What we
collect.

The email list

When you join the list, we save your email address, your first and most recent signup dates, and which signup form you used. We also save any products you ask to hear about, campaign tags from the link that brought you to the site, and the browser information sent with your request when available.

It's stored in a database we run on Amazon Web Services (DynamoDB), on servers in the United States.

We use this information to send product updates and understand where signups come from. We don't sell, rent, or trade your email address, or add it to another company's marketing list.

If you ask us to redraw a design with your dog's breed, we also record which design and which breed you asked for, so we can email you when it's ready.

Confirming your address creates a one-time code for 10% off one order, shown on the confirmation page and emailed to you. Stripe, our payment processor, holds the code, its expiry date and whether it has been used. We keep the code, the address it was sent to and whether it was used until 180 days after the code expires. If the code can't be created right away, your subscriber record notes that one is owed until it is sent.

Each inbox gets one code. Gmail addresses that differ only by dots or a + tag count as one inbox, as do + tag addresses at other large email providers. To hold to that, we keep a second scrambled code, made from your address with those dots and tags removed (a keyed hash, which cannot be read back as your address). It is stored with the code it was given, Stripe's reference for that code, when, and the scrambled code described in the next paragraph, never with your address, and it has no expiry date.

Every list email (the confirmation, the welcome code and product news) has a one-click unsubscribe link. So the link never contains your address, we keep a scrambled code made from your email address (a keyed hash, which cannot be read back as your address) alongside the address. If you unsubscribe, we keep your address with a record that you did, so no list email reaches it again.

Order confirmations and sign-in links are not list email. They go only to an address that placed an order or asked for a sign-in link, they have no unsubscribe link, and unsubscribing from the list does not stop them.

To have your subscriber record deleted instead, reply to any list email or write to hello@tahoebarkco.com and say so. We delete your subscriber record, your welcome-code records and the scrambled codes made from your address. Your reviews are deleted too (see Reviews). Records of orders you placed are kept as described under Orders and checkout.

Site activity

We count pageviews and interactions, such as signup submissions, choosing a size or opening the bag. If a script on a page fails, we also record the type of error and its line when the script is one of the site's own files, which is named, or is written into the page itself. An error from a script loaded from any other file, such as one a browser extension or an app's built-in browser adds to the page, is recorded only as "other", and an unhandled error in a background task (a JavaScript promise) only as "promise": no file name, no line and no type of error. We never record the error message or the page's web address. Each record includes:

• the page path or interaction name
• the date and time
• the site that referred you, if any
• campaign tags on the link, meaning the utm_ bits

These activity records don't include your email address, IP address, browser information, an ad's click reference, or a session identifier. Our activity tracking uses no cookies or device fingerprinting. The site has no advertising pixels.

Orders and checkout

Checkout runs on this site through Stripe, our payment processor. Your card number and billing details go to Stripe, never to us. Stripe also collects your shipping address at checkout and holds it. The address goes from there to Printful, who prints and ships your order, and it is not copied into our own records.

For each order we keep: what you bought, the total, the time, your name and email address, Stripe's payment reference, any discount taken and the code used for it, and, if you came from one of our ads, that ad's click reference (see below). We use that to fulfil the order, handle replacements and refunds, and meet tax and accounting duties, and we keep it as long as those duties require. A notification email about each order is sent to us, and an order confirmation with your order number is sent to you, through Amazon SES, our email provider. Production partners who print and ship items receive only what they need to make and deliver your order.

To let you track an order, each order record also keeps a scrambled code made from your email address (a keyed hash, which cannot be read back as your address) and the latest shipping status from the production partner: the carrier, the shipping service, the tracking number and link, and the ship and delivery dates. That status is refreshed from the production partner at most every 15 minutes. Your shipping address is still never copied into these records.

Stripe's checkout page has a box for news and offers from Tahoe Bark Co. If that box is ticked when you leave checkout unpaid, Stripe shares your email address with us when the checkout closes. We send one email to it, through Amazon SES, with Stripe's link back to that checkout (it works for 30 days) and a code for 10% off one order that works once, for 72 hours. It carries a one-click unsubscribe link and our postal address. No email is sent if the box was not ticked, if the checkout already had a discount, if that address paid for an order in the past day, or if it has unsubscribed from Tahoe Bark Co email.

To send no more than one of these emails to an address in 30 days, we keep a scrambled code made from it (a keyed hash, which cannot be read back as your address) for 30 days, and the record of the unpaid checkout notes when the email went. So the unsubscribe link never contains your address, we keep your address alongside its scrambled code, as we do for the email list. If you unsubscribe, we keep your address with a record that you did, so no Tahoe Bark Co marketing email reaches it again.

When you come from one of our ads

If you arrive by clicking a Tahoe Bark Co ad on Google, Facebook or Instagram, the link carries that platform's click reference (Google's gclid, gbraid or wbraid, or Meta's fbclid; Meta runs Facebook and Instagram). One session-storage key keeps it, with the campaign tags and the time you arrived, until the tab closes. It is not part of the activity records above.

