Privacy Policy

Pets may not always respect your privacy, but we will.

 

Effective Date: January 1, 2024

Thank you for your interest in joining PupWise, a knowledge sharing platform for pet owners.

This Privacy Policy is a part of and governed by the PupWise Terms of Use. By clicking “I Accept” you agree to both the PupWise Terms of Use and this Privacy Policy. All capitalized terms not otherwise defined in this Privacy Policy shall have the meanings provided in the PupWise Terms of Use. This Privacy Policy applies solely to information collected by and through the Site and the App. If you do not want to be bound by the terms of this Privacy Policy, you may not use the Site or the App.

The Site and the App are intended for use in the United States. If you use the Site or the App outside of the United States, you must comply with all local laws, rules and regulations.

Among other things, this Privacy Policy will address the following:


  1. Types of Information. The types of information collected by PupWise fall into three categories: User Profile Information, User Content, and Private Information.
    1. User Profile Information” means all personal information and content submitted by you in connection with registering for and maintaining an account for you and your pet/s including, without limitation, your name and email address, and your pet’s name, species, breed, sex, birthday, pet traits and favorite brands. “User Profile Information” specifically excludes User Content.
    2. User Content” means all comments, opinions, images, videos, inquiries, suggestions, reviews, ratings, experiences, stories, or other information you submit to the Public Spaces on behalf of your pet/s. This includes all information other than User Profile Information.
    3. You understand and acknowledge that your User Profile Information and User Content are both public and non-confidential, with the following exceptions:
      • your password; and
      • your last name
  2. Collection.
    1. User Profile Registration. When you set up your account, you will be required to provide certain User Profile Information, including your name, email address and password.
    2. Correspondence with PupWise. In addition to the licenses granted in Sections 5 and 19 of the Terms of Use, you hereby accept and acknowledge that all communications and correspondence you send to PupWise via email or otherwise is non-confidential and may be made public in PupWise’s sole discretion.
    3. Participation in the Site. PupWise also collects information from User Content that you voluntarily provide when you interact with or use the App, and when exchanging correspondence with us through support emails. This includes, but is not limited to, posting, commenting, recommending, leaving reviews or testimonials, tagging, sharing, using hashtags, and any other form of User Content submitted to a Public Space. If you voluntarily submit information to us—for example, if you create a User Content, participate in a survey, contact us or provide us feedback, supply additional information to your account or profile, or respond to our request for information—we will collect the information you submit. In each such instance, you will know what data we collect, because you actively submit it. We will use the data you voluntarily submit to us for the purposes we describe in this Privacy Policy, as well as any purposes that we describe to you when we collect such information. Our App provides Public Spaces and other interactive features that allow you to disclose information directly to us and other Users of the App or Service. Your participation in such interactive features is completely voluntary and we assume no obligations or responsibility with respect to the information you provide or share through such interactive features.
    4. User Content. With the exception of the Private Information, all User Content and User Profile Information are visible to other Users of the App. Unless a User has blocked you or you have hidden a User Content, you will be able to comment on existing posts. You have the option to block any User. Blocking occurs at the pet profile level between two pets, and is a mutual block. If you or the User have more than one pet and you wish to block the User entirely, you will need to create mutual blocks between each of your and the User’s pets. When you create a mutual block, neither of you can: (i) see any content anywhere on the App created by the other User; or (ii) see or comment on each other’s posts. You may unblock a User you have blocked by returning to your pet/s’ profile page, clicking “view blocked profiles” and selecting “unblock”.
    5. User Content Containing Product, Place or Service Information. If you create a User Content that contains any reference to a pet product, place, or service (whether or not you have tagged that product, service or vendor), PupWise reserves the right to share that content throughout the App and with commercial third parties as it deems appropriate in its sole discretion. Such User Content may appear in both the location you submit it and the profile page for that particular product, service or place, if such page exists.
    6. Location. In the future, we may offer Users the ability to enhance your experience by making use of your location. When the GPS tracking feature is enabled on your account, we will collect your location in the form of GPS signals (combined with a time-stamp) and other information sent by your mobile device on which the App are installed and activated. Depending on your selected device settings and/or your account settings we may collect information about your location also while you are not using the App.
    7. Cookies. We may use cookies. A cookie is a small file that can be placed on your computer’s hard disk or on a website server. Such cookies do not retrieve information about you stored on your hard drive and do not corrupt or damage your computer or computer files. You are not obliged to accept a cookie that we send to you, and you can in fact modify your browser so that it will not accept cookies. If you do decide to disable cookies you may not be able to access all areas of the Site. These cookies remain on your browser until their expiration date and time or until such time as you clear them from your cache manually. For more information about cookies, including how to set your internet browser to reject cookies, please go to www.whatarecookies.org.
