Privacy Policy
Effective September 17, 2026.
This policy explains the information WhichPup collects, why it is used, and the choices available to users.
Information you provide
When you create an account or dog profile, we may collect your name, email address, password hash, dog information, location information you choose to provide, photos, captions, profile text and support messages. We never store your plaintext account password.
Voting and technical information
When you use the site, we record information needed to operate and protect voting, including session identifiers, browser information, timestamps and a one-way salted hash derived from the network IP address. The voting database is designed to support abuse review without displaying raw IP addresses to administrators.
Payments
If Pro Profiles are enabled, payments are processed by Stripe. WhichPup receives transaction identifiers, payment status and amounts needed to fulfill the purchase. We do not store full payment card numbers.
How information is used
We use information to operate accounts and dog profiles, calculate rankings, moderate content, prevent abuse, process purchases, send transactional messages and optional owner updates, respond to support requests, measure site performance and improve WhichPup.
Public information
Approved dog profiles are public. A profile may display the dog's name, photo, breed or mix, age information, optional city or state, rescue status, bio, Founding status, competition record and rankings. Owner email addresses are not public.
Analytics and advertising measurement
WhichPup may use Cloudflare Web Analytics and Meta advertising measurement tools. When Meta measurement is enabled, the Meta Pixel and Meta Conversions API may receive information about site events such as page visits, completed registrations and purchases, together with technical information such as the page URL, browser/user-agent information and network IP address. Where available, an account email may be normalized and cryptographically hashed before being sent for measurement and matching. These tools are used to measure advertising performance and improve campaign delivery. Browser privacy settings or content blockers may prevent some browser-based tracking.
Cookies and sessions
WhichPup uses first-party session cookies to keep users signed in, protect forms and distinguish voting sessions. We also use an anonymous first-party visitor identifier to measure public pageviews, approximate unique visitors and recent active-site usage. This first-party traffic tracker does not store raw IP addresses and its detailed pageview history is retained for a limited period. Advertising services may also use identifiers such as Meta's first-party browser identifiers when those technologies are not blocked by the user's browser or device settings.
Transactional email includes verification, password reset, moderation and purchase-related messages. If owner digests are enabled, account holders may also receive competition updates. Contact hello@whichpup.com to request removal from nonessential updates.
Admin web app and push notifications
Administrators who choose to enable browser push notifications may have a Web Push subscription endpoint and basic device/browser information stored so WhichPup can deliver administrative alerts and update the installed admin app badge. Push can be disabled from Admin Settings or the device's notification settings.
Retention and security
We retain information for as long as reasonably necessary to operate the service, maintain competition integrity, address disputes and meet legal obligations. We use access controls, encrypted transport where supported and password hashing, but no online system can guarantee absolute security.
Children
WhichPup is not directed to children under 13 and does not knowingly create accounts for children under 13.
Your requests
For access, correction or deletion requests relating to your account, contact hello@whichpup.com. Some competition and transaction records may be retained when necessary for fraud prevention, legal obligations or accurate historical records.
Changes
We may update this policy as WhichPup adds features or legal requirements change. The effective date above will be updated when material revisions are posted.