Privacy Policy

We collect information you choose to provide when you submit an adoption or foster application, contact the team, sponsor an animal, make a donation, or use a form on the website.

This may include your name, contact details, address, household information, animal-care history, donation details, uploaded documents, messages, and any other information needed to assess an adoption, foster, volunteer, sponsorship, or support request.

We may also collect basic technical information such as browser type, device information, pages visited, approximate location from your connection, and security logs.

We use personal information to process applications, match animals with suitable homes, arrange home checks or follow-ups, respond to enquiries, issue donation records or Section 18A certificates where applicable, maintain animal-care records, improve the website, and protect the safety of animals, applicants, volunteers, donors, and staff.

We do not sell personal information. We only share information where needed for rescue operations, legal compliance, payment or email services, professional advisers, accountants, veterinarians, authorised volunteers, or trusted service providers who help operate the website and organisation.

Where South African privacy law applies, we process personal information in line with the Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013. Processing may be based on consent, a legitimate operational need, a contract or requested service, legal compliance, or the protection of animals and people involved in rescue work.

You may ask to access, correct, update, restrict, or delete your personal information, subject to legal, accounting, animal welfare, safety, and record-keeping requirements. You may also object to certain processing or withdraw consent where consent is the basis for processing.

Donation and payment information may be processed by third-party payment providers. We do not intentionally store full card numbers on this website.

Donation records, accountant communications, and Section 18A certificate details may be retained for tax, audit, and nonprofit compliance purposes.

We use reasonable technical and organisational safeguards to protect personal information, including access controls and secure storage practices. No website or email system can be guaranteed completely secure.

We keep information only for as long as needed for the purpose collected, unless a longer period is required for adoption records, animal welfare follow-ups, legal obligations, accounting, dispute handling, or safety reasons.

Staff who connect their own administrator account may use ChatGPT to manage public pet profiles and photos, review adoption applications, and prepare replies. Separate permissions control reading applications, saving drafts and sending emails. The integration returns applicant names, email addresses, application status and relevant adoption answers; it excludes national ID numbers, street addresses, signatures and private uploaded documents.

Information returned through the integration is shared with OpenAI for use in the connected ChatGPT conversation under the account and workspace settings that apply there. An approved outgoing reply is also shared with the configured email provider and its intended applicant recipient. Imported pet photos become public website images; attachment download links and original file identifiers are not retained.

Saved reply drafts and delivery attempt records remain in the website database for correspondence and operational record keeping. Audit records retain identifiers, message digests and status rather than message text. The retention policy above applies; contact the team to request access, correction or deletion where applicable. Staff can disconnect their ChatGPT connection, and administrators can withdraw website access. Disconnecting does not delete existing website records or messages already sent.

The website may use cookies or similar technologies to keep the site working, remember preferences, measure performance, and understand how visitors use the adoption centre.

You can usually control cookies through your browser settings, although some features may not work properly if cookies are disabled.

For privacy questions or requests, contact info@kintsugi-adoption.org. We may need to verify your identity before acting on a request.