Privacy Policy

Introduction

Padpal Technologies Inc., operating as Padpal (“Padpal,” “we,” “us,” or “our”), respects your privacy and is committed to protecting it by complying with this privacy policy (this “policy”).

This policy describes:

1. How we collect, use, disclose, and protect the personal information of the users of our Platform (defined below), including customers (“Customers”) and service providers (“Service Providers” or “Providers”) (collectively, “you”).
2. The types of information we may collect from you or that you may provide when you visit the website located at https://www.padpal.com (the “Website”) or when you download, install, register with, access, or use our Padpal mobile application (the “App” and, together with the Website, the “Platform”).
3. Our practices for collecting, using, maintaining, protecting, and disclosing that information.

We will only use your personal information in accordance with this policy, unless otherwise required by applicable law. We take steps to ensure that the personal information that we collect about you is adequate, relevant, not excessive, and used for limited purposes.

Privacy laws in Canada generally define “personal information” as any information about an identifiable individual, which includes information that can be used on its own or with other information to identify, contact, or locate a single person.

This policy applies to information we collect, use, or disclose about you on the Platform, and in email, text, and other electronic messages between you and the Platform, including emails sent or received through email accounts connected to the Platform.

This policy does not apply to information that we collect offline or through any other means, including on any other Padpal or third-party website or application, or that you provide to or is collected by any third party, including our third-party payment processor, Stripe, the Apple App Store or Google Play, or the provider of any email account you connect to the Platform. These third parties have their own privacy policies, which we encourage you to read before providing information on or through them.

Please read this policy carefully to understand our policies and practices for collecting, processing, and storing your information. If you do not agree with our policies and practices, do not use the Platform. By accessing or using the Platform, you indicate that you understand, accept, and consent to this policy. We will notify you in advance of any material changes to this policy and obtain your consent to any new ways that we collect, use, and disclose your personal information.

All capitalized terms not defined herein will have the meanings given to them in the Terms of Service, found at /terms.

Information We Collect About You

We collect and use several types of information from and about you, including:

1. Personal information that we can reasonably use to directly or indirectly identify you, such as your name, email address, telephone number, photo, Internet protocol (“IP”) address, username or other similar identifier, device push notification tokens, and any other identifier we may use to contact you or provide notifications to you. The personal information we collect depends on whether you use the Platform as a Customer or as a Provider:
   • Customers: your name, email address, telephone number, photo, the address at which you want the Services performed, your booking history, device push notification tokens, and the reviews, ratings, and comments you post.
   • Providers: your name, email address, telephone number, photo, device push notification tokens, the service areas in which you work, and your business information, including business name, business description, years of experience, education, licence information, tax registration information, and other information you provide for your Provider profile or account. We may also collect and use Provider verification information, including information submitted by Providers and information obtained from publicly available sources, to conduct limited manual reviews and to determine whether to display a “Verified” badge or similar indicator on the Platform.
2. Payment information. All payments made through the Platform are processed by our third-party payment processor, Stripe. Your payment card and bank account details are provided directly to Stripe, and we do not collect or store full payment card numbers. We may receive from Stripe a customer reference identifier and limited transaction information corresponding to the payment details you provided to Stripe.
3. Location information. Providers provide their business location and the service areas in which they work. Customers may provide the city in which they are located, and we may collect location information from your browser or device, as well as your IP address.
4. Communications, including records and copies of your correspondence with us, messages, quotes, and invoices sent through the Platform, and emails sent or received through email accounts connected to the Platform.
5. Non-personal information, that does not directly or indirectly reveal your identity or directly relate to an identifiable individual, such as statistical or aggregated information.
6. Technical information, including your login information, browser type and version, device type, operating system and platform, time zone setting, device push notification tokens, or information about your internet connection, the equipment you use to access the Platform, and usage details.

