Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Paw Story LLC, a California limited liability company (“Paw Story,” “we,” “us,” “our”), collects, uses, shares, and protects personal information when you use pawstory.io, our gift and preview pages, our emails, and our custom film service (the “Service”).

1. Information We Collect

While you build your film (before you pay)

• Photos of your dog that you upload.
• Your dog’s name, breed, sex, birth month, and other details you share, and whether your dog has passed away (so we can make a memorial film and write to you with care).
• The occasion, the scenario you pick, who the gift is for (their first name and your relationship), and your card message.
• Your first name and email address.

When you order or write to us

• Your last name, if you give it.
• Support emails, attachments, revision notes, and photos you send us.
• Order details: what you bought, the price, add-ons, and delivery.
• Payment: you pay through Stripe, and card numbers never touch our servers. Stripe tells us whether your payment went through and keeps your payment method on file so you can add to your order in one tap.

Collected automatically

• Your IP address (which shows your approximate location, such as your country) and your browser’s user agent.
• Cookies and similar browser storage (Section 4).
• How you use our pages (taps, scrolling, page structure), recorded by Microsoft Clarity (Section 3).
• The steps you take (such as uploading a photo or starting checkout), the page that sent you here, and which ad or email link you clicked (tags such as utm and fbclid). Once you give us your email, we link these steps to it.
• Whether you open our emails and which links you click (Section 7).
• Server logs kept by our hosting provider.

If someone sent you a Paw Story

The sender gave us your first name, how they know you, and the card message, which we show on your gift page. When you open it, we collect your IP address and browser user agent to deliver the page, keep it secure, and see that it was opened. The Meta Pixel on that page records only that a gift page was viewed (no link, no film name, no names), so we can measure and show ads to people who watched a Paw Story; Clarity never runs there. To have your name taken off a gift page, email hi@pawstory.io.

2. How We Use Your Information

• Make your film. Your photos, dog details, scenario, gift details, and card message go to our AI providers (Section 6) to make your preview, film, and card, and to run automated quality checks.
• Deliver it. Your email, your gift page link, and the recipient’s first name on the gift page. We never contact the recipient.
• Take payment and prevent fraud.
• Support you. Answer questions and handle revisions and refunds. AI tools help us sort and draft replies to support emails.
• Email you. Order emails, the preview you asked for, and occasional offers unless you opt out (Section 7).
• Improve the Service. See where people get stuck (including Clarity recordings), test page versions, and fix bugs.
• Measure our ads with Meta, unless you opt out (Section 3).
• Keep the Service secure and meet our legal and tax obligations.

We don’t use your photos to train AI models. We don’t use any photo to identify people, and we don’t create face or other biometric templates.

3. Advertising and Analytics

To learn which of our Facebook and Instagram ads work, we use the Meta Pixel (a script in your browser) and the Meta Conversions API (our server sends the same events to Meta directly). The events: PageView; ViewContent (you looked at a film option); CustomizeProduct (you uploaded a photo); Lead (you entered your email); InitiateCheckout; AddPaymentInfo; PaymentReady; and Purchase or Subscribe.

An event can include the page address (with private links and payment codes removed), an event id (so the browser and server copies count once), Meta’s _fbp and _fbc cookies, your IP address and browser user agent, and a hashed (one-way coded) version of your order session id. A purchase also includes a hashed copy of your email, the order value, and a generic product id. Meta’s automatic advanced matching is on: when you type your email or name into one of our forms, the Pixel hashes it in your browser and sends the hashed value with the event so Meta can match it to an ad account; Meta never receives the readable text.

We don’t send Meta your dog’s name or photos, your card message, or the title of any film you look at, buy, or watch; your own name reaches Meta only as that hash. Meta uses what it receives under its own terms and privacy policy, and may combine it with what it knows from your Facebook or Instagram account to measure and show ads.

No Meta or Clarity trackingruns on the film watch page, your account page, or our staff pages, and we send Meta no events from them. On gift pages and keepsake preview pages the Pixel sends one “page viewed” event with the bare page address (no link token, no film name, no names, no session id); Clarity never runs there.

Analytics

We keep our own records of visits and steps in our database, using a first-party visitor id (paw_anon_id). They show us where people get stuck and which page versions work better.

