Privacy Policy
This privacy policy (this “Policy”) describes how the BARK family of websites, Barkbox, Inc. and its affiliates and subsidiaries (collectively, "BARK," "we," "our," or “us”), collects, uses, discloses, and safeguards personal information that a BARK prospective or existing customer (“you” or “your”) provides on the Platforms (as defined below) or when you communicate or interact with BARK, including our customer service team (the "Happy Team").
This Policy applies to all BARK websites that link to this Policy, including www.barkbox.com, www.barkpost.com, www.barkeats.com, www.barkbright.com, www.barkessentials.com, www.superchewer.com, www.barkshop.com, and www.bark.co (the “Sites”), any BARK mobile applications (the “Apps”) and other software and internet-enabled programs and services sponsored by BARK (collectively, the “Platforms”).
By accessing the Platforms on any computer, mobile phone, tablet, or other device (collectively, “Device”); making a purchase from BARK; or otherwise communicating or interacting with BARK, you agree to the terms of this Policy. If you do not agree to the terms of this Policy, please do not use the Platforms.
We may modify this Policy at any time and will post the current version on the Sites as further detailed in the “Changes to the Privacy Policy” section below. We encourage you to periodically review this Policy to stay informed about how we are using the information we collect.
1. Collection, Use, and Disclosure of Personal Information
The following table sets forth the categories of personal information and sensitive personal information we collect, the source of that personal information, and how we use and share such personal information.
Category of Personal Information Collected | Source of Information | Purpose for Collection | Categories of Recipients |
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Contact Information Such as your name, postal address, email address, telephone numbers, or other contact information. |
From you or social media account provider. |
To communicate with you via phone, email and text; to send you, newsletters, information, promotional materials and other offerings that may be of interest to you; to offer a sweepstakes, contest or other promotion; when you contact our Happy Team to request customer service or support; to complete your subscription on the Platforms; and to administer your account with us. |
Our service providers and our co-marketing partners, including select partners and affiliates that we believe may have or facilitate offers that may be of interest to you. |
Pet Information Such as dog name, birthday, weight, breed, size and allergies. |
From you or social media account provider. |
To provide you with customized products, services, and offers that may be of interest to you, including add-on individual products (e.g., dog toys) and to personalize our communication with you. |
Our service providers and our co-marketing partners, including select partners and affiliates that we believe may have or facilitate offers that may be of interest to you. |
Subscriber Information Your customer ID number, username, birthday, gender, age, purchase history, veteran status, information on rewards or other benefits, and reason for ending your subscription. |
From you and from our service provider. |
To administer your customer account and provide you with customized products and offers that may be of interest to you such as add-on individual products (e.g., dog toys). |
Our service providers who administer our subscriber program, and our co-marketing partners. |
Purchase & Order Information Contact information, together with purchase details online and in store through e-receipts, order numbers, delivery details, payment details, and any communications we have received about your order or purchase. |
From you. |
To validate, confirm, verify, deliver, install, and track your order, including to arrange for shipping, handle returns and refunds, maintain a record of the purchases you make, service products you purchased from us, and provide you offers that may be of interest to you. |
Our service providers who process, fulfill and ship orders. |
Other Delivery Information Name and address of recipient for delivery, if different from customer’s |
From you. |
To deliver to the person at the address that you have requested. |
Our service providers who process, fulfill and ship orders. |
Payment Information Name, card issuer and card type, credit or debit card number, expiration date, CVV code, and billing address. |
From you and your payment card issuer if you make a purchase or sign up for a paid subscription. |
To check that the right person is using the right card or account and meets the requirements of the card brands or account issuers, and to make sure we are paid for what you buy. |
Our service providers who process payments for us and who are contractually required to comply with laws and requirements applicable to payment processing, which may include Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards. |
Product Rating Information Such as the Net Promoter Score (NPS), your rating of our products, and the likelihood of your reference. |
From you. |
To measure customer satisfaction and improve our products and services. |
Our service providers who assist with understanding how to improve customer satisfaction and our products and services. |
Third-Party Information If you send someone else a communication from the Platforms, we may collect information, such as that person's name, telephone number, email address, and/or shipping address. |
From you. |
To deliver to or communicate with the person at the address that you have requested. |
Our service providers, and our co-marketing partners. |
Legal Information Fraud checks or flags raised about your transactions, the payment card you want to use, payment card refusals, suspected crimes, complaints, claims and accidents. |
From you, the police, crime and fraud prevention agencies, payment card providers, the public, regulators, and your and our professional advisors and representatives. |
To protect you, other customers and our business against criminal activities and risks, to prevent loss, and to make sure that we understand and can meet our legal obligations to you and others and can defend ourselves. |