How We Collect Information About You

We use different methods to collect your information, including through:

1. Direct interactions with you when you provide it to us, for example, by registering for an account, completing your profile, making or accepting a booking, preparing or accepting a quote or invoice, posting a review, filling in forms, or corresponding with us.
2. User contributions. You may also provide information for us to publish or display on public areas of the Platform or transmit to other users of the Platform, such as Provider profiles and Customer reviews, ratings, and comments.
3. Automated technologies or interactions, as you navigate through and interact with the Platform. Information collected automatically may include usage details, IP addresses, and information collected through cookies and other tracking technologies.
4. Third parties and public sources, for example, our third-party payment processor, Stripe, the providers of email accounts that Providers connect to the Platform, and, in the case of Providers, publicly available sources that we may review for Provider verification purposes.

Information We Collect Through Cookies and Other Automatic Data Collection Technologies

As you navigate through and interact with the Platform, we may use cookies, mobile cookies, analytics tools, software development kits, device identifiers, and other automatic data collection technologies to collect certain information about your equipment, browsing actions, usage activity, and patterns, including details of your visits to and use of the Platform and information about your computer, device, and internet connection.

The information we collect automatically is statistical and usage information and may include personal information. It helps us operate, maintain, secure, troubleshoot, and improve the Platform and deliver a better and more personalized service, including by enabling us to estimate our audience size and usage patterns, understand how users access and interact with the Platform, store information about your preferences, and recognize you when you return to the Platform.

The technologies we use for this automatic data collection may include:

1. Cookies, mobile cookies, and similar technologies. A cookie is a small file placed on your computer or device. You may refuse to accept cookies by activating the appropriate setting on your browser or device. However, if you select this setting, you may be unable to access certain parts of the Platform or some parts of the Platform may not function properly.
2. Analytics technologies and software development kits (“SDKs”). We may use analytics tools and software development kits, including Google Analytics for Firebase, to understand how the Platform is accessed and used and to improve the Platform.
3. Web beacons and pixels. Pages of the Platform and our emails may contain small electronic files that permit us, for example, to count users who have visited pages or opened an email and for other related Platform statistics.

We do not currently use Google Analytics for Firebase for targeted advertising, retargeting, or cross-site behavioural advertising. If we introduce materially different tracking technologies or use existing technologies for materially different purposes, we will update this policy and obtain consent where required by applicable law.

Third-Party Information Collection

When you use the Platform, certain third parties may collect information about you or your device directly through analytics tools and SDKs integrated into the Platform. These third parties include Google Analytics for Firebase, which helps us understand how the Platform is accessed and used. We also use Google Search Console, a tool that provides us with aggregated, non-identifying information about how the Platform appears in Google search results.

We do not control these third parties’ technologies or how they use them, and their information practices are governed by their own privacy policies rather than this policy. If you have any questions about a third party’s information practices, you should review that third party’s privacy policy or contact that third party directly.

Connected Email Accounts

Providers may connect third-party email accounts to the Platform in order to send emails through the Platform. The Platform currently supports Gmail and Google Workspace accounts, Microsoft Outlook, Hotmail, Live, MSN, Office 365, and Microsoft 365 accounts, and other SMTP/IMAP email accounts configured with a password or app-specific password, including providers such as iCloud, Zoho Mail, Yahoo, and other email providers.

Where a Provider sends an email to a Customer using a connected Gmail or Google Workspace account, the email is sent using the Provider’s connected Google account. Where a Provider sends an email using another supported email integration, the email may be routed through our systems and sent from a Padpal email address that displays the Provider’s business name, such as “[Provider business name] via Padpal.” A copy of the email may be stored in our systems.

We use information obtained through connected email accounts and email features only to provide, maintain, secure, and improve the Platform’s user-facing email features. We do not use this information for third-party advertising purposes, and we do not permit any person to read email contents except with your consent, as necessary to provide support or maintain or secure the Platform, to investigate abuse or suspected violations of our Terms of Service, to comply with applicable law, or where the information has been aggregated or anonymized.

