This privacy policy has been compiled to better serve those who are concerned with how their ‘Personally Identifiable Information’ (PII) is being used by Woofd®. PII, as described in US privacy law and information security, is information that can be used on its own or with other information to identify, contact, or locate a single person, or to identify an individual in context. Please read our Privacy Policy carefully to get a clear understanding of how we collect, use, protect or otherwise handle your Personally Identifiable Information in accordance with our website. Please also review our Terms of Service before browsing this website.
Privacy Statement
The following terminology applies to these Terms and Conditions, Privacy Statement and Disclaimer Notice and any or all Agreements: “User”, “Member”, “You” and “Your” refers to you, the person accessing this website and accepting the terms and conditions of Woofd®. “The Organization”, “Ourselves”, “We”, “Editors”, “Moderators”, and “Us”, refers to Woofd®. “Party”, “Parties”, or “Us”, refers to both the User and ourselves, or either the User or ourselves. “Authors” & “Contributors” refer to individuals submitting content such as, but not limited to, articles and photographs. “Service” applies to our Community features such as Comments and our Facebook Group.
Woofd® is committed to protecting your privacy. Authorized team members within the Organization on a need to know basis only use any information collected from individual customers. We constantly review our systems and data to ensure the best possible service to our customers. We will investigate any unauthorized actions against our systems and data with a view to prosecuting and/or taking civil proceedings to recover damages against those responsible.
We recommend you be cautious in giving out personal information to others while using Woofd®. If you post any information to a public area of Woofd.com or other communication functionality or social or interactive features that may be provided on Woofd.com, please be aware that it is no longer “personal information” for the purposes of this Privacy Statement, and we or anyone else may use such information without restriction.
We will not sell, share, or rent your Personally Identifiable Information to any third party or use your e-mail address for unsolicited mail. Any emails sent by this Organization will only be in connection with the provision of agreed services and products.
Users records are regarded as confidential and therefore will not be divulged to any third party, other than when legally required to do so to the appropriate authorities. Where appropriate, we shall issue Users with appropriate written information, handouts or copies of records as part of an agreed contract, for the benefit of both parties.
What personal information do we collect from the people that visit our blog, website or app?
When subscribing, registering, commenting, posting or ordering on our site, as appropriate, you may be asked to provide your name, email address, mailing address, birthday or other details to help you with your experience.
When do we collect information?
We collect information from you when you subscribe to our newsletter, respond to a survey or marketing communication, browse the website, fill out a form or enter information on our site.
How do we use your information?
We may use the information we collect from you in the following ways:
- To improve our website in order to better serve you.
- To provide and maintain our Service.
- To notify you about changes to our Service.
- To allow you to participate in interactive features of our Service when you choose to do so.
- To monitor the usage of our Service.
- To detect, prevent and address technical issues.
- To allow us to better service you in responding to your customer support requests.
- To administer a contest, promotion, survey or other site features.
- To ask for ratings and reviews of services or products.
- To follow up after correspondence (Community, Comments or e-mail inquiries).
- To gather analysis or valuable information so that we can improve our Service.
- To personalize your experience and to allow us to deliver the type of content and product offerings in which you are most interested.
- To provide you with news, special offers and general information about other goods, services and events which we offer that are similar to those that you have already purchased or enquired about unless you have opted not to receive such information.
How do we protect your information?
Your Personally Identifiable Information is contained behind secured networks and is only accessible by a limited number of persons who have special access rights to such systems, and are required to keep the information confidential. In addition, all sensitive information you supply is encrypted via Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology via a gateway website and/or server. We implement a variety of security measures when a user places an order, enters, submits, or accesses their information to maintain the safety of your personal information. All transactions are processed through a gateway provider and are not stored or processed on our servers.
How long we retain your data
If you leave a comment or community post, the content and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue. For Contributors that register on our website, we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.
