Privacy Policy
Privacy Notice
Effective Date: November, 2024
This Privacy Notice outlines how Pawtenant, Inc. (“Pawtenant,” “we,” or “us”) collects, uses, and shares your information when you engage with our website (pawtenant.com), emails from us, or other forms of communication (collectively referred to as our “Services”).
This Privacy Notice covers:
- HIPAA
- Information We Collect
- Cookies and Tracking Technologies
- How We Use Personal Information
- How We Share Personal Information
- How We Protect and Store Your Information
- Retention of Your Information
- Your Privacy Choices
- Children’s Privacy
- Updates to this Privacy Notice
- Additional Information for California Residents
Please be aware that this Privacy Notice does not apply to non-Pawtenant websites or services operating under different privacy policies.
For any questions about our privacy practices, you can email us at support@pawtenant.com or write to us at:
- HIPAA
Pawtenant connects individuals with mental health professionals to support emotional support animal (ESA) letters and psychiatric service dog (PSD) evaluations.
In doing so, we may collect, share, and store protected health information (PHI) in accordance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (“HIPAA”), acting as a business associate of these mental health providers.
As a business associate, Pawtenant can only handle PHI in ways the provider is authorized to.
For details on how your mental health provider handles your PHI, please refer to their specific privacy notice.
- The Information We Collect
Depending on how you interact with Pawtenant, we may collect information through the following ways:
Information You Provide Directly:
- Contact Information: Details you share when communicating with us via email, mail, phone, or chat.
- Account Information: Your name, email, phone number, and password.
- Transactional Information: Payment details and purchase history when using our Services.
- Photographs: If you apply for a Pawtenant scholarship.
- Health Information: Mental health details submitted through ESA or PSD service questionnaires.
- Demographic Data: Age, gender, race, or ethnicity when requested by your mental health provider.
- Employment and Educational Information: When relevant for scholarships or ESA/PSD services.
Information Collected Automatically:
- Device and Online Activity Data: Information like your IP address, browser type, device identifiers, visited pages, clicks, and time spent on the Site.
Information from Third Parties:
- Health Information: Shared by your mental health provider to facilitate ESA or PSD evaluations.
- Marketing Data: Information from advertising partners about ads you have seen or clicked, including your email address for targeted marketing.
Note: External vendors (like payment processors) may collect sensitive information like payment data on our behalf. Pawtenant does not store your full payment card details.
- Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies
When you engage with our online Services, certain data is automatically collected using cookies and similar technologies, including:
Usage Information:
- Details about how you use our Services such as visit dates, times, page views, time spent, and referral sources.
Device Information:
- Data like your IP address, device model, operating system, browser type, and mobile network details.
Location Information:
- When permitted, we may access your device’s location information.
Website Session Details:
- Activity such as mouse movements, clicks, text entered, and navigation paths on our Services.
We rely on partners like Google Analytics to gather usage data and measure how our Services are performing.
You can learn about Google Analytics’ data practices here and opt out with their browser add-on.
We also use Google Ads and Facebook Pixel to tailor advertising based on your behavior across different websites.
Learn more about Google’s advertising policies here and Facebook’s here.
You can control how cookies are used by visiting our cookie management page or adjusting your browser settings.
Additional opt-out options are available at Retention.com Opt-Out.
- How We Use Your Personal Information
We may use the information we gather to:
- Deliver our Services: Facilitate your communication with mental health professionals, manage accounts, process purchases, and send important notices.
- Respond to you: Address your inquiries, support requests, and feedback.
- Improve and maintain our Services: Diagnose technical problems, monitor system performance, and expand our Services through analysis of consumer behavior and marketing efforts.
- Market our Services: Develop and administer promotional campaigns and personalize the marketing messages and content you see.
- Meet legal obligations: Fulfill legal requirements, enforce our terms, prevent fraud, and protect rights, property, and safety.
- Support relationships with mental health professionals: Manage necessary contracts and perform general business operations.
We may also use aggregated or de-identified data for research, analysis, marketing, or to improve our Services.
- How We Share Your Personal Information
We may share your information in the following situations:
- With Service Providers: Companies that provide technology, payment processing, maintenance, legal, accounting, auditing, or other services for us.
- With Mental Health Professionals: To help facilitate your ESA letter and/or PSD training services.
- With Analytics Partners: To track website usage and improve the performance of our online Services.
- With Advertising Partners: To show interest-based ads to you and others who may find our Services relevant. These partners may also allow others to access collected data for marketing additional products.
- With Affiliates: To support service delivery and business operations, where permitted by law.
- During Corporate Transactions: If Pawtenant merges, sells assets, undergoes reorganization, or is acquired, we may transfer your information to involved parties.
- For Legal Compliance: To comply with legal requirements, enforce our rights, or protect the safety of others in legal or emergency situations.
- How We Protect and Store Your Personal Information
We implement a mix of physical, technical, and administrative safeguards to protect the personal information we collect through our Services.