If you connect a Gmail or Google Workspace account, our use and transfer to any other application of information received from Google APIs will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

How We Use Your Information

We use information that we collect about you or that you provide to us, including any personal information:

1. To present the Platform and its contents to you, and to create and manage your account.
2. To provide you with the services available through the Platform, including connecting Customers with Providers, facilitating bookings, quotes, invoices, scheduling, and email integration, and displaying Provider profiles and Customer reviews, ratings, and comments.
3. To facilitate payments through our third-party payment processor, Stripe.
4. To provide you with information, products, or services that you request from us, and to fulfill the purposes for which you provided the information.
5. To provide you with notices about your account or Subscription, including renewal notices.
6. To send you emails, SMS/text messages, push notifications, in-app notifications, and other communications about your bookings, quotes, invoices, payments, account activity, Subscriptions, security, support, and the status of services, including push notifications where you have enabled them on your device.
7. To carry out our obligations and enforce our rights arising from any contracts with you, including our Terms of Service, and for billing and collection or to comply with legal requirements.
8. To notify you about changes to the Platform or any products or services we offer or provide through it.
9. To analyze how the Platform is accessed and used, understand usage patterns, troubleshoot issues, improve the Platform, and develop new or improved features.
10. In any other way we may describe when you provide the information.
11. For any other purpose with your consent.

We may also use your information to contact you about our own goods and services that may be of interest to you, where permitted by applicable law. If you no longer wish to receive emails from Padpal promoting our own products or services, you can opt out using your in-app notification preferences, by using the unsubscribe mechanism included in our marketing emails, or by emailing us at support@padpal.com. This opt-out does not apply to transactional or account-related communications.

Disclosure of Your Information

We may disclose aggregated information about our users and information that does not identify any individual without restriction. We may disclose personal information that we collect or that you provide as described in this policy:

1. To other users of the Platform to provide the services available through the Platform. For example, when a Customer makes a booking, we share with the Provider the information needed to provide the Services, including the Customer’s name, contact information, the address at which the Services are to be performed, and booking details. If a Customer posts a review, the Customer’s first name, rating out of five stars, comment, the month and year of the related Booking, and a “Verified Booking” label are displayed publicly on the Platform.
2. To our affiliates.
3. To contractors, service providers, and other third parties we use to support our business, including Google and Google Firebase (hosting, analytics, and related infrastructure); Stripe (payment processing); Twilio SendGrid (email delivery); Twilio (SMS/text notifications); and Google Maps and related mapping or IP-geolocation services. These parties are contractually obligated to keep personal information confidential and use it only for the purposes for which we disclose it to them.
4. In accordance with applicable law, to a buyer or other successor in the event of a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, or other sale or transfer of some or all of Padpal Technologies Inc.’s assets.
5. To fulfill the purpose for which you provide it.
6. For any other purpose disclosed by us when you provide the information.
7. With your consent.

We may also disclose your personal information to comply with any court order, law, or legal process; to enforce or apply our Terms of Service and other agreements; and if we believe disclosure is necessary or appropriate to protect the rights, property, or safety of Padpal, our users, or others.

Transferring and Storing Your Personal Information

The information we collect is stored using Google Firebase and other service providers we use to support the Platform. Access to the personal information stored in our systems is restricted to a limited number of authorized personnel.

We may process, store, and transfer your personal information in and to a foreign country, with different privacy laws that may or may not be as comprehensive as Canadian law. Our service providers may process or store personal information in Canada, the United States, or other jurisdictions where they or their service providers maintain facilities. By submitting your personal information or engaging with the Platform, you consent to this transfer, storage, or processing.

Choices About How We Use and Disclose Your Information

1. Cookies, Analytics, and Similar Technologies. You can set your browser or device to refuse all or some cookies, to alert you when cookies are being sent, or to limit certain device identifiers or tracking permissions.
2. App Analytics Preferences. Where the Platform makes analytics preferences available, you may use those settings to limit our use of non-essential app analytics. This does not affect technologies that are necessary to operate, secure, or provide the Platform.
3. Promotional Communications from Padpal. If you no longer wish to have your contact information used by Padpal to promote our own products or services, you can opt out by using the unsubscribe mechanism at the bottom of our emails or by emailing support@padpal.com. This opt-out does not apply to transactional or account-related communications.

