PugMug Privacy Policy
Effective date: November 8, 2023
Introduction and Scope
This PugMug Privacy Policy (“Privacy Policy”) is delivered on behalf of Volition, Inc. (“Volition”, “we”, “us”, and “our”). It governs the Personal Data (as defined below) collected from or processed about you when you use the PugMug application (“PugMug”, “app”, and “application”), including by registering with, accessing, or otherwise using the application (collectively referred to herein as “Use”).
We provide this Privacy Policy to explain our practices for collecting, using, processing, and disclosing the Personal Data we process about PugMug users (“users”, “you”, or “your”, as applicable), and to tell you about the rights you may have about your Personal Data and choices you may be able to make about it. By Personal Data, we mean (i) information associated with an identified or identifiable natural person and (ii) protected as personal data under applicable data protection laws.
This Privacy Policy applies to Personal Data we or any third party collects from you offline or on any of our other apps (e.g., Volition) or websites, including websites you may access through PugMug.
Please read this Privacy Policy carefully to understand our privacy practices. We also encourage you to get acquainted with our Terms of Use to understand how we provide services to you. For information on how we process photos in connection with various features of our app, including the Magic Avatars feature, please see Section 3: How We Process, Share, and Retain Your Photos and Image Data.
If you do not want us to process your Personal Data as described in this Privacy Policy, please do not Use PugMug.
Questions? If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or PugMug, please contact us at privacy@pugmug.ai. Please see Section 15: How to Contact Us for additional contact information.
Table of Contents
1. Personal Data We Collect and How We Collect It
2. Personal Data You Provide to Us Directly
3. How We Process, Share, and Retain Your Photo and Image Data
4. Personal Data We Collect Automatically
5. The Purposes and Our Legal Bases for Processing Your Personal Data
6. To Whom We Disclose Personal Data
7. Cookies, Software Development Kits, and Other Tracking Technologies
8. Your Rights to Your Personal Data
9. Your Choices About Our Communications With You
12. Cross-Border Data Transfers
14. Third-Party Websites And Services
15. Notice for California and Other US Residents
15. How To Contact Us, Eea/Uk Representative, and Data Protection Officer
16. Changes To Our Privacy Policy
Personal Data We Collect and How We Collect It
We may collect Personal Data from and about you: Directly from you when you provide it to us. Automatically when you Use PugMug. Information collected automatically may include Usage details and internet protocol (“IP”) addresses. From third parties, for example, our service providers, partners, and vendors.
Personal Data You Provide to Us Directly
When you use PugMug, you may provide Personal Data to us directly or to service providers that act on our behalf. The Personal Data you provide depends on which features of PugMug you Use and how you interact with the app.
Photos and (or) that you upload to PugMug. If you grant us permission to access your camera or your device’s photo library, we will process the photos and you select to upload to PugMug to provide features of the app you choose to Use. For more information regarding how we process your photos, please see Section 3: How We Process, Share, and Retain Your Photos and Image Data.
Account Information. When you create a PugMug account, we ask you to provide your email address. If you log in with your Apple ID, we will receive your Apple ID and may receive the email address associated with your Apple ID, depending on your Apple settings. If you log in via your Google or Facebook Account, we will receive your associated email address.
When you contact us or communicate with us, we will collect and receive records and copies of your correspondence with us and the contact details that you have provided us while making your inquiries (such as your name, postal address, email address, and phone number or any other identifier by which you may be contacted).
How We Process, Share, and Retain Your Photo and Image Data
We process your photos to provide you with the features of the PugMug application you choose to Use. In doing so, when you upload photos to PugMug, we process them using technology that identifies data that is in the photos and provides us with information, such as information about your photo (collectively, “Image Data”). The following describes how we process, share, and retain your photos and Image Data in connection with various features of the PugMug app. Please note, however, that we may retain your data for longer periods than set forth below where required to do so by law.
