THE AMERICAN KENNEL CLUB
PRIVACY NOTICE
Last Updated: 6/22/2026
We have updated our Privacy Notice, effective from 6/22/2026, to:
- Highlight what personal information AKC collects and how AKC uses, discloses and protects your personal information
- Update State or Country-Specific Disclosures
If you have any questions about these changes, do not hesitate to contact us at privacyinfo@akc.org.
Prior versions of this Privacy Notice are available here.
Highlights: AKC collects, uses, and discloses personal information in connection with its products and services as follows:
- Full Name, Mailing Address, Email Address and Phone Number may be collected by AKC for each of the following products and services:
- Registration
- AKC Canine Partners Enrollment
- AKC Shop
- AKC Marketplace
- AKC Puppy Visor
- AKC Vetline
- AKC GoodDog Helpline
- AKC Canine College Courses
- MyAKC Account
- AKC Shop E-Newsletter
- The purposes for which AKC collects personal information are listed under Our Use of Personal Information and include:
- Fulfill or meet the reason the information was provided, such as to fulfill our contractual obligations, to deliver the Services you have requested and to process transactions, including facilitating your online shopping transactions, groomer, trainer and breeder applications, club memberships, registrations and evaluations;
- Comply with contractual and legal obligations and requirements
- Manage our organization and its day-to-day operations;
- Communicate with individuals
- For marketing and advertising purposes
- Process payment for our Services;
- Facilitate customer benefits and services, including customer support through our command center services;
- Identify and analyze our customers and user base, and how individuals use our Services;
- Help maintain the safety, security and integrity of our property and Services, technology assets and business; and
- Comply with contractual and legal obligations and requirements.
- AKC may disclose your personal information with the following categories of third parties for the purposes described under Our Disclosure of Personal Information, including:
- Our AKC affiliates may process certain personal information we collect (such as full name, email address, mailing address and telephone number), in order to assist us in providing our Services to you.
- If you purchase goods or services on our Services we disclose (i) full name and mailing address with third-party marketers, (ii) full name and email address with AKC Affiliates, (iii) all personal information collected pursuant to an AKC Registration with PetPartners, Inc., and (iv) all personal information collected pursuant to your purchase of certain products in AKC Shop with vendors where necessary to fulfill orders.
- We coordinate and share personal information (including Account information, contact information, and communication preferences) with our marketing providers in order to communicate with individuals about the Services we make available.
- We share personal information with third parties who assist us in providing our customer services and facilitating our communications with individuals that submit inquiries.
- We may disclose your information as we believe such disclosure is necessary or appropriate to: (i) comply with applicable law and legal processes; (ii) respond to requests from public and government authorities, including public and government authorities outside of your country of residence; (iii) enforce a contract with us; (iv) protect our rights, privacy, safety, or property, and/or that of our affiliates, you or others; and (v) allow us to pursue available remedies or limit the damages that we may sustain.
- If you make a payment to us, you may provide your credit card and billing information to our payment processor, who uses this information to carry out the transaction, and process refunds (as applicable).
- Our IT service providers may access and process all categories of personal information collected by AKC.
- We share personal information with our analytics providers in order to understand and improve upon our Services and marketing efforts. This personal information includes all categories of personal information collected by AKC.
- We work with third-party ad networks and advertising organizations to deliver advertising and personalized content on our Services, who may collect information directly from a browser or device when an individual visits our Services through cookies or other data collection technologies to provide and inform targeted advertising, and advertising-related services such as reporting, attribution, analytics and market research.
- We will share personal information, or any information collected through the Services with select marketing organizations in order to help them send you information that we believe will be of interest to you.
- We provide information regarding your registration of a dog or litter principally in order for the current or prospective dog owner to confirm that the puppy they have acquired or are acquiring is eligible for registration.
- We publish event results information to the public on our Sites, which may include information such as name of the breeder and the registered owner of the dog. Generally, we obtain this information from the individuals, organizations or clubs that run the events such as superintendents or club secretaries.
