Privacy Policy
Last updated 26 July 2026.
1. Purpose
This Privacy Policy explains how The Aviary Hub collects, uses, stores and shares personal data when people visit the website, create accounts, post adverts, contact users, purchase platform services, submit reports, or otherwise communicate with the Platform.
2. Data Controller
The data controller is Alan Gillespie, trading as The Aviary Hub, of Drogheda, Co. Louth, Ireland. Contact: theaviaryhubireland@gmail.com.
3. Data We Collect
Account data: name, username, email address, account details, and registration/login records.
Profile and seller data: public display information, county or general location, seller type (casual/private, registered pet seller, registered charity, or approved Pet Shop/business), business or charity registration numbers where applicable, and seller verification records.
Listing data: titles, descriptions, categories, prices, images, animal or item details, and status/history.
Communication data: messages sent to us via the Contact page, Report an Advert, or Report a Concern, and any support or moderation correspondence.
Private messaging data: if you use the Platform’s private buyer-to-seller messaging feature, we store the content of messages you send, the advert and conversation they relate to, sender and recipient, timestamps, read status, and any block or report you make in connection with a conversation. Messages are private between the participants and are not visible to other users; authorised administrators may access conversation content only for moderation of a report, a welfare or legal concern, or to enforce our Terms.
Community content data: photo competition entries and votes, bird show/event listings, rescue centre and avian vet directory entries, and success stories you choose to submit – including any photos, names, and other details included in that submission. If you contact a Lost & Found poster through the Platform, your message and reply email address are relayed to them by email only and are not stored by us afterwards.
Transaction data: if and when a paid platform service is activated – purchase amount, currency, payment status, and processor reference. Complete card details are handled by our payment provider (Stripe), not stored by The Aviary Hub.
Technical data: IP address, browser, device, operating system, timestamps, security events, server logs, cookie identifiers, consent choices, and page/feature usage. In addition to ordinary server logs, we retain the IP address recorded at the time a seller account was created, linked to that account, so that we can identify accounts that may be attempting to evade the DAFM six-animal registration threshold by registering multiple accounts – this is used only for that compliance purpose, and shared registration IPs are treated as a prompt for manual review, not proof of wrongdoing on their own.
Safety and moderation data: reports, evidence, listing history, warnings, suspensions, and DAFM-related compliance records – see our DAFM Information page.
The Aviary Hub provides a private, advert-linked messaging system so buyers and sellers can contact each other without publishing personal contact details. We do not publicly display your email address or phone number as part of this feature. Messages are text-based; we do not currently support file attachments. We do not use analytics or advertising trackers of any kind – confirmed absent: Google Analytics, Meta/Facebook Pixel, and similar tools.
4. How We Use Data
We use personal data to: provide accounts and marketplace functions; publish and manage listings; allow users to make contact; process platform payments (once activated); send service emails; prevent spam, fraud, abuse and security incidents; moderate content; investigate reports; protect animal welfare; comply with legal obligations (including DAFM); enforce platform rules; maintain, test and improve the service; respond to privacy requests; and establish, exercise or defend legal claims.
5. Legal Bases
| Purpose | Legal basis (GDPR) |
|---|---|
| Creating and managing your account | Performance of a contract with you |
| Publishing and displaying your adverts | Performance of a contract with you |
| DAFM and animal-welfare compliance | Legal obligation / legitimate interests |
| Moderation, fraud prevention, and enforcing our Terms | Legitimate interests (maintaining a safe marketplace) |
| Responding to reports, complaints, and appeals | Legitimate interests / performance of a contract |
| Site security and abuse prevention | Legitimate interests |
| Non-essential cookies | Consent |
Where we rely on legitimate interests, we consider the effect on users and apply proportionate safeguards.
6. Public Information
Listing information, seller display names, approximate location, photographs, and selected profile details may be visible publicly. Please do not publish unnecessary personal data, identity documents, home addresses, bank details, or private contact information in an advert.
7. Emails
We may send account, security, moderation, advert, payment, and service emails. We do not currently send marketing emails; if this changes, any marketing email will include an unsubscribe option where required by law.
8. Sharing Your Data
We do not sell your personal data. We share data only with: our hosting provider (Hostinger); the software providers that run the Platform (WordPress, WooCommerce, Dokan, Easy WP SMTP for email delivery, and CookieYes/Cookie Law Info for consent management); Stripe, our payment provider, only once online payments are actually activated; and law enforcement or regulators, including DAFM, where required by law or reasonably necessary for serious fraud, safety, or welfare concerns.
9. International Data Transfers
Our hosting provider and the service providers named in Section 8 may process data outside Ireland/the EEA as part of their own infrastructure. Where this occurs, we rely on the safeguards those providers have in place (such as EU Standard Contractual Clauses), consistent with their own published data-processing terms.
10. Data Retention
We keep personal data only for as long as reasonably needed for the purposes above:
- Account and advert data: for as long as your account is active, and for up to 24 months afterwards to resolve disputes, respond to reports, and meet legal obligations.
- Private messages: for as long as your account is active, and for up to 24 months afterwards – the same period as account and advert data, since conversations are tied to your account and its adverts. Messages that are part of an unresolved report, dispute, or legal/welfare matter are kept for as long as that matter requires, consistent with the Reports retention period below.
- DAFM/compliance and moderation records: generally up to 6 years, reflecting typical Irish limitation periods for related claims. This includes the account-registration IP address described in Section 3, which is retained for the lifetime of the compliance record it supports rather than rotated on the shorter server-log schedule below.
- Reports, complaints, and appeals: up to 3 years after resolution.
- Security and server logs: up to 12 months.
These are our current retention periods and may be adjusted as the Platform develops; we will not shorten them where longer retention is reasonably required for a legal, safety, or fraud-prevention reason. Deleted content may remain in backups for a limited period.
11. Security
We use proportionate technical and organisational measures, including HTTPS, access controls, two-factor authentication on administrator accounts, regular automated backups, password hashing, restricted upload types, and security monitoring. No system is completely risk-free – please protect your own credentials and report suspected compromise.
12. Your Rights
Subject to applicable law, you have the following rights over your personal data:
- Right of access – to ask what personal data we hold about you and receive a copy of it;
- Right to rectification – to have inaccurate or incomplete personal data corrected;
- Right to erasure (“right to be forgotten”) – to ask us to delete your personal data, subject to the retention needs described in Section 10 above;
- Right to restriction of processing – to ask us to limit how we use your data in certain circumstances;
- Right to object – to object to processing based on our legitimate interests;
- Right to data portability – to receive certain data you provided to us in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format, or have it transferred, where technically feasible;
- Right to withdraw consent – for example, for non-essential cookies, at any time, without affecting processing already carried out before withdrawal.
To exercise any of these rights, use our Account & Data Requests page or email theaviaryhubireland@gmail.com. We may need to verify your identity, and some data may need to be retained where law or a legitimate safety, fraud, dispute, or record-keeping need applies.
13. Complaints
You may raise a concern with us directly, and you also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Irish Data Protection Commission (dataprotection.ie), the supervisory authority for Ireland.
14. Children
The Platform is not intended for unsupervised use by children. Seller accounts and any transaction require an adult (18+). We do not knowingly collect personal data from children; if you believe a child has provided us with personal data, please contact us so we can remove it.
15. Cookies
See our Cookie Policy and the on-site consent-preference tool.
16. Changes to This Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Material changes will be reflected in an updated “last updated” date at the top of this page.