Our service providers who help us with fraud protection and credit risk reduction, and law enforcement and other governmental authorities in accordance with applicable law. |
Preference Information Your marketing preferences, your account settings (including any default preferences), any preferences you have indicated, the types of services/offers that interest you, and the areas of the Platforms that you have visited or ways that you interact with our Platforms. |
From you, from our Platform technology’s interaction with your browser or Device and cookies and other similar technologies tracking the pages you visit, the marketing messages you open and the links you follow. |
To enhance your online shopping experience, including as a way to recognize you and welcome you to the Platforms and provide you with customized Platform content, targeted offers from others, promotions and advertising on the Platforms, through other third-party sites or apps, via email, text messages, or App push notifications that are offered by us or others that might be of interest to you. |
Our third-party vendors and service providers who perform website analytic services for us or enable the customization of offers to you to improve your shopping experiences through the Platforms or elsewhere. |
Communications Communications we have with you. Please note that we record calls to our Happy Team. |
From you and your social media account provider. |
To handle your requests, to contact you when necessary or requested, including responding to your questions and comments and providing customer support, and to obtain customer feedback and improve our Happy Team and customer shopping experience. |
Our service providers who assist our Happy Team with customer service. |
Photographs, Videos, and Audio Recordings Such as your photos, pictures, and audio recordings you upload to our Platforms, recordings of phone calls you make to our phone numbers, identification information when you visit our facilities, and video and audio recordings collected at our premises. |
From you when you upload them to the Platforms or otherwise share with us, including through email or social media or when you show your identification card to be admitted to our premises, and from the video and audio recordings at our premises. |
To use in marketing, including through reports on our social media accounts, to improve our Happy Team, to confirm your identity when you visit our facility, and to monitor and ensure safety of our premises. |
Our service providers, including service providers who assist with securing our premises, and other current and potential customers when we repost photographs in social media posts or use in marketing. |
Personalization & Engagement Data Your journey online and how you use our Platforms, whether and when you open our marketing emails and push notifications and respond to our advertisements, what you clicked through on our Platforms, and what your purchased. |
From you, from the Platform technology’s interaction with your browser or Device, and from cookies tracking the pages you visit. |
To improve our Platforms, products and services, Happy Team, and customer shopping experience. |
Our third-party vendors and service providers who perform website analytic services for us or enable the customization of offers to you to improve your shopping or website experience for our Platforms. |
Device Information Your IP address, internet provider, operating system and browser used, type of Device (such as laptop or smartphone), Device cookie settings and other Device details (such as MAC address and geolocation) if you use our App and permit it to obtain your precise geolocation. |
From you and from the Platform technology’s interaction with your browser or Device. |
To make sure the Platform technology works properly with your Device, to make sure you can see and use our intended website and Apps on the Device you are using, for analytical and demographic purposes, and to provide offers that may be of interest to you. We also will use this information to protect the security and integrity of the Platforms and our business, such as by protecting against and preventing fraud, unauthorized transactions, and managing risk exposure, including by identifying potential hackers and other unauthorized users. |
Our service providers that help us with fraud protection, and third-party vendors and service providers that perform website analytic services for us or enable more relevant offers to you on the Platforms or elsewhere. |
Internet or other electronic network activity information When you use the Platforms, some data is automatically transferred from your browser to our server, including your browser type, your operating system type or mobile device model, your viewed webpages, links that are clicked, your IP address, your mobile device identifier or other unique identifier, sites or apps you visited before coming to the Platforms, the amount of time you spend viewing or using the Platforms, the number of times you return to the Platforms, or other click-stream or site usage data as well as emails we send that you open, forward, or click through to the Platforms. |
From you and from the Platform technology’s interaction with your browser or Device. |
We will use this information in an aggregated non-specific format for analytical and demographic purposes We also will use this information to protect the security or integrity of the Platforms and our business, such as by protecting against and preventing fraud and unauthorized transactions, and managing risk exposure, including by identifying potential hackers and other unauthorized users. |
Our third-party vendors and service providers who perform website analytic services for us or enable the customization of offers to you to improve your shopping or website experience and the relevance of offers to you on the Platforms or elsewhere. |
De-identified data does not personally identify you or any other visitor or user of the Platforms. We may use de-identified data such as statistical or demographic information for any purpose, including for statistical analysis and research. When we maintain and use de-identified data, we do not attempt to re-identify the data unless you have given us consent to maintain and use the data in identifiable form.