- Legal Obligations and Rights: We may disclose personal information to third parties, such as legal advisors and law enforcement where permitted or required by law:
- in connection with the establishment, exercise, or defense of legal claims;
- to comply with laws or to respond to lawful requests and legal process;
- to protect our rights and property and the rights and property of others, including to enforce our agreements and policies;
- to detect, suppress, or prevent fraud;
- to protect the health and safety of us and others; or
- as otherwise required by applicable law.
- AKC works to protect your personal information as discussed under Protection and Storage of Your Information, including:
- We take steps a variety of physical, technical, administrative, and organizational security measures based on the sensitivity of the information we collect to protect your personal information against accidental or unlawful destruction or accidental loss, alteration, unauthorized disclosure or access. with reasonable physical, administrative and technical safeguards. However, the transmission or storage of personal information via the internet or other electronic means is not completely secure. Accordingly, we cannot ensure, warrant or guarantee the security of your personal information that is transmitted or stored via our Sites, Apps or by other electronic means. Any such transmission or storage is at your own risk to the extent permitted by applicable law. We do not accept liability for unintentional disclosure.
State or Country-Specific Disclosures:
- California – Your California Privacy Rights: If you are a California resident, California Civil Code Section 1798.83 – also known as California’s “Shine the Light” – permits you to request information regarding the disclosure of personal information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes during the immediately preceding calendar year. To opt out of having your information shared in this manner, please email us at CAPrivacy@akc.org.
- Nevada: If you are a resident of the State of Nevada, Chapter 603A of the Nevada Revised Statutes permits a Nevada resident to opt out of future sales of certain covered information that a website operator has collected or will collect about the resident. Although we do not currently sell covered information, please contact us at privacyinfo@akc.org to submit such a request.
- Colorado: If you are a resident of the State of Colorado, Colorado Revised Statutes §§ 6-1-1301 (effective 7/1/2023) – also known as the Colorado Privacy Act – provides you the right to access, correct, and delete your personal data, and the right to opt out of the sale, collection and use of your personal data. To request access, correction, or deletion of your personal data, or to opt out of the sale, collection and use of your personal data, please contact use at privacyinfo@akc.org.
- Canada: We may engage third party service providers who may process or store your personal information outside of Canada, including in the United States. Personal information that is processed outside of Canada may be accessible to foreign courts, law enforcement and national security authorities in such countries. If you are located in Quebec, please note that your personal information may be communicated outside Quebec. If you are located in Alberta, you may contact our Director of Data Governance & Oversight at Director-data-governance@akc.org to (i) obtain written information about our policies and practices with respect to service providers outside Canada; or (ii) ask questions about the collection, use, disclosure or storage of personal information by service providers outside Canada for or on our behalf.
- Additional Notice for Quebec Residents: If you are a resident of Quebec, as of September 22, 2024, you can request a copy of your personal information in a structured, commonly used technological format.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Our Collection of Personal Information
Personal Information Collected from Individuals
Personal Information Automatically Collected
Personal Information from Third Parties
Our Use of Personal Information
Our Disclosure of Personal Information
Third-Party Data Collection and Online Advertising
Social Media Widgets and Advertising
Protection and Storage of Your Information
Children’s Personal Information
Links to Third-Party Websites or Services
State or Country-Specific Disclosures
Updates to This Privacy Notice
Welcome! We are American Kennel Club, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to advancing the study, breeding, exhibiting, running and maintenance of purebred dogs. This Privacy Notice explains how The American Kennel Club, Inc. (“AKC”, “we”, “us” or “our”) collects, uses, discloses, and otherwise processes personal information (as defined below) in connection with our websites and other websites we own and operate that link to this Privacy Notice (the “Sites”), our mobile applications (the “Apps”) and the related content, platform, services, products, and other functionality offered on or through our online services (collectively, and together with the Sites and Apps, the “Services”). It does not address our privacy practices relating to AKC employees, job applicants and other personnel. If you are a member of AKC personnel or a job applicant with AKC, and you have any questions about the handling of your personal information, please contact our Director of Data Governance & Oversight at Director-data-governance@akc.org.
