United Kingdom

Gudog Privacy Policy

Scope of this Privacy Policy

Last updated: 18 December 2023

HouseMyDog Ltd ("Gudog", "we", "our", or "us") is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. This privacy policy explains how we collect and use your personal information when you use the Gudog Service or when you otherwise interact with us.

Gudog operates a service which connects dog owners with dog sitters who wish to host dogs and/or offer other dog related services using our website at gudog.com and mobile application that we make available (the "Service").

Before using our Service, we encourage you to review this Privacy Policy to ensure that you have understood our collection, storage, use and disclosure of your personal information.

This policy does not apply to websites, applications, or services that display or link to other privacy policies.

This privacy policy should be read alongside, and in addition to, our Terms of Service.

Gudog is the data controller of the personal information we hold about you.

Information Collected by Gudog

Information necessary to use the Gudog Service.

We ask for and collect the following personal information about you when you use the Gudog Service. This information is necessary for the adequate performance of the contract between you and us and to allow us to comply with our legal obligations. Without it, we may not be able to provide you with all the requested services voluntarily by the User.

Account Information. When you sign up for a Gudog Account, we require certain information such as your first name, last name, your address and email address.
Profile and Listing Information. To use certain features of the Gudog Service (such as booking or creating a Listing), we may ask you to provide additional information, which may include your address, phone number, and a profile picture.
Verification. To create and maintain a trusted community, we may collect identity verification information such as a copy of official government identification.
Payment Information. To use certain features of the Gudog Service (such as booking or creating a Listing), we may require you to provide certain financial information (like your bank account or credit card information) in order to facilitate the processing of payments. Gudog uses a third-party payment provider and as such the Payment Information is not visible to Gudog.
Communications with Gudog and other Members. When you communicate with Gudog or use the Gudog Service to communicate with other Members, we collect information about your communication and any information you choose to provide. Gudog may review, scan, or analyse the User’s communications on the Service for fraud prevention, risk assessment, regulatory compliance, investigation, product development and customer support purposes. In some cases, Gudog may also scan, review, or analyse messages to debug, improve, and expand product offerings. Gudog uses automated methods where reasonably possible. However, occasionally Gudog may need to manually review some communications, such as for fraud investigations and customer support, or to assess and improve the functionality of these automated tools. Gudog will not review, scan, or analyse the User’s communications to send third party marketing messages to the User, and Gudog will not sell reviews or analyses of these communications. These activities are carried out based on Gudog's legitimate interest in ensuring compliance with applicable laws and Gudog’s Terms of Use, preventing fraud, promoting safety, and improving and ensuring the adequate performance of Gudog’s services.

Information the User chooses to provide.

You may choose to provide us with additional personal information in order to obtain a better user experience when using Gudog.

Additional Profile Information. You may choose to provide additional information as part of your Gudog profile (such as preferred language, city, and a personal description) as part of your public profile page, and will be publicly visible to others.
Other Information. You may otherwise choose to provide us information when you fill in a form, conduct a search, update or add information to your Gudog Account, respond to surveys, post to community forums, participate in promotions, or use other features of the Gudog Service.

Information automatically collected by Gudog.

When you use Gudog, we automatically collect information, including personal information, about the services you use and how you use them. This information is necessary for the adequate performance of the contract between you and us, to enable us to comply with legal obligations and given our legitimate interest to provide and improve Gudog.

Geo-location Information. When you use certain features of the Gudog Service, we may collect information about your precise or approximate location as determined through data such as your IP address or mobile device’s GPS to offer you an improved user experience. Most mobile devices allow you to control or disable the use of location services for applications in the device’s settings menu. Gudog may also collect this information even when you are not using the app if this connection is enabled through your settings or device permissions.
Usage information to Log Data. We collect information about your interactions with the Gudog Service such as the pages or content you view, your searches for Listings, bookings you have made, and other actions on the Gudog Service.
Usage information to Log Data. Log Data and Cookies. We automatically collect log data and device information such as details about how a person has used the Service, IP address of the used device, browser type or the webpage software information a person has visited before coming to the Service, access dates and times, hardware and software information, device event information, unique identifiers and Cookies data (collected when a person accesses and uses the Service even without creating an Account or log in) – this information is used to verify that visitors of the Service meet the criteria required to process their requests.
Cookies and Similar Technologies. We use cookies and other similar technologies, such as web beacons, pixels, and mobile identifiers. We may also allow our business partners to use these tracking technologies on the Gudog Service, or engage others to track your behaviour on our behalf. You may disable the use of Cookies through your browser settings.
Payment Transaction Information. Gudog collects information related to your payment transactions through the Gudog Service, including the payment instrument used, date and time, payment amount, payment instrument expiration date and billing postcode, PayPal email address, IBAN information, your address and other related transaction details.

