1. Information We Collect

When you access the Sites, and only to the extent necessary to meet our legitimate interests including, but not limited to compliance with legal obligations and other purposes namely to provide the Services offered through the Sites, RCO Society collects a variety of information from or about you including Personal Information. The information we collect from or about you or your devices from various sources, is described below.

Information You Provide To Us

Registration information. If you register to use our Services, sign up for notifications or updates, or participate in our surveys, we may ask you for your name, email address, mobile telephone number, physical address and other contact details. When you register for an RCOC Exam or an RCOC Requirer Portal Account, you also may choose to provide additional information, including:

• Affiliation data, such as but not limited to if you are a dog owner, trainer, or breeder and/or if you volunteer with adoption centers or rescues.
• Dog demographic data, such as but not limited to the number of dogs you currently own, the breed(s) of your dog(s), the age of your dog(s), and how you came to own your dog(s).
• Requirer demographic data, such as but not limited to the name, physical address, and contact information of an affiliated requiring organization, the intent of use of our Services by the affiliated requiring organization, the number of owners serviced by the affiliated requiring organization, the name and email of owners serviced by the affiliated requiring organization, and the number of dogs serviced by the affiliated requiring organization.

Communications. If you contact us directly, we may receive additional information about you that you provide, such as your name, email address, phone number, the contents of a message or attachments that you may send to us, and other information you choose to provide. We may retain the content of your email messages together with your email address and our responses. When we send you emails, we may track whether you open them to learn how to deliver a better customer experience and improve our Services. Please see the Email Policies section of this Privacy Policy to learn more about how we process information related to emails.

Order information. If you make a purchase through our Services, we may collect information about your order, such as your name, email address, mailing address, phone number, order history, payment information, and other information you choose to provide.

Careers. If you decide that you wish to apply for a job with us, you may submit your contact information and your resume online. We will collect the information you choose to provide on your resume, such as your education and employment experience. You may also apply through LinkedIn and similar websites. If you do so, we will collect the information you make available to us on LinkedIn and similar websites.

Information We Collect When You Use Our Services

Equipment information. When you access the Sites, we will collect data from communications between your computer and our website including the type of computer you use, your Internet connection, your operating system and browser type.

Location information. When you use our Services, we infer your general location information, for example, by using your internet protocol (IP) address used to access our website.

Usage information. To help us understand how you use our Services and to help us improve them, we automatically receive information about your interactions with our Services, like the pages or other content you view, the searches you conduct (e.g., on our website), the activities you perform (such as log details from using our website, Requirer portal and RCOC Exam, or dogGPT), and the dates and times of your activities.

Information From Cookies and Similar Technologies

We and our third party partners collect information using cookies or similar technologies when you use the Services. A cookie is a very small text document, which often includes an anonymous identifier. When you visit a website, the site’s computer asks your computer for permission to store this file in a part of your hard drive specifically designated for cookies. When you visit a website, that site’s computer asks your computer for permission to store this file in a part of your hard drive specifically designated for cookies. Each website can send its own cookie to your browser if your browser’s preferences allow it, but (to protect your privacy) your browser only permits a website to access the cookies it has already sent to you, not the cookies sent to you by other sites.‍ RCO Society reserves the right to use technological equivalents of cookies, including social media pixels. These pixels allow social media sites to track visitors to outside websites so as to tailor advertising messages users see while visiting that social media website. RCO Society reserves the right to use these pixels in compliance with the policies of the various social media sites.

Please review your web browser’s “Help” file to learn how to modify your cookie settings. Please note that if you delete or choose not to accept cookies from the Services, you may not be able to utilize the features of the Services to their fullest potential.

Information We Receive from Third Parties

Third party providers. When you use our Services, we may receive information about you from third party services that you have engaged in connection with your use of our Services. For example, we may receive information about the device you use to interact with our website such as the device type and inferred geo-location.

Other third parties. We may receive additional information about you, such as demographic data, from third parties such as data or marketing partners and combine it with other information we have about you.

See the Third Party Services section of this Privacy Policy regarding how these third parties process your information and our relationship with them.

