Privacy Policy

1Scope

This policy covers the BK9S website, platform, mobile apps, and any service that links to it. Bonnie K9 System LLC is the controller of personal information collected under this policy, except for data that organizations enter about their own clients, which is covered in Section 6.

It applies to 3 groups: people with BK9S accounts, people whose information an organization enters into BK9S, and people who appear in Screening Data.

2What we collect

Information you give us

• Account details: name, email, phone, password, profile photo, address or general location.
• Pet records: your dog's name, breed, age, photos, microchip number, vaccination and medical history, behavior notes, and any files you upload.
• Organization details: organization name, licenses, staff seats, service area, and the data you enter about your clients and animals.
• Messages you send through the platform, support requests, and feedback.
• Payment information, which goes directly to Stripe. We see the last 4 digits, card type, and billing address, not the full card number.

Information we collect automatically

• Device and log data: IP address, browser, operating system, device identifiers, pages viewed, actions taken, timestamps, and crash reports.
• Approximate location derived from IP address. Precise location only if you turn it on for a feature that needs it, such as finding a nearby vet.
• Cookies and similar technologies, described in our Cookie Policy.

Information from other sources

• Public records, court filings, government registries, and news reporting, which feed Screening Data. See Section 4.
• Information from organizations that enter you as a client, adopter, foster, or contact.
• Information from third parties you connect, such as a veterinary records system or a sign-in provider.

We do not collect Social Security numbers, government ID numbers, or financial account numbers from users.

3Why we use it

We do not sell your personal information. We do not use your personal information for targeted advertising. We do not use pet health records for any purpose other than running the features you use.

4Screening Data

BK9S compiles publicly available information about individuals with a documented history of animal cruelty, neglect, or related offenses, and makes it available to organizations making animal placement and welfare decisions. If you appear in Screening Data, this section is about you, whether or not you have a BK9S account.

What we collect and from where

Name, aliases, approximate age or date of birth where published, general location, the offense, the court or agency, the date, the disposition, and a link to the public source. Sources are court records, government animal-abuse registries, published sentencing records, and news reporting. We do not collect data from social media profiles, private databases, or data brokers.

How it is used

Organizations with verified accounts can search it when deciding whether to place, foster, board, or release an animal to a person. We require organizations to verify a match independently and prohibit them from using it for employment, credit, housing, insurance, or licensing decisions. Individual dog owners cannot run searches on other people.

Your rights over this data

• Request a copy of what we hold about you.
• Dispute a record. If we cannot substantiate it from the public source, we remove it.
• Request removal where the underlying record has been sealed, expunged, vacated, or overturned. Send the court order or equivalent.
• Request removal on the basis of mistaken identity.

Send requests to disputes@bk9s.org. We respond within [ 30 ] days. We do not remove accurate, current public records on request alone, because the purpose of the data is to protect animals from people with a verified history of harming them.

5Who we share with

• Other users, at your direction. When you share a pet record with a vet, send a message, or an organization shares a case with another organization, the recipient sees what you shared.
• Service providers. Hosting (Cloudflare), payments (Stripe), email delivery, analytics, customer support tooling, and error monitoring. They may only use your data to provide their service to us.
• Organizations you interact with. If you apply to adopt or book a service, the organization receives the information in your application.
• Legal and safety. When required by law, subpoena, or court order, or when we believe in good faith that disclosure is needed to prevent harm to a person or animal, investigate fraud or abuse, or protect our rights.
• Business transfers. If BK9S is acquired, merges, or sells assets, your data transfers with the business. We will notify you before your data becomes subject to a different privacy policy.

We do not share Screening Data with data brokers, advertisers, or anyone outside verified organization accounts and law enforcement acting under legal process.

6Organization data

When a veterinary practice, rescue, shelter, or other organization enters information about its clients, adopters, fosters, or their animals, that organization is the controller of that data and BK9S is its processor. We process it only to provide the service to the organization, under its instructions and our Terms of Service.

If you are a client of an organization and have a question about data it entered about you, contact that organization. We will help organizations respond to your requests but cannot act on them without the organization's instruction.

7How long we keep it

We keep data longer when a legal hold, dispute, or investigation requires it.

8Your rights

Wherever you live, you can:

• Access the personal information we hold about you and get a copy in a portable format.
• Correct information that is wrong.
• Delete your account and data, subject to the retention rules above.
• Opt out of marketing email at any time using the unsubscribe link or your settings.
• Object to or restrict processing based on legitimate interest, where applicable law gives you that right.
• Withdraw consent where processing relies on it.

To exercise a right, use [ account settings path ] or email privacy@bk9s.org. We will verify your identity before acting, usually by confirming control of the account email. An authorized agent may act for you with written permission. We respond within 45 days (CCPA) or 1 month (GDPR), extendable once if the request is complex. We will not treat you differently for exercising a right.

California residents

You have the rights listed above under the CCPA/CPRA, including the right to know the categories and specific pieces of personal information we collect, the right to delete, the right to correct, and the right to opt out of sale or sharing. We do not sell or share personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising, so there is nothing to opt out of. Categories collected in the past 12 months: identifiers, commercial information, internet activity, geolocation (approximate), and, for people in Screening Data, publicly available records. See Section 2 for sources and Section 5 for recipients.

9Security

We encrypt data in transit and at rest, restrict staff access to what their role requires, log access to Screening Data, require multi-factor authentication for organization and staff accounts, and test the platform for vulnerabilities. No system is perfectly secure. If a breach affects your data, we will notify you and the relevant regulators as the law requires. Report security concerns to security@bk9s.org.

10Children

BK9S is for adults. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18, and we do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 13 under any circumstances. If you believe a child has given us information, contact privacy@bk9s.org and we will delete it.

11Where data lives

We store and process data in the United States. If you use the service from outside the US, your data crosses borders to get here. Where the law requires a transfer mechanism, we rely on North Carolina law.

12Automated features

Some features use automated processing, including matching a search query against Screening Data and generating general pet-care information. No automated feature makes a decision with legal or similarly significant effect on you without a person involved. Organizations, not BK9S, decide what to do with a screening match, and we require them to verify it first.

We do not use personal information or user content to train machine learning models.

13Changes

We may update this policy. For material changes we will notify you by email or in-app message at least [ 30 ] days before they take effect. The current version and a changelog are at bk9s.org/privacy.

14Contact

Bonnie K9 System LLC
3466 Hickory Nut Gap Rd, Newland NC 28657
Privacy requests: privacy@bk9s.org
Screening Data disputes: disputes@bk9s.org
Security: security@bk9s.org