Privacy Policy

Effective date: May 11, 2026

Hot Dogz respects your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how Hot Dogz collects, uses, stores, and shares information when you use the Hot Dogz mobile application, website, and related services. Hot Dogz is a dog-walking marketplace that connects dog owners with independent dog walkers. This policy is intended as a public-facing privacy notice for users and app store review purposes.

1. Information Hot Dogz Collects

Hot Dogz may collect the following categories of information:

• Account and contact information, including your name, email address, phone number, mailing address, login details, and profile information.
• Dog and booking information, including your dog's name, gender, breed, age, size, behavior notes, medical notes, walk preferences, booking details, and service history.
• Precise location information, including GPS data collected during walks to track routes, confirm services, support safety features, and provide walk updates.
• Communications and user-generated content, including in-app messages, support requests, reviews, photos, videos, and other content you choose to upload or send through Hot Dogz. In-app chat and messaging may be provided by Stream or a similar communications provider acting on Hot Dogz's behalf.
• Payment and transaction information, including billing details, transaction records, payout information, and limited payment-related information. Payment card details are collected and processed by Hot Dogz's payment provider, Stripe, and are not stored in full by Hot Dogz.
• Device and usage information, including IP address, browser type, mobile device identifiers, app activity, crash information, analytics data, and similar technical information.
• Identity verification and background check information, including information submitted by or about walkers as part of mandatory screening, identity verification, eligibility review, and compliance processes. These checks may be conducted through Certn or a similar background-check provider acting on Hot Dogz's behalf.

2. How Hot Dogz Collects Information

Hot Dogz collects information:

• directly from you when you create an account, complete your profile, make a booking, apply to be a walker, contact support, use the app, or participate in an optional photo shoot offered through Hot Dogz;
• automatically through your device and app usage, including analytics tools and location permissions;
• from service providers that help operate Hot Dogz, such as payment processors, cloud providers, analytics providers, communications providers, and background-check providers; and
• from other users where relevant to a booking, dispute, safety issue, or photo-shoot service.

3. How Hot Dogz Uses Information

Hot Dogz may use personal information to:

• create and manage user accounts;
• match customers with walkers and operate bookings;
• process payments, payouts, cancellations, and refunds;
• provide precise GPS walk tracking, walk summaries, and related safety features;
• conduct and review any walker background checks and identity verification;
• facilitate communication between customers and walkers;
• provide customer support and resolve disputes;
• operate and deliver optional photo-shoot services;
• improve, maintain, personalize, and secure the app and website;
• detect, investigate, and prevent fraud, abuse, safety incidents, and violations of the law or platform rules; and
• comply with legal, regulatory, tax, insurance, and enforcement obligations.

4. How Hot Dogz Shares Information

Hot Dogz may share information:

• with other users as needed to provide the service, such as sharing relevant dog, booking, contact details, and photo-shoot content between a customer and a walker;
• with vendors and service providers that help Hot Dogz operate, such as Stripe (payments and payouts), Stream (in-app messaging), Certn (background checks), analytics tools, cloud hosting providers, customer support tools, and communications providers;
• with legal, insurance, safety, or professional advisers where reasonably necessary in connection with the provision of the service;
• with law enforcement, regulators, courts, or other third parties where required by law or reasonably necessary to protect users, animals, Hot Dogz, or the public; and
• in connection with a merger, financing, acquisition, restructuring, sale of assets, or similar corporate transaction.

Hot Dogz does not sell personal information for money. Hot Dogz may share information with service providers for business and operational purposes consistent with this Privacy Policy.

5. Firebase and Service Providers

Hot Dogz uses Firebase and related Google services to support core app functionality, such as cloud hosting, authentication, databases, storage, analytics, crash reporting, push notifications, and app performance monitoring, depending on which services are enabled. As a result, certain user and device information may be processed by Google or Firebase on Hot Dogz's behalf in accordance with Hot Dogz's instructions and the applicable provider terms.

Hot Dogz also uses other third-party providers to run key parts of the service, including Stripe for payments and payouts, Stream for in-app messaging, and Certn for walker background checks. These providers are permitted to process information only as needed to provide services to Hot Dogz, subject to their legal and contractual obligations.

6. GPS Tracking and Location Data

Hot Dogz may collect precise GPS location of a walker's device during walks solely for the purposes of rendering the service. This helps verify that booked services were completed, allows customers to view route and timing information, and supports trust and safety functions. Hot Dogz will not make a user's precise live location publicly available, but location information, if enabled, may be visible to the relevant customer or walker as necessary to provide the service. Hot Dogz only processes precise location data during the time of a walk and does not retain the precise location data following the completion of a walk.

