Privacy Policy

This Privacy Statement explains our practices, including your choices, regarding the collection, use, and disclosure of your personal information, by Barksense.

Contacting Us

For questions about this Privacy Statement, or our use of your personal information, cookies or similar technologies, please contact our Data Protection Officer/Privacy Office by email at [email protected]. The data controller of your personal information is Barksense. Please note that if you contact us to assist you, for your safety and ours we may need to authenticate your identity before fulfilling your request.

Collection of Information

We receive and store information about you such as:

• Information you provide to us: We collect information you provide to us which includes:

  • your name, email address, address or postal code, payment method(s), and telephone number. In certain countries, we collect a government identification number for purposes such as billing and tax compliance. We collect this information in a number of ways, including when you enter it while using our service, interact with our customer service, or participate in surveys or marketing promotions;
  • account settings (including preferences set in the "Settings" screen of our mobile app), or otherwise provide information to us through our service or elsewhere.

• Microphone audio data: When you enable the bark monitoring functionality in our mobile app, BarkSense will ask for your permission to access the audio recorded by the microphone of your device. Then it will store the audio recordings in the form of digital audio files on your device. Our AI bark detector works directly on your device, so your audio recordings will never leave your device unless you enable one of the optional features that require network communication:

  • If you enable the optional Bark Alerts on the Settings screen then certain audio recordings of detected barks will be sent over the internet to our secure server. Then our server will generate bark notifications with attached audio recordings and send them only to the recipient that you configure on the Settings screen.
  • Another example of optional feature that involves sending your audio recording over the internet is our feedback functionality. If you ever discover an incorrect bark detection made by Barksense, there is an option to report the incorrect detection to our team. If you choose to use this option then the audio recording that you selected will be sent over the internet to our secure server and used by our team only to improve the detection quality.

• Information we collect automatically: We collect information about you and your use of our service, your interactions with us and our advertising, as well as information regarding your computer or other device used to access our service. This information includes:

  • your activity on the Barksense website and mobile app;
  • your interactions with our emails and texts, and with our messages through push and online messaging channels;
  • details of your interactions with our customer service, such as the date, time and reason for contacting us, transcripts of any chat conversations, and if you call us, your phone number and call recordings;
  • device IDs or other unique identifiers;
  • resettable device identifiers (also known as advertising identifiers), such as those on mobile devices, tablets, and streaming media devices that include such identifiers (see the "Cookies and Internet Advertising" section below for more information);
  • device and software characteristics (such as type and configuration), connection information, statistics on page views, referring source (for example, referral URLs), IP address (which may tell us your general location), browser and standard web server log information;
  • information collected via the use of cookies, web beacons and other technologies, including ad data (such as information on the availability and delivery of ads, the site URL, as well as the date and time). (See our "Cookies and Internet Advertising" section for more details.)

• Information from other sources: We also obtain information from other sources. We protect this information according to the practices described in this Privacy Statement, plus any additional restrictions imposed by the source of the data. These sources vary over time, but could include:

  • service providers that help us determine a location based on your IP address in order to customize our service and for other uses consistent with this Privacy Statement;
  • payment service providers who provide us with payment information, or updates to that information, based on their relationship with you;
  • online and offline data providers, from which we obtain demographic, interest based and online advertising related data;
  • publicly-available sources such as open government databases.

Use of Information

We use information to provide, analyze, administer, enhance and personalize our services and marketing efforts, to process your registration, your orders and your payments, and to communicate with you on these and other topics. For example, we use information to:

• understand our audience and improve our service (including our user interface experiences) and optimize our content, algorithms and delivery;
• provide localized content and personalized user experience;
• to coordinate with Partners on making the Barksense service available to members and providing information to non members about the availability of the Barksense service, based on the specific relationship you have with the Partner;
• prevent, detect and investigate potentially prohibited or illegal activities, including fraud, and to enforce our terms (such as determining free trial eligibility);
• communicate with you concerning our service so that we can send you news about Barksense, details about new features, special offers, promotional announcements, consumer surveys, and to assist you with operational requests such as password reset requests. These communications may be by various methods, such as email, push notifications, text message, online messaging channels, and matched identifier communications (described below). Please see the "Your Choices" section of this Privacy Statement to learn how to set or change your communications preferences.

