Privacy Policy
Last updated
This policy describes what BarkMath actually does, not what a template says a website might do. Where a third party processes data on our behalf, it is named and linked.
The short version
- The calculator runs entirely in your browser. Your puppy's breed, age and weight are never sent anywhere. There is no API and no server to send them to.
- There are no accounts, no sign-up, no newsletter and no comments.
- BarkMath sets no cookies of its own and stores nothing on your device.
- Our analytics are cookieless. We measure page visits in aggregate and cannot identify you or follow you to another site.
- Advertising is the exception, and it is the part worth reading. Ad networks do use cookies and similar technologies. That section is below.
Who is responsible for this site
BarkMath is operated by Michael Evans, London, Ontario, Canada. For the purposes of data protection law, that is the data controller. Contact: hello@barkmath.com.
The calculator: nothing you enter leaves your device
This is the single most important fact in this policy, so it is stated precisely. The puppy size calculator (the breed, sex, age, current weight and optional parent weights you type in) is computed entirely in your browser using JavaScript. The breed dataset and the growth model are downloaded to your device with the page, and the prediction is calculated there.
There is no API endpoint, no back end and no database. BarkMath is a static site: the server's only role is to hand your browser the files. Nothing you enter is transmitted to us, logged by us, stored by us, or shared with anyone, because there is no mechanism by which it could be.
You do not have to take our word for it. Open your browser's developer tools, select the Network tab, and run a prediction. No request is made.
Two related details, for completeness:
- Result cards are drawn on your device. The shareable image is rendered in the browser on a canvas element. "Download card" saves it to your device. "Share this result" hands the finished image to your operating system's share sheet. At that point whatever app you choose to share it with takes over, and that app's privacy policy governs what happens next. Nothing is uploaded to BarkMath in either case.
- Breed links carry the breed name in the fragment, which never leaves your
browser. Links into the calculator pre-fill a breed using the part of the
address after the
#, for example/tools/puppy-size-calculator#breed=goldendoodle. Browsers do not send a fragment to the server and do not include it in the referrer passed to third parties, so this is not logged anywhere and is not shared. Older links using?breed=still work, and a query string of that kind does appear in ordinary server logs and in the referrer. Either way it contains only a breed name, never anything you typed.
Cookies and device storage
BarkMath sets no cookies. The site does not use localStorage or sessionStorage, does not fingerprint your
device, and stores no preferences, identifiers or history on it. Close the tab and
nothing about your visit remains.
Two third parties can place things on your device, and both are described below:
- Cloudflare may set strictly necessary security cookies (such as
__cf_bm) at the network level as part of protecting the site from automated abuse. These are set by Cloudflare rather than by us and are not used for advertising or analytics. - Advertising partners use cookies and similar technologies. See Advertising.
Hosting and server logs
BarkMath is hosted on Cloudflare's network. Like any web host, Cloudflare necessarily processes the technical details of each request in order to deliver the page and protect the site: your IP address, the URL requested, the time of the request, your browser's user-agent string and the referring page.
This processing is a normal and unavoidable part of serving a website, and we rely on our legitimate interest in delivering the site securely and reliably. We do not build profiles from it, and we do not combine it with anything else. Cloudflare acts as our processor and retains this data under its own retention schedule. See the Cloudflare Privacy Policy.
Analytics
BarkMath uses Cloudflare Web Analytics, which loads a small script from static.cloudflareinsights.com. It was chosen specifically because of what it
does not do: it sets no cookies, stores nothing on your device, and does
not track individual visitors across websites. Cloudflare states that it does not track
individual end users across its customers' properties.
What it reports to us is aggregate: which pages were viewed and how often, the referring site, page-load timing measured through the browser's Performance API, coarse browser/operating-system and device-type information, screen size, and country. We see totals and trends. We cannot see you, and we have no way to connect a visit to a person.
Because it is cookieless and stores nothing on your device, this analytics does not require consent under the ePrivacy rules that govern device storage. See Cloudflare Web Analytics documentation.
Advertising
BarkMath is free to use and currently carries no advertising. It is intended to be supported by display advertising served through Google AdSense. This section describes what will apply when advertising is switched on, so that it is disclosed before rather than after the fact. This page will be updated on the day ads begin serving.
- Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on a user's prior visits to this website or other websites.
- Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to users based on their visit to this site and/or other sites on the internet.
- Users may opt out of personalised advertising by visiting Google My Ad Center. Alternatively, users may opt out of a third-party vendor's use of cookies for personalised advertising at aboutads.info/choices or, in Europe, at youronlinechoices.eu.