When we use the term “personal information” in this Privacy Notice, we mean information that identifies, relates to, describes, is reasonably capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, to an individual. It does not include aggregated or deidentified information that is maintained in a form that is not reasonably capable of being associated with or linked to an individual.
Our Collection of Personal Information
Sometimes we collect personal information automatically when an individual interacts with our Services and sometimes, we collect personal information directly from an individual. At times, we may collect personal information about an individual from other sources and third parties, even before our first direct interaction, as described below.
Personal Information Collected from Individuals
We may collect the following personal information submitted to us by individuals through the Services:
- Contact Information, including first and last name, middle initial, suffixes and prefixes, email address, mailing address, employer, job title, company name, phone number and communication preferences.
- Messaging Program. We collect various information directly provided by our customers in relation to our text message marketing program (“Messaging Program”). For example, we collect the phone number and email address you provide when signing up for the Messaging Program. When you send messages via the Messaging Program, we will also collect your messaging history and any information included in those messages.
- Inquiry and Communications Information, provided to us in the course of your communications with us. This includes information provided in custom messages sent through the forms, to one of our email addresses, via phone, online registrations (such as event planning information), or our chat function, and order information submitted through the AKC Shop. This also includes information provided in order to subscribe to any of our newsletters (such as email address) or magazines, or contact information provided on our Services.
- Account Information. When you set up an account with us and use our Services, we collect Account Information, including first and last name, middle initial, suffixes and prefixes, company name, employer, job title, email address, username, profile information, club affiliation, AKC registration number(s), dog breed(s), name and associated details, litter information, medallions (including NFT medallions), account balances, payment and purchase history information, awards, and any other information you provide to us. Please note we utilize a third-party provider to process payments on our behalf and do not accept payment directly through our Services.
- Information Provided via AKC PuppyVisor™. If you use the AKC PuppyVisor™ service, you may submit personal information to receive assistance in determining what breed(s) of dog would be a best fit for you. This information may include information about your lifestyle, housing and family, and any other information you provide to us in connection with the service.
- Online Marketplace or Shopping Information. When you make a purchase at our online shop], you provide information such as first and last name, middle initial, suffixes and prefixes, email address, mailing information, location, payment history, and products and services considered or purchased. If you offer products or services for sale on our Services, we may also collect your personal information, such as first and last name, middle initial, suffixes and prefixes, organization, email address, postal address, location, billing information and products and services you offer for sale.
- Dog Groomer, Trainer and Breeder Information. If you purchase an advertisement, and as you participate the AKC marketplace, as a dog groomer, trainer or breeder, we collect certain information, including name, contact information (such as email address, mailing address and phone number), organization name, specialty, location, registration and subscription information, certification and licensing information, personal avatar, billing information, statistics about your profile and listings, photos and videos and any other information you choose to provide in your public bio, products and services you offer, purchase history, account balance, and other information you choose to provide to us.
- Community-Related Information. When you participate in community forums or engage with content on the Sites or Apps you may submit additional information, including first and last name, middle initial, suffixes and prefixes, company, mailing address, any comments you provide on any blog posts or any blog posts you “Like”, any messages related to different programs or offerings through our Services including, but not limited to, the AKC GR Legislative Action Center and the Scent Work affiliation, information you type into any “search” or “question” field, information entered into any forms available on the Services, and contact information.
- AKC Canine College Information. When you sign up for and participate in the AKC Canine College, we collect information including first and last name, middle initial, suffixes and prefixes, company, mailing address, information you provide in your profile, registration information, contact information, certification information, billing information, products and services purchased or considered, purchase history and information provided in any of our online forms, including any of our evaluation forms.
