products. Payments are processed securely via trusted third-party providers (such as Stripe or PayPal) and we do not store your full payment card details ourselves.

• Technical data such as your IP address, browser type, device and operating system, which is collected automatically through our website and analytics tools. This helps us to improve the site, monitor performance, and keep it secure.

• Usage data such as which pages you visit, how long you spend on them, and how you interact with our site. This is collected via cookies and analytics tools to help us understand what works well and how we can improve.

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5. How We Use Your Data (Legal Bases)

We process your data under one or more of these legal bases:

• Contract: to perform a contract you’ve agreed to (e.g. training services).

• Consent: where you have given explicit permission (e.g. to receive marketing emails).

• Legal obligation: to comply with laws or regulatory obligations.

• Legitimate interests: for our own business interests (e.g. improving our website, preventing fraud), provided these do not override your rights.

If we ask for your consent (e.g. for marketing), you can withdraw it at any time.

6. Who We Share Your Data With

We will not sell or rent your personal data. But we may share it with third parties in order to provide the services or business functionality. Examples include:

• Payment processors (e.g. Stripe, PayPal)

• Email/marketing providers

• Hosting / website platform provider

• Analytics providers (Google Analytics, etc.)

• Tools such as, CRM, and/or scheduling tools (e.g. Calendly).

Whenever possible, we use providers with servers in the UK or EU, or providers that comply with adequacy or standard contractual clauses.

7. Storage & Security

• Your information is securely stored on our company database which is not publicly accessible.

• We use technical and organisational measures (e.g. encryption, access controls) to prevent unlawful access, alteration, disclosure or destruction of your data.

• We maintain procedures to manage any data breach and will notify you and the relevant authority (e.g. the ICO) if required by law.

8. Retention of Data

We keep personal data only for as long as needed for the purposes set out above, unless longer retention is required by law.
After that, data is deleted or anonymised.

9. Cookies and Similar Tracking Technologies

We use cookies and similar tools to enhance your experience. There are:

• Essential cookies: necessary for website functioning (e.g. login, order processing).

• Analytics cookies: to see how you use the site (pages visited, time spent) to help improve our content and usability.

• Marketing cookies: to deliver adverts relevant to you, and measure performance of campaigns.

You will see a cookie banner when you first visit the site. You can accept or reject non-essential cookies. You can also control or delete them via your browser settings.

10. Marketing & Communications

If you opt in, we may send you:

• Newsletters or updates

• Promotions or offers for our services/products

• Survey or feedback requests

You can opt out of marketing communications at any time via an unsubscribe link in the email, or by contacting us directly.

11. Links to Other Websites

Our site may contain links to other websites which are not under our control. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of those sites. Always check their privacy policies directly.

12. Your Rights

You have certain rights under the GDPR. These include:

• The right to be informed (this policy is part of that)

• The right of access — you can ask for all the personal data we hold about you

• The right to rectification — ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete data

• The right to erasure — in certain circumstances you can ask to delete your data

• The right to restrict processing — in some cases to limit what we do with your data

• The right to data portability — get a copy of your data in a structured machine-readable format

• The right to object — especially relevant for direct marketing or processing based on legitimate interests

• Rights in relation to automated decision-making / profiling, where applicable

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at info@houndspot.com.
If you are not satisfied, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO): ico.org.uk

13. Changes to this Policy

We may update this policy from time to time (e.g. when legislation changes, or we modify how we use data).

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