2. How We Use the Information We Collect

We use the information we collect:

• To provide you with the Services and fulfill your requests, such as to provide, maintain, improve, and enhance our Services; to fulfill your requests, such as processing an order for products or services; to provide technical and customer support; to communicate with you, provide you with updates and other information relating to our Services, including administrative information regarding changes to our terms, conditions, and policies; and to provide information that you request and respond to comments and questions. If you choose not to provide certain data, the quality and functionalities of the Services we provide to you may be impacted.
• To provide you with a personalized experience, such as to understand your interests and preferences in order to personalize our interactions with you.
• For marketing and advertising purposes, such as sending you promotional and advertising materials, consistent with your choices.
• For legal, safety or security reasons, such as
• to find, investigate, and prevent fraud, security threats, or other illegal or harmful activity and to respond to trust and safety issues that may arise.
• for compliance purposes, including enforcing our Terms of Service or other legal rights, or as may be required by applicable laws and regulations, or requested by any judicial process or governmental agency.
• For our own internal business purposes, such as to understand and analyze how you use our Services, improve the Services, and develop new products, services, features, and functionality; and generate de-identified or aggregated data.
• Other, for other purposes for which we will provide specific notice at the time the information is collected.

3. How We Disclose the Information We Collect

As a general rule, we will only share your information including Personal Information that is necessary to the operation, maintenance, and provisions of the Sites and/or Services or to meet our legitimate business interests, as described below. For clarity, we never sell, rent, lease or otherwise transfer your Personal Information to data brokers.

• Vendors and service providers. We may share any information we receive with vendors and service providers retained in connection with the provision of our Services. These third parties may need access to your information to provide the work needed to deploy, configure and/or support the Sites and Services. These can include providers of services such as website hosting, data analysis, order fulfillment, fraud prevention, information technology, customer service, marketing delivery, and other services. For example, we currently use Stripe® as our payment partner. You can learn more about Stripe’s practices by visiting https://stripe.com/privacy.
• Third party partners. We may share personal information with third party business partners in connection with your use of the Services.
• Analytics and advertising partners. To enhance your experience using our Sites, we collaborate with specialized companies in analytics and advertising. These companies utilize technologies like cookies alone or in conjunction with web beacons or other tracking technologies to collect data about you to gather insights about your online interactions, spanning internet sites including our website and third party websites you visit.

We strive to prioritize your privacy and to create the best User experience without compromising your personal data and work hard to provide an experience with our products that remains both enjoyable and secure. Our aim is to understand and improve how you engage with our Sites. For this, we automatically gather details about your interactions with our Sites, such as the pages and content you view, your searches, and the timing of your visits. We use tools like Google® Analytics to collect and process this data. You can learn about Google’s practices by visiting https://www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners and you can exercise the opt-out provided by Google at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

Additionally, we may also engage with third party advertisers to show you relevant ads on our Sites and third party websites, including social media sites, based on your usage of our Sites. This targeted approach helps us connect with those most likely interested in our products. We do not control these third parties’ tracking technologies or how they may be used, if you have any questions about an advertisement or other targeted content, you should contact the responsible provider directly.

 

• As required by law and similar disclosures. We may access, preserve, and disclose your information if we believe doing so is required or appropriate to: (a) comply with law enforcement requests and legal process, such as a court order or subpoena; (b) respond to your requests; or (c) protect your, our, or others’ rights, property, or safety. For the avoidance of doubt, the disclosure of your information may occur if you violate our policies such as posting any objectionable content on or through the Services, or if you are suspected of fraud or other illegal activities.
• Merger, sale, or other asset transfers.  We may transfer your information to service providers, advisors, potential transactional partners, or other third parties in connection with the consideration, negotiation, or completion of a corporate transaction in which we are acquired by or merged with another company, or we sell, liquidate, or transfer all or a portion of our assets. The use of your information following any of these events will be governed by the provisions of this Privacy Policy in effect at the time the applicable information was collected.
• Consent. We may also disclose your information with your permission. For example, for purposes of California Civil Code Section 1798.83 (known as the “Shine the Light” law), we do not disclose personal information, as defined by California Civil Code § 1798.83, to unaffiliated third parties for their direct marketing purposes without your consent.