To generate PugMug AI-generated portraits (“Portraits”), you must upload 8-20 photos to PugMug and select the type of pet (e.g., Dog or Cat). The photos you upload are stored on our servers hosted by Amazon Web Services (USA). The Portrait feature relies on the Stable Diffusion model. We create a copy of the Stable Diffusion model hosted on our AWS servers and apply technology that retrains the model using the photos you uploaded and generates Image Data to create and personalize your Portraits. Immediately after the successful generation of Portraits, the copy of the Stable Diffusion model, as well as any associated Image Data, are deleted permanently from our AWS servers.
Your Pet’s photos are stored on our servers (provided by Amazon Web Services (USA)) and are available to you within the PugMug app at any time, via any device from which you log into the PugMug application until you decide to either (i) delete your pet’s photos or, (ii) delete your PugMug account. If you delete a pet's picture, we will generally process the deletion within 4 hours. If you request us to delete your PugMug account, we will generally delete your account, including the pet photos in your account, upon request to privacy@pugmug.ai within the period discussed in Section 8. Your Rights To Your Personal Data.
4. Personal Data We Collect Automatically
When you Use PugMug, we or third parties we permit to do so, may automatically collect certain information, including Personal Data, from you (this is subject to your consent where this is required by law). The information collected from you automatically when you Use PugMug may include:
Device information – Information about your computer, phone, tablet, or other device you Use PugMug. Depending on the device used, this information may include your IP address, the device’s unique device identifier, location, internet service provider and/or mobile carrier, operating system, version, device type, and device language.
Country information – Information regarding the version of the app that you are using and the country version of the app store from which you downloaded PugMug.
Image Data – For more information regarding how we process your photos when you Use various app features, please see Section 3: How We Process, Share, and Retain Your Photos and Image Data.
Usage details – Details of your Use of PugMug, including frequency of Use, areas and features of the application you access, and information regarding engagement with particular app features.
Location data – We collect location data, such as information about your device's location, which can be precise or imprecise. How much information we collect depends on the device type and settings you use.
Subscription Data – Details confirming the existence of a relationship between us and confirmation that the relationship ended, if applicable (e.g., your pet’s AI portrait order, goods orders, and payment confirmation), and information about your order status and redacted cardholder data (this doesn’t include your full card details).
Other than for Image Data, we and the third parties we engage may use cookies, Software Development Kits (SDKs), and other tracking technologies to collect the Personal Data set forth above automatically. For more information regarding our use of these technologies, please see Section 7: Cookies, Software Development Kits, and Other Tracking Technologies.
The Purposes and Our Legal Bases for Processing Your Personal Data
We may use your Personal Data for a variety of purposes depending on the category of Personal Data and the way you Use and interact with the PugMug, including the following:
To present to you and others PugMug and its contents and any other information, products, or services you request from us, including purchasing goods with your pet’s Portrait and providing various features of the app and its functionality. We do so to provide you with the services subject to your explicit consent and according to our contractual obligation.
To carry out our obligations and enforce our rights arising from any contracts between you and us concerning PugMug (e.g., the Terms of Use). This is for the performance of our contract with you and for our legitimate interests in performing and enforcing our contracts with you and/or to defend our rights in case of claims.
To customize our product and service offerings to you, for example, offering pricing personalization and discounts. In doing so, we make automated decisions using device type and device language data. Where the law requires, we rely on your consent to offer such personalization and/or offer you the opportunity to opt-out. For more information, please see Section 7: Cookies, Software Development Kits, and Other Tracking Technologies.
To provide you with customer and technical support, investigate your concerns, respond to your inquiries, and monitor and improve our responses to your and other users’ inquiries about PugMug. It is our legitimate interest to provide you with high-quality support.
To communicate with you, such as to notify you about changes to PugMug or any products or services we offer or provide through PugMug, including by sending you technical notices, notices about your account/subscription, including expiration and renewal notices, updates, security alerts and support and administrative messages. It is our legal obligation and legitimate interest to keep you informed about your PugMug account.
