Privacy Policy

Last Updated: October 14, 2026

Welcome to www.kidspatch.ie ("Kidspatch", "we", "us", or "our"). We are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, store, and disclose your personal data when you visit our website.

This website and its services are intended exclusively for users located in Ireland, and our data handling practices comply with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Irish Data Protection Act 2018.

1. Data Controller

For the purposes of applicable data protection legislation, the data controller is:

• Website: www.kidspatch.ie
• Entity Name: Kids Patch
• Contact Email: info@kidspatch.ie
• Address: 43 Wainsfort Park, Terenure, Dublin 6W

2. Information We Collect

We collect limited personal data to ensure our website functions correctly and to analyze how visitors interact with our content.

• Automatically Collected Data (Analytics):
  • IP address (anonymized/masked where possible)
  • Device type, browser type, and operating system
  • Pages visited, time spent on pages, referral sources, and interaction data
  • Geographic location (at a country/city level within Ireland)
• Information You Provide Voluntarily:
  • If you contact us via email or a web form, we collect your name, email address, and any message details you provide.
  • If you sign up to hear about new activities in a place (“want to find out about the latest activities in Cork?”), we collect your email address and the search it came from: the activity or category you searched for, and the place you searched — its county, town or approximate area (to about 100 metres). Earlier mailing-list signups hold just an email address.
• Device Location (Optional):
  • If you choose “Near me” when searching, your browser will ask your permission to share your device’s location. This is entirely optional — the site works normally without it, and you can decline or later withdraw permission in your browser settings.
  • Your location is used in your browser to sort activities by distance from you. We do not store it on our servers or in our database, and it is not linked to your name or email address.
  • So that your results survive a page reload or the browser Back button, and so a results link can be shared, an approximate version of your location (rounded to roughly 100 metres, which identifies an area rather than an address) is included in the page address. Because the page address forms part of the data collected by Google Analytics, that approximate location is shared with Google as described in Section 6.

3. Children's Privacy

Our website, content, and services are directed exclusively at parents, guardians, and adults. We do not knowingly collect or solicit personal data directly from children under the age of 16. Where a parent or guardian provides information about their own child — for example when signing that child up for a class through the Registers feature (see section 4) — we process it only on the basis of, and within the limits of, that parent's or guardian's consent. If we learn that we have inadvertently collected personal data from a child under 16 without verifiable parental consent, we will take immediate steps to delete that information from our databases.

4. Registers (Class Sign-Ups)

Some class providers listed on Kids Patch use our "Registers" feature to manage sign-ups and attendance for their classes. When a provider turns this on, Kids Patch acts as a data processor on that provider's behalf — the provider is the data controller and decides what information to collect. Kids Patch only processes it on their instructions.

If you sign your child up for a class through a Kids Patch sign-up link, the provider collects, and Kids Patch stores on their behalf:

• Your child's name and age;
• Your name, phone number and email address, so the provider can contact you about the class;
• Optionally, and only if you choose to provide it and give separate explicit consent, a short emergency medical note — severe allergies or medical conditions the instructor needs to know about in an emergency.

Emergency medical information is "special category" health data under Article 9 of the GDPR. We handle it as follows:

• Purpose: safeguarding — keeping your child safe during the class.
• Legal basis: your explicit consent (GDPR Article 9(2)(a)), given via a separate, un-ticked checkbox when you sign up.
• Who can see it: only the class instructor(s) for that class, through the provider's own Kids Patch portal, and emergency services if there is an emergency. It is never shown to other parents, never included in any email, and never displayed on a public page.
• Retention: it is deleted automatically as soon as your child is marked as having left the class, when the class or term ends, or 60 days after the record is archived — whichever comes first. Your child's name and a basic attendance record may be kept by the provider for their own records; the medical note is not.
• Withdrawing consent: the confirmation email you receive contains a link that lets you remove the emergency medical note, or withdraw the registration entirely, at any time without needing an account.

The rest of the sign-up information is kept for as long as your child is enrolled in the class and is removed within 12 months of the registration being archived. Security measures for this data are described in section 8. Questions about how a specific provider uses your information should be directed to that provider; you can also contact us at info@kidspatch.ie.