·       Disclosed by User. When you share Personal Information (for example, by posting comments, contributions or other content to our website) or otherwise interact with public areas of our website such as the Owner Q & A Forum, such Personal Information may be viewed by all Users.

 

4. Third Party Services

Our Services may contain links to other websites, products, or services that we do not own or operate. As mentioned in the section above, third party providers of such third party services may collect (via tracking technologies like cookies or web beacons) and use data regarding your interaction with the third party providers, third party sites, third party services or third party materials that they deliver and with which you interact. Please be aware that this Privacy Policy does not apply to your activities in connection with these third party services or any information you disclose to these third parties. The information you share with these parties will be governed by their own privacy practices. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of these third parties. We do not control these third party providers and cannot warrant the safety of your information in regard to their services. We encourage you to read their privacy policies before interacting with or providing any information to them.

You further acknowledge that we do not and cannot control any third party service provider’s technology or actions and are not responsible for any cessation or interruption of the Services, compatibility with the Services, or any disclosure, modification, or deletion of your data arising from any exchange of your data that may occur between us or other third party providers as part of the Services. 

5. Third Party Payment Processor 

As mentioned above, we currently use Stripe® as our payment processor. Stripe is a third party service provider. If you choose to submit payment to us in regard to the RCOC Exam, your information will be shared with Stripe as necessary to support the transaction. We do not represent or warrant the safety of the information you share with them. Your provision of any information to them is at your sole discretion and risk. Please visit Stripe’s privacy policy at https://stripe.com/privacy to learn how they will process your information.

6. Email Policies

We are committed to keeping your email address confidential. We will maintain the information you send via email in accordance with applicable federal law. We do not sell, rent, or lease your email address to any third parties except as allowed in the How We Disclose Information We Collect section of this Privacy Policy.

If you choose to correspond with us through email, we may retain the content of your email messages together with your email address and our responses. We provide the same protections for these electronic communications that we employ in the maintenance of information received online, by mail, and telephone. This also applies when you register to sign up through any of our forms using your email address. Email communications are not considered a secure means of communication. We do not represent or warrant that your email communications will be securely stored. Communicating with us by email is at your sole discretion and risk. We will not be liable for any loss or breach of security arising from or connected to your email communications with us.

7. Security

We make commercially reasonable efforts to protect your information whether it is information you provide to us or information we collect automatically, by using physical and electronic safeguards designed to improve the security of the information, both during transmission and retention. Although we use commercially reasonable efforts to protect Personal Information, no company, including us, can fully eliminate security risks connected to handling information on the internet. No method of transmission over the internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100% secure. Therefore, while we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect Personal Information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security or that unauthorized access, hacking, data loss, or other data breach will never occur. We cannot warrant the security of any information you provide to us. Your provision of such data is at your sole discretion and at your own risk. 

You can help us maintain the safety of your information. If you have reason to believe that your account or any interaction with us is no longer secure, please contact us immediately using the details in the Contact Information section below.

Please note that email is not recognized as a secure medium of communication. Please see our Email Policies section of this Privacy Policy for more information. For this reason, we request that you do not send Private Information to us by email. However, doing so is allowed, but at your own discretion and risk.

Our third party providers also have security measures in place to protect your data. Please refer to their privacy policy practices. 

8. Your Privacy Choices

We are committed to providing you with access and control over your information. We offer you a number of choices with respect to the processing of your information:

• Opt-out of marketing communications. You can unsubscribe from our promotional emails via the link provided in the emails. Please note that even if you opt-out of receiving promotional messages from us, you will continue to receive administrative messages from us.
• Request more information about your Personal Information. You may request more information about how we process Personal Information and gather information concerning what specific Personal Information we have collected about you.
• Updating your Personal Information. You may update the Personal Information you have provided to us subject to certain exceptions. Please send us your request using the contact details in the Contact Information section below.
• Deleting your Personal Information:   You may delete your account, along with the Personal Information you have provided to us subject to certain exceptions. Please send us your request using the contact details in the Contact Information section below.
• Do not track.  There is no accepted standard on how to respond to Do Not Track signals. We currently do not have the capacity to recognize Do Not Track signals, and we do not respond to such signals.

