Privacy Policy
In short. Puppy Scale has no accounts, no sign-up, no forms and no analytics. The calculators run in your browser: your pet’s weight, age, dates, food details and anything else you type are not sent to us, not stored on our server and never put in a page address. Our server keeps standard access logs for 14 days. The site is funded by Google AdSense, which uses cookies to show and measure ads, and by affiliate links that are marked where they appear. You can opt out of personalized ads. Visitors in the EEA, UK and Switzerland are not shown ads at all.
1. Who we are
Puppy Scale (puppyscale.com) is operated by an individual based in the United States (“we”, “us”). For any privacy question or request, email hello@puppyscale.com. Puppy Scale is an independent website; it is not a veterinary practice and does not share information with any veterinary practice, poison-control service, pet-food or pet-insurance company.
2. What we collect and why
Messages you send us
If you email us, we receive your email address, your name if you include it, and your message. We use them only to answer you and to keep a record of corrections and requests. The site has no contact form; the contact page only shows our address. Please don’t send us your pet’s medical records or anyone’s personal records: we don’t need them and can’t give advice about an individual animal.
Server logs
Like most websites, our server automatically records each request: IP address, date and time, the page requested, the referring page, your browser’s user-agent string and the response status. We use these logs to keep the site running, investigate errors and block abuse. They are deleted automatically after 14 days.
Content delivery and security (Cloudflare)
The site is delivered through Cloudflare, which processes IP addresses and request data to deliver pages quickly and protect the site from attacks. Cloudflare may set a strictly necessary security cookie when it needs to tell people from bots. See Cloudflare’s privacy policy.
Approximate country, to apply the right privacy rules
On pages that can show ads, your browser asks our content delivery network which country your request comes from (derived from your IP address). We use the answer only to decide whether consent is required before ads load. We do not store it.
The calculators
Every calculator on this site runs entirely in your browser. The weights, ages, birth and mating dates, body-condition scores, food details, amounts and costs you enter are not transmitted to us, are not stored on our server, and are never added to the address of a page. A printout, PDF, calendar file (.ics) or table (CSV) you make is created in your browser and exists only on your own device. We do not collect health information about you or your pet: what you type is used by the page in front of you and goes nowhere else.
Carrying numbers to another calculator. Some results have a link such as “Turn these calories into cups”, “Use this adult weight in puppy feeding”, “Track weigh-ins”, “Plan weight loss” or “Food cost from these calories”. Only when you press one, the values that calculator needs (dog or cat, today’s weight, an adult-weight estimate, age in weeks, sex, size class, breed, calories a day, body-condition score and your weight unit) are placed in your browser’s session storage for this tab, under the name tool-handoff, so the next calculator can open with them. The next page reads them once and deletes them straight away; an unread entry is ignored after 10 minutes and disappears when you close the tab. They never leave your device and are never put in the page address.
Search
The site search runs in your browser: what you type in the search box is matched against an index file your browser downloads, and it is not sent to us or added to the page address. If you open a link that already contains a search (for example /search/?q=chocolate), that address reaches our server like any page request and is kept in the access logs described above.
Apart from that hand-off and your Auto/Day/Night colour choice (see the Cookie Policy), no calculator saves anything on your device. If a tool later offers to remember a setting for you, it will do so only if you switch that option on, only in your browser’s local storage, never sent to us, with a button to forget it — and this policy and the Cookie Policy will name that storage before the option appears.
Cookies, advertising identifiers and similar technologies
We do not set cookies for analytics or tracking. Our advertising partner, Google, uses cookies and advertising identifiers as described in section 3. Details are in the Cookie Policy.
What we do not collect
We have no user accounts, newsletters, comments, lead forms, forms that store data or payment forms, and we never ask for contact details in exchange for a result. We do not use analytics services at present. If that changes, this policy will be updated first and consent will be requested where the law requires it.
3. Advertising by Google AdSense
We use Google AdSense (publisher ID pub-6552764071336126) to show ads. Specifically:
- 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 you based on your visit to this site and/or other sites on the Internet.
- You may opt out of personalized advertising by visiting Google Ads Settings.
- You can opt out of a third-party vendor’s use of cookies for personalized advertising at www.aboutads.info and, for visitors in Europe, www.youronlinechoices.eu.
- Google explains how it uses data in How Google uses information from sites or apps that use our services.
Even when ads are not personalized, Google may use cookies or identifiers for frequency capping, aggregated ad reporting, and to combat fraud and abuse.
We do not send Google any information that Google could use to identify you personally, such as your name, email address or phone number. None of our page addresses contain personal information, and nothing you type into a calculator is ever sent to Google.
When ads load
- EEA, United Kingdom and Switzerland: ads, and the cookies that come with them, load only after you make a choice in a Google-certified consent management platform that uses the IAB Transparency & Consent Framework. Until such a platform is active on this site, no ads are shown to visitors from these regions.
- United States and elsewhere: before ads load, the site checks whether you have opted out of sale or sharing (see section 9) or your browser sends a Global Privacy Control signal. If so, ads are requested in Google’s restricted data processing mode, which serves only non-personalized ads.