2. Additional Purposes for Using Personal Information
In addition to the uses set forth in the “Collection, Use, and Disclosure of Personal Information” section above, we may use and share the categories of personal information identified below:
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To comply with applicable legal and regulatory requests and obligations (including investigations).
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To establish or defend legal claims and allegations.
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For security or the prevention, detection, or investigation of fraud; suspected or actual illegal activity; violations of BARK policy or rules; or other misconduct.
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To seek advice and consultation from lawyers, auditors, insurance companies, and other professional advisers.
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With potential or actual purchasers of all or part of our business in connection with a business transaction.
We will only retain your personal information for as long as reasonably necessary to fulfill the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal requirements. To determine the appropriate retention period, we consider the amount, nature and sensitivity of your personal information, the potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure of your personal information, the purposes for which we process your personal information and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and applicable legal requirements.
Cookie Policy
Like many commercial websites, we analyze how visitors use the Platforms through what is known as "cookie" technology. A cookie is a small text file that is placed on your computer when you access the Platforms and allows us to recognize you each time you visit the Sites. We may use cookies to (1) allow you to use the Platforms without having to reenter your username; (2) enhance or personalize your Platform usage and shopping experience; (3) monitor Platform usage; (4) manage the Platforms; and (5) improve the Platforms and our products and services, including providing you with interest-based ads. For more information on our advertising, see the “Interest-Based Advertising" section below. If you choose, you can set your browser to reject cookies or you can manually delete individual cookies or all of the cookies on your computer by following your browser’s help file directions. However, if your browser is set to reject cookies or you manually delete cookies, you may have some trouble accessing and using some of the pages and features that are currently on the Platforms, or that we may put on the Platforms in the future. Note that browser-management tools for cookies are outside of our control and we cannot guarantee their effectiveness.
We may also use web beacons on the Platforms, in our emails, and in our advertisements on other websites. Web beacons are tiny graphic images that are used to collect information about your visit to the Platforms, such as the pages you view and the features you use, as well as information about whether you open and/or act upon one of our emails or advertisements. We may also collect the URL of the website you visited immediately before coming to the Platforms. Web beacons help us analyze the Platform visitors’ behavior and measure the effectiveness of the Platforms and our advertising. We may work with service providers that help us track, collect and analyze this information.
We may combine the information we collect through cookies and web beacons with other information we have collected from you or information from other sources.
3. Internet-Based Advertising
We may use on the Platforms third-party advertising companies such as those provided by Google and Facebook that use tracking technologies to serve our advertisements across the Internet. These advertising companies may collect information about your visits to the Platforms and other websites and your interaction with our advertising and other communications. These advertising companies serve ads on behalf of us and others on nonaffiliated sites, and some of those ads may be personalized, meaning that they are intended to be relevant to you based on information collected about your visits to the Platforms and elsewhere over time. Other companies may also use such technology to advertise on the Platforms.
You have the choice to tell us not to collect and use this information, and in some jurisdictions we will only engage in interest-based advertising if you opt-in. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices concerning interest-based ads, visit https://optout.networkadvertising.org/ or https://youradchoices.com/control .
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In Canada, please visit http://youradchoices.ca/choices/
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In the EU, please visit http://www.youronlinechoices.eu/
4. Security
BARK uses commercially reasonable physical, technical, and administrative security measures to reduce the risks of loss, misuse, unauthorized access, disclosure, and alteration. When you enter sensitive information (such as your credit card number) on our registration or order forms, we encrypt that information using secure socket layer (SSL) technology. Please be aware, however, that no security measures are perfect or impenetrable. You remain responsible for protecting your username and password and for the security of information you transmit to us over the internet.
5. Children’s Privacy
The Platforms are not directed to children under the age of 13, and BARK will never knowingly collect personal or other information from anyone it knows is under the age of 13. Persons over 13 but under 18 years of age may use the Platforms only in conjunction with and under the supervision of a parent or legal guardian.
6. Third-Party Websites and Accounts
The Platforms may contain links to third-party websites, such as social media sites like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, which may have privacy policies that differ from our own. We are not in any way responsible for the activities and practices that take place on these websites and platforms. Accordingly, we recommend that you review the privacy policy posted on any external site before disclosing any personal information. Please contact those websites and platforms directly if you have any questions about their privacy policies.
