Privacy Policy
This Privacy Statement applies to all websites owned and operated by EpiPaws, Inc. (“EpiPaws”), including https://www.EpiPaws.com/, and any other websites, pages, features, or content we own or operate, and to your use of the EpiPaws Services. Our Privacy Statement is designed to help you better understand how we collect, use, store, process, and transfer your Personal Information when using our Services. Personal Information” is information that can be used to identify you, either alone or in combination with other information. Personal Information includes your Registration Information and may include your User Content. However, it does not include your cat’s Dog or Cat Genetic/Epigenetic Information, Dog or Cat Reported Information, or Aggregated Dog or Cat Information.
Please carefully review this Privacy Statement and our Terms of Service. By using our Services, you acknowledge all of the policies and procedures described in the foregoing documents. If you do not agree with or you are not comfortable with any aspect of this Privacy Statement or our Terms of Service, you should immediately discontinue use of our Services.
1. PERSONAL INFORMATION WE COLLECT.
a. Personal Information you provide directly to us:
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Registration Information. When you purchase our Services or create a EpiPaws account and register your kit, we collect Personal Information, such as your name, date of birth, billing and shipping address, payment information (e.g., credit card) and contact information (e.g. email and phone number).
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User Content. Some of our Services allow you to create and post or upload content, such as data, text, software, music, audio, photographs, graphics, video, messages, or other materials that you create or provide to us through either a public or private transmission (“User Content”). For example, User Content includes any discussions, posts, or messages you send on EpiPaws’s Blogs and Forums. You should be aware that any information you provide or post in these areas may be read, collected, and used by others who access them. To request that we remove or de-identify your Personal Information from our blog or Forums, contact us at info@EpiPaws.com. Please note that whenever you post something publicly, it may sometimes be impossible to remove all instances of the posted information, for example, if someone has taken a screenshot of your posting. Please exercise caution before choosing to share Personal Information publicly on our blogs, Forums or in any other posting. You may be required to register with a third party application to post a comment. To learn how the third party application uses your information, please review the third party’s privacy statement.
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Social media features and widgets. Our Services include Social Media Features, such as the Facebook “Like” or “Share” button and widgets (“Features”). These Features may collect your IP address, which page you are visiting on our site, and may set a cookie to enable the Feature to function properly. They may also allow third-party social media services to provide us information about you, including your name, email address, and other contact information. The information we receive is dependent upon your privacy settings with the social network. Features are either hosted by a third-party or hosted directly on our site. Your interactions with these Features are governed by the privacy statements of the third party companies providing them. You should always review and, if necessary, adjust your privacy settings on third party websites and services before linking or connecting them to our website or Service.
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Third party services (e.g., social media). If you use a third party site, such as Facebook or Twitter, in connection with our Services to communicate with another person (e.g., to make or post referrals or to request that we communicate with another person), then in addition to that person’s name and contact information, we may also collect other information (e.g., your profile picture, network, gender, username, user ID, age range, language, country, friends lists or followers) depending on your privacy settings on the third party site. We do not control the third party site’s information practices, so please review the third party’s privacy statement and your settings on the third party’s site carefully.
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Customer service. When you contact Customer Care or correspond with us about our Services, we collect information to: track and respond to your inquiry; investigate any breach of our Terms of Service, Privacy Statement or applicable laws or regulations; and analyze and improve our Services.
b. Web-Behavior Information.
We and our third party service providers use cookies and similar technologies (such as web beacons, tags, scripts and device identifiers) to collect information on how you use the EpiPaws website (e.g., browser type, domains, page views) (collectively, “Web-Behavior Information”). We use Web-Behavior Information to:
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help us recognize you when you use our Services;
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customize and improve your experience;
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secure our Services;
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analyze usage of our Services (such as to analyze your interactions with the results, reports, and other features of the Service);
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gather demographic information about our user base;
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offer our Services to you;
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monitor the success of marketing programs; and
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serve targeted advertising on our site and on other sites around the Internet.
2. HOW WE USE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION.
a. To provide you with Services and analyze and improve our Services.