Cookies
Like most interactive web sites, Woofd.com uses cookies to enable us to retrieve user details for each visit. Cookies are small files that a site or its service provider transfers to your computer’s hard drive through your Web browser (if you allow) that enables the site’s or service provider’s systems to recognize your browser and capture and remember certain information. They are also used to help us understand your preferences based on previous or current site activity, which enables us to provide you with improved services. We also use cookies to help us compile aggregate data about site traffic and site interaction so that we can offer better site experiences and tools in the future.
For our Contributors that have an account and log in to this site, we will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select “Remember Me”, your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed. If you edit or publish an article, an additional cookie will be saved in your browser. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the article you just edited. It expires after 1 day.
Cookies are used in some areas of our site to enable the functionality of this area and ease of use for those people visiting. Some of our affiliate partners may also use cookies. Cookies cannot be used to run programs or deliver viruses to your computer. Cookies are uniquely assigned to a particular device or web browser, and can only be read by a web server in the domain that issued the cookie.
A primary purpose of cookies is to provide convenience and save you time. We use cookies to help you personalize your online experience. You have the ability to accept or decline cookies. Most Web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. If you choose to decline cookies, you may not be able to fully experience the interactive features of Woofd.com or the other websites you visit.
Cookie Categories
We organize the cookies used on Woofd.com into the following categories, which correspond to the choices presented in our cookie consent banner:
- Necessary: Essential for the website to function. These cannot be disabled and include login session cookies, security tokens, and WordPress functionality cookies.
- Analytics / Statistics: Used to understand how visitors interact with the site. Includes Google Analytics 4, Microsoft Clarity, and Bing Webmaster Tools cookies. These are only activated upon your consent.
- Marketing: Used to deliver personalized advertising and track conversions. Includes Meta Pixel, Google Ads, and Google Signals. These are only activated upon your consent.
- Functional / Preferences: Used to remember your preferences and provide enhanced features. Includes Disqus comment system and MailChimp preference cookies.
We use cookies to:
- Understand and save user’s preferences for future visits.
- Keep track of advertisements.
- Maintain Contributor preferences when logged-in to the site.
- Compile aggregate data about site traffic and site interactions in order to offer better site experiences and tools in the future. We may also use trusted third-party services that track this information on our behalf.
If users disable cookies in their browser:
If you turn cookies off, some of the features that make your site experience more efficient may not function properly.
Third-party disclosure
We do not sell, trade, or otherwise transfer to outside parties your Personally Identifiable Information unless we provide users with advance notice. This includes website hosting partners and other parties who assist us in operating our website, conducting our business, or serving our users, so long as those parties agree to keep this information confidential. We may also release information when its release is appropriate to comply with the law, enforce our site policies, or protect ours or others’ rights, property or safety. However, non-personally identifiable visitor information may be provided to other parties for marketing, advertising, or other uses.
Third-party links
Occasionally, at our discretion, we may include or offer third-party products or services on our website. These third-party sites have separate and independent privacy policies. We therefore have no responsibility or liability for the content and activities of these linked sites. Nonetheless, we seek to protect the integrity of our site and welcome any feedback about these sites.
Embedded content from other websites
Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website. These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.
Media
If Contributors upload images to the website, you should and it is your responsibility to avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included.
Service Providers
We may employ third party companies and individuals to facilitate our Service (“Service Providers”), to provide the Service on our behalf, to perform Service-related services or to assist us in analyzing how our Service is used. These third parties have access to your Personal Data only to perform these tasks on our behalf and are obligated not to disclose or use it for any other purpose.
Analytics
We may use third-party Service Providers to monitor and analyze the use of our Service.
Google Analytics 4 (GA4)
We use Google Analytics 4, a web analytics service provided by Google LLC. GA4 tracks and reports website traffic and user behavior. Google uses the data collected to track and monitor the use of our Service. This data is shared with other Google services. Google may use the collected data to contextualize and personalize the ads of its own advertising network.