To conduct research, analytics, and monitor performance and other metrics regarding PugMug and your Use of PugMug. This may include data regarding the total number of users of our app, traffic, and demographic patterns related to the use of our app. Where this data is collected through the technologies described in Section 7 and where required by law, we rely on your consent; otherwise, it is in our legitimate interest to conduct analytics as it helps us understand our business metrics and to improve, test, and monitor the effectiveness of PugMug.
To provide personalized content and information to you about PugMug so that we, and third parties on which we rely, can advertise to you. This may include using your Personal Data to build advertising audiences that we believe are similar to our user base, serving online ads to you, or engaging in other forms of advertising. Where law requires, we rely on your consent to engage in such activities and/or offer you the opportunity to opt-out. For more information, please see Section 7: Cookies, Software Development Kits, and Other Tracking Technologies.
To send marketing and promotional communications to you, such as via email or in-app messaging, with your consent or as otherwise permitted by law. For more information, please see Section 9: Your Choices About Our Communications With You.
In any other way, we may describe when you provide the information or otherwise at your direction or with your consent. As permitted or required by law, including for auditing, fraud, and security monitoring purposes.
To Whom We Disclose Personal Data
We may disclose the information we process about you, including any Personal Data, as follows:
We may share your Personal Data with businesses that are legally part of the same group of companies we are part of, including Volition (“Affiliates”). The Affiliates act as our data processors and may perform data processing on our behalf (e.g., providing technical support or conducting analytics). Appropriate contractual safeguards bind such Affiliates.
We may disclose your Personal Data and other collected information to third-party organizations such as contractors, business partners, service providers, and vendors that we use to support our business and assist us in providing PugMug. Such service providers may include:
Amazon Web Services (USA), which we use to store your Personal Data, photos, and Image Data when you AI-generated pet portraits; and
Printful, which we use to provide on-demand printing and fulfillment of products, such as mugs, pictures, and shirts.
We may disclose your Personal Data to third-party analytics providers and advertising partners or otherwise permit them to collect or access it. For more information, please see Section 7: Cookies, Software Development Kits, and Other Tracking Technologies.
We may disclose your Personal Data if we or any of our affiliates, subsidiaries, or lines of business is merged, acquired, divested, financed, sold, disposed of, or dissolved, including in the course of a transaction like a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, acquisition, bankruptcy, dissolution, liquidation. In such cases, your Personal Data and any other collected information may be among the items sold, transferred, or otherwise disclosed as part of that transaction or proceeding.
We may disclose your Personal Data in response to legal requests and to prevent harm. We may access, preserve, and share your information in response to a legal (like a search warrant, court order, or subpoena), government, or regulatory request if we have a good faith belief that the law requires us to do so. This may include responding to legal, government, or regulatory requests from jurisdictions where we have a good faith belief that the response is required by law in that jurisdiction, affects users in that jurisdiction, and is consistent with internationally recognized standards. We may also access, preserve, and share information when we have a good faith belief it is necessary to (i) detect, prevent, and address fraud and other illegal activity; (ii) protect ourselves, you, and others, including as part of investigations; and (iii) prevent death or imminent bodily harm. Information we receive about you may be accessed, processed, and retained for an extended period when it is the subject of a legal request or obligation, governmental investigation, or investigations concerning possible violations of our terms or policies, or otherwise to prevent harm.
Cookies, Software Development Kits, and Other Tracking Technologies
When you Use PugMug, we and our service providers, vendors, and partners, including third parties, may use cookies (a small text file placed on your computer or mobile device to identify your computer and web browser) and other similar technologies to collect or receive certain information about you and/or your Use of PugMug. We also use third-party analytics tools like Google Analytics and Facebook Analytics to help us measure traffic and usage trends for PugMug and other purposes. Such analytics tools collect information via third-party SDKs incorporated into PugMug, which includes information about features of PugMug you visit or Use, your actions in PugMug, and information about your subscription. Such information may be used to provide content, advertising, or functionality or to measure and analyze ad performance on PugMug or other websites or platforms. Third parties may also use such information for their purposes. To avoid doubt, we do not use Image Data for advertising purposes.
