Cookies & Privacy Policy
Cookie and Privacy Policy
This website belongs to Mark & Maria Atkins, domiciled in Bulgaria, and is hosted on a private server based in The Netherlands. We are committed to protecting your Personal Data, in accordance with the data protection laws of Bulgaria, the Data Protection Act 1998 and the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (‘GDPR’). This page describes our Privacy Policy and explains what type of information we collect from you through your use of this website, and what we do with it.
By visiting and interacting with our website you are accepting and consenting to the practices described in this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with this policy, please do not use any part of the website (including sending us a message via our contact form), and make sure you clear your browser of any cookies which may have been placed in the interim.
Types of data we collect
We may collect the following types of data:
(1) personal data that you provide to us freely – for example, when you send us a message using our contact form, request us to contact you regarding a service we offer, purchase a service from us or subscribe to an email newsletter. This data may include things like your name, email address, and other similar data;
(2) additional data relating to any discussions or transactions between you and us, submitted either through the website or via subsequent email exchanges;
(3) statistical or technical information about the type of device you use when you visit our website (i.e. are you using a mobile phone, a tablet, a laptop? Windows, iOS or Android?) and about your visit(s) to our website and how you use it. We may also look at websites you may have visited prior to arriving at our website (i.e. did you come to our website from Google’s search engine? or a link from another site?). Additionally, we may also collect statistical or technical information about the computer being used, such as like IP addresses (dynamic or static), where you are, what browser you are using, how long you stay on our website and what pages you visit. This information is generally considered to be anonymous;
(4) any other data you send to us.
If we are required to ask for your explicit consent to process your personal data, we will make that request clear on relevant forms (for example, to send you a marketing newsletter).
Cookies
We use cookies on this website. Cookies help us understand how our website is being used, and it enables us to develop it with the aim to provide a better experience to our visitors. For example, they may allow us to understand things such as: what pages you view and for how long, whether you arrived at our website directly or via another website, etc. You can read more about cookies and what they are here: www.whatarecookies.com.
Cookies only collect anonymous data about how a person is using our website – they cannot identify a specific person’s identity. Still, if you are concerned about allowing cookies to be stored on your browser, you can set your browser to permanently block them. These links will take you to each browser’s guide on how to do this: Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera.
Do keep in mind however that deleting or blocking cookies may cause some functionality to be lost. Also, the websites that you visit (not just this one) may not look or work as intended.
Google Analytics & ReCaptcha
Google Analytics generates statistical information about how websites are used by using cookies. Google may store this anonymous data in their servers in different locations around the world. Using Google Analytics allows us to better understand how visitors use our website. This enables us to improve user experience and the services we offer.
We use the ReCaptcha solution on the contact form(s) on our website to verify that the data is being entered by a natural person and not an automated machine programme. This helps us to prevent receiving spam requests. ReCaptcha analyses the behaviour of visitors to our website; this analysis is done completely in the background and it involves evaluating information including but not limited to IP address, time spent on the website, and mouse clicks. The data collected during this analysis gets forwarded to Google automatically.
You can find Google’s own privacy policy and more details about the information they collect by visiting https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en-GB.
Minors
We do not provide services to minors (persons under 18 years of age). However, we will promptly delete any personal data we have collected should we become aware that it belongs to a person under the age of 18, unless we are legally obliged to keep the information.
Please contact us at any time if you believe that we may have unwittingly or by mistake collected personal data from (or belonging to) a minor.
How we use your personal data
Any personal data that you provide to us may be used for the purposes specified in this Privacy Policy, or in other relevant parts of this website.
With respect to Article 13 of the EU’s GDPR, this website processes personal data on the basis of:
(1) Consent: “the individual has given clear consent for you to process their personal data for a specific purpose.”
(2) Contract: “the processing is necessary for a contract you have with the individual, or because they have asked you to take specific steps before entering into a contract.”
(3) Legitimate interests: “the processing is necessary for your legitimate interests or the legitimate interests of a third party, unless there is a good reason to protect the individual’s personal data which overrides those legitimate interests.”
We may also use anonymous or personal data to:
(1) administer our website;
(2) personalise our website to improve your browsing experience;
(3) enable your use of the services available on our website;
(4) send you information about our services;
(5) enable us to perform services for you or send you products if you make a purchase via our website (if we ever offer such options);
(6) send you non-marketing communications (i.e. relating to an inquiry you have sent us);
(7) contact you (via email or other methods of communication provided by you) to provide you with information that you have requested, or that we think you may want or need to know (i.e. for personal or legal reasons);
(8) send you a newsletter or other relevant marketing communications which we think may be of interest to you;
(9) provide third parties (i.e. Google) with statistical information about visitors to our website. This information is anonymous (see Google Analytics above) and will not identify any specific individual; and
(10) deal with inquiries or complaints made by or about you relating to our website or services.
