This policy explains the messages we send, why we send them, the legal basis for each, and how you can change what you receive. It should be read with our Privacy Policy.
1. TWO KINDS OF MESSAGE
Service messages are messages we must send you, or that you need in order to use what you have bought. They include confirmation of a registration, a change to your recorded details, a lost pet alert, a renewal reminder, a payment failure notice, a change to these policies, and an alert that a legal requirement affecting your animal has changed.
You cannot opt out of service messages while you hold a registration or a membership. They are part of the service and, in the case of register related messages, part of how we meet our obligations as a database operator.
Marketing messages promote our products or those of our partners. They include partner offers, vouchers, referral promotions and news about new services. You control these completely and you can turn them off at any time.
2. THE LEGAL BASIS FOR MARKETING
Electronic marketing is governed by the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 as well as by the UK GDPR.
| Channel | Basis we rely on |
|---|---|
| Email and SMS to a new contact | Your consent, given by an affirmative action such as ticking an unticked box. Consent is never bundled with acceptance of our terms and is never a condition of buying anything. |
| Email and SMS to an existing customer | The soft opt in in regulation 22(3), where we obtained your details in the course of a sale, the marketing is for our own similar products, and you were given a simple means of refusing at the point of collection and in every message. |
| App push notification for marketing | Your consent, given through the device permission and through the marketing preference in your account. Both must be on. |
| Postal marketing | Our legitimate interests, Article 6(1)(f), subject to your right to object. |
| Telephone marketing | Your consent, and in every case a check against the Telephone Preference Service. |
We do not sell your details and we do not give them to a third party for that third party to market to you.
3. HOW TO CHANGE YOUR PREFERENCES
You can change your marketing preferences at any time:
- (a) in the app, under Account and then Communication preferences;
- (b) in your account on the website;
- (c) using the unsubscribe link in any marketing email;
- (d) by replying STOP to any marketing text message; or
- (e) by telling us by telephone, in writing or through the contact form.
We will action a request to stop marketing without undue delay and in any event within five working days.
When you opt out we add you to a suppression list. We keep that record indefinitely, so that we do not contact you again by mistake. That is the only reason we keep it.
Opting out of marketing does not stop service messages.
4. PARTNER OFFERS AND VOUCHERS
Where an offer is provided by a partner business, we tell you who the partner is. Claiming an offer may involve passing your details to that partner, and we will tell you before you do so.
Once you have given your details to a partner, that partner is a controller in its own right. Its own privacy notice and marketing preferences apply and you will need to contact it directly to change them.
Offers are subject to their own terms, to availability, and to the partner's own eligibility criteria. We are not the supplier of a partner's product and we are not responsible for it.
5. REFERRALS
If you refer someone to us you must have their permission to give us their details. Do not give us the contact details of a person who has not agreed to hear from us.
We send a single referral message. If the person does not respond we do not send another.
6. HONESTY IN OUR MARKETING
We do not publish fake reviews, fake testimonials or fake endorsements. We do not commission them and we do not incentivise them. Doing so is a banned practice under Schedule 20 to the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024.
Where a testimonial is published we hold evidence that it is genuine and that the person consented to publication.
Where a price is advertised as a saving, the comparison is against a price at which the item was genuinely available. Where an offer is time limited, the deadline is real.
Where we describe a legal requirement in marketing, the description is accurate and we do not overstate the consequences of non compliance in order to sell a product.