9. Retention Period

We retain Personal Information for as long as needed or permitted in light of the purpose(s) for which it was obtained and consistent with applicable law.

The criteria used to determine our retention periods include:

• The length of time we have an ongoing relationship with you and provide the Services to you (for example, for as long as you have an account with us or keep using the Services);
• Whether there is a legal obligation to which we are subject (for example, certain laws require us to keep records of your transactions for a certain period of time before we can delete them); or
• Whether retention is necessary in light of our legal position (such as in regard to applicable statutes of limitations, litigation or regulatory investigations).

When we have no ongoing legitimate business need or legal obligation to maintain your Personal Information, we will either delete or anonymize it, or, if this is not possible (for example, because your Personal Information has been stored in backup archives), then we will securely store your Personal Information and isolate it from any further processing until deletion is possible.

10. Children’s Privacy

We do not knowingly collect, maintain, or use Personal Information from children under 18 years of age, and no part of our Services are directed to children. If you are under 18, do not use or provide any information on our Sites. If you learn that a child has provided us with Personal Information in violation of this Privacy Policy, then you may alert us at  hello@goodowners.dog or through our Contact Us page. If we are notified by you with sufficient information to enable us to locate and delete this Personal Information from our databases, we will do so. We are committed to protecting the privacy of children and will always make reasonable efforts to delete such Personal Information upon learning we have collected it.

11. International Visitors

Our Sites are hosted in the United States and our Services are intended for Users in the United States only. If you choose to use our Services from the European Union or other regions of the world with laws governing data collection and use that may differ from U.S. law, then please note that you are transferring your Personal Information outside of those regions to the United States for storage and processing. Privacy laws in the United States may not be as comprehensive as those in your country of residence; however, our policies of collection, processing, and storage of such data shall be governed by the terms of this Privacy Policy. Also, we may transfer your data from the U.S. to other countries or regions in connection with storage and processing of data, fulfilling your requests, and operating the Services, which also may have data protection rules that differ from those of your country.

12. Update Your Information Or Pose A Question

If you have questions about the privacy of your information while using our Services or this Privacy Policy, please contact us at hello@goodowners.dog or through our Contact Us page (https://www.goodowners.dog/contact-us).

13. Changes to This Privacy Policy and Effective Date

This Privacy Policy is effective as of the date listed below. We may, at our sole discretion, update this Privacy Policy as necessary and will list the “updated” date in the Effective Date section at the bottom of this Privacy Policy. The revised version will be effective when it is posted. If we make material changes to how we treat our Users’ Personal Information, we will make reasonable efforts to notify you by email at the email address specified in your account and/or through a notice on our website home page or by other communication. You are responsible for ensuring we have an up-to-date, active and deliverable email address for you, and for periodically visiting our website and this Privacy Policy to check for any changes.‍ By accessing our Sites and using our Services after we make such changes to our Privacy Policy, you agree to accept the updated terms of our policy. You acknowledge and agree that it is your responsibility to review this Privacy Policy periodically and become aware of modifications. Please refer to this Privacy Policy often.  

14. California Privacy Rights 

Under California consumer protection law, if you are a California resident, you have the right to request access to or deletion of your Personal Information, to request the categories of Personal Information that we share with certain categories of third parties for direct marketing services, request that we do not share your Personal Information with third parties for use in direct marketing by them to you, and not to be discriminated against for exercising these rights. To make such requests, please email us at hello@goodowners.dog or through our Contact Us page (https://www.goodowners.dog/contact-us).

We do not direct our services to children, and we do not sell or collect Personal Information from children.

15. Other States

Depending on the applicable law in your state of residence, you may have additional rights. If you have any questions regarding these policies, please contact us.

16. Contact Information

RCO Society, Ltd., located in Waltham, Mass, is the entity responsible for the collection, use, and disclosure of information under this Privacy Policy. If you have questions, comments, or concerns about our processing activities, contact us at hello@goodowners.dog or through our Contact Us page (https://www.goodowners.dog/contact-us).

Have more questions? Feel free to contact us – we’d love to chat!

Effective Date: 11/20/2024