  3. License; Use. Subject to the terms of this Privacy Policy, by clicking “I Accept”, you hereby grant PupWise a worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual license to collect, use, process, store and disclose your information, solely in order to provide the Services and as otherwise expressly stated herein. For the avoidance of doubt, you shall retain ownership of all your information and all rights not expressly granted to PupWise in this Agreement are reserved by you. PupWise may use your User Profile Information and User Content to: (a) allow you to use all of the features of the App; (b) curate a relevant community and network for your pet; (c) respond to your requests for information; and (d) in any other way PupWise wishes in its sole discretion in accordance with the terms of the Terms of Use and this Privacy Policy. Unless you ask us not to, we may also contact you via email in the future to tell you about specials, new products or services, or changes to this Privacy Policy or Terms of Use.
  4. Disclosure. We will not share or disclose any User Content or User Profile Information with any third party outside of our organization, other than as stated in this Privacy Policy, without receiving your prior express permission. Notwithstanding the foregoing, you understand and acknowledge that your User Profile Information and User Content are public and non-confidential (with the exception of Private Information), and your User Profile Information and User Content are available to other Users of the App.
    1. Legally Required Disclosure. We may disclose any of your information we deem necessary, in our sole discretion, to comply with any applicable law, regulation, legal process or governmental request.
    2. Third Parties. We may retain other companies and individuals to perform functions on our behalf. Examples include data analysis firms and web hosting companies. Such third parties may be provided with Private Information.
    3. Change of Ownership. If ownership of PupWise changes as a result of a merger, acquisition, or transfer to another company, all of your information may be transferred to the successor entity, including Private Information.
  5. Choice and Deletion. We strive to provide you with as many choices and as much control as possible regarding the information you provide to us. You may edit or delete any of your User Content that you have entered or uploaded to the App by selecting the three dot icon on your post.. You may edit any of your User Profile Information by selecting the edit profile button on your pet’s profile page. You may also opt out of receiving marketing messages from PupWise by notifying us at [email protected]. You should review this Privacy Policy carefully, because if you do not agree with our practices, your ultimate choice is not to use the Site or the App. All your information collected by PupWise will be stored by PupWise indefinitely in PupWise’s sole discretion after the termination of your account. After termination, PupWise may delete any User Content and User Profile Information without warning, notice or liability at such time as it chooses.
  6. Security. We work hard to protect your information. We use both technical and procedural methods to maintain the integrity and security of the Site and the App. PupWise uses industry-standard technological means to protect your information while in transit through the Internet. However, PupWise cannot guarantee that PupWise’s safeguards will always work.
  7. Limitation of Liability. PUPWISE EXERCISES REASONABLE EFFORTS TO SAFEGUARD THE SECURITY AND CONFIDENTIALITY OF YOUR INFORMATION. HOWEVER, TRANSMISSIONS PROTECTED BY INDUSTRY STANDARD TECHNOLOGY AND ADMINISTERED BY HUMANS CANNOT BE GUARANTEED TO BE SECURE. PUPWISE WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY LOSS OF DATA, DISCLOSURES AUTHORIZED PURSUANT TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY, OR ANY UNAUTHORIZED DISCLOSURES OF INFORMATION THAT OCCUR THROUGH NO FAULT OF PUPWISE INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, ERRORS IN TRANSMISSION, ACCESS TO YOUR ACCOUNT BY AN UNAUTHORIZED THIRD PARTY, OR THE UNAUTHORIZED ACTS OF OTHER USERS OR PUPWISE'S EMPLOYEES.
  8. Third Party Links. The Site or the App, other User Content and/or our email correspondence may contain links to or from other websites. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of other websites. This Privacy Policy applies only to the information we collect on the Site or the App. We encourage you to read the privacy policies of other websites you link to from our Site or the App or otherwise visit.
  9. Cross-Border Transfer. The information we collect may be stored and processed on servers in locations around the world, including servers that cache and distribute data. By using the Site, the App and/or Services you consent to the transfer of the information described in this Privacy Policy to locations that may be outside of the country in which you live. If you choose to access the Site, the App or Services, you do so on your own initiative and are responsible for compliance with local laws. If any provision within this Privacy Policy is held to be invalid or unenforceable, such provision shall be struck and all remaining provisions shall be enforced.
  10. Notification of Changes. We may revise this Privacy Policy from time to time. If we decide to change our Privacy Policy, we will post the revised policy here. As we may make changes at any time without notifying you, we suggest that you periodically consult this Privacy Policy. If we update this Privacy Policy, your continued use of the Site or the App (following the posting of the revised policy) means that you accept and agree to the terms of the revised Privacy Policy. Please note that our rights to use any information collected will be based on the Privacy Policy in effect at the time the information is used. If PupWise decides to change this Privacy Policy in a material way, PupWise will obtain the necessary consents required under applicable laws if PupWise seeks to collect, use or disclose information for purposes other than those for which consent has been obtained, unless the change is otherwise required or permitted by law.
  11. Comments. We have taken great measures to ensure that your use of our Site or the App is a satisfying one and that your privacy is consistently respected. If you have any questions, comments or concerns about our privacy practices, please contact us by e-mail at [email protected].