Google Signals: We have enabled Google Signals in our GA4 property. Google Signals associates visitation information collected from our site with Google information from accounts of signed-in users who have consented to this association for the purpose of ads personalization. This allows Google to use this data to provide aggregated and anonymized cross-device reports and cross-device remarketing. Users who have opted out of Ads Personalization in their Google Account settings will not be included in this feature.
Granular Location and Device Data: Our GA4 implementation collects city-level location data and device characteristics including screen resolution, operating system version, and browser type. This data is used to optimize the user experience and understand how our site performs across different devices and locations. This data is collected in aggregate and is not linked to personally identifiable information.
Ads Personalization: We have enabled advanced ads personalization settings within GA4. This allows Google to use data collected through our site to personalize advertisements served to users across Google’s advertising network, based on their browsing behavior and interests.
User-Provided Data and Data Hashing: We may use GA4’s user-provided data collection feature, which allows us to send hashed (encrypted) data — such as email addresses provided during newsletter sign-up or account registration — to Google for conversion tracking and measurement purposes. Before any data is sent to Google, it is transformed using a one-way cryptographic hashing process (SHA-256) that makes it impossible to reverse-engineer the original data. This hashed data is used solely to match conversions and improve measurement accuracy, not to identify individuals.
Google Consent Mode v2: We have implemented Google Consent Mode v2 on our site. This communicates your consent decisions — specifically regarding analytics storage and advertising storage — directly to Google’s servers. If you decline analytics or marketing cookies, GA4 will use behavioral modeling to fill data gaps without using your personal identifiers. No cookies that require consent will be set before you have made your choice in our cookie consent banner.
You can opt-out of having your activity on the Service available to Google Analytics by installing the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on — https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout. For more information on the privacy practices of Google, please visit the Google Privacy & Terms web page: http://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/privacy/
Microsoft Clarity
We use Microsoft Clarity, a behavioral analytics tool provided by Microsoft Corporation. Microsoft Clarity captures how users interact with our website through session recordings and heatmaps, including mouse movements, clicks, scrolls, and page navigation. This data helps us understand and improve the user experience on Woofd.com.
Microsoft Clarity may collect or receive personal data from users to provide Microsoft Advertising services. By using our site with Analytics cookies enabled, you agree that Microsoft and Woofd® can collect and use this data. Session recordings are configured to mask sensitive input fields. Users who opt out of Analytics cookies will not have their sessions recorded.
For more information on Microsoft’s privacy practices, please visit: https://privacy.microsoft.com/en-us/privacystatement
Bing Webmaster Tools
We use Bing Webmaster Tools, provided by Microsoft Corporation, to monitor our site’s performance in Microsoft Bing search results. Bing Webmaster Tools collects data about how our site appears in search results, which search queries lead users to our site, and how users interact with our site from Bing search. This data is used solely for search performance analysis and optimization. For more information, please visit Microsoft’s Privacy Statement: https://privacy.microsoft.com/en-us/privacystatement
Behavioral Remarketing
Woofd® uses remarketing services to advertise on third party websites to you after you visited our Service. We and our third-party vendors use cookies to inform, optimize and serve ads based on your past visits to our Service.
Google Ads
Google Ads remarketing service is provided by Google LLC. You can opt-out of Google Analytics for Display Advertising and customize the Google Display Network ads by visiting the Google Ads Settings page: http://www.google.com/settings/ads. For more information on the privacy practices of Google, please visit the Google Privacy & Terms web page: http://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/privacy/
We have implemented the following Google advertising features:
- Remarketing with Google Ads
- Google Display Network Impression Reporting
- Demographics and Interests Reporting
- Google Marketing Platform Integration
We, along with third-party vendors such as Google, use first-party cookies (such as the Google Analytics cookies) and third-party cookies (such as Google Marketing Platform cookies) or other third-party identifiers together to compile data regarding user interactions with ad impressions and other ad service functions as they relate to our website.