Interest-based Advertising – We may partner with ad networks and other ad-serving providers that serve ads on behalf of us and others on non-affiliated platforms. Some ads may be personalized, meaning they are intended to be relevant to you based on information ad networks and ad-serving providers collect about your app Use over time, including information about relationships among different browsers and devices. This type of advertising is known as interest-based advertising.
Your Choices – Most browsers and devices are configured to accept cookies and similar tracking technologies automatically. You may be able to set your browser and device options to limit such technologies. You can visit the Digital Advertising Alliance (“DAA”) Webchoices tool at www.aboutads.info to learn more about this interest-based advertising and how to opt out of this kind of advertising by companies participating in the DAA self-regulatory program, and http://www.aboutads.info/appchoices for information on the DAA’s mobile app opt-out program. You can also opt out of receiving interest-based ads from members of the Network Advertising Initiative (“NAI”) by visiting the NAI consumer opt-out page at http://optout.networkadvertising.org/?c=1#!/. Opting out of receiving interest-based ads does not mean that you will no longer receive ads from us, but rather that the ads will not be tailored to your perceived interests.
For users in the European Economic Area, United Kingdom, and United States. You can opt-out from processing Personal Data via cookies, SDKs, and other tracking technologies by sending a request to privacy@pugmug.ai.
Some parts of the app may not function properly if you have refused cookies or similar tracking technologies, and you should be aware that disabling cookies or similar tracking technologies may prevent you from accessing some of our content. Your choices are typically device and browser-specific.
Your Rights to Your Personal Data
Access, modification, correction, and erasure – You can email us at privacy@pugmug.ai to request access to, modification, correction, update, erasure, or portability of any Personal Data you have provided to us and that we have about you. You can also request deletion of your account. We may not accommodate a request to change information if we believe the change would violate any law or legal requirement or cause the information to be incorrect.
EEA/UK individuals - Individuals in the European Economic Area (“EEA”) and the United Kingdom (“UK”) have certain statutory rights about their Personal Data, including under the General Data Protection Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2016/679) (“EEA GDPR”) and the UK version of the EEA GDPR (“UK GDPR”) (collectively, the “GDPR”), including the rights specified below. You can exercise these rights by contacting us (for contact information, please see Section 15: How to Contact Us). We will do our best to accommodate your request or objection, but not all rights are absolute.
Access to your Personal Data - You have a right to request information about whether we have any Personal Data about you and to receive a copy.
Rectification of your Personal Data – You are responsible for ensuring the accuracy of your Personal Data that you provide to us. Inaccurate information may affect your experience when using PugMug features and our ability to contact you as described in this Privacy Policy. If you believe that your Personal Data is incomplete or inaccurate, you have a right to contact us and ask us to correct such Personal Data.
Restriction of processing – You also have the right to demand restriction of processing of your Personal Data, for example, if you contest the accuracy of the Personal Data, which inaccuracy is verified by us.
Erasure of your Personal Data – In certain circumstances, you may ask us to erase your Personal Data. Please be aware that erasing some Personal Data may affect your ability to Use PugMug.
Right to portability of your Personal Data – In certain circumstances, you have the right to request us to receive any Personal Data you provided us in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format. You may further ask us to give that Personal Data to another party.
Right to object to processing or otherwise using your Personal Data – Where we are processing your Personal Data based on our legitimate interest, you may object to the processing or otherwise using your Personal Data. Please be aware that our inability to process or otherwise use some of your Personal Data may affect your ability to Use PugMug. If you have opted in to receiving marketing communications, you have the right to opt out of those at any time.