We use the information described above in Section 1 to operate, provide, analyze and improve our Services. These activities may include, among other things, using your information in a manner consistent with this Privacy Statement to: open your account, enable purchases and process payments, communicate with you, and implement your requests (e.g., referrals); enable and enhance your use of our website and mobile application(s), including authenticating your visits, providing personalized content and information, and tracking your usage of our Services; contact you about your account, and any relevant information about our Services (e.g. policy changes, security updates or issues, etc.); enforce our Terms of Service and other agreements; monitor, detect, investigate and prevent prohibited or illegal behaviors on our Services, to combat spam and other security risks; and perform research & development activities, which may include, for example, conducting data analysis and research in order to develop new or improve existing products and services, and performing quality control activities. Please see Section 5 below for more information on our analytics and advertising activities.
b. To process, analyze and deliver your Dog or Cat’s Genetic/Epigenetic Information.
As described above, to receive your Cat’s Genetic Information, you must create a EpiPaws account, register your kit, and submit your dog or cat’s saliva sample to our laboratory, which processes and analyzes your dog or cat’s sample to provide us with your Dog or cat’s raw dog or Cat Genetic/epigenetic Information. Once we receive your dog or cat’s raw Dog or Cat Genetic Information, we further analyze it to provide you with our reports, dependent on the Service purchased. EpiPaws continuously works to improve our Services based on our research and product development, and genetic associations identified in scientific literature. If you are eligible to receive additional reports or updates in the future, you may be notified of or may directly access these updates.
c. To Participation in EpiPaws Research.
You have the choice to participate in EpiPaws Research by applying through the Research section of our website. “EpiPaws Research” refers to research aimed at publication in peer-reviewed journals and other research conducted by EpiPaws, or by sharing our data on an aggregated level with other academics, researchers or companies to promote the study of animal health.
EpiPaws Research may be sponsored by, conducted on behalf of, or in collaboration with third parties, such as non-profit foundations, academic institutions or other companies. EpiPaws Research may study a specific group or breed, identify potential areas or targets for product development, conduct or support the development of new features, diagnostics or devices to diagnose, predict or treat medical or other health conditions, work with public, private and/or non-profit entities on genetic research initiatives, or otherwise create, commercialize, and apply this new knowledge to improve animal health care.
Your Dog or Cat’s Dog or Cat Genetic/Epigenetic Information and/or Dog or Cat Reported Information will be used for EpiPaws Research. However, it will not be linked to your Registration Information or your cat’s name.
Withdrawing your Consent. You may withdraw your consent to participate in EpiPaws Research at any time by contacting us at info@EpiPaws.com. EpiPaws will not include your dog or cat’s Dog or Cat Genetic/Epigenetic Information or Dog or Cat Reported Information in studies that start more than 30 days after you withdraw (it may take up to 30 days to withdraw your information after you withdraw your consent). Any research involving your dog or cat’s data that has already been performed or published prior to your withdrawal from EpiPaws Research will not be reversed, undone, or withdrawn. You may also discontinue your participation in EpiPaws Research by deleting your EpiPaws account.
d. To recruit you for external research.
Research is an important aspect of EpiPaws’s Services and we want to ensure interested participants are aware of additional opportunities to contribute to interesting, novel scientific research conducted by academic institutions, healthcare organizations, pharmaceutical companies, and other groups. If you have chosen to participate in EpiPaws Research, from time to time we may inform you of third party research opportunities for which you may be eligible. For example, if a university tells us about a new feline cancer research project, we may send an email to EpiPaws research participants who potentially fit the relevant eligibility criteria based on their dog or cat’s Dog or Cat Reported Information to make them aware of the research project and provide a link to participate with the research organization conducting the study.
e. To provide customer support.
When you contact Customer Care, we may use or request Personal Information, as necessary to answer your questions, resolve disputes, and/or investigate and troubleshoot problems or complaints. In some instances, we may be required to process one customer’s Personal Information to resolve another customer’s dispute or request. For example, if a customer reports behavior that violates our Terms of Service, we will separately process both customers’ Personal Information and respond separately to each individual as appropriate. We will not share your Personal Information with another customer without your consent.
f. To conduct surveys or polls and obtain testimonials.
We value your feedback and may send you surveys, polls, or requests for testimonials to improve and optimize our Services. You are in control of the information you would like to share with us.
g. To provide you with marketing communications.
By creating a EpiPaws account, you are agreeing that we may send you product and promotional emails or notifications about our Services, and offers on new products, services, promotions or contests. You can unsubscribe from receiving these marketing communications at any time. To unsubscribe, click the email footer “unsubscribe”. You may not opt-out of receiving non-promotional messages regarding your account, such as technical notices, purchase confirmations, or Service-related emails.
