Privacy notice

1. Who we are

ORLAGH’S is a dog-care business in Edinburgh, Scotland, offering services such as dog walking, home visits, training and care, booked through the ORLAGH’S app. The app also has a community (“the Pack”), a shop, a places map, learning content and games.

The controller responsible for your personal information is:

We are a small business and are not required to appoint a Data Protection Officer. For anything about your personal information, contact us at the email address above.

This notice covers the ORLAGH’S customer app, our booking invite pages at orlaghs.expo.app and the services we provide. Our team members have a separate staff privacy notice.

2. What we collect

Your account

• Name, email address, phone number and password (the password is stored only in a scrambled, one-way form by our hosting provider).
• Your account type (for example general member, puppy buyer or dog client) and which parts of the app are switched on for you.
• Your community display name and profile picture.
• A verification selfie: a live photo of you doing a pose the app picks at random, which a member of our team looks at to confirm you’re a real person. We don’t use facial recognition or any automated face matching. Once approved, it is kept privately so the team can compare any new profile picture with it.
• Your date of birth (only our team sees it; we use it to check you’re 13 or over and to apply the protections for members under 18), and records of when you accepted our terms.
• Your settings, such as notification preferences and privacy choices.

Your dog and the care we provide

• The pet intake form: up to two client contacts (name, phone, email), your home address, an out-of-hours address, people your dog is bonded with, behaviour, routine, feeding, training, travel, bite history and reactivity, vaccinations, flea and worm treatment, medical conditions, medication and signs of pain, the amount you authorise us to spend on emergency vet treatment, and whether you consent to photos and videos of your dog being used.
• Dog records: profile, health and medication details, vet details, emergency contacts (name, relationship, phone, and whether they can authorise treatment), documents you upload (such as vaccination certificates) and photos.
• Visit records: care notes, photos and videos taken on visits, the carer’s short visit report (for example whether your dog ate and whether medication was given), and, for walks, the GPS route of the walk recorded by our team member’s phone while the visit is in progress.
• Home access details, only if you choose to add them: key-safe and alarm codes and access instructions. They are stored encrypted, shown only to the team member assigned to your visit from 12 hours before it until 2 hours after, and every time they are opened is recorded and shown to you.
• Health, if you use it: meals and feeding, medication doses, weight, walks you log or record with Start walk (the route is recorded by your phone), rest and enrichment, health records and notes, and reminders. On Android, if you switch on “Use walks from my phone”, the app reads walking, hiking and running sessions (and their distance) from Health Connect, and only counts one for your dog when you tap “Count it”.

Bookings, payments and the shop

• Bookings and booking requests, the waiting list, notes you add to a booking, and ratings and reviews of completed services.
• Invoices, payments recorded against them, and shop orders and subscriptions. We never see or store your card number: card payments are made on Stripe’s secure page or by tapping your card on a team member’s phone, and we receive only the card type and last four digits for your receipt (see section 6). If you tell us you’ve paid by bank transfer, we note when.
• If our team books something for you without an app account (a “guest booking”), your name, phone, email and dog’s name, and whether you accepted the booking through the invite link.

Messages and community

• Chat messages, photos, videos, voice notes, documents and GIFs you send to our team or other members, and status updates. Chats can be end-to-end encrypted, in which case we can’t read them; if you report an encrypted chat, only the messages you choose are shared with our team.
• Voice and video calls: who called whom, when and for how long (not what was said).
• Live location, only if you choose to share it in a chat or on a shared walk: only your latest position is kept, and it is deleted when sharing stops.
• Pack posts, replies, likes, groups, meet-ups and events, photos you share (including tags of dogs), lost-dog and hazard alerts you send in (with any photos or videos and where it happened; for a lost dog, a pin you can add for where they were lost), reviews of places on the map, and reports and blocks.
• Game scores, Pack points and leaderboard positions, learning progress and dog challenges.
• Classes (teacher mode): if a teacher runs a class with the Home at Last game, pupils join with a class code and no account. We keep only a made-up animal name and the game results, and delete them when the teacher closes the class.

Device and usage information

• Usage statistics (customer accounts only): when you open the app and how long you spend in each section. The owner of ORLAGH’S can see this per person, together with counts of things you’ve done in the app (such as bookings, orders, posts, messages and reviews). Message contents are never part of these statistics. You can switch usage statistics off in your Profile. Team accounts are not tracked.
• A push notification token for your phone, so we can send you notifications, and a copy of each notification in the app’s bell.
• If the app goes wrong, a short error report (what happened and which screen), so we can fix it.
• Your location, only when you use “near me” on the places map, and only while the app is open. It is used on your phone to show nearby places. To load places, the app sends the approximate map area you are looking at (not your exact position) to our server, or occasionally straight to a public OpenStreetMap server.
• If you use “Find friends from your contacts”: the email addresses and the last ten digits of the phone numbers in your phone’s address book are sent to our server to check which belong to ORLAGH’S members. They are compared there and not stored.