Information Gudog collects from third parties.

Third Party Services. If you link, connect, or login to your Gudog Account with a third-party service (e.g. Google, Facebook), the third-party service may send us information such as your registration and profile information from that service. This information varies and is controlled by that service or as authorised by you via your privacy settings at that service.
Your References. If someone has written a reference for you, it may be published on your Gudog public profile page with your consent.
Background Checks. To the extent permitted by applicable laws and with the User’s consent where required, Gudog may obtain the local version of police, background or registered sex offender checks. Gudog may use the User’s information to obtain such reports.
Other Sources. To the extent permitted by applicable law Gudog may receive additional information about you, such as demographic data or fraud detection information, from third party service providers and/or partners, and combine it with information we have about you. For example, we may receive background check results (with your consent where required) or fraud warnings from service providers like identity verification services for our fraud prevention and risk assessment efforts. We may receive information about you and your activities on and off the Gudog Service through partnerships, or about your experiences and interactions from our partner ad networks.

How Gudog Uses The Information We Collect

Provide, improve and develop the Gudog Service.

Enable the User to access and use the Service.
Enable the User to communicate with other Users.
Operate, protect, improve and optimise the Service and experience such as by performing analytics and conducting research.
Provide customer service.
Send the User service or support messages, updates, security alerts and account notifications.
Facilitate the User’s referral invitations.
Send User’s requests for references.
Provide fraud detection and prevention.
Provide any other services authorised by the User at the time of collection of the personal information.
Operate, protect, improve and optimise the Service and experience and personalise and customise the User’s experience (such as making listing suggestions or ranking search results), Gudog conducts profiling base on the User’s interaction with Gudog, the User’s search and booking history, the User’s profile information and preferences, and other User Content submitted to Gudog.

Gudog processes this information given its legitimate interest in improving the Service and the Users’ experience with it, and where it is necessary for the adequate performance of the contract with the User.

Create and maintain a trusted and safer community.

Detect and prevent fraud, spam, abuse, security incidents, and other harmful activity.
Conduct security investigations and risk assessments.
Verify or authenticate information or identifications provided by the User (such as to verify the User’s accommodation address or compare the User’s identification photo to another photo the User provided).
Conduct checks against databases and other information sources, including background or police checks, to the extent permitted by applicable laws and with the User’s consent where required.
Comply with Gudog’s legal obligations.
Resolve any disputes with any of the Users and enforce Gudog’s agreements with third parties.
Enforce Gudog’s Terms of Use and other policies.
Gudog may conduct profiling based on the User’s interactions with the Service, the User’s profile information and other content the User submits to the Service, and information obtained from third parties.
Gudog may restrict or suspend access to the Service if we judge that the User or activity poses a safety or other risk to Gudog, other Users, or third parties.

Gudog processes this information given its legitimate interest in protecting Gudog, to measure the adequate performance of Gudog’s contract with the User, and to comply with applicable laws.

Provide, personalise and improve Gudog’s marketing.

Send the User promotional messages, marketing, advertising, and other information that may be of interest to the User based on his/her preferences (including information about Gudog or partner campaigns and services) and social media advertising through social media Services such as Facebook or Google).
Personalise, measure, and improve Gudog’s advertising.
Administer referral programs, rewards, surveys, sweepstakes, contests, or other promotional activities or events sponsored or managed by Gudog or its third-party partners.
Conduct profiling on the User’s characteristics and preferences (based on the information the User provides to Gudog, the User’s interactions with the Service and Gudog, information obtained from third parties, and the User’s search and booking history) to send the User promotional messages, marketing, advertising and other information that Gudog thinks may be of interest to the User.