3. HOW WE SHARE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION WITH THIRD PARTIES.
a. General service providers.
We share Personal Information with our third party service providers, as necessary for them to provide their services to us and help us perform our contract with you. EpiPaws engages some third party service providers to assist in supporting our Services, including in the following areas:
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Order fulfillment and shipping. Our payment processor processes certain Registration Information, such as your billing address and credit card information, as necessary to enable you to purchase a EpiPaws kit from the EpiPaws.com online store. Our distribution centers ship your kit(s) to you, and in some cases help return your kit safely to our laboratory so your sample can be processed.
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Customer Care support. Our Customer Care team uses a number of tools to help organize and manage the requests we receive. These tools help to ensure we provide timely, high quality support.
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Cloud storage, IT, and Security. Our cloud storage providers provide secure storage for information in EpiPaws databases, ensure that our infrastructure can support continued use of our Services by EpiPaws customers, and protect data in the event of a natural disaster or other disruption to the Service. Our IT and security providers assist with intrusion detection and prevention measures to stop any potential attacks against our networks. We have these third party experts perform regular penetration tests and periodically audit EpiPaws’s security controls.
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Marketing and analytics. When you use our Services, including our website or mobile app(s), our third party service providers may collect Web-Behavior Information about your visit, such as the links you clicked on, the duration of your visit, and the URLs you visited. This information can help us improve site navigability and assess our Marketing campaigns. Please see Section 5 below for more information on our analytics and advertising activities.
NOTE: Our service providers act on EpiPaws’s behalf. We implement procedures and maintain contractual terms with each service provider to protect the confidentiality and security of your information. However, we cannot guarantee the confidentiality and security of your information due to the inherent risks associated with storing and transmitting data electronically.
b. “Targeted advertising” service providers.
We permit third party advertising networks and providers to collect Web-Behavior Information regarding the use of our Services to help us to deliver targeted online advertisements (“ads”) to you. They use cookies and similar technologies, to gather information about your browser’s or device’s visits and usage patterns on our Services and on other websites over time, which helps to better personalize ads to match your interests, and to measure the effectiveness of ad campaigns.
c. As required by law.
Under certain circumstances your Personal Information may be subject to processing pursuant to laws, regulations, judicial or other government subpoenas, warrants, or orders. For example, we may be required to disclose Personal Information in coordination with regulatory authorities in response to lawful requests by public authorities, including to meet national security or law enforcement requirements. EpiPaws will preserve and disclose any and all information to law enforcement agencies or others if required to do so by law or in the good faith belief that such preservation or disclosure is reasonably necessary to: (a) comply with legal or regulatory process (such as a judicial proceeding, court order, or government inquiry) or obligations that EpiPaws may owe pursuant to ethical and other professional rules, laws, and regulations; (b) enforce the EpiPaws Terms of Service and other policies; (c) respond to claims that any content violates the rights of third parties; or (d) protect the rights, property, or personal safety of EpiPaws, its employees, its users, its clients, and the public.
d. Business transactions.
In the event that EpiPaws goes through a business transition such as a merger, acquisition by another company, or sale of all or a portion of its assets your Personal Information will likely be among the assets transferred. In such a case, your information would remain subject to the promises made in any pre-existing Privacy Statement.
4. YOUR CHOICES.
a. Access to your account.
We provide access to your Personal Information within your EpiPaws account. If you lose access to your EpiPaws account or account email address, please contact Customer Care for assistance. If you lose access to your EpiPaws account, in certain circumstances, we may require that you submit additional information sufficient to verify your identity before providing access or otherwise releasing information to you. If you choose not to submit the required documentation, or the information provided is not sufficient for the purposes sought, EpiPaws will not be able to sufficiently verify your identity in order to complete your request.
You may access, correct or update most of your Registration Information on your own within your Account Settings. Please note that you may not be able to delete User Content that has been shared with others through the Service and that you may not be able to delete information that has been shared with third parties.
b. Marketing communications.
As noted above, you may be asked to opt-in to receive product and promotional emails or notifications when creating your EpiPaws account depending on where you are located. You can always click the “unsubscribe” button at the bottom of promotional email communications to opt-out.
c. Account deletion.