Data Security

The security of your personal information is very important to us. We use physical, electronic, contractual, and administrative measures designed to protect personal information from accidental loss and from unauthorized access, collection, use, disclosure, copying, modification, disposal, and similar risks. Payment card and bank account details are provided directly to Stripe, and we do not collect or store full payment card numbers.

The safety and security of your information also depends on you. Where you have a password for access to certain parts of the Platform, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the Internet, mobile networks, email, SMS/text message, or other electronic means is not completely secure. Any transmission of personal information is at your own risk.

Data Retention and Account Deletion

Except as otherwise permitted or required by applicable law or regulation, we will retain your personal information only for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes for which we collected it, including to provide the Platform, maintain records of bookings, quotes, invoices, payments, communications, and transactions, resolve disputes, enforce our agreements, maintain security, prevent fraud or misuse, and satisfy any legal, accounting, tax, regulatory, or reporting requirements.

You may delete your account at any time, except that you cannot delete your account while you have an active booking. If you have an active booking, you must first complete it (including submitting or collecting payment, as applicable) or cancel it in accordance with our Terms of Service before you can delete your account. When you delete your account, or when your account is terminated, we will delete or de-identify the personal information associated with your account, except that:

1. Records of bookings, quotes, invoices, payments, communications, and transactions between you and another user of the Platform may remain visible to that other user and may be retained by us for legal, accounting, tax, regulatory, dispute-resolution, security, fraud-prevention, and legitimate business purposes.
2. Reviews, ratings, and comments posted on the Platform may remain on the Platform after the related account is deleted or terminated. If your account is deleted or terminated, we will remove your name from your reviews, ratings, and comments so that they are displayed as being from a “Verified Customer.”
3. We may retain information where required or permitted by applicable law, including for legal, accounting, tax, regulatory, dispute-resolution, security, fraud-prevention, and legitimate business purposes.
4. We may retain and use anonymized, aggregated, or de-identified information that can no longer reasonably be associated with you.

Minors

The Platform is not intended for individuals who are under the legal age of majority in the jurisdiction in which the Services are or are to be performed (each, a “Minor”). No Minor may provide any personal information to or on the Platform. We do not knowingly collect personal information from Minors. If we learn we have collected or received personal information from a Minor, we will delete that information. If you believe we might have any information from or about a Minor, please contact us at support@padpal.com.

Accessing and Correcting Your Personal Information

It is important that the personal information we hold about you is accurate and current. You can review and change certain personal information by logging into the Platform and visiting your account profile page. You may request access to, or correction of, the personal information that we hold about you by sending a written request to our Privacy Officer at support@padpal.com. We may request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and your right to access or correct the personal information.

You may also request deletion of personal information that you have provided to us. In some cases, deleting certain personal information may require deletion of your account, and certain information will be retained or de-identified as described in Data Retention and Account Deletion. We may not accommodate a request to change or delete information if we believe the change or deletion would violate any law or legal requirement, interfere with records we are permitted or required to retain, or impair our ability to complete transactions, resolve disputes, maintain security, prevent fraud or misuse, or enforce our agreements.

Withdrawing Your Consent

Where you have provided your consent to the collection, use, and transfer of your personal information, you may have the legal right to withdraw your consent under certain circumstances. To withdraw your consent, if applicable, contact us at support@padpal.com. Please note that if you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide you with a particular product or service.

Changes to Our Privacy Policy

It is our policy to post any changes we make to our privacy policy on this page. If we make material changes to how we treat our users’ personal information, we will notify you by email to the email address specified in your account or through a notice on the Platform. We include the date the privacy policy was last revised at the top of the page.

Contact Information and Challenging Compliance

We welcome your questions, comments, and requests regarding this privacy policy and our privacy practices. Please contact our Privacy Officer at:

We have procedures in place to receive and respond to complaints or inquiries about our handling of personal information, our compliance with this policy, and with applicable privacy laws. If we are unable to resolve your concerns, you may also contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada or the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia.