Privacy Policy

Last Updated: 22 November 2025

1. Introduction
Will & Whiskers / William Ruhlig ("I", "we," "us," or "our") is the data controller for the personal information you provide. We are committed to protecting your privacy and ensuring your data is secure.

2. Information We Collect
To create your pet portrait and fulfil your order, we collect:

• Personal Information: Your name, email address, and shipping address.

• Commission Details: Photos of your pets and specific design requests.

• Device Information: When you visit our site, Hostinger (our website provider) automatically collects standard data like your IP address and browser type to help the website load correctly.

3. How We Use Your Data
We only process your data for "legitimate business interests" and to fulfil our contract with you. Specifically:

• To create your artwork: We need your photos and pet details to paint the portrait.

• To process payments: We use Stripe, PayPal, and Starling Bank to handle transactions. We do not store your credit card numbers ourselves.

• To contact you: Sending your invoice, approval emails, and shipping updates.

• To ship your artwork: We need your delivery address if we are to ship your portrait, this must be shared with relevant couriers.

• Tax Compliance: We are required by UK law to keep records of sales for 6 years.

• Photos may be used on social media as part of before/after references etc. you may ask for this not to be shared during the order process, or ask to remove later.

  At no point will I share your personal contact details for any other purposes not explicitly authorised!

4. Third-Party Services
We share data only with the trusted services necessary to run our business. All comply with GDPR standards:

• Hostinger: Hosts our website.

• Tally.so: The form builder used to securely collect your order details and photo uploads.

• Google: Securely stores collected order details

• Stripe: Securely processes card payments.

• PayPal: Securely processes payments.

• Delivery Couriers: (e.g., Royal Mail/Evri) to deliver your final Painting, Drawing or print.

5. Data Retention
We keep your pet photos only as long as necessary to complete your commission and ensure you are satisfied with the result. Photos may be used on social media as part of before/after references etc. you may ask for this not to be shared during the order process, or to remove later. Financial records (invoices) are retained for 6 years to comply with HMRC tax requirements.

6. Your Rights
Under GDPR, you have specific rights regarding your data:

• The right to access: You can ask for a copy of the data we hold about you.

• The right to erasure: You can ask us to delete your photos and personal info (unless tax law requires us to keep the transaction record).

• The right to rectification: If your address or email is wrong, we will fix it.

To exercise any of these rights, please email us at: hello@willandwhiskers.co.uk

7. Security
We take precautions to protect your data. Our website and forms use SSL encryption (HTTPS), and we only use reputable third-party providers (like Stripe and Tally) that maintain high security standards.

8. Contact Us
If you have questions about this policy, please contact us at hello@willandwhiskers.co.uk.