You may choose to create accounts on websites or platforms owned or controlled by third parties to purchase our products. These third parties may use your information for their own purposes, including for behavioral advertising and analytics purposes. We do not control and are not responsible for the collection, use or other processing of your information by these third parties through the accounts you create with them. Please refer to their privacy policies to learn about how they handle your personal information.
7. Your Privacy Rights
You can stop email marketing from us by using the “opt out,” or “unsubscribe” mechanism at the bottom of our email marketing messages. We may give you a choice about stopping just one kind of email or opting out of all email marketing from us.
By texting us in the context of customer service, you consent to receive transactional text messages from BARK at the mobile number you used to text and you are opting-in to receive future messages or a phone call to the number you provided.
You can opt-out of receiving promotional and transactional text messages via our Messaging Service by responding to any of our text messages with any of the following replies: STOP, END, CANCEL, UNSUBSCRIBE, or QUIT. For additional opt-out information, please review our FAQs.
If you want to learn more about the personal information that BARK has about you, or you would like to update or change that information, or deactivate your account, please contact us by email at [email protected]. Note that deactivating your account does not cause your account information to be deleted from our servers.
8. Your Privacy Rights
In addition to the rights described in the “Your Privacy Rights” section above, if you are a California, Colorado or Virginia resident, you may request information about our disclosure of personal information to third parties or affiliated companies for their direct marketing purposes. To make such a request, please contact us as set forth in the “Contact Us” section below. Please allow up to 30 days for us to process your request. You may submit such a request once per year.
If you are a resident of the above states, applicable law provides you with the following rights with respect to your personal information:
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The right to know what personal information we have collected, used, disclosed and sold about you. To submit a request to know, you may call us at (833) 227-5686, or (833)-BAR-K686, or visit our web form. If you are a Colorado resident, you additionally can request to obtain your data in a portable and, to the extent feasible, readily usable format that allows you to transmit the data to another entity.
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The right to request that we delete any personal information we have collected about you. To submit a request for deletion, you may call us at (833) 227-5686, or (833)-BAR-K686, or visit our web form.
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The right to request that we correct inaccurate personal information that we maintain about you. To submit a request for correction, you may call us at (833) 227-5686, or (833)-BAR-K686, or visit our web form.
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The right to opt-out of the sale or sharing of your personal information by visiting our web form. Please see below for the categories of personal information we have sold about you in the preceding 12 months.
When you exercise these rights and submit a request to us, we will verify your identity, which may include asking you to log in to your account if you have one with us. If you do not have an account with us, we may ask for your email address, order numbers of previous orders of our products and services, the last four digits of a credit or debit card or a bank account number used to make a purchase, the date of your last purchase from us, or other information that we believe you will know that will allow us to verify that the request is coming from the person named in the request. You may designate an authorized agent to submit your request on your behalf. Your authorized agent will need to provide documentation supporting the agent’s authority to make the request on your behalf. We may also require you to verify your identity directly with us and confirm the request before we will process it.
We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of the privacy rights above. Your exercise of these rights will have no adverse effect on the price and quality of our goods or services.
If you are Virginia or Colorado resident, you additionally may appeal a decision by us to decline to take action regarding your request. To do so, please [provide contact information, such as “send an email message to [email protected]”] within seven days of receiving notice from us that your request has been declined. We will respond regarding any additional action taken within the legally appropriate time.
a. Sale or sharing of personal information.
We engage in personalized or targeted advertising. In connection with such advertising, we may share or sell the following categories of information with advertising networks and providers, advertisers, analytics providers, and social media networks:
Device information and identifiers, such as unique advertising identifiers and cookies, and IP address; usage information, such as browsing history; location information, such as city; and inference data.
We have no actual knowledge of selling or sharing personal information of minors under 16 years of age to non-affiliated third parties without affirmative consent.
b. Use of disclosure of sensitive personal information
We do not use or disclose sensitive personal information, as defined by the California Consumer Privacy Act, for purposes other than those specified in Section 7027 of the California Privacy Rights Act regulations.
c. Right to Removal of Posted Information – California Minors
If you are under 18 years of age, reside in California, and have provided us with information, you have the right to request the removal of unwanted information that you publicly post on the Site. To request removal of such information, you can contact us as provided below. Upon receiving such a request we will make sure that the information is not publicly available on the Site, but the information may not be completely or comprehensively removed from our systems and databases.
