Privacy Policy
Last updated: [TO BE FILLED ON LAUNCH DAY]
Effective date: [TO BE FILLED ON LAUNCH DAY]
Who we are
This website (dote.pet) is operated by dote, based in India ("we", "our", "us").
If you have a question about your data or about this policy, you can reach us at:
- Email: privacy@dote.pet
- Postal address: Chennai 600031, India
What this policy covers
This policy explains what personal data we collect, why we collect it, who we share it with, how long we keep it, and your rights as a Data Principal under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 ("DPDP Act").
It applies to everything you do on dote.pet — reading articles, taking the Allergy Checker, signing up for occasional emails, or contacting us.
We've written it in plain language. If anything is unclear, email us.
What we collect, when, and why
1. When you take the Allergy Checker quiz
What you give us:
- Your pet's species (dog or cat), age, food details, symptoms, environmental factors, your city, and your pet's name.
- Your email address and first name (only if you choose to receive your saved result by email — this is optional).
Why:
- To generate a personalised result for your pet.
- If you opt in, to email you a five-part walkthrough of how to act on your result.
Lawful basis under the DPDP Act: Your consent. You can withdraw consent at any time by emailing privacy@dote.pet or clicking unsubscribe in any email.
2. When you give us your email through the website footer
What you give us: Email address and first name.
Why: To occasionally let you know when we publish something we think you'll find useful. There is no scheduled newsletter.
Lawful basis: Your consent.
3. When you contact us through the contact form or by email
What you give us: Name, email address, basic details about your pet (if you choose to share them), and the contents of your message.
Why: To reply to you.
Lawful basis: Your consent (and a "legitimate use" of responding to a request you initiated).
4. When you submit a story to us
What you give us: Pet's name, your name, city, photos, and the story you write. Email address.
Why: To consider it for publication on dote.pet, and to contact you if we have follow-up questions or want to publish it.
Lawful basis: Your consent. We will not publish your story without confirming with you first.
5. When you simply visit the website
What we collect automatically (via Cloudflare Web Analytics):
- Aggregate, non-identifying data: pages visited, country, device type, referring website, visit duration.
- Cloudflare Web Analytics is privacy-respecting. It does not use cookies, does not track you across sites, and does not collect your IP address in identifiable form.
Why: To understand which articles are useful and which aren't.
Lawful basis: Considered a legitimate use under the DPDP Act because the data is non-identifying and aggregate.
6. Cookies
We do not use advertising cookies. We do not use tracking cookies. The only browser storage we use is whatever your browser strictly requires to load the site (such as session storage to keep the page you're on).
If we ever add cookies that need consent, we will ask first with a banner.
What we don't collect and what we don't do
- We don't sell your data.
- We don't share your data with advertisers.
- We don't run ads on this site.
- We don't track you across other websites.
- We don't ask for any sensitive personal data (financial, health, biometric, government IDs).
- We don't knowingly collect data from anyone under 18 (see "Children" below).
Who we share your data with
We use a small number of trusted service providers to run the website and the email system. They process data on our behalf and are not allowed to use it for anything else:
| Service | What they receive | What they do with it | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cloudflare | Anonymous traffic data; routes website traffic | Hosts the website; serves pages quickly; provides aggregate analytics | Global (US + edge locations) |
| MailerLite | Your email address, first name, and quiz answers (if you opted in) | Sends the post-quiz email walkthrough; sends occasional notifications when we publish something | Lithuania / EU |
| Google Search Console & Bing Webmaster | Aggregate, non-personal traffic data only | Helps us improve search visibility | US |
These providers may store and process your data outside India. The DPDP Act allows cross-border transfers unless the Indian government specifically restricts a country (none restricted as of this writing).
We do not share your data with anyone else, except where required by law or a valid legal request from an Indian authority.
How long we keep your data
| Type of data | How long we keep it |
|---|---|
| Email address (newsletter or quiz opt-in) | Until you unsubscribe. After unsubscribe, removed from active lists within 30 days. |
| Quiz answers tied to an opted-in email | Until you unsubscribe or ask us to delete it. |
| Quiz answers without an email (anonymous) | Aggregated for analytics; individual records deleted within 90 days. |
| Contact form messages | Up to 24 months, then deleted unless an active conversation requires longer. |
| Submitted stories (not published) | Up to 12 months, then deleted unless we are still considering them. |
| Submitted stories (published) | Indefinitely while published. You can request takedown at any time. |
| Website analytics | Aggregated data only; no individual records retained. |
If a longer retention period is required by Indian law, we will keep the data only as long as required.
Your rights as a Data Principal
Under the DPDP Act, you have the following rights:
- Right to access — Ask us what personal data we hold about you and how it's being used.
- Right to correction — Ask us to correct anything that's wrong or out of date.
- Right to erasure — Ask us to delete your data. We will do this unless we are legally required to keep it.
- Right to grievance redressal — Raise a complaint about how we've handled your data.
- Right to nominate — Nominate another individual who can exercise your rights in case of your death or incapacity.
To use any of these rights, email privacy@dote.pet with your request. We will respond within 30 days.
You also have the right to withdraw consent at any time. Withdrawing consent will not affect anything we did with your data while consent was valid, but we will stop processing your data going forward.
Grievance Officer
The DPDP Act requires us to name a Grievance Officer. For dote, this is:
Pooja Sengupta
Email: privacy@dote.pet
If you have a complaint about how your data is being handled, please email us first. We will respond within 30 days. If you are not satisfied with our response, you have the right to escalate the complaint to the Data Protection Board of India.
Children
dote.pet is intended for adult pet parents. We do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 18.
The DPDP Act requires verifiable parental consent before processing the personal data of a child (anyone under 18). If you believe a child has submitted personal data to us, email privacy@dote.pet and we will delete it.
We do not run any feature that monitors children, nor do we serve targeted advertising to children.
How we keep your data safe
We use reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect your data, including:
- HTTPS encryption on every page of the website.
- Access to your data is limited to people who need it to operate the site.
- Service providers are chosen for their security posture and are bound by their own data protection commitments.
- We do not store passwords, payment details, government IDs, health records, or biometric data — because we do not collect any of those.
No system is perfectly secure. If a personal data breach affects you, we will notify you and the Data Protection Board of India in accordance with the DPDP Act.
Changes to this policy
We may update this policy from time to time. When we do, we will:
- Update the "Last updated" date at the top.
- Note the change at the bottom of the policy.
- If the change is significant, email subscribers about it.
You are encouraged to check this page occasionally.
Governing law
This policy is governed by the laws of India, including the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, and any rules made under it.
A short note in plain English
We collect very little. We don't sell anything you give us. The only reason to share your email with us is if you want a quiz result saved or want to know when we publish something. You can leave at any time and we will delete what we have. If something here doesn't make sense, email us — we'll explain it.
Change log
- [Launch date] — First version.