- Pages without ads — the legal pages, About, Contact, Search and others — never load advertising scripts.
4. Affiliate links, including Amazon
The site has no affiliate links today. If any are added, each will be marked where it appears — Amazon links with “(paid link)”, any other program’s links with “(affiliate link; we earn a commission)”. When you follow a link to Amazon, Amazon may use cookies to credit the referral, under Amazon’s Privacy Notice. We do not send any company anything about you; when you follow such a link you are on their site, under their privacy policy. See the Editorial Policy for how affiliate relationships are kept separate from what we write.
5. Legal bases (EEA, UK and Switzerland)
We process server logs and security data on the basis of our legitimate interest in running a secure, working website. We handle your emails to respond to your request. Advertising cookies rely on your consent, which you can withdraw at any time through the consent tool’s privacy settings.
6. Who we share information with
- Hosting: Hetzner Online GmbH, which runs our server in Germany.
- Content delivery and security: Cloudflare, Inc.
- Email: mail to hello@puppyscale.com is received by Cloudflare Email Routing and forwarded to a mailbox hosted by Google (Gmail), so messages you send us are processed by Cloudflare and stored by Google.
- Advertising: Google and its advertising partners, as described in section 3.
- Legal reasons: when the law requires it, or to protect the rights and safety of users or the site.
We do not sell personal information for money, and we never pass anything to schools, lenders or claims services.
7. How long we keep information
- Server access logs: 14 days, then deleted automatically.
- Emails: as long as needed to handle your message and any follow-up, and no longer than 24 months after our last exchange, unless we need to keep a record of a legal request such as a copyright notice.
- Calculator entries: not kept by us at all. They never leave your browser; values you carry to another calculator are deleted as soon as that page reads them.
- Advertising data held by Google: under Google’s own retention policies. Your privacy choice stored in your browser stays until you clear it.
8. Your choices and rights
Wherever you live, you can ask us to tell you what personal information we hold about you, to correct it, or to delete it. Email hello@puppyscale.com. We may ask you to confirm the request from the email address involved, so that we don’t disclose or delete someone else’s information. We answer within one month, or within the period the law that applies to you allows.
If you are in the EEA, the UK or Switzerland, you also have the right to restrict or object to processing, to data portability, to withdraw consent at any time, and to complain to your local data protection authority.
For ads specifically, use Google Ads Settings, the opt-out pages listed in section 3, or your browser’s cookie settings.
9. California privacy rights (CCPA/CPRA) and other U.S. states
This section applies to California residents and describes our practices over the last 12 months. Whether or not these laws apply to a site of this size, we honor the requests described here from any U.S. visitor.
Categories of personal information we collect
| Category | Examples | Source | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| Identifiers | IP address, cookie and advertising identifiers; your email address if you write to us | Your browser or device; you; Google | Operating and securing the site; answering you; showing and measuring ads |
| Internet or other electronic network activity | Pages viewed, referring page, browser type, interactions with ads | Your browser or device; Google | Operating and securing the site; showing and measuring ads; preventing fraud |
| Approximate geolocation | Country or region derived from your IP address (not precise location) | Your IP address | Applying the right privacy rules; ad delivery by Google |
We do not collect sensitive personal information, as California law defines it, through the site — including health information or health records. What you enter into the calculators is not collected at all.
Selling and sharing
We do not sell personal information for money. When Google and its partners show ads, identifiers and internet activity are disclosed to them. Where that disclosure is used for cross-context behavioral advertising, California law can treat it as “sharing” of personal information, and in some interpretations as a “sale”. We do not knowingly sell or share the personal information of consumers under 16.
Your rights
- Right to know what personal information we collected about you, its sources, purposes and the categories of recipients.
- Right to delete personal information we collected from you.
- Right to correct inaccurate personal information.
- Right to opt out of the sale or sharing of your personal information.
- Right to non-discrimination. We will not deny you service, charge you differently or give you a different quality of service because you used any of these rights.
How to make a request
- To opt out of sale or sharing in this browser, use the Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information page. We also treat a Global Privacy Control signal from your browser as an opt-out.
- For any other request, email hello@puppyscale.com with the subject “California privacy request” (or the name of your state). We will confirm receipt within 10 business days and respond within 45 days, or tell you if we need up to 45 more days.
- Authorized agents: an authorized agent may submit a request for you if they provide your signed written permission, and we may ask you to confirm your identity with us directly.
Residents of other U.S. states with consumer privacy laws can use the same email address for the same requests. If we decline a request, you may appeal by replying to our decision, and we will review it and answer in writing.
10. Children
Puppy Scale is a general-audience site written for adults who care for dogs and cats. It is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 (COPPA). If you believe a child has sent us personal information, email hello@puppyscale.com and we will delete it.
11. Security and international transfers
The site is served only over HTTPS, and we keep the information we hold to a minimum. Our server is in Germany and some of our providers are in the United States, so information may be processed outside the country where you live.
12. Changes to this policy
If we change this policy, we will update the date at the top of this page. Significant changes will be noted on the home page for at least 30 days.
13. Contact
Puppy Scale, operated by an individual based in the United States. Email: hello@puppyscale.com.