Gudog processes this information given its legitimate interest in undertaking marketing activities to offer the User products or services that may be of the User’s interest. The User can opt-out of receiving marketing communications from Gudog by following the unsubscribe instructions included in Gudog’s marketing communications.

Payment information collected.

Detect and prevent fraud, abuse, security incidents, and other harmful activity.
Conduct security investigations and risk assessments.
Conduct checks against databases and other information sources.
Comply with legal obligations (such as anti-money laundering regulations).
Send the User promotional messages, marketing, advertising, and other information that may be of interest to the User based on his/her preferences.

Gudog processes this information given its legitimate interest in the adequate performance of the contract with the User and to comply with applicable laws.

Storing and Processing of You personal information

Security.

Gudog uses appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal information against accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, change or damage. All personal information we collect will be stored on secure servers and all electronic transactions entered into via our Service will be protected by SSL encryption technology.

If you suspect any misuse, loss or unauthorised access to your data, please let us know immediately via email at info@gudog.com

We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal information breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.

International Transfers of your personal information.

personal information we collect may be stored and processed in your country or in any other country where we or our affiliates, subsidiaries, or service providers maintain facilities. These processing locations are chosen to increase efficiency and performance, and to protect information in the event of an outage or other problem.

We will only transfer personal information outside the European Economic Area where it is compliant with data protection legislation and the means of transfer provides adequate safeguards, such as standard data protection directives issued by the European Commission. To enquire further about these safeguards you can contact us using the contact details at the end of this privacy policy.

Period.

Gudog will only retain your data for as long as necessary to answer queries or resolve problems, provide improved and new services, or for other essential purposes such as complying with our legal obligations, resolving disputes, and enforcing our agreements, or until you request that the data be deleted.

In some instances your data may persist, even after an erasure request, on backup or archival media for legal, tax or regulatory purposes.

In some instances we may anonymise your data for research or statistical purposes in which case we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you.

Sharing Data

Disclosure to business partners

Gudog has the right to disclose some of the personal information (i.e. list of Pet Sitters) to its business partners for the performance or delivery of the services offered by Gudog. Without prejudice to the foregoing, Gudog shall not disclose any of personal information (apart from the personal information visible on the site or Service) to any third parties for indirect marketing purposes without the consent of the User.

Sharing between Users

To help facilitate bookings or other interactions between Users, Gudog may need to share certain information, including personal information, with other Users, as it is necessary for the adequate performance of the contract between the User and Gudog, as follows:

When you as the Pet Sitter have confirmed a booking, certain information is shared with the Pet Owner to coordinate the booking, such as the Pet Sitter’s full name.
Gudog does not share User’s billing and payout information with other Users.

When the Pet Owner submits a booking request, certain information about him/her is shared with the Pet Sitter, including the Pet Owner’s full name, and other information he/she agrees to share. When the Pet Owner’s booking is confirmed, Gudog will disclose additional information to assist with coordinating the trip, like the Pet Owner’s phone number.

Profiles, Listings, and other Public Information.

Gudog lets the User publish information, including personal information that is visible to the general public. For example:

Parts of the User’s public profile page, such as the User’s first name, the User’s description, and city are publicly visible to others.
Listing pages are publicly visible and include information such as listing description, calendar availability, the User’s public profile photo, and any additional information the User chooses to share.
After completing a booking, Pet Owner may write a review and rate the Pet Sitter. Reviews and ratings are a part of the Pet Sitter’s public profile page and may also be surfaced elsewhere on the Service.
If the User submits any content in a community or discussion forum, blog or social media post, or use a similar feature on the Service, that content is publicly visible.

Based on Gudog’s legitimate interest to promote the Service, Gudog may display parts of the Service (e.g., the User’s listing page) on sites operated by Gudog’s business partners, using technologies such as widgets or APIs. If the User’s listings are displayed on a partner’s site, information from the User’s public profile page may also be displayed.

Information the User shares publicly on the Service may be indexed through third party search engines. In some cases, the User may opt-out of this feature in the Account settings. If the User changes the settings or his/her public-facing content, these search engines may not update the Users’ databases. Gudog does not control the practices of third party search engines, and they may use caches containing the User’s outdated information.

