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:

1. On the Platform.
2. In email, text, and other electronic messages between you and the Platform, including emails sent or received through email accounts connected to the Platform (see Connected Email Accounts).

This policy DOES NOT apply to information that:

1. We collect offline or through any other means, including on any other Padpal or third-party website or application.
2. 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. This policy may change from time to time (see Changes to Our Privacy Policy). Your continued use of the Platform after we make changes indicates that you accept and consent to those changes, so please check the policy periodically for updates. 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 https://padpal.com/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 used to connect your computer or device to the Internet, username or other similar identifier, device push notification tokens, and any other identifier we may use to contact you or provide notifications to you (“personal information”). 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 (see Connected Email Accounts).
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. Statistical or aggregated data does not directly identify a specific person, but we may derive non-personal statistical or aggregated data from personal information. For example, we may aggregate personal information to calculate the percentage of users accessing a specific Platform feature.
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 (which provides us with a customer reference identifier and limited transaction information), 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:

1. Details of your visits to and use of the Platform, including traffic data, location data derived from your browser, device, address, or IP address, logs, and other communication data and the resources that you access and use on the Platform.
2. Information about your computer, device, and internet connection, including your IP address, operating system, browser type, device type, and, when you use the App, app interaction and feature interaction information.

The information we collect automatically is statistical and usage information and may include personal information. We may maintain it or associate it with personal information we collect in other ways or receive from third parties. It helps us operate, maintain, secure, troubleshoot, and improve the Platform and deliver a better and more personalized service, including by enabling us to:

1. Estimate our audience size and usage patterns.
2. Understand how users access and interact with the Platform.
3. Store information about your preferences, allowing us to customize the Platform according to your individual interests.
4. 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. These technologies may collect device and usage information, including device type, operating system, app interactions, feature interactions, identifiers, IP address, and usage activity.
3. Web beacons and pixels. Pages of the Platform and our emails may contain small electronic files known as web beacons, pixel tags, or similar technologies 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. This is different from the information that our service providers collect and process on our behalf, which is described elsewhere in this policy.

These third parties include Google Analytics for Firebase, which helps us understand how the Platform is accessed and used. Google Analytics for Firebase may collect device and usage information, such as device type, operating system, app interactions, feature interactions, identifiers, IP address, and other usage activity. We use this information to operate, maintain, analyze, troubleshoot, and improve the Platform. We do not currently use Google Analytics for Firebase for targeted advertising, retargeting, or cross-site behavioural advertising.

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. Google Search Console does not collect personal information about individual visitors through the Platform.

These third parties may use cookies, device identifiers, analytics SDKs, and other tracking technologies to collect information about your device and your use of the Platform. The information they collect may be associated with information they already hold about you and is handled in accordance with their own privacy policies.

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. For information about how Google collects and uses data, see Google’s Firebase privacy and security documentation.

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 to a Customer using another supported email integration, such as Outlook, Zoho Mail, iCloud, Yahoo, or another SMTP/IMAP email account, 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.

Where a Provider sends marketing emails or other bulk communications through the Platform, those communications are sent through our systems from a Padpal email address. Each recipient receives their own copy, and those emails include an unsubscribe mechanism. If a recipient unsubscribes, we will suppress that recipient from future marketing emails sent through the applicable Platform email feature, subject to applicable law.

Automated transactional or account-related emails, including emails about invoices, quote updates, booking confirmations, account activity, and similar Platform activity, are sent from Padpal using a Padpal email address. These communications are not marketing communications and may not include an unsubscribe mechanism.

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.

Your use of a connected email account remains subject to the terms of service and privacy policy of the applicable email provider, and you are responsible for complying with them.

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 or that were described when it was collected, or any other purpose for which you provide it.
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, our products or services, marketing, and customer relationships and experiences, 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 anonymize and aggregate the information we collect, including personal information, so that it can no longer be associated with you, and we may use such anonymized and aggregated data for our business purposes, including analytics and improving the Platform.

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, such as booking confirmations, receipts, Subscription notices, security notices, support communications, or messages about Transactions or Bookings you have entered into.

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, and we share the Provider’s profile and business information with Customers. 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 next to the date of the related Booking 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, which provide hosting, analytics, and related infrastructure services; Stripe, which processes payments; Twilio SendGrid, which delivers email sent through the Platform, including the contents and recipients of those emails; Twilio, which delivers SMS/text notifications, including the recipient’s phone number and message contents; Google Maps and related mapping or IP-geolocation services, which may be used to support location features and derive approximate location from an address or IP address; and other service providers who are contractually obligated to keep personal information confidential, use it only for the purposes for which we disclose it to them, and process the personal information with the same standards set out in this policy.
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, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation, or similar proceeding, in which personal information held by Padpal Technologies Inc. about our users is among the assets transferred.
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:

1. To comply with any court order, law, or legal process, including to respond to any government or regulatory request, in accordance with applicable law.
2. To enforce or apply our Terms of Service, found at https://padpal.com/terms, and other agreements, including for billing and collection purposes.
3. 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 transfer personal information that we collect or that you provide as described in this policy to contractors, service providers, and other third parties we use to support our business and who are contractually obligated to keep personal information confidential, use it only for the purposes for which we disclose it to them, and to process the personal information with the same standards set out in this policy.

