Privacy & GDPR Notice

Last updated: July 2026

Tailblazing is committed to protecting your privacy. This notice explains what personal data we collect when you use this website and book dog walking, day care or boarding, how it is used, and your rights under UK data protection law (the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018).

Who is responsible for your data

The data controller is Mel McDowall, a sole trader trading as Tailblazing. You can contact us about your data on +44 7843 382831 or at mel@tailblazing.co.uk. Our business address, including for correspondence and service of legal documents, is 8 Nevinson Close, London, SW18 2TF.

What we collect

If you register an account you provide your name, email address and a password (stored hashed — never in clear text). If you make a booking, we store your name, email and phone number; the service, dates and times you booked; a booking reference and the payment status; and the client form you complete for each dog — the dog's name, age, breed, likes and dislikes, diet and eating habits, your lead preference for the common, and the command they answer to. We ask for a phone number so we can reach you about the booking and while your dog is with us. The optional “anything else we should know” box is free text and is stored with your booking.

If you choose for us to collect and return your dog, we also store the collection address and postcode, along with any additional instructions you give us for getting to you — for example a gate or buzzer code, which door to use, or where to park. That field is optional; please only put in it what you are comfortable for us to hold. It is stored with your booking, is visible only to us, and is deleted with the rest of the booking on the timetable set out below. When you type a postcode into the booking form, we send that postcode (and nothing else) to the open postcode lookup service postcodes.io to convert it to map coordinates, so we can work out the straight-line distance from our base and the correct collection fee.

The contact form collects your first name, email address, an optional phone number, an optional description of your dog(s), and your message. Like most websites, our hosting also processes basic technical data (such as your IP address and browser type) in server logs for security and reliability.

Why we collect it and our lawful basis

We use your data to take and manage your bookings, to contact you about them (including confirmation, reminder and cancellation emails), to care for your dog in the way you have described, and to respond to your enquiries. Our lawful bases are: contract (to take and fulfil your booking), consent (for the contact form), legal obligation (keeping business and tax records), and legitimate interests (to run and protect the business). Your data is not sold, and is not used for marketing or profiling — the only emails we send are about your bookings and your account.

How long we keep it

Booking records are kept for 6 years after the booking ends, in line with HMRC business record-keeping requirements, after which they are deleted automatically. If you delete your account, the account is removed immediately and your bookings are unlinked from it, but the booking records themselves are retained for the 6-year period above to meet those obligations. If you register but never verify your email address, that sign-up is automatically deleted after 30 days. If a verified account has no login and no new booking for around 2 years, we'll email a warning and then automatically delete the account a month later if it's still inactive — signing in or booking again at any point cancels this. Short-lived items such as email verification codes expire and are cleared automatically.

Who we share it with

We use a small number of trusted providers who process data on our behalf: Neon (a managed Postgres database that holds account and booking records), Stripe (online payments — Stripe handles all card details securely and we never see or store your card number), Brevo (transactional emails such as booking confirmations and reminders), Cloudflare (website hosting and server logs), Cloudinary (hosting for photos we publish in the site gallery) and postcodes.io (postcode-to-coordinates lookup, as described above). These providers act under our instructions and are not permitted to use your data for their own purposes. We do not otherwise share your data unless the law requires it.

Where your data is stored

Our providers are global services, so some of your data may be stored or processed outside the UK. Where that happens, the transfer is covered by safeguards approved under UK data protection law — such as the UK International Data Transfer Agreement or Addendum, or a UK adequacy decision for the country concerned — so your data keeps the same level of protection it has here.

How we keep it secure

The site is served over an encrypted connection (HTTPS), passwords are stored hashed rather than in clear text, and access to the booking database and admin area is restricted to accounts that need it. Card details are handled entirely by Stripe and never reach our systems. No system can be guaranteed perfectly secure, but if a breach ever affected your rights we would report it to the ICO, and tell you, as the law requires.

Automated decisions and marketing

We do not carry out automated decision-making or profiling, and we do not send marketing emails — the only emails we send are about your bookings and your account.

Photos of your dog

We love showing off the dogs we care for, but we will only publish a photo of your dog in our gallery or elsewhere with your permission — just tell us if you'd rather we didn't, and we'll take any photo down on request.

Your rights

Under the UK GDPR you have the right to access, correct or erase your personal data, to restrict or object to processing, to withdraw consent at any time, and to data portability. The easiest way to erase your account data is the “Delete account” button on your account page. For anything else, please get in touch on +44 7843 382831 or mel@tailblazing.co.uk. We respond within one month, free of charge, and may ask a question or two first to check we are dealing with the right person. Some records — such as booking and payment records we must keep for tax purposes — may be retained for the period set out above even after an erasure request; where that applies we will tell you.

If you are not satisfied with how we have handled your data, you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113.

Cookies

Only strictly necessary cookies are used: one to keep you signed in to your account (cleared when you sign out), and cookies set by Stripe to process your payment securely. Because these are essential to provide the service you have asked for, they do not require consent under the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations. We use no advertising, analytics or tracking cookies, so nothing here follows you around the web.

Contact

Questions about this notice? Call or text +44 7843 382831, email mel@tailblazing.co.uk, or use the contact form on this site.