- Club Information. If you seek to form an AKC-affiliate club, become an officer of an AKC-affiliated club, or join an AKC-affiliated club, we collect information including club member information, first name, last name, middle initial, suffixes and prefixes, mailing address, email address, telephone number, whether the club member is a breeder, exhibitor, or judge, or holds an office in the club, and number of years’ experience for each club member.
- Contest, Sweepstakes, and Survey Information. When you enter a contest or sweepstakes, we may collect survey responses, or content of any testimonials you submit, as well as information required to provide you with contest or sweepstakes winnings (if applicable).
- Donation Information. When you make a donation, we collect information, including first and last name, club affiliation, donation type, donation amount, phone number, email address, billing information and payment history.
- Event Information. When you apply to hold an AKC-sanctioned event or special attraction, or submit an event to AKC, we collect information including seminar information, registration information, club name, judge number, attendee badge information, awards, and contact information.
- Dog and Litter Registration, Listing and Enrollment Information. When you register a dog or litter through our online registration service or list or enroll in our online dog listing or enrollment service, we collect information such as first name, last name, middle initial, suffixes and prefixes, mailing address, email address, phone number, dam registration number, sire registration number, litter number, certificate issue date, litter compliment, name and address of individuals to whom you have transferred a dog or litter, dam lease information, and any information provided during the registration process and/or through the use of AKC’s online recordkeeping services.
Personal Information Automatically Collected
As is true of most digital platforms, we and our third-party providers may also collect personal information from an individual’s device, browsing actions and website usage patterns automatically when visiting or interacting with our Services, which may include log data (such as internet protocol (IP) address, operating system, browser type, browser id, the URL entered and the referring page/campaign, date/time of visit, the time spent on our Services and any errors that may occur during the visit to our Services), analytics data (such as the electronic path taken to our Services, through our Services and when exiting our Services, as well as usage and activity on our Services) and location data (such as general geographic location based on the log data we or our third-party providers collect). Please note that our systems may also record personal information that you type into our Sites and other online services even if you do not choose to submit it.
We and our third-party providers may use (i) cookies or small data files that are stored on an individual’s computer and (ii) other, related technologies, such as web beacons, pixels, embedded scripts, location-identifying technologies and logging technologies (collectively, “cookies”) to automatically collect this personal information. For example, our Sites use Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google LLC (“Google”), to collect and view reports about the traffic on our Sites. More information about the use of Google Analytics for these analytical and non‑advertising purposes can be obtained by visiting Google’s privacy policy here and Google’s currently available opt-out options are available here.
To manage cookies, an individual may change their browser settings to: (i) notify them when they receive a cookie, so the individual can choose whether or not to accept it; (ii) disable existing cookies; or (iii) automatically reject cookies. Please note that doing so may negatively impact an individual’s experience using our Services, as some features and offerings may not work properly or at all. Depending on an individual’s device and operating system, the individual may not be able to delete or block all cookies. In addition, if an individual wants to reject cookies across all browsers and devices, the individual will need to do so on each browser on each device they actively use. An individual may also set their email options to prevent the automatic downloading of images that may contain technologies that would allow us to know whether they have accessed our email and performed certain functions with it.
For more information on our and third-party relationships’ data collection and online advertising practices, please see the Third Party Data Collection and Online Advertising section of this Privacy Notice.
Personal Information from Third Parties
We also obtain personal information from third parties; which we often combine with personal information we collect either automatically or directly from an individual.
We may receive the same categories of personal information as described above from the following third parties:
- Club Affiliates: If you are affiliated with a club, the club may provide us with your contact information and certain other information you choose to share with your club.
- Event Information Providers: Generally, we obtain information about events and event results from the individuals, organizations or clubs that run the events, such as superintendents or club secretaries.
- Other Customers or Individuals who Interact with our Services: We may receive your information from other AKC customers or other individuals who interact with our Services. For example, if someone judges with a provisional judge, they may provide the provisional judge’s information in the Tracking Judge Evaluation Form.