While we take appropriate measures to protect your information, no system, server, or network is completely secure.
We cannot guarantee the absolute security of any information transmitted to or stored by Pawtenant or its third-party partners.
- Retention of Your Personal Information
We retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected or as required by applicable laws.
California law requires us to share how we determine retention periods:
- Some personal data is kept for the duration of our relationship to deliver Services.
- After services end, we may retain information for legal, regulatory, or business obligations (for example, for tax purposes or fraud prevention).
You can find more detailed information about retention practices in the additional notices provided for California residents.
- Your Privacy Options
You have several choices regarding how we collect and use your personal information:
Managing Your Account:
- Visit your Pawtenant account settings to view or update your personal information like contact details.
Email Communications:
- If you no longer wish to receive marketing emails from us, click the unsubscribe link at the bottom of any marketing email.
Cookies and Tracking:
- Use our cookie management tool available at pawtenant.com/#manage-cookies to set your cookie preferences.
- Adjust your browser settings to block or limit cookies.
- Note: Disabling cookies may affect certain features on our Services.
- Mobile device users can manage interest-based advertising settings through their device’s operating system.
Opt-Out from Interest-Based Ads:
- Visit Network Advertising Initiative or About Ads to opt out of targeted ads.
- Please note: Opting out doesn’t eliminate ads; it just stops personalized ads based on your browsing activity.
- Children’s Information
We do not knowingly collect personal information from children.
If you believe that we have unintentionally gathered a child’s personal data, please contact us at support@pawtenant.com.
A parent or guardian may request that we delete their child’s information or stop using it.
Upon verification, we will promptly remove any such information from our records.
- Updates to This Privacy Notice
We may revise this Privacy Notice from time to time.
The “Effective Date” at the top of the page reflects when the Privacy Notice was last updated.
If significant changes are made, we may notify you by other methods, such as email or a notice posted on our Services.
Your continued use of our Services after updates means you accept the revised Privacy Notice.
- Additional Notice for California Residents
The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) grants California residents rights regarding their personal information.
These rights apply whether you are a customer, a visitor to our site, or otherwise interacting with us.
Please note: Personal health information (PHI) managed under HIPAA is not covered by the CCPA.
Collection, Use, and Retention
California residents have the right to know what categories of personal information we collect and for what purposes.
Here’s a summary:
Category | Examples | Sources | Purpose of Use | Retention |
Personal Identifiers | Name, email, phone number, unique IDs | Directly from you; advertising and analytics partners | Service delivery, marketing, customer service | Retained during active relationship and longer for legal/business needs |
Customer Records | Telephone number, credit card details | Directly from you | Transactions and service delivery | Retained as required for taxes and fraud prevention |
Protected Classifications | Race, gender, ethnicity | Directly from you | ESA/PSD Services | Retained as needed for service fulfillment |
Commercial Information | Purchases, order history | Directly from you | Record-keeping, service improvement | Retained per state legal obligations |
Employment/Education Information | Employer, school details | Directly from you | Scholarship or ESA/PSD services | Retained during relationship |
Internet/Network Activity | Cookies, device ID, browsing history | Automatically from your device; advertising partners | Website analytics, advertising | Regularly deleted once no longer needed |
Inferences | Preferences, interests | From advertising data | Marketing and service customization | Depends on underlying data sources |
Sensitive Information | Login credentials, racial/ethnic origin | Directly from you | Account management, ESA/PSD services | Retained during service relationship |
Audio/Visual Information | Photograph | Directly from you | Scholarship or service use | Retained during relationship |
We do not collect biometric or precise geolocation data.
Sale, Sharing, and Other Disclosures
Under California law, “sale” means sharing personal information in exchange for monetary or other valuable consideration. “Sharing” refers specifically to disclosures for cross-context behavioral advertising.
- We sell and share personal identifiers and internet activity information through cookies to our analytics and advertising partners.
- Service providers who perform functions on our behalf (like payment processing, hosting, or auditing) may also access your personal information, but they are prohibited from using it for unrelated purposes.
More details about how we share your data are available above in the section How We Share Personal Information.
Your Rights
As a California resident, you have the following rights:
- Access: Request access to the personal information we have collected about you.
- Delete: Request deletion of your personal information (subject to legal exceptions).
- Correct: Request correction of inaccurate personal information.
- Opt-Out: Opt out of the sale or sharing of your personal information.
You or your authorized agent can submit a request by:
- Emailing us at support@pawtenant.com, or
- Visiting pawtenant.com/rights-request.
We will verify your identity before processing your request by asking for information that matches our records.
Authorized agents must also provide proof of their authority.
If we are legally permitted to refuse or limit your request, we will explain the reason.
Opt-Out of Sale or Sharing:
Visit pawtenant.com/#manage-cookies to manage your cookie preferences.
Note:
- Your opt-out rights do not apply to our disclosures to service providers.
- We process sensitive personal information only for permitted purposes under CCPA, so there is no need to request limitation on its use.