5. How We Use Your Information

We use the collected information for the following purposes:

• To operate, maintain, and improve www.kidspatch.ie.
• To analyze website usage trends and traffic via Google Analytics.
• To show advertising through Google AdSense, which helps keep the directory free for parents and providers.
• To respond to user inquiries or support requests.
• To email you about new classes and activities in the place you signed up for. Every email has a link to unsubscribe, or you can email info@kidspatch.ie at any time to be removed.
• To comply with legal obligations under Irish and EU law.

6. Legal Basis for Processing (GDPR)

Under the GDPR, we process your personal data based on the following legal grounds:

• Consent: For setting non-essential cookies and similar technologies, such as Google Analytics and Google advertising cookies (which you can manage via our consent message and the “Cookie Preferences” link in the footer), for emailing those who sign up about new activities in their area, for accessing your device’s location, which is only ever requested through your browser’s own permission prompt and can be withdrawn at any time in your browser settings, and — for class sign-ups made through a provider’s Registers link — for storing your details and, separately and explicitly, any emergency medical information you choose to provide (see section 4).
• Legitimate Interests: To maintain the security, functionality, and optimization of our website.
• Legal Obligation: Where processing is required to comply with applicable Irish or EU laws.

7. Third-Party Services: Google Analytics and Google AdSense

We use Google Analytics to gather statistical information about website traffic. Google Analytics uses cookies to analyze how visitors use the site.

• The information generated by the cookie about your use of the website is transmitted to and processed by Google.
• You can opt out of Google Analytics tracking at any time by choosing “Do not consent” in our consent message (reopen it from the “Cookie Preferences” link in the footer) or by using the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on.

We use Google AdSense to show advertising on parts of the site. Google and its advertising partners may use cookies and similar identifiers to show ads, to limit how often you see an ad, to measure how ads perform and, where you agree, to personalise the ads you see based on your visits to this and other websites.

• If you are in the European Economic Area, the UK or Switzerland, Google’s consent message (a Google-certified consent management platform using the IAB Europe Transparency & Consent Framework) asks for your choice before any of this happens. It lists each purpose and each advertising partner, and you can consent, decline, or choose purpose by purpose.
• If you decline, Google may still show non-personalised ads, which rely on the page you’re reading rather than on a profile of you; Google may use cookies for these only to the extent the law allows (for example to prevent fraud and limit ad frequency).
• You can change your choice at any time from the “Cookie Preferences” link in the footer. You can also control personalised advertising across Google at My Ad Center, and read How Google uses information from sites that use its services.
• We never pass the information you give us — contact details, alert signups or class sign-ups — to Google or to advertisers, and we don’t show ads on the business dashboard, the admin area or the class sign-up pages.

8. Where Your Data is Stored & Security

All website data collected and maintained directly by Kidspatch is stored on secure servers located in Ireland. Where third-party services (such as Google Analytics and Google AdSense) process data, appropriate safeguards (including Standard Contractual Clauses approved by the European Commission) are in place to ensure your data remains protected to EU standards.

Data is encrypted in transit (HTTPS/TLS) and at rest. Access to class sign-up and attendance data, including any emergency medical information, is restricted by database-level access controls so that each provider can see only their own classes' data.

9. Data Retention

We retain personal data only for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in this policy or to comply with legal requirements. Google Analytics retention is set to 14 months. Retention of class sign-up data, and the shorter retention of emergency medical information, is described in section 4.

10. Your Data Protection Rights

Under the GDPR, residents in Ireland have the following rights:

• Right of Access: Request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
• Right to Rectification: Request correction of inaccurate or incomplete data.
• Right to Erasure ("Right to be Forgotten"): Request deletion of your personal data.
• Right to Restrict Processing: Request limited processing of your data under certain conditions.
• Right to Data Portability: Request transfer of your data to another organization.
• Right to Object: Object to processing based on legitimate interests.
• Right to Withdraw Consent: Withdraw consent for analytics and advertising cookies at any time (“Cookie Preferences” in the footer), and withdraw consent for a class sign-up (including any emergency medical information) using the link in your confirmation email.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at info@kidspatch.ie.

If you believe your data has been handled incorrectly, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Data Protection Commission (DPC) in Ireland:

• Website: www.dataprotection.ie

11. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Any changes will be posted on this page with an updated revision date.

12. Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us:

• Email: info@kidspatch.ie
• Website: www.kidspatch.ie