Right to withdraw your consent at any time - Where you may have provided your consent to the processing of your Personal Data for a specific purpose, you have the right to withdraw your consent for that specific processing at any time. The withdrawal of your consent does not affect the lawfulness of the processing based on your consent before its withdrawal.
Right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority - Subject to the GDPR, you have the right to file a complaint with a local data protection authority in the country of your residence, where you work, or where an alleged infringement of the applicable data protection law occurred. Please see a list of EU member states’ supervisory authority here and the UK’s supervisory authority (ICO) here.
Please keep in mind that in case of a vague request to exercise any of the aforementioned rights, we may engage with you in a dialogue to ask for more details to complete your request. In case this is impossible, we reserve the right to refuse to grant your request. Following the provisions of the applicable law, we also ask you to prove your identity (for example, by requesting your username or some other proof of your identity) for you to invoke the mentioned rights. This ensures that your request violates no right of third parties and an actual Personal Data subject or an authorized person exercises the mentioned rights.
Please note that we will process your request within one month after receiving it. Considering the complexity and number of requests, we can extend this period by up to two months. If we extend the response period, we will let you know within one month of your request. We will not discriminate against you for exercising your rights under the law.
Your Choices About Our Communications With You
If you are using PugMug you may receive electronic communications from us (e.g., by posting in-app notices in PugMug or emails). We send some of these communications to you, such as those related to your purchases, technical and security notices, and updates to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use, where necessary to perform our contract with you to provide PugMug or otherwise based on our legitimate interest in contacting you.
If required by law, we will ask for your consent to send promotional and marketing emails and in-app communications about new products, features, or offers from PugMug and its affiliates.
Marketing & Promotional Emails – If you wish to opt-out of our promotional and marketing emails, you can follow the opt-out links in any email.
Data Security
We use reasonable and appropriate information security safeguards to help keep your Personal Data secure and to protect it from accidental loss and unauthorized access, use, alteration, and disclosure. Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the Internet is not completely secure. Although we take measures to do our best to protect your Personal Data, we cannot guarantee the security of the collected information transmitted to or through PugMug or an absolute guarantee that such information may not be accessed, disclosed, altered, or destroyed. Any transmission of your Personal Data is at your own risk. We are not responsible for the circumvention of security measures contained in PugMug. Please understand that there is no ideal technology or measure to maintain 100% security.
The safety and security of your information also depend on you. For instance, we are not responsible for how you choose to share the photos or other information processed in your PugMug account, such as via social media services. We are not responsible for any other organization's functionality, privacy, or security measures.
Data Retention
Other than as set forth in Section 3: How We Process, Share, and Retain Your Photos, and Image Data, we generally retain your Personal Data until you delete your PugMug account. If you delete your PugMug account, we will generally delete your account within 4 hours.
To make a request to delete your PugMug account, please contact us at privacy@pugmug.ai or proceed through PugMug settings.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, please note that we may retain your Personal Data, photos, Image Data, and Portraits for longer periods than set forth above, such as in connection with your privacy-related requests and communications with us, if any, as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, to resolve disputes, or to enforce our agreements. Even if we delete some or all of your Personal Data, we may continue to retain and use anonymized data previously collected that can no longer be used for personal identification.
Cross-Border Data Transfers
We and certain of our service providers are incorporated in the United States. Accordingly, your Personal Data may be transferred to and stored in the United States.
Where required under the EEA GDPR, in case of transfers of personal data from the EEA to countries outside the EEA, where we cannot rely on adequacy decisions adopted by the European Commission (for more information, please see here) we ensure appropriate safeguards are in place to guarantee the continued protection of your Personal Data, particularly by signing the Standard Contractual Clauses of the European Commission (article 46(2)(c) GDPR). For more information on these Standard Contractual Clauses, please see here.