Other Disclosures
We may disclose information about you:
(1) in order to establish, exercise or defend our legal rights (including providing information to others for the purposes of fraud prevention and reducing credit risk);
(2) if required to do so in order to comply with our legal obligations;
(3) in relation to any legal proceedings or prospective legal proceedings.
International data transfers
Personal data that you provide to us may be processed in Bulgaria or The Netherlands or in locations outside these 2 countries. For example – if you are based in Australia and submit information to us using an email account that is hosted in the USA, your email hosting provider will process the data that you send. If we then reply to that email address as provided by you, even though our email servers are located in The Netherlands, we may be transmitting your data across international boundaries.
Additionally, anonymous website analytic data collected from your use of our website may also be transferred, processed and stored, for example, on Google’s servers outside the EU.
Data Security
We take reasonable technical and procedural precautions to prevent the loss or misuse of your personal data. Our website uses an SSL certificate to help ensure that the information you send us through it is being sent through an encrypted channel, and we store all personal data in secure servers or systems. Nevertheless, we cannot guarantee the security of any data that you choose to send to us over the internet.
Key Rights according to the GDPR
The GDPR gives you important rights over your personal data, enabling you to:
(1) Object to your personal data being processed, or ask us to confirm what personal data we process and why
(2) Ask us to rectify, delete, or restrict the use of your personal data
You can exercise any of these rights by contacting us at any time. We comply with these requests within one month (unless there are mitigating circumstances (i.e. legal reasons) not to).
Updating your personal data
You can instruct us to correct / update any personal information that we hold about you (i.e. if you change your name or email address) at any time by contacting us.
Porting and providing you with confirmation of what type of personal data we process
You may instruct us to confirm or port (transfer) any of the personal data that we process about you at any time by contacting us. In this instance, please provide us with the following:
(1) Whether you want to confirm what personal data we process, or port your personal data, or both;
(2) What information you require to be confirmed confirmed or ported (i.e. all your personal data? or one specific detail?);
(3) What format you would like your personal data to be confirmed in e.g. PDF, Word document, etc;
(4) How you would like us to send you the information (i.e. via which email address or other method or communication);
(5) When you would like to receive it by (date and time – please also confirm your time zone as it may differ from ours).
Provided we receive all the required information as detailed above, together with any other relevant information necessary to carry out the work, we will endeavour to follow your instructions within 30 days of receiving your request.
Additionally, if you would like us to port (transfer) your personal data, please keep in mind that if we believe that your chosen format and medium will not be secure, or may put your personal data at risk, we will make you aware of this and discuss alternatives with you.
Deleting your personal data
You may also instruct us to delete any and all information that we hold about you at any time by contacting us.
Please note that whilst we will endeavour to do this in the time frame that you request, depending on the nature of your request, this may not always be possible. For instance, if we have a legal obligation to retain certain types of information for certain time periods.
In any and all cases, we only ever keep personal information for as long as it is necessary with respect to the services you have inquired about and / or that we have agreed to provide to you, or to meet a legal requirement.
Giving and withdrawing your consent to be contacted
In certain circumstances, we may need to have your express consent to process your personal data. For example, when you fill in one of our forms, we may ask you to provide your consent by ticking a box on the form. We also keep a record of your consent until we no longer need to. You can withdraw your consent at any time by contacting us.
Third-party links
When we publish a link to a third-party website (i.e. to provide you with access to additional information or another resource), we are neither responsible nor liable for the content or security of such third-party websites. Consequently, we strongly encourage you to review the privacy policy of any website you visit before you disclose any personal information to them. If you decide to access any of the third party websites, you do so entirely at your own risk.
Social Media Sharing
We share details of the services we provide on our Social Media channels (such as but not limited to Twitter, Facebook, Instagram) as well as on this website and any other websites we may own or collaborate with. This includes sharing images of your pets and parts of your property. We always ask for your written consent on our House & Pet Sitting agreement before doing so.
In any case, we do NOT share personal details that may disclose your exact location to others, nor that would personally identify you. If you would prefer that we did no share certain images, you can specify this on the agreement or instruct us not to do so at any time by contacting us.
Changes to this Privacy Policy
We reserve the right, at our sole discretion, to change, modify, add or remove portions of this Privacy Policy at any time. Any changes will be effective immediately upon posting to this website, and your continued use of our website and services will be deemed as your acceptance of such changes.
This Privacy Policy forms part of our website’s Terms and Conditions and was last updated on 15th March 2019.