Disclosure of Information

We disclose your information for certain purposes and to third parties, as described below:

• Service Providers: We use other companies, agents or contractors ("Service Providers") to perform services on our behalf or to assist us with the provision of services to you. For example, we engage Service Providers to provide marketing, advertising, communications, infrastructure and IT services, to personalize and optimize our service, to process credit card transactions or other payment methods, to provide customer service, to collect debts, to analyze and enhance data (including data about users' interactions with our service), and to process and administer consumer surveys. In the course of providing such services, these Service Providers may have access to your personal or other information. We do not authorize them to use or disclose your personal information except in connection with providing their services.
• Partners: As described above, you may have a relationship with one or more of our Partners, in which case we may share certain information with them in order to coordinate with them on providing the Barksense service to members and providing information about the availability of the Barksense service. For example, depending on what Partner services you use, we may share information:
• in order to facilitate Partner collection of payment for the Barksense service;
• with Partners who operate voice assistant platforms that allow you to interact with our service using voice commands;
• so that content and features available in the Barksense service can be suggested to you in the Partner’s user interface. For members, these suggestions are part of the Barksense service and may include customized and personalized viewing recommendations.
• Promotional offers: We may offer joint promotions or programs that, in order for your participation, will require us to share your information with third parties. In fulfilling these types of promotions, we may share your name and other information in connection with fulfilling the incentive. Please note that these third parties are responsible for their own privacy practices.
• Protection of Barksense and others: Barksense and its Service Providers may disclose and otherwise use your personal and other information where we or they reasonably believe such disclosure is needed to (a) satisfy any applicable law, regulation, legal process, or governmental request, (b) enforce applicable terms of use, including investigation of potential violations thereof, (c) detect, prevent, or otherwise address illegal or suspected illegal activities (including payment fraud), security or technical issues, or (d) protect against harm to the rights, property or safety of Barksense, its users or the public, as required or permitted by law.
• Business transfers: In connection with any reorganization, restructuring, merger or sale, or other transfer of assets, we will transfer information, including personal information, provided that the receiving party agrees to respect your personal information in a manner that is consistent with our Privacy Statement.

Whenever in the course of sharing information we transfer personal information to countries outside of the European Economic Area and other regions with comprehensive data protection laws, we will ensure that the information is transferred in accordance with this Privacy Statement and as permitted by the applicable laws on data protection.

You may also choose to disclose your information in the following ways:

• certain portions of our service may contain a tool which gives you the option to share information by email, text message and social or other sharing applications, using the clients and applications on your mobile device;
• social plugins and similar technologies allow you to share information.

Social plugins and social applications are operated by the social networks themselves, and are subject to their terms of use and privacy policies.

Access to Account and Profiles

To remove access to your Barksense account from your devices delete your Barksense settings from your device (steps vary by device and the option is not available on all devices). Where possible, users of public or shared devices should log out at the completion of each visit.

If you sell or return a computer or a mobile device with Barksense installed, you should uninstall Barksense before doing so. If you do not maintain the security of your password or device, or fail to log out or deactivate your device, subsequent users may be able to access your account, including your personal information.

If you share or otherwise allow others to have access to your account, they will be able to see your information (including in some cases personal information), and account information (including your email address).

Your Choices

Email and Text Messages. If you no longer want to receive certain communications from us via email or text message, click the "unsubscribe" link in the email or reply STOP (or as otherwise instructed) to the text message. Please note that you cannot unsubscribe from service-related correspondence from us, such as messages relating to your account transactions.

Push Notifications. You can choose to receive mobile push notifications from Barksense. On some device operating systems, you will be automatically enrolled in the notifications. If you subsequently decide you no longer wish to receive these notifications, you can use your mobile device's settings functionality to turn them off.

Interest-Based Ads. Interest-based ads are online ads that are tailored to your likely interests based on your use of various apps and websites across the Internet. If you are using a browser, then cookies and web beacons can be used to collect information to help determine your likely interests. If you are using a mobile device, tablet, or streaming media device that includes a resettable device identifier, then that identifier can be used to help determine your likely interests. For your choices about interest-based ads from Barksense, please see the "Cookies and Internet Advertising" section below.

Your Information and Rights

You can request access to your personal information, or correct or update out-of-date or inaccurate personal information we hold about you. The easiest way to do this is visiting the "Settings" section of our mobile app, where you have the ability to update information about your account.

To make requests, or if you have any other questions regarding our privacy practices, please contact our Data Protection Officer/Privacy Office at [email protected]. We respond to all requests we receive from individuals wishing to exercise their data protection rights in accordance with applicable data protection laws. Please also see the "Your Choices" section of this Privacy Statement for additional choices regarding your information.

We may reject requests that are unreasonable or not required by law, including those that would be extremely impractical, could require disproportionate technical effort, or could expose us to operational risks such as free trial fraud. We may retain information as required or permitted by applicable laws and regulations, including to honor your choices, for our billing or records purposes and to fulfill the purposes described in this Privacy Statement. We take reasonable measures to destroy or de-identify personal information in a secure manner when it is no longer required.

Security

We use reasonable administrative, logical, physical and managerial measures to safeguard your personal information against loss, theft and unauthorized access, use and modification. These measures are designed to provide a level of security appropriate to the risks of processing your personal information. Unfortunately, no measures can be guaranteed to provide 100% security. Accordingly, we cannot guarantee the security of your personal information.