- Your Employer / Company: If you interact with our Services through your employer or company, we may receive your information from your employer or company, including another representative of your employer or company.
- Business Relationships: We may receive your information from our business partners, such as companies that offer their products and/or services on our Services.
- Social Media: When an individual interacts with our Services through various social media networks, such as when someone logs in through a social network, “Likes” us on Facebook or follows us or shares our content on Google, Facebook, Twitter, or other social networks, we may receive some information about individuals that they permit the social network to share with third parties. The data we receive is dependent upon an individual’s privacy settings with the social network, and may include your profile information, profile picture, gender, username, user ID associated with your social media account, age range, language, country, and any other information you permit the social network to share with third parties. Individuals should always review and, if necessary, adjust their privacy settings on third-party websites and social media networks and services before sharing information and/or linking or connecting them to other services.
- Service Providers: Our service providers that perform services solely on our behalf, such as survey and marketing providers and payment processors, collect personal information and often share some or all of this information with us.
- Information Providers: Where permitted by law, we may from time to time obtain information from third-party information providers to correct or supplement personal information we collect. For example, we may obtain updated contact information from third-party information providers to reconnect with an individual.
- Combining Information from Other Sources: We may also collect personal information about individuals that we do not otherwise have from, for example, publicly available sources, third-party data providers, customers, or through transactions such as mergers and acquisitions. Such information may include contact information and interest-in-services information. We may combine this information with the information we collect from an individual directly. We use this information to contact individuals, send advertising or promotional materials or to personalize our Services and to better understand the demographics of the individuals with whom we interact.
Our Use of Personal Information
We use personal information we collect to:
- Fulfill or meet the reason the information was provided, such as to fulfill our contractual obligations, to deliver the Services you have requested and to process transactions, including facilitating your online shopping transactions, groomer, trainer and breeder applications, club memberships, registrations and evaluations;
- Manage our organization and its day-to-day operations;
- Communicate with individuals, including via email, text message, social media and/or telephone calls; including enhancing, customizing and personalizing your experiences with the Messaging Program
- Request individuals to complete surveys about our organization, organizations we work with, and Services, with your consent where required by law;
- For marketing and advertising purposes, including to market to you or offer you through email, direct mail, phone or text message information and updates on products or services we think that you may be interested in, with your consent where required by law;
- We use cookies, usage information and other information collected automatically through our Services to administer, improve and personalize our Services, including by recognizing an individual and remembering their information when they return to our Services;
- Process payment for our Services;
- Facilitate customer benefits and services, including customer support through our command center services;
- Identify and analyze how individuals use our Services;
- Conduct research and analytics on our customers and user base and our Services;
- Improve and customize our Services to address the needs and interests of our customer base and other individuals we interact with;
- Test, enhance, update and monitor the Services, or diagnose or fix technology problems;
- Help maintain the safety, security and integrity of our property and Services, technology assets and business;
- To enforce our Terms of Use, to resolve disputes, to carry out our obligations and enforce our rights, and to protect our business interests and the interests and rights of third parties;
- Prevent, investigate or provide notice of fraud or unlawful or criminal activity;
- Comply with contractual and legal obligations and requirements;
- To fulfill any other purpose for which you provide personal information; and
- For any other lawful purpose, or other purpose that you consent to.
Where you choose to contact us, we may need additional information to fulfill the request or respond to inquiries. We may provide you with additional privacy-related information where the scope of the inquiry/request and/or personal information we require fall outside the scope of this Privacy Notice. In that case, the additional privacy notice will govern how we may process the information provided at that time.
Our Disclosure of Personal Information
We disclose personal information in various ways, depending on how you interact with us and the Services that you use. We disclose personal information in the following ways:
- Affiliates. We may share personal information with other companies owned or controlled by AKC, and other companies owned by or under common ownership as AKC, which also includes our subsidiaries (i.e., any organization we own or control) or any AKC affiliate, particularly when we collaborate in providing the Services. Our AKC affiliates may process certain personal information we collect (such as full name, email address, mailing address and telephone number), in order to assist us in providing our Services to you.