Service Providers

Gudog uses a variety of third-party service providers to help Gudog provide services. Service providers may be located inside or outside of the European Economic Area (“EEA”). For example, service providers may help Gudog to: (i) verify the User‘s identity or authenticate the User‘s identification documents, (ii) check information against public databases, (iii) conduct background or police checks, fraud prevention, and risk assessment, (iv) perform product development, maintenance and debugging, (v) allow the provision of Gudog‘s services through third party Services and software tools (e.g. through the integration with our APIs), or (vi) provide customer service, advertising, or payments services. These providers have limited access to the User‘s personal information to perform these tasks on Gudog‘s behalf and are contractually bound to protect and to use it only for the purposes for which it was disclosed and consistent with this Privacy Policy.

Gudog will need to share the User‘s information, including personal information, in order to ensure the adequate performance of Gudog‘s contract with the User.

Social Media Services

Where permissible according to applicable law Gudog may use certain limited personal information about the User, such as the User‘s email address, to hash it and to share it with social media Services, such as Facebook or Google, to generate leads, drive traffic to the Service or otherwise promote Gudog‘s products and services or the Service. These processing activities are based on Gudog’s legitimate interest in undertaking marketing activities to offer the User products or services that may be if the User‘s interest.

The social media Services with which Gudog may share the User’s personal information are not controlled or supervised by Gudog. Therefore, any questions regarding how the User‘s social media service platform provider processes his/her personal information should be directed to such provider.

Corporate Affiliates

To help us provide the Gudog Service, we may share your information within our corporate family of companies (both financial and non-financial entities) that are related by common ownership or control. These related entities are covered under this Privacy Policy, and when services have additional terms specific to them, we tell you through the Gudog Service.

Legal & Law Enforcement

Gudog may disclose your personal information to courts, law enforcement, governmental or public authorities, tax authorities, authorised third parties, if and to the extent we are required or permitted to do so by law or where disclosure is reasonably necessary to: (i) comply with our legal obligations, (ii) comply with a valid legal request (such as a court order) or to respond to claims asserted against Gudog, (iii) respond to a valid legal request relating to a criminal investigation to address alleged or suspected illegal activity, or to respond to or address any other activity that may expose us, you, or any other of our users to legal or regulatory liability.

Where legally required according to applicable law, we may disclose your personal information to tax authorities or other governmental agencies for the purpose of the tax authorities’ determination of proper compliance with relevant tax obligations. Information that may be disclosed includes, but is not limited to your; name, addresses, tax or VAT identification number(s), date of birth, contact information, payout information, transaction dates and amounts, gross and net booking value and payout amounts, or taxes collected by Gudog, to the extent any of this information is known by Gudog.

Business Transfers

If Gudog undertakes or is involved in any merger, acquisition, reorganization, sale of assets, bankruptcy, or insolvency event, then we may sell, transfer or share some or all of our assets, including your information. In this event, we will notify you before your personal information is transferred and becomes subject to a different privacy policy.

Aggregated Data

We may also share aggregated information (information about our users that we combine together so that it no longer identifies or references an individual user) and non-personally identifiable information for industry and market analysis, demographic profiling, marketing and advertising, and other business purposes.

Cookie Policy

Gudog uses Cookies to distinguish the Users’ preferences and to offer better functionality of the Service. At the moment of the first access to the Service, the User accepts different kinds of Cookies used by the Service. Otherwise (in case of the lack of such acceptance), the User shall delete his/her Account. The User can block Cookies by activating the User’s browser settings which allow the User to refuse the Cookies. The rejection of these Cookies may have the effect of not allowing the User to use some functionalities of the Gudog Service. More information on Cookies can be found via the following link:

www.allaboutcookies.org

Gudog uses session cookies (which expire once the User logs out from the Account) and persistent cookies (which stay on the User’s device for a set period of time or until the User delete them). The following types of cookies are used by Gudog for the purposes explained in this overview:

