Privacy Policy by What The Furry! Last updated: May 2025 Welcome to What The Furry (“we,” “us,” or “our”), a pet content blog accessible at whatthefurry.com. We are committed to protecting your personal information and being transparent about how we handle it. This Privacy Policy explains what data we collect, why we collect it, and your rights regarding that data. By using this website, you agree to the practices described in this policy. 1. Who We Are What The Furry is an independent pet care blog covering dog and cat topics. The site is operated by a private individual. For privacy-related questions, you can contact us via the email info@whatthefurry.com 2. What Information We Collect a) Information You Provide Voluntarily Newsletter signup: If you subscribe to our email newsletter, we collect your name (optional) and email address. This is processed through Mailchimp (see Section 5). Contact form submissions: If you use our Contact form, we collect your name and email address, along with the content of your message. b) Information Collected Automatically When you visit this site, certain technical data may be collected automatically by our hosting platform (WordPress.com) and other services, including: IP address Browser type and version Pages viewed and time spent on pages Referring URLs Device type and operating system This data is collected through server logs and cookies placed by WordPress.com. 3. Cookies This website uses cookies — small text files stored on your device. We use a consent management platform (Cookiebot) to manage cookie preferences. When you first visit the site, a cookie consent banner will appear allowing you to accept or decline cookies by category. The cookie categories used on this site are: Necessary: Required for the website to function. These cannot be disabled. Preferences: Allow the site to remember choices you have made (such as language or region). Statistics: Help us understand how visitors interact with the site by collecting anonymized data. Marketing: Used to deliver relevant communications from us or our partners, based on your interests. These are only activated if you explicitly consent. For a full and up-to-date list of the specific cookies in use on this site, please refer to the cookie declaration maintained by Cookiebot, accessible via the consent banner. You can change or withdraw your cookie consent at any time by clicking the cookie preferences link in the footer. 4. How We Use Your Information We use the information we collect for the following purposes: To send you our email newsletter if you subscribed (you can unsubscribe at any time via the link in any email) To send you marketing communications about offers, discounts, or products from our business and marketing partners — only if you have explicitly consented to marketing communications via the cookie consent banner To respond to messages sent through the Contact form To understand how visitors use the site and improve our content To maintain the security and performance of the website We do not share your personal information with third-party marketing partners without your explicit prior consent. You may withdraw marketing consent at any time via the cookie preferences link in the footer or by unsubscribing from any marketing email you receive. 5. Third-Party Services We use the following third-party services that may process your data: WordPress.com (Automattic, Inc.) This site is hosted on WordPress.com Business. Automattic collects and processes data in accordance with their own Privacy Policy. You can review it at automattic.com/privacy. Mailchimp (The Rocket Science Group, LLC) We use Mailchimp to manage our email newsletter and, where consent has been given, marketing communications. If you subscribe, your email address (and name, if provided) is stored on Mailchimp’s servers in the United States. Mailchimp’s Privacy Policy is available at mailchimp.com/legal/privacy. You can unsubscribe from any email we send at any time using the unsubscribe link included in that email. Cookiebot (Cybot A/S) We use Cookiebot as our consent management platform. Cookiebot scans the site for cookies, presents the consent banner to visitors, and stores a record of each visitor’s consent. This record includes an anonymized identifier, consent timestamp, and the specific preferences selected. Cookiebot’s Privacy Policy is available at cookiebot.com/en/privacy-policy. 6. Legal Bases for Processing We process personal data based on the following grounds, regardless of where you are located: Consent: Consent is collected and recorded through our consent management platform (Cookiebot) when you first visit the site. This covers analytics, marketing communications, and preference cookies. You may withdraw or modify your consent at any time via the cookie preferences link in the footer. Legitimate interests: We process automatically collected technical data (such as server logs) based on our legitimate interest in maintaining and improving the security and performance of this website. For visitors in the European Economic Area (EEA) and the United Kingdom, these bases correspond to Article 6 of the GDPR and UK GDPR respectively. For visitors in other jurisdictions, we apply the same principles in accordance with applicable local law. 7. Data Retention Newsletter subscribers: Your data is retained on Mailchimp for as long as you remain subscribed. You can unsubscribe at any time, after which your data will be deleted from our active list. Contact form messages: Retained for as long as necessary to respond to your inquiry and for a reasonable period thereafter. Server and analytics data: Retained in accordance with WordPress.com’s data retention policies. 8. Your Rights Regardless of where you are located, you may contact us at any time to request access to, correction of, or deletion of any personal data you have provided to us (such as your newsletter subscription or contact form submission). We will respond within 30 days. In addition, visitors in certain jurisdictions have the following specific rights: EEA and UK Visitors (GDPR / UK GDPR) If you are located in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, you have the right to: Access: Request a copy of the personal data we hold about you. Correction: Request that we correct inaccurate or incomplete data. Deletion: Request erasure of your personal data where there is no legitimate reason for us to continue processing it. Objection: Object to processing based on legitimate interests. Portability: Request that your data be provided in a structured, machine-readable format. Withdraw consent: Withdraw consent at any time without affecting the lawfulness of processing carried out before withdrawal. Lodge a complaint: You have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority. California Residents (CCPA / CPRA) If you are a California resident, you have the following rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA): Right to know: Request disclosure of the categories and specific pieces of personal information we have collected about you. Right to delete: Request deletion of personal information we have collected from you, subject to certain exceptions. Right to correct: Request correction of inaccurate personal information. Right to opt out of sale or sharing: Where marketing cookies are enabled, data may be shared with partner services for relevant communications. You can opt out at any time via the cookie preferences link in the footer of this site. Right to non-discrimination: We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of your CCPA rights. To opt out of marketing data sharing, use the cookie preferences link in the footer. For all other CCPA requests, please contact us at info@whatthefurry.com. We will respond within 45 days as required by law. Other Jurisdictions If you are located outside the EEA, UK, or California, you may still have privacy rights under your local laws (including Canada’s PIPEDA, Australia’s Privacy Act, and others). We are committed to honoring reasonable requests from all visitors. Please contact us at info@whatthefurry.com and we will do our best to assist you. 9. Children’s Privacy This website is not directed at children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has provided us with personal data, please contact us and we will delete it promptly. 10. Links to Other Websites Our blog posts may contain links to external websites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of those sites. We recommend reviewing the privacy policy of any external site you visit. 11. Changes to This Policy We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we will update the “Last updated” date at the top of this page. We encourage you to review this page periodically. Continued use of the site after any changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy. 12. Contact If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or how we handle your data, please reach out at info@whatthefurry.com. FacebookTwitterWhatsappEmail