You can control some location permissions through your device settings, but disabling location access may limit or prevent certain Hot Dogz features from working.

7. Walker Background Checks

If you apply to become a walker, Hot Dogz may collect or receive information needed to verify your identity, review eligibility, and conduct screening through third-party providers such as Certn, subject to applicable law. By applying to be a walker, you authorize Hot Dogz and its service providers to process the information reasonably necessary for those checks, subject to applicable law.

8. Links to Third-Party Services

The Platform may contain links to third-party websites and services, with which we have no affiliation. A link to any third-party service does not mean that we endorse it or the quality or accuracy of information presented on it. If you decide to visit a third-party service, you are subject to its privacy policy and practices and not this Privacy Policy. We encourage you to carefully review the legal and privacy notices of all other digital services that you visit.

9. Data Retention

Hot Dogz retains information for as long as reasonably necessary to provide the service, maintain business and legal records, investigate incidents, resolve disputes, enforce agreements, and comply with legal obligations. Retention periods may vary depending on the type of information and the reason it was collected.

10. Data Security

Hot Dogz uses reasonable administrative, technical, and organizational safeguards designed to protect personal information. However, no system can be guaranteed to be completely secure, and users should take steps to protect their account credentials and devices. Furthermore, any information you transmit to us may not be secure during transmission. We recommend that you do not use unsecured channels to communicate sensitive or confidential information to us. Please do not share the password you use to access your account with anyone else.

11. Your Choices and Rights

Depending on your place of residence, you may have some or all of the rights set out below in relation to your personal information in accordance with applicable data protection law. However, these rights are not absolute, may only apply in certain circumstances and, in certain cases, we may decline your request to the extent permitted by law.

• Right to Notice. You have the right to be informed of our privacy practices regarding the collection, use, sale, and sharing of personal information.
• Right of Access. You may have the right to request access to personal information we hold about you.
• Right to Request Deletion. You may have the right to request that we delete your personal information that we have collected from you and are maintaining. Please be advised, however, that exceptions under the applicable state law may allow us to retain and use certain personal information notwithstanding your deletion request.
• Right to Rectification. You may have the right to request the rectification of inaccurate personal information we hold about you.
• Right to Data Portability. You may have the right to receive a copy of the personal information we hold about you and to request its transfer to a third party, in certain circumstances and subject to certain exceptions.
• Right to Opt-Out of Sale or Sharing for Targeted Advertising. You may have the right to opt out of the "sale" or "sharing" of your personal information or to opt out of the processing of your personal information for purposes considered to be "targeted advertising", as defined in applicable privacy laws.
• Managing Communication Preferences. We may send you promotional emails. You may opt out at any time by using the unsubscribe option included in our emails. If you unsubscribe, we may still send you non-promotional emails, for example relating to your account or orders you have placed.

Exercising Your Data Privacy Rights

If you have provided the Company with your personal information, you may exercise the above rights by submitting a verifiable consumer request to us by email at info@thehotdogz.com.

We will not discriminate against you in any manner prohibited by the applicable law for exercising any of your data privacy rights. In accordance with applicable law, you may designate an authorized agent to submit a privacy rights request on your behalf. We may ask authorized agents to submit proof of their authority to make a request, such as a valid power of attorney or proof that they have signed permission from the consumer who is the subject of the request. In some cases, we may be required to contact you to verify your identity or confirm the authorized agent has permission to submit the request.

When submitting a request, your verifiable request must include the reference "Request for Privacy Information" in the subject line, and the body of the message must:

• provide sufficient information that allows us to reasonably verify that you are the person whose personal information we have collected;
• describe your request with sufficient detail; and
• include an e-mail address or mailing address, as applicable, for us to send our response.

12. Children

Hot Dogz is not intended for children to use independently and does not knowingly collect a minor's information. If Hot Dogz learns that it has collected personal information from a child in a way that violates applicable law, Hot Dogz may delete that information and take appropriate action.

13. International and U.S. State Privacy Disclosures

Users in certain jurisdictions, including California, may have additional rights or disclosures under applicable privacy laws. Hot Dogz may provide supplemental notices or request-handling procedures where required.

14. Changes to This Policy

Hot Dogz may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. If changes are made, Hot Dogz will post the updated version on the website or in the app and update the effective date above. Continued use of Hot Dogz after the updated policy becomes effective means the user acknowledges the revised policy, to the extent permitted by law.

15. Contact

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or Hot Dogz's privacy practices, contact: