Privacy policy

The Pawllery - thepawllery.com
Last updated: 21 October 2026

Thanks for visiting The Pawllery. We turn your pet photos into personalised portraits, and we know those photos (and your details) matter to you. This policy explains, in plain English, what personal information we collect, why we collect it, who we share it with, how long we keep it and what your rights are under UK data protection law (the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018).

1. Who we are

The Pawllery is a small UK business run by Jack Green as a sole trader. For the purposes of data protection law, Jack Green trading as The Pawllery is the "controller" of your personal information, which means we decide how and why it's used. We are registered with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) as a data controller, registration number C2065596.

Email: thepawllery@gmail.com
Post: The Pawllery, Charlton Road, Bristol BS15 1FT, United Kingdom

If you have any questions about this policy or your information, just email us. We don't have a formal Data Protection Officer, but Jack handles all privacy questions personally.

2. The information we collect

Information you give us when you order:

Your name, email address, phone number (if given), and billing and delivery addresses
Your order details: the products, sizes, styles, frames and options you choose
Your pet photo(s), uploaded on the product page
Your pet's name and anything you type in the ideas box (for example, the style or scene you'd like)
Any messages you send us, such as emails about your order

Payment information: card payments are handled by Shopify Payments (and other payment providers you may choose at checkout, such as Apple Pay or Google Pay). We never see or store your full card number.

Information collected automatically when you use our website:

Device and browser information, IP address, approximate location, pages viewed and how you arrived at our site
Cookies and similar technologies (see section 9), including, if you agree, advertising pixels from Meta (Facebook/Instagram) and TikTok

If you sign up for emails: your email address and your marketing preferences, plus whether you open or click our emails.

A note about people in photos: we only need a photo of your pet. Please try not to upload photos showing people (especially children). If a person does appear, we'll only use the photo to make your pet's portrait, and we won't use it for anything else.

3. How we use your pet photos

Your photos are the heart of what we do, so here's exactly what happens to them:

We only use your photo to make your order. We use it to create your personalised artwork, check it looks right, print it and deliver it (or send you the digital file).
AI image tools. To create your portrait, your photo (along with your chosen style, pet name and ideas) is processed by AI image generation tools run by a third-party provider. The provider processes the photo on our behalf to produce your artwork.
We don't use your photos to train AI models, and we choose providers whose terms say that what we send them is not used to train their models.
We won't show your photos or artwork publicly, including on our website, social media or in adverts, unless you've given us written permission (an email is fine).
We may ask you if you'd be happy for us to showcase your pet's portrait. Saying no is completely fine and won't affect your order in any way. If you say yes, you can change your mind at any time by emailing us, and we'll stop using it in anything new and remove it from our own website and social media posts.

4. Why we use your information and our lawful bases

Data protection law says we must have a valid reason (a "lawful basis") for using your personal information. Here's ours:

What we do	Lawful basis
Taking and processing your order, creating your artwork from your photo, printing, delivery, digital downloads and customer service	Contract: we need it to give you what you've ordered
Taking payment and preventing fraud	Contract and legitimate interests (keeping our shop and customers safe)
Keeping order and financial records for tax and accounting	Legal obligation
Sending marketing emails	Consent: only if you opt in, and you can unsubscribe at any time
Advertising and analytics cookies and pixels (Meta, TikTok)	Consent: only if you accept them in our cookie banner
Essential website cookies (such as your basket and checkout)	Legitimate interests (and these are strictly necessary, so they don't need consent)
Showing your pet's portrait publicly or in ads	Consent: only with your written permission
Improving our website, products and service, and handling complaints or legal claims	Legitimate interests (running and improving our business)

Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time. That won't affect anything we did before you withdrew it.

5. Who we share your information with

We never sell your personal information. We only share it with trusted companies that help us run the shop, and only what they need:

Shopify: hosts our website and shop, processes orders and stores customer and order data. Shopify also sends our order and marketing emails through Shopify Email.
Shopify Payments and other payment providers (such as Apple Pay or Google Pay, if you use them): process your payment securely.
Uploadly: the app that lets you upload your pet photo on our product pages and stores it for your order.
Optionize: the app that collects your product options, pet name and ideas text.
Our AI image generation provider: processes your photo, chosen style, pet name and ideas to create your artwork.
Prodigi: our print and fulfilment partner. They receive your name, delivery address, contact details needed for delivery, order details and your artwork, so they can print and send your order. Prodigi may use print partners in other countries so your order is made close to you.
Couriers and postal services (such as Royal Mail and others chosen by Prodigi): receive your name, address and sometimes your email or phone number, so they can deliver your parcel and send tracking updates.
Meta (Facebook/Instagram) and TikTok: if you accept advertising cookies, their pixels collect information about how you use our site (such as pages viewed and purchases) so we can measure our adverts and show ads to people who might like our portraits. Meta and TikTok are responsible for how they use this data under their own privacy policies.
Professional advisers and authorities: such as an accountant, or HMRC, the police or a court if the law requires it.

The service providers above act on our instructions (or, where they're independent controllers like Meta, TikTok and payment providers, under their own privacy policies), and must keep your information secure.

6. International transfers

Some of the companies we use are based in, or store data in, countries outside the UK, such as Canada, Ireland and other EU countries, and the United States. Prodigi's print partners may be in places like the EU, the US or Australia.

When your information is transferred outside the UK, we make sure it's protected by one of the safeguards UK law allows, such as:

the country having UK "adequacy" status (for example the EU/EEA and Canada for commercial organisations);
the UKâ€“US Data Bridge, for US companies certified under it; or
the UK International Data Transfer Agreement or the UK Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses.

Email us if you'd like more information about the safeguards for a particular provider.

7. How long we keep your information

Order, payment and customer records (name, contact details, addresses, what you bought and what you paid): 6 years from the end of the tax year the order was placed in, because we need them for tax and accounting and in case of legal claims.
Uploaded pet photos and your finished artwork: deleted 90 days after your order is delivered, unless you ask us to delete them sooner. Keeping them for 90 days lets us sort out any problems, reprints or damaged deliveries.
Digital downloads: your download link stays available for the same 90-day period, so please save your file somewhere safe.
Portraits you've given us permission to showcase: kept for as long as you're happy for us to use them. Email us to withdraw permission at any time.
Marketing preferences: until you unsubscribe. After that, we keep a note of your email address on a suppression list so we don't email you again by mistake.
Emails and customer service messages: up to 2 years after your last contact with us, unless they relate to an order, in which case we keep them with the order record.

Our service providers may keep some data for a short time afterwards in backups before it's permanently removed.

8. Keeping your information safe

We use reputable providers with strong security. For example, Shopify is certified to PCI DSS Level 1 for card payments. We limit access to your information to what's needed to complete your order. No website is 100% secure, but we take reasonable steps to protect your information and will act quickly if anything goes wrong.

9. Cookies

Cookies are small files stored on your device when you visit a website. We use:

Strictly necessary cookies: to make the shop work, for example remembering your basket and handling checkout securely. These are always on.
Analytics cookies: to understand how people use our site so we can improve it (only with your consent).
Marketing cookies and pixels: from Meta and TikTok, to measure our adverts and show relevant ads (only with your consent).

When you first visit, our cookie banner lets you accept or reject non-essential cookies. You can change your mind at any time using the cookie settings link on our site, or through your browser settings. Blocking some cookies may stop parts of the shop working properly.

10. Your rights

Under UK data protection law you have the right to:

Access: ask for a copy of the personal information we hold about you
Rectification: ask us to correct anything that's wrong or incomplete
Erasure: ask us to delete your information (including your pet photos and artwork at any time), unless we need to keep some of it by law, such as for tax records
Restriction: ask us to limit how we use your information
Object: object to us using your information based on legitimate interests, and to stop direct marketing at any time
Data portability: ask for information you gave us in a commonly used digital format, or for it to be sent to another organisation
Withdraw consent: at any time, where we rely on consent (for example marketing emails, cookies or showcasing your pet's portrait)

We don't make decisions about you based solely on automated processing that have legal or similarly significant effects. The AI tools are only used to create your artwork.

How to use your rights: email thepawllery@gmail.com or write to us at the address above. We may need to check your identity before we act. We'll reply within one month, and it's free in most cases. To stop marketing emails, you can also just click "unsubscribe" at the bottom of any email.

11. Complaints

If you're unhappy with how we've handled your information, please contact us first and we'll do our best to put it right. You also have the right to complain to the UK's data protection regulator, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO):

Website: ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint
Phone: 0303 123 1113
Post: Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF

12. Children

Our shop is for adults. If you're under 18, please ask a parent or guardian to place your order for you. We don't knowingly collect personal information from children. If you think a child has given us their information, please get in touch and we'll delete it.

13. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time, for example if we start using a new service provider. The latest version will always be on this page, with the date it was last updated at the top. If we make important changes, we'll let customers know by email or with a notice on our website.

14. Contact us

Questions, requests or worries about your privacy? We'd love to hear from you:

The Pawllery
Charlton Road, Bristol BS15 1FT, United Kingdom
thepawllery@gmail.com