If you contact us

Emails you send us, and our replies, are kept in our business email account. We also keep a short log of the emails the app sends you (for example booking confirmations and invoices).

Information we don’t want

Please don’t put key-safe codes, alarm codes or door codes in booking notes, messages or emails. If you want us to have them in the app, use Key & access details, where they are encrypted (see section 13). Please also don’t share health information about yourself or other people unless it is needed to keep someone safe during a visit.

3. Why we use it and our lawful bases

UK data protection law requires us to have a lawful basis for each use of your information. Where we rely on legitimate interests, we have weighed our interests against your rights, and you can object at any time (see section 9).

Apart from birthday treats and occasional offers, which you can switch off, the emails and notifications we send are about your bookings, invoices, your account or safety alerts.

4. Where your information comes from

• You, when you sign up, fill in the intake form, book, message or post.
• Our team, when they write visit notes, take photos, record walks or add a booking for you.
• Other people: another owner of a dog who invites you to share it, a partner or family member who fills in the intake form and names you as a contact, or a member who reports content or blocks you.
• Your phone: location (only when you allow it), push notification tokens and, on Android if you switch it on, walks from Health Connect.

5. Information about other people

The intake form and your dog’s records ask about other people: a second client contact, emergency contacts, and people your dog is bonded with. If you give us their details, please let them know you have done so, why (so we can contact them about your dog or in an emergency) and that they can read this notice. Only give us the details we ask for.

Please don’t post photos of other people, especially children, in the Pack without their (or their parent’s) permission, and don’t share other people’s private information.

6. Who we share it with

Within ORLAGH’S

Our team members see the information they need for their job. Walkers and carers only see the details of clients they are assigned to. Only managers can see verification selfies and handle reports. The owner of ORLAGH’S can see usage statistics.

Other dog businesses you choose

If you join another dog business on ORLAGH’S, it sees your name and contact details, the dogs you share with it and your bookings with it (see If you book with another dog business). It never sees your bookings with ORLAGH’S or any other business.

Other people in the app

• Other members see your display name, profile picture, and anything you post in the Pack, on the map or in group chats.
• Your game scores appear on leaderboards unless you choose to hide yourself.
• Lost-dog alerts are shown to members straight away, and our team checks them afterwards. Hazard alerts are shown once our team approves them.
• People you share a dog with see and update that dog’s records and Day Cards, and see its GPS tracker link and walk times. Any owner can remove another from the dog’s care team.
• Your service reviews are only shown to others if you choose to share them.

Service providers who process information for us

These companies act on our instructions and are not allowed to use your information for their own purposes.

Other organisations

These organisations make their own decisions about information they receive and have their own privacy notices:

• Meta (Instagram): when, with your consent, we post a photo of your dog on ORLAGH’S Instagram account.
• Stripe: card payments are made on Stripe’s secure page or by tapping your card on a team member’s phone. Stripe handles your card details under its own privacy notice and sends us only the card type and last four digits. Bank transfers are handled by your and our banks.
• Vets: if your dog needs treatment while in our care, we share relevant health details and your contact details with the vet. If you report your dog lost and add a pin, nearby vet practices may be emailed the dog’s description, first photo and the pin, with ORLAGH’S contact details (never yours).
• Maps: map images are provided by Apple Maps (iPhone) or Google Maps (Android). Place information comes from OpenStreetMap; if our server can’t provide it, your phone asks a public OpenStreetMap (Overpass) server in Europe directly, which sees your IP address and the map area.
• Embedded players: lesson videos play through YouTube (privacy-enhanced mode) or Vimeo, and calming music for dogs plays through Spotify’s player. These load when you open or play them and the provider may see your IP address and set its own cookies.
• Translation: on phones, translating a message uses Google’s ML Kit, which works on your phone. The words you translate never leave it; Google may receive basic information about how the translation feature is performing.
• Public information sites: the dog-law pages fetch the latest updates from legislation.gov.uk, GOV.UK and gov.scot, which see your device’s IP address.
• Apple and Google app stores, under their own terms, when you download the app.
• Professional advisers (such as our accountant, insurer or solicitor) where needed.
• Police, HMRC, courts or regulators where the law requires it, or to protect someone’s safety.

We never sell your personal information.

7. International transfers

Our main database is in Ireland, which the UK recognises as providing adequate protection. Where a provider handles information in the US or another country without UK adequacy, we rely on the UK International Data Transfer Agreement or the UK Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses in our agreement with them, or on the UK–US data bridge where the provider is certified under it. You can ask us for more detail.