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. In these circumstances, the governments, courts, law enforcement, or regulatory agencies of that country may be able to obtain access to your personal information through the laws of the foreign country. Whenever we engage a service provider, we require that its privacy and security standards adhere to this policy and applicable Canadian privacy legislation.

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.

You are welcome to contact us to obtain further information about our policies regarding service providers outside of Canada. See Contact Information and Challenging Compliance.

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

We strive to provide you with choices regarding the personal information you provide to us. We have created mechanisms to provide you with the following control over 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. You may also be able to manage certain analytics or privacy preferences through your device settings or, where available, through Platform settings. If you disable or refuse cookies or similar technologies, please note that some parts of the Platform may not be accessible or may not function properly. For more information about cookies, analytics, and similar technologies, see Information We Collect Through Cookies and Other Automatic Data Collection Technologies and Third-Party Information Collection.
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 email address or other 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 sending us an email stating your request to support@padpal.com. This opt-out does not apply to transactional or account-related communications, such as booking confirmations, Subscription notices, or communications about transactions you have entered into.

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.

As described above, we use third-party service providers to support the Platform, including Google Firebase for hosting and related infrastructure, Stripe for payment processing, Twilio SendGrid for email delivery, Twilio for SMS/text message delivery, and Google Maps and related mapping or IP-geolocation services for location-related features. Access to personal information stored in our systems is restricted to authorized personnel who require access for business, technical, support, security, or compliance purposes. 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 we have given you, or where you have chosen, a password for access to certain parts of the Platform, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share your password with anyone. We urge you to be careful about giving out information in public areas of the Platform, such as reviews and comments, which may be viewed by other users or Platform visitors.

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the Internet, mobile networks, email, SMS/text message, or other electronic means is not completely secure. Although we do our best to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of your personal information transmitted to the Platform. Any transmission of personal information is at your own risk. We are not responsible for circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures contained on the Platform.

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.

If we use your personal information to make a decision that directly affects you, we will retain that information for at least one year after using it so that you have a reasonable opportunity to access it, unless a longer retention period is permitted or required by applicable law.

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. For example, a Provider may continue to see records of past bookings with a Customer who has deleted their account, and a Customer may continue to see information about Providers they booked, even if a Provider has deleted its account.
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.” We do not delete the rating or comment content itself solely because your account has been deleted or terminated. However, we may remove, edit, or further anonymize reviews, ratings, or comments in accordance with our Terms of Service, this policy, or applicable law, including where the content contains personal information that should not remain publicly visible.
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. We may use such anonymized, aggregated, or de-identified information for any legitimate business purpose without further notice to you or your consent.

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 you are a Minor, do not use or provide any information on the Platform or on or through any of its features, register on the Platform, make any bookings or purchases through the Platform, use any of the interactive or public comment features of the Platform, or provide any information about yourself to us, including your name, address, telephone number, email address, or any username you may use. 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. Please keep us informed if your personal information changes.

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. Your request must provide sufficient detail to allow us, with reasonable effort, to identify you and the personal information or correction being requested. We may request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and your right to access or correct the personal information.

Subject to applicable law, you may request access to the personal information we hold about you, information about the ways in which that personal information has been and is being used, and the names of the individuals and organizations to whom that personal information has been disclosed. We will respond to your request within the time required by applicable law.

If you request a correction and we are satisfied on reasonable grounds that the correction should be made, we will correct the personal information as soon as reasonably possible. Where required by applicable law, we will also send the corrected personal information to each organization to which we disclosed that information during the year before the correction was made. If we do not make a requested correction, we will annotate the personal information under our control with the correction that was requested but not made, where required by applicable law.

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, cause the information to be incorrect, 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.

We may charge you a minimal fee to access your personal information where permitted by applicable law. We will notify you of any fee in advance.

Applicable law may allow or require us to refuse to provide access to some or all of the personal information that we hold about you, or we may have destroyed, erased, or made your personal information anonymous in accordance with our record retention obligations and practices. If we cannot provide you with access to your personal information, we will inform you of the reasons why, subject to any legal or regulatory restrictions.

We will provide access to your personal information subject to exceptions set out in applicable privacy legislation. Examples of such exceptions include:

1. information protected by solicitor-client privilege;
2. information that would reveal confidential commercial information;
3. information that was collected or disclosed for an investigation or proceeding where the investigation, proceeding, and related appeals have not been completed;
4. information that would reveal personal information about another individual; and
5. information that would reveal the identity of another individual who provided personal information about you and who does not consent to disclosure of their identity.

If we are able to remove information that we are permitted or required to withhold from a record containing your personal information, we will provide you with access to your personal information after removing that withheld information.

If you are concerned about our response or would like to correct the information provided, you may contact our Privacy Officer using the contact information set out at the bottom of this policy.

Reviews, ratings, and comments are addressed in Data Retention and Account Deletion and our Terms of Service. If your account is deleted or terminated, reviews, ratings, and comments you posted may remain on the Platform but will be anonymized as described in Data Retention and Account Deletion. Copies of reviews, ratings, comments, or other information may also remain viewable in cached or archived pages or may have been copied or stored by other Platform users.

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. We will explain the impact to you at the time to help you with your decision.

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. You are responsible for ensuring we have an up-to-date, active, and deliverable email address for you, and for periodically visiting the Platform and this privacy policy to check for any changes.

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. To discuss our compliance with this policy please contact our Privacy Officer using the contact information listed above. 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.