Microsoft Clarity records how visitors use our pages (taps, scrolling, and page structure) to help us fix confusing steps. Text typed into fields (such as names, email, and your card message) is masked before it leaves your browser, and we mark the places where names or messages show on screen so they are masked too. Clarity runs under the analytics choice: on by default for US and most visitors, and off if you opt out on Your Privacy Choices, send GPC or DNT, or are in the EEA, the UK, or Switzerland and haven’t tapped Accept. Microsoft receives this data under its own privacy statement and may use it to improve its products and services.

4. Cookies and Similar Technologies

These are the cookies our site sets. “Ours” means set on pawstory.io.

• paw_consent · ours · 12 months
  Remembers your privacy choices.
• pawstory_v2_session · ours · up to 30 days
  Keeps your order in progress.
• paw_anon_id · ours · 12 months
  Analytics visitor id. Not set after you opt out.
• paw_exp_bd_headline · ours · 12 months
  Remembers which version of a page you saw, so a page test stays consistent.
• paw_preview · ours · 7 days
  Internal testing by our team.
• _fbp and _fbc · set by our site for Meta · about 90 days
  Advertising measurement. Not set after you opt out.
• _clck and _clsk · set by our site for Microsoft Clarity · 12 months and 1 day
  Analytics: tells Clarity which visit a page belongs to. Not set after you opt out.
• MUID, CLID, ANONCHK, SM, MR · Microsoft, from clarity.ms and bing.com · up to 13 months
  Microsoft identifiers, which Microsoft may also use for its own advertising measurement. Not set after you opt out.
• __stripe_mid and __stripe_sid · Stripe · 1 year and 30 minutes
  Fraud prevention at checkout.
• Supabase login cookies · ours, for our database provider · while you stay signed in
  Keep you signed in to your account page.
• paw_admin · ours · staff only
  Signs our team in to staff pages.

Browser storage.Session storage holds your order draft (dog and gift details, email) and which ad or link brought you here, until you close the tab. Local storage holds a copy of the analytics visitor id and a marker so a purchase isn’t counted twice.

Meta (facebook.com) and Stripe may also read cookies on their own domains. You can block or delete cookies in your browser, but ordering may not work without the ones that keep your order in progress.

5. Your Privacy Choices

Using data from your visits for targeted advertising may count as a “sale,” “sharing,” or “targeted advertising” under some US state privacy laws. Wherever you live, you can opt out.

• One tap. Go to Your Privacy Choices to opt out of advertising sharing with Meta and of analytics (our visitor id and Clarity). We save your choice in a cookie (paw_consent) in that browser for 12 months. If you clear cookies or switch browsers or devices, set it again there.
• What changes.The Meta Pixel doesn’t load, the _fbp and _fbc cookies aren’t set, purchases you make in that browser aren’t reported to Meta, Clarity stops recording, and we stop setting the analytics visitor id. We still keep the records we need to run any order you start.
• Tied to your email. The switches cover the browser you are using. If you also want us to stop reporting your future purchases to Meta for your email on every device, send a request with the form on that page or email hi@pawstory.io; we add your address to our do-not-report list within 45 days. We cannot pull back what Meta or Microsoft already received; their own settings cover that.
• The EEA, the UK, and Switzerland. Visitors there see a banner with Accept and Decline. Nothing non-essential (advertising or analytics) loads before you Accept, and you can change your mind on the choices page.
• Meta’s own settings.Manage Meta’s use of your activity from other sites at facebook.com/off_facebook_activity.

Global Privacy Control and Do Not Track

We treat Do Not Track (DNT) and Global Privacy Control (GPC) as opt-out signals. If your browser sends either one, we automatically treat it as an opt-out of advertising sharing and analytics for that browser, the same as the button, unless you later turn them back on yourself on our choices page. Other than Meta and Microsoft (unless you opt out), we don’t let third parties collect information about your activity on our site over time and across other sites. Stripe collects device information at checkout to prevent fraud, which it may use across the businesses it serves.