Where users have chosen to enable Google to associate their web and app browsing history with their Google account through Ads Personalization, and to use information from their Google account to personalize ads, Google will use data from its signed-in users and data from sites that partner with Google to provide aggregated and anonymized insights into your users’ cross-device behaviors. You can review more information on Google’s Ad Policy & Terms at https://policies.google.com/technologies/ads
Meta (Facebook)
Meta remarketing and advertising services are provided by Meta Platforms, Inc. Meta adheres to the Self-Regulatory Principles for Online Behavioral Advertising established by the Digital Advertising Alliance. You can opt-out from Meta and other participating companies through the Digital Advertising Alliance in the USA http://www.aboutads.info/choices/, the Digital Advertising Alliance of Canada in Canada http://youradchoices.ca/ or the European Interactive Digital Advertising Alliance in Europe http://www.youronlinechoices.eu/, or opt-out using your mobile device settings.
For more information on the privacy practices of Meta, please visit Meta’s Privacy Policy: https://www.facebook.com/privacy/explanation
Meta Pixel
We use the Meta Pixel to measure the effectiveness of our advertising, to understand actions people take on our website, and to build audiences for our ads on Facebook and Instagram. The Meta Pixel is a snippet of JavaScript code that loads a small library of functions which we can use to track visitor activity on our site.
Advanced Matching: We use Meta’s Advanced Matching feature, which allows us to send hashed (encrypted) customer data — such as email addresses provided during newsletter sign-up or account registration — to Meta. Before any data is sent to Meta, it is transformed using a one-way cryptographic hashing process (SHA-256) that makes it impossible to reverse-engineer the original data. This hashed data is used to better match people visiting Woofd.com with people on Facebook and Instagram, improving the accuracy of our ad reporting and audience targeting. The Meta Pixel is only activated after you have accepted Marketing cookies in our consent banner. You can view your Facebook ads settings and update your preferences at any time.
Facebook Group
Our Facebook Group’s Privacy Settings are set to “Private.” See Facebook’s Privacy Settings for Groups to see who can join our group and what people can see. Being part of this group requires mutual trust. Authentic, expressive discussions make groups great, but may also be sensitive and private. What’s shared in the group should stay in the group. Woofd® will not use any content posted in our Facebook Group without prior request or consent. For Woofd® Community Guidelines, please see the Facebook Group Rules on Desktop or Mobile.
Comments
We use the Disqus comment system to allow discussion on our articles. Disqus sets a number of cookies on any page that includes a Disqus comment box. While we have no control over the cookies set by Disqus, they include pieces of information for measuring the number of Disqus users and their activity, including information that links their visits to our website with their Google, Facebook, Twitter or Disqus account if they are signed in to one. Please review their Terms & Policies for more information. When visitors leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection. An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.
Newsletter
We use MailChimp to manage our newsletter and other email lists. There’s no third-party tracking in messages we send through Mailchimp besides Mailchimp’s own analytics, which may aggregate how many subscribers open a message or click the links included in a message. MailChimp will store some of your information, including your email address, IP address and certain information about the links you click within the emails we send you, on a MailChimp server. Neither we nor MailChimp will ever sell your email address or share it with any other party, unless we are legally compelled to do so. Please review their Privacy Policy for more information.
Advertisements
We use Google Ads on our website. Google, as a third-party vendor, uses cookies to serve ads on our site. Google’s use of advertising cookies enables it to serve ads to our users based on previous visits to our site and other sites on the Internet. Users may opt-out of personalized advertising by visiting Google Ads Settings. Google users can control their ads experience (or opt out of personalized ads altogether) here. Please review their Privacy Policy for more information.
Opting out:
Users can set preferences for how Google advertises to you using the Google Ad Settings page. Alternatively, you can opt out by visiting the Network Advertising Initiative Opt Out page or by using the Google Analytics Opt Out Browser add on. Google users can control their ads experience (or opt out of personalized ads altogether) here and here.
California Online Privacy Protection Act
CalOPPA is the first state law in the nation to require commercial websites and online services to post a privacy policy. The law’s reach stretches well beyond California to require any person or company in the United States (and conceivably the world) that operates websites collecting PII from California consumers to post a conspicuous privacy policy on its website stating exactly the information being collected and those individuals or companies with whom it is being shared.