- Club Affiliates: If you are a member of a club, we may share information your contact information on our website alongside your club so members of the public can reach out.
- Online Marketplace and Community Members: If you create a profile to participate in any of our online communities, we will make your public profile information available to other online community members, as well as any other information you choose to provide or make public. If you purchase goods or services on our Services we disclose (i) full name and mailing address with third-party marketers, (ii) full name and email address with AKC Affiliates, (iii) all personal information collected pursuant to an AKC Registration with PetPartners, Inc., and (iv) all personal information collected pursuant to your purchase of certain products in AKC Shop with vendors where necessary to fulfill orders.
- Contests, Sweepstakes, and Survey Providers: We share personal information with third parties who assist us in delivering our contests, sweepstakes, or survey offerings and processing the responses. If you participate in our contests, sweepstakes, or survey offerings, your responses will be processed by these third-party providers.
- Marketing Providers: We coordinate and share personal information (including Account information, contact information, and communication preferences) with our marketing providers in order to communicate with individuals about the Services we make available.
- Customer Service and Communication Providers: We may share personal information with third parties who assist us in providing our customer services and facilitating our communications with individuals that submit inquiries.
- Messaging Program: We use Attentive as our service provider and data processor of your information for the Messaging Program in accordance with this Privacy Notice and Attentive’s Privacy Policy. We may share information with third parties to help us provide the Messaging Program. We may disclose your information as we believe such disclosure is necessary or appropriate to: (i) comply with applicable law and legal processes; (ii) respond to requests from public and government authorities, including public and government authorities outside of your country of residence; (iii) enforce a contract with us; (iv) protect our rights, privacy, safety, or property, and/or that of our affiliates, you or others; and (v) allow us to pursue available remedies or limit the damages that we may sustain. From time to time, we may share aggregated or de-identified information about the use of the Messaging Program and such aggregated or de-identified information may be shared with any third party, including advertisers, promotional partners, and sponsors.
- Payment Processors. If you make a payment to us, you may provide your credit card and billing information to our payment processor, who uses this information to carry out the transaction, and process refunds (as applicable). This information is handled directly by our payment processer, and we do not store this information ourselves. For more information about how our payment processors handle personal information, please consult their privacy policies.
- Website Hosting Providers. Our website hosting providers may access and process the information automatically collected through the Sites, in order to provide website hosting and related services. When you submit feedback through the website, it may be processed by our website feedback system provider.
- IT Service Providers and Infrastructure Providers. In the course of providing us with IT services and infrastructure, our IT service providers may access and process all categories of personal information collected by AKC.
- Cloud Storage. Our cloud storage platform providers may store and process any personal information in order to provide and manage our cloud storage platform.
- Analytics Providers. We share personal information with our analytics providers in order to understand and improve upon our Services and marketing efforts. This personal information includes all categories of personal information collected by AKC.
- Ad Networks and Advertising Relationships: We work with third-party ad networks and advertising organizations to deliver advertising and personalized content on our Services, on other websites and services, and across other devices. These parties may collect information directly from a browser or device when an individual visits our Services through cookies or other data collection technologies. This information is used to provide and inform targeted advertising, as well as to provide advertising-related services such as reporting, attribution, analytics and market research. Please see the section Third Party Data Collection and Online Advertising for more information.
- Business Relationships: We enter into certain select marketing relationships with advertisers, sponsors and other companies that provide products or services that we believe may be of interest to users of the Services. We will share personal information, or any information collected through the Services with those marketing organizations in order to help them send you information that we believe will be of interest to you. Where we required by law, we will obtain consent prior to disclosing personal information in this manner.
- Dog Owners or Prospective Dog Owners: We provide information regarding your registration of a dog or litter principally in order for the current or prospective dog owner to confirm that the puppy they have acquired or are acquiring is eligible for registration.