If you place an order in that tab, the click reference is sent with your checkout and kept with the order record. Once payment is confirmed, we send it to that platform with the order's value (what the items cost after any discount, before tax and shipping), time and order number, so the platform can count the sale. Meta also receives the time you arrived, as part of its click reference format. We never send your name, email address (plain or scrambled), shipping address, IP address or browser information to Google or Meta.

If you arrive without a click reference, nothing about your order goes to any ad platform. None of this uses cookies, and the site still has no advertising pixels.

Order tracking and sign-in

To track an order, you enter its order number and the email address used at checkout. They are used to find that one order and are not stored. To stop guessing, an hourly count of lookups is kept for each order number and each email address, under a scrambled code, and deleted within a day.

To sign in, you enter your email address. If that address has placed an order, a sign-in link is emailed to it through Amazon SES. The page shows the same message either way, so it never reveals whether an address has ordered here. The link works once and expires after 15 minutes. A used link leaves a scrambled marker, deleted about an hour after the link would have expired.

Signing in starts a session that lasts 30 days. Your browser keeps the session code in local storage, not in a cookie. The server keeps only a scrambled copy of that code, your email address in masked form (like t***@gmail.com), the scrambled code made from your address, and the session's end date. Signing out deletes the session from your browser and from the server; otherwise the server deletes it after 30 days.

None of this uses cookies or records your IP address.

Reviews

Five days after an order is delivered, or 14 days after it ships when no delivery date reaches us, we send one review request email to the address used at checkout, through Amazon SES. It has one link for each item in the order and is sent once per order. Because it offers a discount code, it is commercial email: it carries a one-click unsubscribe link and our postal address, and it is never sent to an address that has unsubscribed from Tahoe Bark Co email. Unsubscribing stops review requests along with list email.

Each link is signed and names one item in one order, not you. It needs no account and sets no cookie. When you send a review we store the star rating, the title if you wrote one, the text, the display name you chose (it starts as the first name and last initial on the order), the order and item it is for, the size you bought, when it was written and last edited, and whether it is published, held or removed, with the reason. We also keep a scrambled code made from your email address (a keyed hash, which cannot be read back as your address), so we can find your reviews if you ask us to delete them. Your email address is not stored with the review.

The product page shows the rating, the title, the text, the display name, the month and year, and any reply from us. It never shows your email address, your order or your size.

Every review, at any rating, earns a code for 10% off one order, one code per order. It is shown on the page after you send the review and emailed to you, unless you have unsubscribed. Stripe holds the code, its expiry date and whether it has been used. We keep the code, the address it was sent to and whether it was used until 180 days after the code expires. Product pages say that reviewers receive this code.

If you ask us to delete your information, your reviews are deleted, not made anonymous: the rating, the text and the name all go, and the review leaves the product page. If an order of yours has not had its review request yet, none is sent.

What we store on your device

No cookies, ever. Your shopping bag is saved in your browser's local storage on your device (what's in the bag: item, size, quantity) so it survives a page reload; it stays on your device until you clear it or your browser does, and it is never sent to us until you choose to check out. If you arrive through a link with campaign tags (the utm_ bits), one session-storage key keeps those tags until the tab closes, so the site's anonymous add-to-bag, checkout and purchase counts can say which link a visit came from. If you arrive from one of our ads, the same key also keeps that ad's click reference and the time you arrived, as described above. When you check out, your browser also keeps the checkout reference and the items you submitted, and any campaign tags from the link that brought you, so payment confirmation removes only those items from your bag, even if the payment page returns you in a different tab. That record is kept in session storage, which clears when the tab closes, and in local storage, which this site clears of any record more than a day old each time you load one of its pages; once payment is confirmed, only the checkout reference and the time of checkout are kept. If you sign in to see your orders, local storage also keeps your session code, your email address in masked form and when the session ends, until you sign out or the session ends.

One more local-storage entry holds a single word, "seen" or "joined", so the window that offers the email list opens once and not again after you join. It holds no email address and is never sent to us. If your browser blocks local storage, the same word goes in session storage instead.

When we test the site before a release, the test opens it with a marker that sets one session-storage key, tbc-qa, so that tab's visit and any test checkout are left out of our counts. An ordinary visit never sets it.

California residents

We don't sell personal information. The only things passed to an ad platform are the click reference and the order's value, time and number, as described under When you come from one of our ads above. We collect only the categories described on this page. You can ask what we hold about you, or ask us to delete it, by emailing hello@tahoebarkco.com; we answer within 45 days.

Kids

The site is intended for adults. We don't knowingly collect children's personal information. If you think a child signed up, contact us and we'll delete the record.

Changes, and how to reach us

We'll post changes here and update the date above. For questions, corrections, or a request to delete your information, email hello@tahoebarkco.com.