According to CalOPPA, we agree to the following:
Users can visit our site anonymously. This privacy policy is accessible through our About page and Terms of Service. Our Privacy Policy link includes the word ‘Privacy’ and can easily be found on the page specified above. You will be notified of any Privacy Policy changes through our newsletter.
Does our site allow third-party behavioral tracking?
Yes, we allow third-party behavioral tracking.
Use of Internet Protocol Address
We use your Internet protocol (IP) address for several reasons: targeting advertising, to help diagnose problems with our server, to administer our web site, and to help identify you and your Woofd.com comments. This IP address is only available to Woofd® Administrators and Editors. In the event that you decide to abuse your posting rights, we reserve the right to use your IP address in any of the following ways: banning, use a lookup to determine your ISP, then inform them of your actions. We use IP addresses to analyze trends, administer the site, track user’s movement, and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use. IP addresses are not linked to Personally Identifiable Information. Additionally, for systems administration, detecting usage patterns and troubleshooting purposes, our web servers automatically log standard access information including browser type, access times/open mail, URL requested, and referral URL. Any individually identifiable information related to this data will never be used in any way different to that stated above without your explicit permission.
Use of Email Opt Out/Opt In
Woofd® allows users to opt in to receiving email correspondence from us by subscribing to our newsletter. Woofd® allows users to opt out of receiving e-mail from us. To opt out of our mailing list, use the links provided in any email correspondence sent to you.
Correct/Update Personally Identifiable Information
Woofd® allows you to change or modify your PII by editing your profile with any of our third party services by using links at the bottom of our newsletters, in any comment section on our website, or through Facebook for our Community.
COPPA (Children Online Privacy Protection Act)
We do not specifically market to children under the age of 13 years old. When it comes to the collection of personal information from children under the age of 13 years old, the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) puts parents in control. The Federal Trade Commission, United States’ consumer protection agency, enforces the COPPA Rule, which spells out what operators of websites and online services must do to protect children’s privacy and safety online.
Fair Information Practices
The Fair Information Practices Principles form the backbone of privacy law in the United States and the concepts they include have played a significant role in the development of data protection laws around the globe. Understanding the Fair Information Practice Principles and how they should be implemented is critical to comply with the various privacy laws that protect PII.
In order to be in line with Fair Information Practices we will take the following responsive action, should a data breach occur:
We will notify you via email through our newsletter. We also agree to the Individual Redress Principle which requires that individuals have the right to legally pursue enforceable rights against data collectors and processors who fail to adhere to the law. This principle requires not only that individuals have enforceable rights against data users, but also that individuals have recourse to courts or government agencies to investigate and/or prosecute non-compliance by data processors.
CAN SPAM Act
The CAN-SPAM Act is a law that sets the rules for commercial email, establishes requirements for commercial messages, gives recipients the right to have emails stopped from being sent to them, and spells out tough penalties for violations.
We collect your email address in order to:
- Send information, respond to inquiries, and/or other requests or questions.
- Process orders and to send information and updates pertaining to orders.
- Send you additional information related to your product and/or service.
- Market to our mailing list or continue to send emails to our clients after the original transaction has occurred.
To be in accordance with CANSPAM, we agree to the following:
- Not use false or misleading subjects or email addresses.
- Identify the message as an advertisement in some reasonable way.
- Monitor third-party email marketing services for compliance, if one is used.
- Honor opt-out/unsubscribe requests quickly.
- Allow users to unsubscribe by using the link at the bottom of each email.
Legal Basis for Processing Personal Data Under General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
If you are from the European Economic Area (EEA), Woofd’s legal basis for collecting and using the personal information described in this Privacy Policy depends on the Personal Data we collect and the specific context in which we collect it.
Woofd® may process your Personal Data because:
- We need to perform a contract with you.
- You have given us permission to do so.
- The processing is in our legitimate interests and it’s not overridden by your rights.
- To comply with the law.