6. Who We Share Information With

Service providers that handle personal information for us, by name:

• Vercel: hosts our website and keeps server logs.
• Supabase: our database (orders, sessions, analytics records) and account sign-in.
• Cloudinary: stores and delivers your photos, previews, and films.
• Stripe: processes payments and prevents fraud. Card numbers go to Stripe, never to us.
• Resend: sends our emails and records opens and clicks.
• Microsoft Clarity: analytics: records how visitors use our pages (Section 3). Microsoft also uses this data under its own privacy statement.
• Google Workspace: hosts our support inbox, hi@pawstory.io.
• OpenAI: makes images from your photo (previews, film stills, and your card, which includes the recipient’s first name and your message), helps check quality, and helps us sort and draft replies to support emails.
• Google Cloud Vertex AI (Gemini models): makes images from your photo and runs automated quality checks on photos, images, and films.
• Kie.ai (running ByteDance’s Seedance models): turns the images made for your film into video clips.
• fal.ai: cleans up the sound on film clips.
• Railway: runs the render computers that put your film together.

Advertising.Meta Platforms (Facebook and Instagram) receives the data described in Section 3 unless you opt out. Meta uses it under its own terms, not only on our behalf. We don’t sell personal information for money.

We also share information when the law requires it or to protect people’s safety; with a buyer if Paw Story is sold, who must honor this policy; and with your permission.

7. Emails

Order emails. Your order confirmation, film delivery, gift link, revisions, refunds, and subscription notices. These keep coming after you unsubscribe from offers, as long as you have an order with us.

Offers.Our email step has a box to also get occasional special offers. It is checked by default; uncheck it and you still get your free preview. If you leave it checked, or the page you used didn’t show the box, we may send occasional offers. Every offer email has an unsubscribe link and our postal address, and unsubscribing takes effect right away. Our memorial emails also have a pause link.

Email tracking. We send email through Resend. Tracked links (through track.pawstory.io) and a tiny image show us whether an email was opened and which links were clicked, so we learn which emails are useful. Turning off images in your email app stops open tracking.

8. Data Retention

• Finished films, gift pages, and the photos behind them: kept so you can re-watch, re-download, and ask for revisions, until you ask us to delete them.
• Photos uploaded in sessions that never ordered: deleted on a rolling basis, and any time you ask.
• Previews from sessions that never ordered: deleted by a nightly job once they are 60 days old and the session has gone quiet. We keep the one preview on your keepsake preview link, which we told you is yours to keep, until you ask us to delete it.
• Other details from sessions that never ordered (your email, dog and gift details): kept so we can send your preview and occasional offers, until you ask us to delete them.
• Order records and support emails: 7 years, for tax and accounting.
• Analytics records (visits and steps): up to 24 months.
• Clarity recordings: kept by Microsoft for 30 days; recordings we favorite and a random sample are kept up to 9 months. Clarity can’t delete one visitor’s recordings, so they expire on this schedule.
• Email list: until you unsubscribe or ask us to delete your information. After you unsubscribe, we keep your address on our do-not-email list so offers stay stopped.
• Server logs: expire on our hosting provider’s schedule.
• Backups: expire within 90 days.
• Photo restorations: the photos you upload and the restorations we make are stored with our image host (Cloudinary, Section 6). Unpaid uploads and previews are deleted after 14 days; paid originals and restored files 90 days after your last download. The email you give at checkout is used to deliver your photos and send your receipt.

9. Data Security

We use commercially reasonable measures to protect your information, including encrypted connections (HTTPS), access controls, and secure providers. No system is 100% secure. If a security incident affects your personal information, we will notify you as the law requires.

10. Your Rights

Wherever you live, you can ask us to:

• Access the personal information we hold about you, and get a copy in a portable format.
• Correct information that is wrong.
• Delete your information.
• Opt out of advertising sharing and of marketing email.

How to ask. Email hi@pawstory.io or use the form on Your Privacy Choices. To protect you, we confirm the request came from you: we ask you to reply from the email address on file, or to sign in to your account with the link we email you. Opt-out requests don’t need this step.

Timing. We respond within 45 days, or tell you why we need up to 45 more. After we confirm a deletion request, we remove your information from active systems within 30 days and ask our service providers to do the same; backups expire within 90 days. We keep what the law requires (such as tax records) and what we need to finish an order or prevent fraud. Data already sent to Meta or Microsoft is held under their policies.

Authorized agents. Someone you authorize can make a request for you with your signed permission. We may still ask you to confirm your identity with us directly.

No discrimination.We won’t charge you more, give you a worse service, or deny you service for using your rights. We don’t make automated decisions about you that have legal or similarly significant effects.

11. California Privacy Rights

This section adds detail for California residents under the California Consumer Privacy Act, as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act (together, the CCPA). It covers the 12 months before the “Updated” date above.

