Privacy Policy

About this policy

Starting Over Dog Rescue Ltd (ABN 58 154 885 882, ACN 154 885 882), operating as Starting Over Dog Rescue (“SODR”, “we”, “us” or “our”), is a volunteer run foster based dog rescue in Victoria. This policy explains what personal information we collect, how we use it, who we share it with and how you can access or correct it.

Many small charities are not required to comply with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) because of the small business exemption. Regardless of whether that exemption applies to us, we have chosen to handle personal information in a way that is consistent with the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) set out in that Act.

Personal information we collect

Depending on how you interact with us, we may collect:

• Your name, email address, phone number and postal address.
• Information you provide in an adoption, foster carer, volunteer or Last Litter Program application, including details about your household, property and experience with dogs.
• Messages you send us through our contact form, email or social media.
• Donation details, including the amount, frequency and whether the donation is one off or monthly. We do not collect or store your full card number. Card payments are processed directly by Stripe, our payment processor.
• Details about a dog you have adopted, fostered or surrendered, and the name of the foster carer involved.
• Whether you have opted in to receive updates from us by email.

How we collect personal information

We generally collect personal information directly from you, through:

• Forms on our website, including our application forms (hosted by JotForm) and our donation checkout (hosted by Stripe).
• Emails, phone calls or messages you send us.
• Foster carers, who provide us with details about adoptions they finalise so we can keep our records accurate and stay in touch with adopters.

Why we collect, use and disclose personal information

We use personal information to:

• Assess and process applications to adopt, foster, volunteer or take part in the Last Litter Program.
• Process donations, issue receipts and administer recurring giving.
• Respond to enquiries and provide support.
• Keep records of the dogs in our care and the people who adopt, foster or support them.
• Send you updates about our work, if you have opted in to receive them. You can opt out at any time.
• Meet our legal, accounting and reporting obligations.

We do not sell personal information, and we do not use it for purposes unrelated to our work without your consent.

Who we share personal information with

We share personal information with a small number of service providers who help us run SODR, including:

• Stripe, to process donations and payments.
• JotForm, to collect and store application form responses.
• Supabase, to store donor and adopter records in our database.
• Vercel, to host this website.
• Foster carers, who need adopter contact details to hand over a dog and provide support afterwards.

These service providers are based in Australia and overseas, including the United States. Personal information may therefore be handled or stored outside Australia. Where we use an overseas provider, we take reasonable steps to make sure they protect personal information to a standard consistent with the Australian Privacy Principles.

We do not share personal information with PetRescue. The listings shown on our Adopt page are pulled from PetRescue’s public system to display our own dogs; no information about you passes to PetRescue through our website.

Data security

We store personal information in systems protected by encryption in transit and access controls that limit who can view it. Only volunteers who need access to carry out their role, such as processing an application or logging an adoption, are able to see personal information. We take reasonable steps to protect personal information from misuse, loss and unauthorised access, but no online system can be guaranteed to be completely secure.

How long we keep personal information

We keep personal information for as long as we need it for the purposes described in this policy, including ongoing support for adopters and foster carers, our legal and accounting obligations, and our own records of dogs in our care. If you ask us to delete your information and we have no ongoing need or legal obligation to keep it, we will do so.

Access, correction and opting out

You can ask us for access to the personal information we hold about you, ask us to correct it if it is wrong, or ask us to stop sending you marketing emails, at any time. Email contact@startingoverdogrescue.org.au and we will get back to you as soon as we can.

Cookies

Our website itself does not use tracking or advertising cookies. Third party services embedded on our site, such as Stripe (for donations) and JotForm (for application forms), may set their own cookies to process payments securely and prevent fraud. These are controlled by Stripe and JotForm, not by us. If we start using analytics or advertising cookies in the future, we will update this policy first.

Children’s information

Our services are intended for adults. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, please contact us and we will remove it.

Complaints

If you have a concern about how we have handled your personal information, please contact us first at contact@startingoverdogrescue.org.au so we can try to resolve it. If you are not satisfied with our response, you can contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) at oaic.gov.au.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time as our organisation and the tools we use change. The date at the top of this page shows when it was last updated.

Contact us

Starting Over Dog Rescue Ltd
2 Tira Court, Mornington, Victoria, Australia 3931
contact@startingoverdogrescue.org.au