Privacy Policy

1. Who controls your information

AnimalAds is operated by Guiden & Weekes Recruitment Limited, the controller of personal data collected through AnimalAds. AnimalAds is an Irish online advertising marketplace and does not become the buyer or seller in a transaction.

To contact us about privacy, email hello@animalads.ie with “Privacy request” in the subject line, or submit a private request through our contact form and select “Problem with the site”. We may ask for information needed to confirm your identity before acting on a request.

2. Information we collect

Account and seller information may include your name, email address, telephone and optional WhatsApp number, county or town, account type, business name and seller, breeder, establishment, rescue or livestock registration information.

Advert information includes descriptions, prices, photographs, animal identification and compliance details, declarations, microchip and registry information, listing status, reports, review notes and moderation records. Information placed in a live advert is public, including the seller-provided identification or registration information shown on that advert.

Operational information includes authentication records, necessary session data, saved-search preferences, saved adverts, advert views, telephone reveals, WhatsApp clicks, page paths, referring website hosts, security and bot-detection signals, logs and information submitted through reports or the contact form. Our internal page counter does not store raw IP addresses, complete browser user-agent strings or persistent visitor identifiers.

3. Why we use it and our legal bases

We process account, advert and contact information to provide the service, publish and manage adverts, enable contact between users and administer accounts. This is necessary to perform our contract with users and to take requested steps before that contract.

If you save a search, we use your account email address and the filters you selected to send requested alerts about matching adverts. You can remove an alert in your dashboard or unsubscribe through any alert email.

We process compliance, reporting, security and moderation information to prevent fraud and misuse, protect users and animals, enforce platform rules, investigate complaints, establish or defend legal claims and cooperate with lawful authorities. We rely on our legitimate interests in operating a safe and accountable marketplace and, where applicable, compliance with legal obligations.

We use aggregate traffic and performance information to understand whether the service works and improve it. With your consent, we also use Google Ads conversion measurement to understand whether our advertising leads to submitted adverts. We do not sell personal data or enable remarketing, personalised advertising or enhanced conversions through this integration.

4. Human review and AI assistance

Animal adverts are reviewed before publication. AnimalAds may use an AI service to compare an advert’s main photograph with its stated animal category and to highlight unusual prices or other matters for human review. A photograph and limited advert labels may be sent to the AI provider for this purpose.

AI output is only an indicator. It does not verify ownership, identity, registration, health, welfare or legality, and AnimalAds does not take a final enforcement decision solely from an automated flag.

5. Who receives information

If you accept optional advertising measurement, Google receives advertising identifiers, browser and network information, including your IP address, and an opaque submission identifier for deduplication. We do not send your contact information or advert contents in the conversion event. See Google’s explanation of partner-site data use and Google’s Privacy Policy, including its retention practices.

We use service providers acting on our behalf, including Supabase for database, authentication and image storage; Vercel for hosting, security, performance and privacy-focused analytics; Cloudflare Turnstile to distinguish genuine visitors from automated abuse during account creation and advert submission; Resend for requested saved-search emails; and an AI model provider, accessed through Vercel’s AI infrastructure, when an animal photograph is checked. These providers process information under their contractual and security arrangements.

A seller’s contact number is disclosed when a visitor deliberately uses the reveal control. If a seller enables WhatsApp, the visitor is sent to WhatsApp and WhatsApp’s own terms and privacy practices apply. We may disclose information to professional advisers, insurers, payment providers if payments are introduced, regulators, courts, An Garda Síochána, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, local authorities or animal-welfare bodies where lawful and necessary.

6. International transfers

The primary AnimalAds database is hosted in the European Union. Some hosting, security, communications, advertising-measurement or AI suppliers, including Google when you consent to measurement, may process information outside the European Economic Area. Where GDPR restricted-transfer rules apply, an approved transfer mechanism such as an adequacy decision or contractual safeguards is required. Google explains its arrangements in its data-transfer framework information.

7. Retention

We keep active account and advert information while it is needed to provide AnimalAds. Draft or removed advert content and images are normally deleted or anonymised within 12 months unless needed for a report, dispute or legal obligation. Contact-event and internal traffic records are normally retained for up to 13 months. Contact-form submissions are normally retained for up to 24 months.

Reports, verification decisions, moderation actions, declarations and relevant account or advert evidence may be retained for up to six years after the matter closes where reasonably needed for safety, fraud prevention, regulatory cooperation or legal claims. We may retain less information for longer where it has been irreversibly anonymised.

These are normal retention limits, not a reason to refuse an erasure request or to keep every account for six years. An erasure request is assessed separately. Any exception must be limited to information that remains necessary, with a specific lawful justification and an expiry date or review criterion. A report or dispute does not automatically justify retaining an entire account or photograph library.

Where relevant business records must be retained for tax purposes, that requirement applies to those records, not automatically to all account or advert information. Information retained for a legal obligation or claim must not be kept publicly visible merely because it is being retained.

Account deletion and retention exceptions

You can request deletion of your account and associated personal information by emailing hello@animalads.ie or using our contact form. Automated in-app account deletion is not currently available. We may ask for information reasonably necessary to verify that the request comes from the account holder; please do not send passwords or account-confirmation links.

We will handle requests without undue delay and respond within one calendar month of receipt. Where the law permits an extension because of the complexity or number of requests, we will explain the reason and revised deadline within that first month. Deactivation alone is not the same as deletion.

We will explain the outcome, including any information that cannot be erased, the reason for retaining it and the applicable retention period or criteria. You may complain to the Data Protection Commission or seek a judicial remedy if you disagree with our response. You do not have to contact us before making a complaint.

Deletion also needs to account for relevant service-provider copies, stored images, logs and backups. Backup expiry depends on the provider and service configuration; we do not promise immediate removal from every backup. Any retained backup copies must remain protected and must not be restored to normal use in a way that reverses a completed deletion.

8. Cookies and measurement

AnimalAds uses strictly necessary authentication and password-recovery cookies to keep users signed in, secure account recovery and protect the service. Local browser storage remembers your cookie choice for 180 days. Vercel Web Analytics uses privacy-focused aggregate measurements without analytics cookies. Speed Insights measures technical performance. Our own traffic counter stores a page path and, when available, the referring website’s hostname, but no raw IP address, complete browser user-agent string or persistent visitor identifier.

The names, purposes and typical durations of these technologies are listed in our Cookie Policy.

Optional Google Ads measurement starts only after you accept. You may reject it or withdraw consent through Cookie settings without losing access to the service. Withdrawal stops future measurement but does not undo previous lawful processing. No conversion is sent for failed submissions or simply visiting the dashboard.

9. Your rights

Subject to the GDPR and applicable Irish law, you may request access to your personal data, correction, erasure, restriction, portability or object to processing based on legitimate interests. Where processing is based on consent, you may withdraw it without affecting earlier lawful processing. Rights can be limited where information must be retained for legal obligations, claims or the rights of others.

You may complain to Ireland’s Data Protection Commission at dataprotection.ie. Please contact us first if you would like us to investigate a concern.

10. Security, children and changes

We use access controls, row-level database policies, restricted administrator tools, audit records and other proportionate safeguards. No online service can promise absolute security. Users must be at least 18 to create an account or place an advert; AnimalAds is not directed at children.

We will update the effective date and provide appropriate notice if our processing changes materially. This notice should be read with the AnimalAds Terms and Animal Advertising Rules.