If you no longer wish to participate in our Services, or no longer wish to have your Personal Information be processed, you may delete your EpiPaws account and Personal Information within your Account Settings. Once you submit your request, we will send an email to the email address linked to your EpiPaws account detailing our account deletion policy and requesting that you confirm your deletion request. Once you confirm your request to delete your account and data, your account will no longer be accessible while we process your request. Once you confirm your request, this process cannot be cancelled, undone, withdrawn, or reversed. When your account is deleted, all associated Personal Information is deleted and any stored samples are discarded, subject to the following limitations:
5. THIRD PARTY ANALYTICS AND ADVERTISING.
We use cookies, web beacons, session replay/screen capture, and other similar technologies to collect Web-Behavior Information as described in Section 1 above.
You can choose to have your computer warn you each time a cookie is being sent, or you can choose to turn off all cookies. You do this through your browser settings. Since every browser is a little different, look at your browser's Help Menu to learn the correct way to modify your cookies.
However, if you turn cookies off, some of the features of our Site may not function properly.
Advertisers may also use technologies like cookies and web beacons to enable them to recognize your computer each time they send you an advertisement even when you are visiting another site. As a result, the advertiser would have the ability to deliver targeted advertisements that they believe would be of most interest to you. We do not have access to or control of the cookies that may be placed on your computer by third-party advertisers.
You can opt-out of receiving targeted ads from advertisers and ad networks that are members of the Network Advertising Initiative (NAI) or who follow the Digital Advertising Alliance’s Self-Regulatory Principles for Online Behavioral Advertising by visiting the NAI Website and the DAA Website.
In addition, some web browsers and devices allow you to broadcast a preference that your activities online not be “tracked.” At this time, our Services do not take action in response to “do not track” signals.
As stated above, we may use service providers to help us evaluate use of the Services and advertise to prospective customers. We or our service providers use automated devices and applications to evaluate use of the Sites and to help us improve the Sites, their performance, and user experiences and to serve others with advertisements. These entities may use cookies and other tracking technologies, such as web beacons or Flash LSO, to perform their services.
Specific Service Providers:
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We use Google Analytics, Google AdSense Remarketing, Google Display Network Impression Reporting, Google Demographics and Interests Reporting, which use first-party cookies (like the Google Analytics cookies) and third-party cookies (like the DoubleClick cookie) to compile Technical Data. You can learn more about the information that is shared with Google Analytics here and opt-out of Google Analytics by installing their browser add-on here. We also use Google Custom Match Ads which allow us to personalize our ads that you are served with by providing your email address to Google in hashed form. You can opt-out of Google Match Ads from us by visiting the NAI and DAA websites linked above.
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We use Facebook Custom Audiences which allow us to personalize our ads that you are served with by providing your email address to Facebook in hashed form. You can opt-out of Facebook Custom Audiences ads from us by adjusting your privacy and advertising account settings within Facebook.
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We use Twitter Conversion Tracking and Custom Audiences, which allows us to serve targeted ads and track ad conversions. You can learn more about how to opt-out of ads on Twitter here.
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We use TikTok Custom Audiences, which allows us to serve and measure targeted ads. You can change your personalized ad settings within your TikTok account.
6. SECURITY MEASURES.
EpiPaws takes seriously the trust you place in us. EpiPaws implements physical, technical, and administrative measures to prevent unauthorized access to or disclosure of your information, to maintain data accuracy, to ensure the appropriate use of information, and otherwise safeguard your Personal Information. However, no method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage is 100% secure.
Your Responsibility. Please recognize that protecting your Personal Information is also your responsibility. We ask you to be responsible for safeguarding your password, secret questions and answers, and other authentication information you use to access our Services. You should not disclose your authentication information to any third party and should immediately notify EpiPaws of any unauthorized use of your password. EpiPaws cannot secure Personal Information that you release on your own or that you request us to release.
7. CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY STATEMENT.
We may change this Privacy Statement from time to time. Whenever this Privacy Statement is changed in a material way, we will provide you with notice before the changes are made effective. By continuing to access or use the Services after the changes are effective, you agree to be bound by the revised Privacy Statement.
8. CONTACT INFORMATION.
If there are any questions regarding this privacy policy, you may contact us using the information below.
https://EpiPaws.com/
EpiPaws, Inc.
1931 Cordova Rd Pmb 2028, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33316-2157
(954) 399-3850
*This Privacy Statement was last updated on January 12, 2024.