- How Google handles data from sites that use its services is described in Google's partner sites policy.
Opting out of personalised advertising does not remove advertising. It means the ads you see are chosen from context (the page you are reading) rather than from a profile of your browsing.
Consent, if you are in the EEA, the UK or Switzerland
Advertising cookies are not placed in these regions without your consent. When advertising is live, BarkMath uses a Google-certified consent management platform integrated with the IAB Transparency and Consent Framework, as Google requires of publishers serving ads to these regions. You will be asked before anything is stored, you can refuse without losing access to any part of the site, and you can change or withdraw your choice at any time through the same control. The full list of advertising technology providers is presented in that consent interface.
If you are in a US state with a privacy law
A number of US states (California, Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia, Texas and others) give you the right to opt out of the sale or sharing of your personal information, and of targeted advertising. BarkMath does not sell personal information for money. Depending on how those laws are read, personalised advertising can nonetheless count as "sharing" or as targeted advertising.
If you are in one of those states, an opt-out control is presented through our consent platform. Choosing to opt out records that choice with Google and sets the industry standard opt-out signals, covering sale, sharing and targeted advertising, which puts subsequent ad requests into a restricted, non-personalised mode. You can also exercise the right by emailing hello@barkmath.com, and we will action it.
On Global Privacy Control, we would rather tell you what we do not know. Some browsers and extensions send a GPC signal that is intended to communicate an opt-out automatically, without you clicking anything. We use a Google-certified consent platform, and across Google's published documentation on US state privacy we could not find any statement that it acts on GPC. It may well do so; we have not been able to confirm it, and we are not going to claim it on that basis.
So if you send a GPC signal and want to be certain it has taken effect, use the opt-out control or email us. Either of those we can vouch for. If we establish that the signal is honoured automatically, this section will say so.
External links
BarkMath links out heavily, to research papers, breed standards and veterinary organisations, because that is how the sourcing standard works. Following one of those links sends your browser to a site we do not control, which sends BarkMath's URL as a referrer and applies its own privacy policy. We have no involvement in what happens there.
Children
BarkMath is intended for adults responsible for a dog. It is not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 13, or under 16 where local law sets that threshold. Because the site has no accounts and no forms, there is no route by which a child could submit personal information to us. If you believe a child's information has somehow reached us, email hello@barkmath.com and it will be deleted.
Your rights, and what we can honestly do about them
Depending on where you live, you may have rights to access, correct, delete or port your personal data, to object to or restrict its processing, and to opt out of targeted advertising, under Canada's PIPEDA, the UK and EU GDPR, and US state privacy laws.
Being straight about the limits: BarkMath holds no account, profile or record keyed to you. There is nothing to look up, because we never collected it. In practice that means:
- Anything you typed into the calculator: we do not have it and never did. Nothing to access, and nothing to delete.
- Advertising data is held by Google and its ad technology partners, not by us. The controls linked above are the fastest route; you can also use your Google account controls.
- Server logs and analytics sit with Cloudflare as our processor. If you ask us to act on a request, we will pass it to them; realistically, log data is not indexed in a way that allows a single visitor's records to be isolated.
Email hello@barkmath.com to make a request and we will respond within the time your law allows: 30 days under PIPEDA and the GDPR, 45 days under most US state laws. You will not be charged, and you will not be treated differently for asking.
If you are unhappy with the response, you may complain to your regulator: the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, the UK ICO, or your EU member state's supervisory authority.
Legal bases, where the GDPR applies
| What | Why | Legal basis |
|---|---|---|
| Server logs | Delivering the site, security, abuse prevention | Legitimate interests |
| Cookieless analytics | Understanding which pages are useful | Legitimate interests |
| Advertising cookies | Funding the site | Consent |
| Emails you send us | Replying to you | Legitimate interests |
International transfers
BarkMath is operated from Canada and served from Cloudflare's global network, so a page is delivered from a location near you. Our service providers (Cloudflare and, for advertising, Google) operate internationally and may process data in the United States and elsewhere, under their own transfer safeguards, including the standard contractual clauses where applicable.
Email you send us
If you email BarkMath, we hold that message in order to reply to it, along with whatever you chose to put in it. It is not added to any marketing list. There is no marketing list. Correspondence is kept only as long as it is useful, and correction reports may be retained longer as a record of what was changed and why.
Changes to this policy
When this policy changes materially, in particular on the day advertising begins serving, it will be updated here and the date at the top will change. Material changes will be described rather than quietly folded in.
Contact
Questions about this policy, or about anything above: hello@barkmath.com. See also the contact page and the Terms of Use.