Strictly necessary Cookies. For providing a possibility to use the Service or providing certain functions the User requested.
Functionality Cookies. For improvement of the functionality of the Service.
Tracking Cookies. This type of Cookies survives the User’s session. When the max-age of a permanent cookie is set at one year, then, within that year, the initial value – stored in that Cookie – shall be sent back to the server each time the User visits the server – the purpose is to save a vital piece of information, such as how the User initially came to the App.
Performance Cookies. For improving the functionality of the Service. The Service uses Cookies connected with Google Analytics to analyse how the Users use the Service. It records the number of visitors and it provides Gudog with information on their overall behaviour - such as the typical duration of a visit to the Service or the number of pages a user views on average.
Third party cookies: When interacting with the Service, several third party cookies are stored in your browser by some of our analytics/performance providers and marketing partners.
The Service may contain electronic images known as Web beacons, which are used to compile aggregated statistics to analyse how the Service is used and may be used in emails to let us know which emails and links have been opened by recipients.

Your Legal Rights in Respect of Your personal information

In accordance with European Union privacy law, you have the following rights in respect of your personal information that we hold:

Right to access: to request copies of the information we hold about you. Where we are legally permitted to do so, we may refuse a right of access request for specific legal reasons which will be notified to you, if applicable, at the time of your request.
Right to correct: to have incomplete or inaccurate data we hold about you corrected We may need to verify the accuracy of the new data provided.
Right to erase: to have the data we hold about you delete or removed from our systems. We may not always be able to comply with your request of erasure for specific legal reasons which will be notified to you, if applicable, at the time of your request.
Right to object: to the processing of your personal information when a serious and legitimate reason arises.
Right to restrict our use of your data: to restrict us from using your data or limit the way in which we can use it.
Right to withdraw consent: of your personal information at any time for our future processing.
Right to data portability: to request your data in a format in which it can be transferred to another provider.

If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, please use the contact details provided at the end of this privacy policy. We aim to respond to all requests within 30 days. We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity or to ask for further information to clarify your request.

If you are not satisfied with the way your data is handled by us you have the right to lodge a complaint with the relevant data protection authority in your country, but we encourage you to first contact us with any questions or concerns.

Links To Third party Sites

Our Service may, from time to time, contain links to and from third party websites, including, but not limited to, those of other users, our partner networks, advertisers, partner merchants, news publications, retailers and affiliates. If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that these websites may be collecting information from you when you are browsing and have their own privacy policies; we do not accept any responsibility or liability for their collection activities or policies. Please check the individual policies before you submit any information to those websites.

Gudog is not liable for any links that may be found in the Service, which lead and/or allow the User to directly enter any third-party websites, nor for any potential personal information protection infringements that could occur in connection with browsing such websites. Because of that the User shall acknowledge any privacy provisions which may be found on such third-party websites.

Safety Of personal information

In the event of and following discovery or notification of a breach of the security of the personal information, or access by an unauthorised person, Gudog will notify the User if the breach is likely to affect the User’s privacy.

The User is obliged to comply with safety standards, for instance by avoiding all non-authorised access to the User’s devices and the Account. The User is solely responsible for the use of the Service on the User’s devices, IP-address and identification data, as well as for its confidentiality.

Notwithstanding the security measures and policy adopted by Gudog, an infallible level of security cannot be guaranteed. Since no method of transmission or forwarding over the Internet or any method of electronic storage is 100% secure, Gudog does not guarantee absolute security.

Our Policy Towards Children

Our Service is not directed at persons under 18 and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you become aware that your child has provided us with personal information, without your consent, then please contact us using the details below so that we can take steps to remove such information and terminate any account your child has created with us.

Changes To This Policy and Your Duty to Inform us of Changes

Changes to this privacy policy will be immediately posted on our website and you are deemed to have accepted the terms of the privacy policy on your first use of the website following the alterations.

It is important that the personal information we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal information changes during your relationship with us.

Notice To You

If we need to provide you with information about something, whether for legal, marketing or other business related purposes, we will select what we believe is the best way to get in contact with you. We will usually do this through email or by placing a notice on our Service. The fact that we may send notices to you will not stop you from being able to opt out of certain types of contact as described in this privacy policy.

Governing Law And Jurisdiction

This Privacy Statement is governed by the laws of Ireland and is subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Irish courts.

Contact Details

If you have any questions or comments regarding our Privacy Policy, please contact Gudog info@gudog.com