9. European and UK Residents’ Privacy Rights
In addition to the rights described in the “Your Privacy Rights” section above, if you are a European or UK resident individual, you have certain rights in relation to your personal information under the applicable European and UK data privacy laws.
a. Your Rights to Control Your Personal Information
Applicable European and UK data privacy laws give certain visitors the right to access their personal information. Your right of access can be exercised in accordance with the European and UK data privacy laws. If you would like to request a copy of your personal information being held by us or request that it be deleted, or to update and/or correct your personal information or request that we provide a copy to another data controller of your personal information that you have provided to us, please contact us as detailed in the “Contact Us” section below. We will need enough information to ascertain your identity as well as the nature of your request. We will aim to respond to your request within one (1) calendar month of receipt of the request. Where we were unable to do so within the calendar month, we will notify you of the soonest practicable time within which we can respond to your request (and within three (3) months from the date of your request).
There are certain exemptions and restrictions of these rights under the European and UK data privacy laws that enable personal information to be retained, processed or withheld from access and we will inform you of these exemptions and restrictions, if applicable. If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact us as detailed in the “Contact Us” section below.
b. We Use Your Personal Information for the Following Key Purposes:
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to contact you: subject to applicable law, we or our third-party service and business providers may send you communications; especially if you have subscribed to one of our services. Such communications are designed to make your experience of with Platforms more efficient and may include, but are not limited to, communications about us and other notifications, including important news that could affect your relationship with us. Where required under applicable data privacy laws, we will not send you marketing communications without your prior consent;
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for legal purposes: we may use and share personal information for legal purposes, including financial, regulatory, tax and other legal obligations and to respond to governmental or regulatory requests or subpoenas or for litigation purposes;
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for our legitimate interests and those of a third party: we may use your personal information to manage our legal, regulatory, financial and business requirements, including obtaining legal advice, in the course of disputes and litigation, internal and/or regulatory investigations and other legitimate interests; we also use your personal information for our legitimate marketing purposes and we may share your personal information with third parties, such as our commercial partners and vendors, where we consider this meets our legitimate interests or those of our commercial partners and vendors, whilst respecting our visitors’ data privacy rights;
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for our business purposes: we may use your personal information to help us manage the objectives of our organization;
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for other purposes: subject to applicable law, we may use your personal information for additional purposes in connection with the Platforms, where you have provided your prior consent.
c. Sharing Your Personal Information
We share your personal information with third parties to help us use your personal information, as described in this Policy and in addition we may need to share your personal information with our professional tax, legal, audit or financial advisors as well as sponsors, members, and other organizations in the proper course of our business. We may also share your personal information when we receive requests for information in the context of legal disputes, investigations regulatory enquiries or similar requests. Where appropriate, we execute EU and UK Model Clauses, also known as Standard Contractual Clauses, to meet the adequacy and security requirements for the transfer of personal information to countries that lack adequacy determines. Please contact us as detailed in the “Contact Us” section below for more information.
d. Complaint Process
We are transparent about the ways in which we collect and use personal information and welcome your questions and concerns. If you have any concerns or complaints about the way we handle your personal information, please contact us as detailed in the “Contact Us” section below. To the extent you believe we have not addressed your concerns or otherwise choose to do so, you have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority in your country of residence under the European and UK data privacy laws.
10. Opt Out Preference Signals
We respond to signals or mechanisms enabled in web browsers indicating a preference to exercise the right to opt out of advertising tracking as required by applicable law.
11. Visitors from Outside the United States – Cross Border Transfer
The Platforms are intended for use of residents of the United States. If you are visiting the Platforms from outside the United States, you understand and agree that your personal information may be transferred to, stored, and processed in the United States or other countries in accordance with this Policy. The data protection and other applicable laws of the United States or other countries may not be as comprehensive as those laws or regulations in your country or may otherwise differ from the data protection or consumer protection laws in your country. Your information may be available to government authorities under lawful orders and law applicable in such jurisdictions. By using the Platforms and/or providing personal information to us, you consent to the transfer of your information to the United States or other countries as described in this Policy.
12. Changes to this Policy
We reserve the right to amend this Policy at any time. We will post all changes to this Policy on the Sites, so you should review this Policy periodically. Any such amendments to this Policy may apply to information we collect in the future as well as any information we obtained prior to such amendment. If we make a material change to this Policy, we will provide appropriate notice as required by law.
13. Contact Us
If you have any questions or comments regarding the Policy or how we collect and use your information, please contact us at:
120 Broadway, Floor 12
New York, New York 10271
Phone: (833) 227-5686 or
(833)-BAR-K686
E-mail: [email protected]
If we need, or are required, to contact you concerning any event that involves your information, we may do so by email, telephone, or mail. If you make a purchase, we will send you a confirmation email.
Last Updated December 2023