Where required under the UK GDPR, in case of transfers of personal data to countries outside the United Kingdom, we ensure appropriate safeguards are in place to guarantee the continued protection of your Personal data, particularly by signing the UK Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses or the UK International Data Transfer Agreement, whichever is more appropriate in the given situation. For more information on UK Addendum and the UK International Data Transfer Agreement, please see here. We may also guarantee the protection of your personal data by relying on adequacy decisions adopted or approved by the authorities in the United Kingdom.
As to the location of our servers, we use AWS servers located in the USA for PugMug operation, while our analytics operations are processed both on the servers provided by AWS (located in the USA) and by Google LLC (located in the Republic of Ireland).
For further information, please contact privacy@pugmug.ai
Children
General age limitation. PugMug is not intended for or directed at children under 18, and we do not knowingly collect or solicit any information from anyone under 18 or knowingly allow such persons to Use PugMug. If you are under 18, do not: (i) Use or provide any information in PugMug or through any of its features, or (ii) provide any information about yourself to us, including your name, address, telephone number, or email address. If you are a parent or guardian and believe we have collected information from your child under 18, please contact us at privacy@pugmug.ai.
Third-Party Websites And Services
We are not responsible for the practices employed by any websites or services linked to or from PugMug, including the information or content contained within them. Where we have a link to a website or service, linked to or from PugMug, we encourage you to read the privacy policy stated on that website or service before providing information on or through it.
Notice for California and Other US Residents
Certain US state laws, including California, provide their residents with certain rights related to their Personal Information, as described below. We provide these rights to all US residents. Before we fulfill a request about PugMug, we may be required by law to verify your identity to prevent unauthorized access to your data.
We do not “sell” Personal Information as those terms are defined under California and other applicable state privacy laws. To the extent Personal Information is shared with third parties, it is only provided to third-party service providers/processors and advertisers, as explained in the table below.
Please note that your exercise of the above rights is subject to certain exemptions to safeguard the public interest (e.g., the prevention or detection of crime) and our interests (e.g., the maintenance of legal privilege). We will try to comply with your request as soon as reasonably practicable in compliance with the time frames set forth under applicable law. Requests to exercise these rights may be granted in whole, in part, or not at all, depending on the scope and nature of the request and applicable law. Where required by applicable law, we will notify you if we reject your request and notify you of any reasons why we are unable to honor your request.
Right to Know and Access Information – You have the right to request access to the Personal Information we maintain about you in the ordinary course of business and to receive it in a machine-readable format to make it available to you. This may include Personal Information we collect, use, or disclose about you.
Right of Correction – You have the right to correct inaccuracies in the Personal Information we maintain about you.
Right to Delete - You have the right to request that we delete your Personal Information. In the case of all such requests, we may not fulfill all or part of the request as permitted or required by applicable law. For example, if you request that we delete your Personal Information, there may be certain records we are legally required to retain.
Non-discrimination – We will not discriminate or otherwise penalize anyone for exercising their rights under applicable law or this Privacy Policy.
The following reflects our current practices and the practices that have been in place over the past 12 months.
Categories of Personal Information we collect |
We do not deliberately collect sensitive Personal Information as it is defined under applicable US state laws. |
Categories or sources from which the Personal Information is collected | We collect the Personal Information directly from you. |
Business or commercial purpose for collecting or for sharing or selling Personal Information | We collect your Personal Information to operate the PugMug, respond to your requests, and for the following business purposes:
|
Categories of third parties with whom we share Personal Information Specific pieces of Personal Information we have collected | We disclose your Personal Information to service providers who support us in delivering the services described above, and for the following business purposes:
|
How To Contact Us, Eea/Uk Representative, and Data Protection Officer
General contact details. If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or PugMug, please contact us via email at privacy@pugmug.ai.
Volition, Inc.
Data Privacy Officer
2261 Market Street #4795
San Francisco, CA 94114
United States
Changes To Our Privacy Policy
The date this Privacy Policy was last revised is indicated at the top of the page. We may modify or update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Some changes do not require your consent. However, if we determine that the changes may risk your rights and freedoms, we will ask for your consent to those changes separately from this Privacy Policy.