Data Protection Policy

The General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act (Cap 586) regulate the processing of personal data whether held electronically or in manual form. The Office of the Commissioner for Animal Welfare is set to fully comply with the Data Protection Principles as set out in such data protection legislation.

Purposes for collecting data

The Office of the Commissioner for Animal Welfare collects and processes information to carry out its obligations in accordance with present legislation.  All data is collected and processed in accordance with Data Protection Legislation and the provisions of Chapter 439 of the Animal Welfare Act.

Recipients of data

Personal Information is accessed by the employees who are assigned to carry out the functions of the Office of the Commissioner for Animal Welfare.  Personal Data will be disclosed to the Office of the Commissioner for Animal Welfare via the ADOPTaPET website with the mission and aim to increase public awareness regarding the availability of adoptable pets and to facilitate the adoption/fostering process.  When an online form is submitted by the user via the ADOPTaPET website, the user acknowledges and agrees that their personal data will be forwarded to the sanctuaries, in addition to being disclosed to the Office of the Commissioner for Animal Welfare. Any such disclosure or forwarding of personal data to third parties, specifically sanctuaries, is done solely in accordance with authorized law.

Your rights

You are entitled to know, free of charge, what type of information the Office of the Commissioner for Animal Welfare holds and processes about you and why, who has access to it, how it is held and kept up to date, for how long it is kept, and what the Office of the Commissioner for Animal Welfare is doing to comply with data protection legislation.

The GDPR establishes a formal procedure for dealing with data subject access requests.  All data subjects have the right to access any personal information kept about them by the Office of the Commissioner for Animal Welfare, either on computer or in manual files. Requests for access to personal information by data subjects are to be made in writing and sent to the Data Protection Officer of the Office of the Commissioner for Animal Welfare.  Your identification details such as ID number, name and surname must be submitted with the request for access.  In case we encounter identification difficulties, you may be required to present an identification document.

The Office of the Commissioner for Animal Welfare aims to comply as quickly as possible with requests for access to personal information and will ensure that it is provided within a reasonable timeframe and in any case not later than one month from receipt of request, unless there is good reason for delay. When a request for access cannot be met within a reasonable time, the reason will be explained in writing to the data subject making the request.  Should there be any data breaches, the data subject will be informed accordingly.

All data subjects have the right to request that their information is not used or is amended if it results to be incorrect.  Data subjects may also request that their data is erased.  

These rights may be restricted, if applicable, as per Data Protection Legislation.

In case you are not satisfied with the outcome of your access request, you may refer a complaint to the Information and Data Protection Commissioner, whose contact details are provided below.

Retention Policy 

Your personal data is collected through the principle of specificity of consent in Article 4(11) GDPR as confirmed by Article 6(1)(a) which requires consent to be given for “for one or more specific purposes”.

The following schedule outlines the retention requirements for the collating and processing of online application forms by the Office of the Commissioner for Animal Welfare.