Last updated: May 8, 2020

This Privacy Policy explains how PetMD, a webpage operated by Chewy, Inc. and its affiliates (collectively, “PetMD” or ”we”, ”our”, ”us”) collects, uses, processes, transfers, and discloses personal information from visitors to petmd.com, and any other website that links to this Privacy Policy, (collectively, together with all other subdomains thereof, the “Sites”). This Privacy Policy explains the type of information we collect from individuals that visit our Sites , how we store, use, disclose and protect such information, how you can control the use and disclosure of your information, and how your information is protected. Please take the time to read this Privacy Policy to understand how your personal and other information may be handled and used while using the Sites. By using or accessing any element of our Sites, you are, to the extent allowed by applicable law, accepting the practices described in this Privacy Policy. 

COLLECTION OF INFORMATION

We collect information, including ‘personal information’, about you as you use the Sites and interact with us.  As used in this Privacy Policy ‘personal information’ means any information that can be used to identify you. 

Information You Provide Directly to Us

When you submit a comment or question through the Site, subscribe to PetMD communications, or participate in a survey we collect information that identifies you as an individual, such as your name, address, email and phone number, in response to your request for information, or action. If you contact us on a social media site or “like” us on Facebook, we will have information about you as permitted by that social media platform. We may also collect information about your pet, such as name, type, breed, or age and we use this information to tailor Site content that is more specific to you and your pet. 

When you apply to become a pet writer on our Sites, we collect your name, address, clinic information, websites, and your biographical information.  We use this information to communicate with you (including communications regarding business or product opportunities), to evaluate your application, analyze our pet writer needs and practices, or otherwise manage our hiring process and administration. 

Information We Collect Automatically

When you visit the Sites, we collect certain information automatically, regardless of whether you register or request any information from us.  This includes information about your visit to the Sites, existence of cookies, time and duration of use of the Sites, IP address (and information related to that IP address), browser information, browser type, device type, type and version of operating system, page(s) of the Sites visited, date and time of visit, your internet service provider, identity of previous websites visited, and interactions with audio and video content.  Some of this information is collected through the use of log files, cookies, web beacons or pixel tags, and/or other similar tools when you visit the Sites.  Log files record actions that occur on the Sites.  Log files enable us to gather information on browsing habits and visits to certain pages on the Sites.  Cookies are files transferred to your computer to keep records of your use and visit to the Sites.  This allows the Sites to remember information about your visit (like your preferred language, your home page preference and your other settings).  This cookie can make the next time you visit the Sites more useful to you.  We do not use cookies to access or store personal information about you, but we use them to track how many visitors we receive to the Sites.  We also use cookies to understand your internet usage, including other websites that you visit and, occasionally, your exposure to certain internet advertisements as you browse the internet. You can remove persistent cookies by following the instructions provided in your Internet browser’s help file.  If your internet browser is set to reject cookies or you delete cookies, you may not be able to use some features on some websites. We may also use a small piece of code (sometimes referred to as “1×1 clear pixel,” “web beacon” or “clear GIF”) placed in the pages of the Sites to help us gather additional information about which parts of our Sites receive the most visitors and other user traffic patterns, to enable us to better administer our Sites.

When we send newsletters or marketing related communication we may embed pixel tags, cookies or other technologies that report back to us how you interact with the email (e.g., whether an email message was opened, deleted or forwarded, whether a link was clicked).  We use this information for the purpose of understanding our prospective customers and current clients.  If you do not wish to receive marketing emails from us, you may click on the “unsubscribe” link embedded in each such email, or you can contact us and ask to be removed from our email marketing list.

Information We Collect From Other Sources 

You may be able to access our Sites through social media providers. If you come to our Site through a third party social media site such as Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, or Twitter, you give us permission to access, store and use any information that you permit the applicable social media site to share with us in accordance with your privacy settings with the applicable social media service. When you use social media sites with our Site, the social media provider will be able to collect information from you. We may place tags and other data collection mechanisms on our Site from social media providers through which they can collect information about the usage of our Site and their services across multiple devices (such as your smartphone and your computer) for use by both us and the social media provider. We are not responsible or liable for the privacy practices or content of the applicable third party social media provider and we encourage you to review, and if necessary, adjust, your privacy settings with the applicable social media provider before logging in to our Sites through the applicable social media service. Information that we receive from social media providers is stored and used by us in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

Our Site contains content and plugins from social media sites like Facebook (“Like” button), Twitter (“Share to Twitter”), Pinterest (“Pin to Save”), and others.  These plugins allow you to share information from our Sites to your timeline or account.  When you connect to these services, the third parties may store and/or access data (including through the use of cookies and other similar technology) over which we do not have control.  If you are logged into a social media website while visiting our Sites, the social media plugins may allow the social media website to receive information that you visited the PetMD Site and link it to your social media account.  PetMD does not control these sites, and information collected is governed by the privacy statement of the third party company.  You may refer to the privacy policies of each such party to determine their privacy practices, including notice and choice provisions.

USE OF INFORMATION

We use, process and disclose your information we collect for our business purposes, including:

Providing you with the requested product or service and responding to your questions and requests. We use your information to provide you with information you request, for customer service purposes, or to deliver marketing communications or other promotional materials.

Communicating about your account. We may contact you to tell you about changes to this Privacy Policy, our Terms of Use or changes to our Sites, products and programs. We may also tell you about issues with your account.

Improving our products and services. We may use your information to make improvements to our Sites, products and services, including to personalize our service offerings to meet your needs, for back-up purposes and to detect and prevent fraud.