8. How long we keep it

We keep information only as long as we need it. Much of this is done automatically by a daily clean-up in the app.

Deleted information can remain in our hosting provider’s backups for a short time until those backups are overwritten.

9. Your rights

You have the right to:

• Access: get a copy of your personal information.
• Rectification: have inaccurate information corrected or completed.
• Erasure: have your information deleted, unless we have to keep it (for example invoices for HMRC).
• Restriction: ask us to pause using your information, for example while we check it is accurate.
• Portability: get information you gave us in a machine-readable format, or have it sent to another organisation.
• Objection: object to anything we do based on legitimate interests, such as usage statistics, contact matching or showing walk routes. We will stop unless we have compelling reasons to continue.
• Withdraw consent at any time, for example to us posting photos of your dog. This doesn’t affect anything done before you withdrew it.

How to use your rights

• In the app: go to Profile to edit your details, download my data (a file in JSON format, with links to your photos and documents), switch off usage statistics or contact discovery, and delete my account.
• By email: write to orlaghs2025@gmail.com, ideally from the email address on your account. If we can’t confirm it’s you, we may ask for a little more information.
• To withdraw photo consent, change the answer on your dog’s intake form or email us. We will stop posting new photos and remove existing ORLAGH’S posts of your dog if you ask.

We respond within one month. If a request is complex or you’ve made several, we may extend this by up to two further months and will tell you why. It is free, unless a request is clearly unfounded or excessive.

More about deleting your account: how to delete your account and data.

10. Your choices in the app

• Usage statistics: switch off in your Profile.
• Being found from contacts: switch off in your Profile so other members can’t find you from their address book.
• Leaderboards: hide yourself from game leaderboards.
• Notifications and alerts: choose what buzzes your phone in Notification settings, mute alerts in the app, or turn notifications off in your phone’s settings.
• Offers and birthday treats: switch off in Notification settings.
• Key & access details: add, change or remove them, and see who opened them, in the account menu.
• Walks from your phone (Android): switch off on the Activity screen.
• Location, camera, photos and contacts: the app only asks when you use a feature that needs them, and you can change these in your phone’s settings at any time.
• Reviews: choose whether to share your review of our services with other members.

11. Automated decisions

We don’t make decisions about you based solely on automated processing that have legal or similarly significant effects. Verification selfies and profile pictures are checked by a person, and we don’t use facial recognition. Booking availability and prices are worked out automatically from our diary and price list, and our team can help if something doesn’t look right.

12. Age limit

The ORLAGH’S app is for people aged 13 or over. We ask for your date of birth when you sign up. If we learn that someone under 13 has an account, we will close it and delete their information. Accounts made before 27 October 2026 were for adults, who confirmed they were 18 or over.

If you’re 13 to 17, we look after your information more carefully: adults outside your family can’t see your Pack profile or message you, people can’t find you from their phone contacts, and nothing shares your location unless you choose to. A parent or guardian books care and pays, so we don’t hold payment details for you. You have the same rights over your information as anyone else (section 9), and you can ask us about them yourself.

The one exception is classes: a teacher can run the Home at Last game with a class, and pupils join with a class code, without an account. Pupils choose a made-up animal name; we keep only that name and their game results so the teacher can see how the class is doing, never their real name or anything they write, and we delete it all when the teacher closes the class.

13. Security

• Every table in our database has access rules so people only see what they’re allowed to see.
• Photos and documents are kept in private storage and opened only through short-lived links.
• Team members see only the clients they’re assigned to, and must use two-step sign-in (multi-factor authentication), which our database checks as well as the app.
• Your sign-in session is stored in encrypted storage on your phone.
• Key-safe and alarm codes you add in the app are stored encrypted, can only be opened by the carer assigned to your visit around the visit time, and each opening is recorded for you to see.
• Card details never reach ORLAGH’S: card payments go through Stripe.

No system is completely secure. If a breach affects you and is likely to put you at high risk, we will tell you without undue delay.

14. Device storage and embedded content

The app stores some information on your phone to work: your sign-in session, your settings, and saved copies of data so screens load quickly. We don’t use advertising or third-party analytics tools. Usage statistics are described in section 2 and can be switched off. Embedded YouTube and Vimeo players are only loaded when you open them and may use their own cookies. These web pages set no cookies.

15. Questions and complaints

If you have a question or are unhappy with how we’ve handled your information, please contact us first at orlaghs2025@gmail.com. We will acknowledge your complaint within 30 days and try to put things right.

You also have the right to complain to the UK regulator, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO): ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint, phone 0303 123 1113.

16. Changes to this notice

We will update this notice when we change how we use personal information. The version and date at the top show when it last changed. If the changes are significant, we will tell you in the app before they take effect.