What we collected, and who received it

• Identifiers: Name, email, IP address, cookie ids, and hashed ids. Shared with Meta or Microsoft: Meta gets the IP address, cookie ids, a hashed session id, hashed form entries (email, name) through advanced matching, and a hashed email at purchase; Microsoft gets the IP address and Clarity and Microsoft cookie ids.
• Customer records (California Civil Code 1798.80): Name, email, and payment status; card numbers are handled by Stripe. Shared with Meta or Microsoft: no (masked in Clarity).
• Commercial information: What you ordered and paid. Shared with Meta or Microsoft: Meta gets the order value and a generic product id; Clarity sees what shows on screen at checkout, minus masked text.
• Internet or other electronic network activity: Pages visited, steps taken, taps and scrolling, referring links, ad tags, and email opens and clicks. Shared with Meta or Microsoft: Meta gets the page address and the events in Section 3; Microsoft gets taps, scrolling, and page structure.
• Approximate location: What your IP address suggests, such as your country. Shared with Meta or Microsoft: only through the IP address itself.
• Audio, electronic, and visual information: Your dog photos and the previews and films we make. Shared with Meta or Microsoft: not Meta; Clarity recordings may show photos as they appear on our pages.
• Other information you give us: Your dog’s details, gift details, card messages, and support emails. Shared with Meta or Microsoft: not Meta; Clarity sees what shows on screen, with names and messages masked.

Sources: you; your browser or device; Stripe (payment status); the person who sent you a gift; and the ad or email link you clicked. Purposes: Section 2. Disclosed for business purposes to: the service providers in Section 6, each getting only what its job needs. Retention: Section 8.

• Sale and sharing.We don’t sell personal information for money. Sharing identifiers, internet activity, and commercial information with Meta for ads, and with Microsoft through Clarity, may be “sharing” for cross-context behavioral advertising or a “sale” under the CCPA. You can opt out at Your Privacy Choices, and GPC is honored as an opt-out.
• Sensitive personal information.We don’t collect it. Card numbers go straight to Stripe and are used only to process your payment, and our account sign-in uses an emailed link, not a password. So there is nothing to limit, but you may still ask.
• Under 16.We don’t knowingly sell or share the personal information of anyone under 16.
• Your rights. To know (categories, specific pieces, sources, purposes, and recipients), delete, correct, get a portable copy, opt out of sale and sharing, limit sensitive information, and not be discriminated against. Use the steps in Section 10.
• Financial incentives.We offer no discount for personal information today; the free preview is free with or without offers. If a sign-up discount returns (like the paused Paw Box offer), we’ll explain its terms, how to withdraw, and how we value the data before it starts.
• Shine the Light.We don’t share personal information with third parties for their own direct marketing.

12. Other US States

If you live in Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia, Texas, Oregon, or another state with a privacy law, you have the rights in Section 10, including to opt out of targeted advertising and sale, through the same channels; GPC is honored. If we decline a request, appeal by replying to our decision. We answer appeals within 45 days; if we still decline, you can contact your state attorney general.

13. Visitors Outside the United States

Paw Story is based in the United States. If you use the Service from another country, your information is transferred to and processed in the US, where privacy laws may differ. Some providers may process it in other countries too.

The EEA, the UK, and Switzerland.Paw Story LLC is the controller of your personal information. We rely on these legal bases: contract (your film, payment, and support); consent (advertising and analytics, and marketing email where required); legitimate interests (security, fraud prevention, improving the Service); and legal obligation (tax records). You can access, correct, delete, restrict, object to, or get a portable copy of your information, and withdraw consent at any time without affecting what happened before. Where required, transfers rely on safeguards such as the standard contractual clauses in our providers’ data terms. You can complain to your local data protection authority, and we’d welcome the chance to help first at hi@pawstory.io.

14. Children’s Privacy

You must be 18 or older to order. We don’t knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18, or sell or share it for anyone under 16. If a child has given us information, email us and we will delete it.

15. Changes to This Policy

We post updates here with a new “Updated” date. For a material change, we also email customers with an open order or an active subscription before it takes effect. We won’t use information we already have in a materially different way without telling you first and, where the law requires, asking for your consent.

16. Contact

Questions, requests, or concerns? Email hi@pawstory.io, use the form on Your Privacy Choices, or write to: Paw Story LLC, 2261 Market Street, STE 30289, San Francisco, CA 94114.