Reviewing Site trends and customer interests and make improvements on the Sites. We may use your information to customize or improve our visitors’ experience with us. We may collect information about your activities on and interactions with various devices and link that information. Through such cross-device linking, we can provide you with a consistent experience across the devices you use. We may also combine information we get from you with information about you we have received from third parties or publicly available sources to assess trends and interests.

Improving marketing communications. We may send you communications about promotions or offers via regular mail, email or other electronic channels, including ads on social media sites. We may use information, including information collected across different online services and collected from the various devices you may use, to deliver marketing communications based on your interests.

Promote our products or services. If you complete a product review, post an article or feedback, or provide any image (e.g., of your pet), we may use your submission for commercial purposes to promote our products and services or send you personalized content including pet portraits, thank you notes and holiday cards.

Other uses We also may use your information with your consent, and as otherwise permitted or required by law.

SHARING OF INFORMATION

We share information to operate our business, deliver and improve our Sites and services, send marketing or other communications related to our business, and for other legitimate business purposes.  We share information, including as follows:

  • Within PetMD and any of our affiliates and subsidiaries for the purposes outlined in this Privacy Policy;

  • With business partners, service providers, authorized third-party agents, or contractors;

  • To complete a transaction you request or authorize such requests with third parties;

  • In connection with, or during negotiations of, any merger, sale of assets, consolidation, restructuring, joint venture, financing, bankruptcy, or acquisition of all or a portion of our business;

  • In response to a request for information by a competent authority if we believe sharing is in compliance with or is required by applicable law, regulation, or legal process;

  • With law enforcement officials, government authorities, or other third parties as needed to comply with legal requirements; to protect the rights, property, or safety of PetMD, its business, you, or others; or as otherwise required by applicable law;

  • In anonymized, aggregated, and/or de-identified form.

PRIVACY OF CHILDREN

The Site is not intended for children and PetMD provides no product or services for children. The Site does not knowingly collect or solicit personal information from a child under 13. However, PetMD does gather and collect information regarding the use of the Site as described in this Privacy Policy.

OPT OUT AND CHOICE

Cookies: 

The Help feature on most browsers will tell you how to prevent your browser from accepting new cookies, how to have the browser notify you when you receive a new cookie, or how to disable cookies altogether. If you set your browser to limit or remove cookies or otherwise block our use of cookies, some Site features may be unavailable or unable to function properly. Your device may not give you the ability to control cookies.

Email marketing opt-out: 

If you wish to opt-out of any marketing email communications you may contact our customer service representatives at the phone number or email address below, under Questions. You also may follow opt-out unsubscribe instructions included in our promotional e-mail. Please note that removal of user information from our database or “opting-out” will not stop marketing or advertising content that is generated for distribution or is otherwise queued for transmission to you prior to the time when we can implement your request. Following receipt of a request from you, we will take reasonable steps to delete your information. If you opt-out of marketing communications, you will continue to receive transactional communications, such as e-mail or text notifications about recall information and other administrative information. Your information will remain in our database, but will be marked as inactive so you do not receive marketing materials from us.

Interest-based advertising opt-out:  

You may learn more about online advertising and opt out of interest-based advertising from online advertising companies that are also members of applicable self-regulatory organizations by visiting their opt-out links below. Your device may be scanned to determine what cookies are stored on your machine and you may select the individual companies that maintain those cookies and opt out of all their individual advertising or all targeted advertising in general.

You may also select a system level advertising preference feature on your device to opt out your device from interest-based advertising in apps. On Apple iOS devices, system level advertising preference may be accessed via Settings – Privacy – Advertising – Limit Ad Tracking. On Android devices, open the Google Settings app from your app drawer or from your operating system's settings menu, tap Ads, and select “Opt-out of Interest-based ads.”

Facebook opt-out: Facebook may provide you with the ability to opt-out of certain advertising practices. See https://www.facebook.com/help/1075880512458213/?helpref=hc_fnav. However, we are unable to control Facebook's practices or disclosures. To opt-out of data collection by other social media services, you should review that provider's privacy practices.

Mobile location settings: If you access our Services through a mobile device, we may also be able to identify the location of your mobile device. You may choose not to share your location details with us by adjusting your mobile device's location services settings. For instructions on changing the relevant settings, please contact your service provider or device manufacturer.

Do-Not-Track:  In addition you may follow the instructions provided for your mobile device or in your internet browser’s help file to change privacy, advertising and tracking settings.

INFORMATION SECURITY

We maintain certain reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards designed to protect the security of the information we collect through the Site. However, no information system can be 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee the absolute security of your information.  In addition, please note that we do not control the communication channel you choose to electronically communicate with us and cannot guarantee secure information transmission.

DATA RETENTION

We may retain your data for as long as we believe there is a business, legal or security reason for doing so, even if you are no longer an active contact.

CHANGES TO THIS POLICY

We may make changes to this Privacy Policy at any time. Any amendments or modifications become effective immediately upon posting.  Continued use of the Site means that you accept our Privacy Policy revisions.

GOVERNING LAW

By choosing to visit our Site, you agree that any dispute over privacy or the terms contained in this Privacy Policy will be governed by the law of the State of Florida, without reference to the choice of law or conflicts of law principles thereof, and will be subject to the dispute resolution clause contained in the terms of use applicable to the Site. You also agree to abide by any limitation on damages contained in the terms of use of our Site.

QUESTIONS

Questions concerning this Privacy Policy may be directed to:

1-800-672-4399
service@chewy.com