Retention of Data
Woofd® will retain your Personal Data only for as long as is necessary for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy. We will retain and use your Personal Data to the extent necessary to comply with our legal obligations (for example, if we are required to retain your data to comply with applicable laws), resolve disputes, and enforce our legal agreements and policies.
Woofd® will also retain Usage Data for internal analysis purposes. Usage Data is generally retained for a shorter period of time, except when this data is used to strengthen the security or to improve the functionality of our Service, or we are legally obligated to retain this data for longer time periods.
Transfer Of Data
Your information, including Personal Data, may be transferred to — and maintained on — computers located outside of your state, province, country or other governmental jurisdiction where the data protection laws may differ than those from your jurisdiction. Your consent to this Privacy Policy followed by your submission of such information represents your agreement to that transfer. Woofd® will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy Policy and no transfer of your Personal Data will take place to an organization or a country unless there are adequate controls in place including the security of your data and other personal information. If Woofd® is involved in a merger, acquisition or asset sale, your Personal Data may be transferred. We will provide notice before your Personal Data is transferred and becomes subject to a different Privacy Policy.
Disclosure Of Data
Disclosure for Law Enforcement: Under certain circumstances, Woofd® may be required to disclose your Personal Data if required to do so by law or in response to valid requests by public authorities (e.g. a court or a government agency).
Legal Requirements: Woofd® may disclose your Personal Data in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to:
- To comply with a legal obligation.
- To protect and defend the rights or property of Woofd®.
- To prevent or investigate possible wrongdoing in connection with the Service.
- To protect the personal safety of users of the Service or the public.
- To protect against legal liability.
Security Of Data
The security of your data is important to us, but remember that no method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage is 100% secure. While we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your Personal Data, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.
“Do Not Track” Signals
We do not support Do Not Track (“DNT”). Do Not Track is a preference you can set in your web browser to inform websites that you do not want to be tracked. You can enable or disable Do Not Track by visiting the Preferences or Settings page of your web browser.
Your Data Protection Rights Under General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
If you are a resident of the European Economic Area (EEA), you have certain data protection rights. Woofd® aims to take reasonable steps to allow you to correct, amend, delete, or limit the use of your Personal Data. If you wish to be informed what Personal Data we hold about you and if you want it to be removed from our systems, please contact us.
In certain circumstances, you have the following data protection rights:
- The right to access, update or to delete the information we have on you. Whenever made possible, you can access, update or request deletion of your Personal Data directly within your account settings section. If you are unable to perform these actions yourself, please contact us to assist you.
- The right of rectification. You have the right to have your information rectified if that information is inaccurate or incomplete.
- The right to object. You have the right to object to our processing of your Personal Data by not registering for an account and/or requesting the deletion of your account.
- The right of restriction. You have the right to request that we restrict the processing of your personal information.
- The right to data portability. You have the right to be provided with a copy of the information we have on you in a structured, machine-readable and commonly used format.
- The right to withdraw consent. You also have the right to withdraw your consent at any time where Woofd® relied on your consent to process your personal information.
- Please note that we may ask you to verify your identity before responding to such requests.
- You have the right to complain to a Data Protection Authority about our collection and use of your Personal Data. For more information, please contact your local data protection authority in the European Economic Area (EEA).
If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from receiving future emails, you can follow the instructions at the bottom of each email and we will promptly remove you from ALL correspondence.
Notification of Changes
Woofd® reserves the right to change these conditions from time to time as it sees fit and your continued use of the site will signify your acceptance of any adjustment to this policy. If there are any changes to our Privacy Policy or any changes in how we use our site customers’ Personally Identifiable Information, we will announce that these changes have been made through our newsletter. You must be subscribed to our newsletter in order to receive a notification of changes to our Privacy Policy. Any changes to our Privacy Policy will be included in the following newsletter, after the time of adjustment. You are therefore advised to re-read this policy on a regular basis or as you visit the website.
If there are any questions regarding this privacy policy, you may contact us using the Contact page.