Other Websites, Platforms and Applications

The Barksense service may be provided through and/or utilize features (such as voice controls) operated by third party platforms, or contain links to sites operated by third parties whose policies regarding the handling of information may differ from ours. For example, you may be able to access the Barksense service through platforms such as gaming systems, smart TVs, mobile devices and a number of other Internet connected devices. These websites and platforms have separate and independent privacy or data policies, privacy statements, notices and terms of use, which we recommend you read carefully. In addition, you may encounter third party applications that interact with the Barksense service.

Children

You must be 18 years of age or older to use the Barksense service. In certain jurisdictions, the age of majority may be older than 18, in which case, you must satisfy that age in order to become a member. While individuals under the age of 18 may utilize the service, they may do so only with the involvement, supervision, and approval of a parent or legal guardian.

Changes to This Privacy Statement

We will update this Privacy Statement from time to time in response to changing legal, regulatory or operational requirements. We will provide notice of any such changes (including when they will take effect) in accordance with law. Your continued use of the Barksense service after any such updates take effect will constitute acknowledgement and (as applicable) acceptance of those changes. If you do not wish to acknowledge or accept any updates to this Privacy Statement, you may cancel your use of the Barksense service. To see when this Privacy Statement was last updated, please see the "Last Updated" section below.

Cookies and Internet Advertising

We and our Service Providers use cookies and other technologies (such as web beacons), as well as resettable device identifiers, for various reasons. For example, we use these technologies to make it easy to access our services by remembering you when you return, and to provide and analyze our services. We also use cookies, as well as resettable device identifiers, to learn more about our users and their likely interests, and to deliver and tailor marketing or advertising. We want you to be informed about our use of these technologies, so this section explains the types of technologies we use, what they do and your choices regarding their use.

1. What are cookies?
   
   Cookies are small data files that are commonly stored on your device when you browse and use websites and online services. They are widely used to make websites work, or to work more efficiently, as well as to provide reporting information and assist with service or advertising personalization.
   
   Cookies are not the only types of technology that enable this functionality; we also use other, similar types of technologies. See below for more information and examples.

2. What are resettable device identifiers?
   
   Resettable device identifiers (also known as advertising identifiers) are similar to cookies and are found on many mobile devices and tablets (for example, the "Identifier for Advertisers" (or IDFA) on Apple iOS devices and the "Google Advertising ID" on Android devices), and certain streaming media devices. Like cookies, resettable device identifiers are used to make online advertising more relevant.

3. Why does Barksense use cookies and resettable device identifiers?

   • Essential cookies: These cookies are strictly necessary to provide our website or online service. For example, we and our Service Providers may use these cookies to authenticate and identify our members when they use our websites and applications so we can provide our service to them. They also help us to enforce our Terms of Use, prevent fraud and maintain the security of our service.
   • Performance and functionality cookies: These cookies are not essential, but help us to personalize and enhance your online experience with Barksense. For example, they help us to remember your preferences and prevent you from needing to re-enter information you previously provided (for example, during member sign up). We also use these cookies to collect information (such as popular pages, conversion rates, viewing patterns, click-through and other information) about our visitors' use of the Barksense service so that we can enhance and personalize our website and service and conduct market research. Deletion of these types of cookies may result in limited functionality of our service.
   • Advertising cookies and resettable device identifiers: These cookies and resettable device identifiers use information about your use of this and other websites and apps, your response to ads and emails, and to deliver ads that are more relevant to you. These types of ads are called "interest-based advertising." Many of the advertising cookies associated with our service belong to our Service Providers.
4. How Does Barksense use Web Beacons and other Technologies?
   
   Web beacons (also known as clear gifs or pixel tags) often work in conjunction with cookies. We and our Service Providers may use them for similar purposes as cookies, such as to understand and enhance the use of our service, improve site performance, monitor visitor traffic and actions on our site, and understand interactions with our marketing (including email and online ads on third party sites). Because web beacons often work in conjunction with cookies, in many cases, declining cookies will impair the effectiveness of web beacons associated with those cookies.
   
   We use other technologies that are similar to cookies, such as browser storage and plugins (e.g., HTML5, IndexedDB, and WebSQL). Like cookies, some of these technologies may store small amounts of data on your device. We may use these and various other technologies for similar purposes as cookies, such as to enforce our terms, prevent fraud, and analyze the use of our service. There are a number of ways to exercise choice regarding these technologies. For example, many popular browsers provide the ability to clear browser storage, commonly in the settings or preferences area; see your browser's help function or support area to learn more. Other technologies, such as Silverlight storage, may be cleared from within the application.

Last Updated

This Privacy Statement was last updated on November 22, 2019.