- Event Results Information: We publish event results information to the public on our Sites. This may include information such as name of the breeder, the registered owner of the dog, the event, the judge’s name, and the host of the event (e.g., a club or AKC) and where the win happened. Generally, we obtain this information from the individuals, organizations or clubs that run the events such as superintendents or club secretaries.
- Business Transaction or Reorganization: We may take part in or be involved with a corporate business transaction, such as a merger, acquisition, joint venture, or financing or sale of company assets. We may disclose personal information to a third party during negotiation of, in connection with or as an asset in such a corporate business transaction. Personal information may also be disclosed in the event of insolvency, bankruptcy or receivership.
- Legal Obligations and Rights: We may disclose personal information to third parties, such as legal advisors and law enforcement where permitted or required by law:
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- in connection with the establishment, exercise, or defense of legal claims;
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- to comply with laws or to respond to lawful requests and legal process;
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- to protect our rights and property and the rights and property of others, including to enforce our agreements and policies;
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- to detect, suppress, or prevent fraud;
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- to protect the health and safety of us and others; or
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- as otherwise required by applicable law.
- With Your Consent: We may disclose personal information about an individual to certain other third parties or publicly with their consent or direction. For example, with an individual’s consent or direction we may post their testimonial on our Sites or service-related publications.
Third-Party Data Collection and Online Advertising
We participate in interest-based advertising and use third party advertising companies to serve you targeted advertisements based on your browsing history. We permit third party online advertising networks, social media companies and other third-party services, to collect information about your use of our online services over time so that they may play or display ads on our Services, on other websites or services you may use, and on other devices you may use. Typically, though not always, the information used for interest-based advertising is collected through tracking technologies, such as cookies, web beacons, embedded scripts, location-identifying technologies, and similar technology, which recognize the device you are using and collect information, including click stream information, browser type, time and date you visited the Sites, AdID, precise geolocation and other information. We may share a common account identifier (such as a user ID) created by AKC with certain third-parties. We and our third-party relationships use this information to make the advertisements you see online more relevant to your interests, as well as to provide advertising-related services such as reporting, attribution, analytics and market research. We may also use services provided by third parties (such as social media platforms) to serve targeted ads to you and others on such platforms. We may do this by providing a hashed version of your email address or other information to the platform provider. Please see Online Ads of the Control Over Your Information section below, to learn how you can opt out of interest-based advertising.
Additionally, we may collect information about you using cookies or similar technolog8ies to enable personalization of your experience using the Messaging Program (e.g., sending you personalized text messages such as shopping cart reminders).
Social Media Widgets and Advertising
Our Services may include social media features, such as the Facebook “Like” button, Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter or other widgets. If you have a profile with these companies, they may recognize you and collect information about your visit to our Services, and they may set a cookie or employ other tracking technologies. Your interactions with those features are governed by the privacy policies of those companies.
We display targeted advertising to you through social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and other social media forums. These companies have interest-based advertising programs that allow us to direct advertisements to users who have shown interest in our services while those users are on the social media platform, or to groups of other users who share similar traits, such as likely commercial interests and demographics. We may share a unique identifier, such as a user ID or hashed email address, with these platform providers or they may collect information from our website visitors through a first-party pixel, in order to direct targeted advertising to you or to a custom audience on the social media platform. These advertisements are governed by the privacy policies of those social media companies that provide them. If you do not want to receive targeted ads on your social networks, you may be able to adjust your advertising preferences through your settings on those networks.
We work with a variety of third-party organizations to provide advertising services. For example, we use Google Analytics to recognize you and link the devices you use when you visit our Services on your browser or mobile device, log in to your account on our Services, or otherwise engage with us. We share a unique identifier, like a user ID or hashed email address, with Google to facilitate the service. Google Analytics allows us to better understand how our users interact with our Services and to tailor our advertisements and content to you. For information on how Google Analytics collects and processes data, as well as how you can control information sent to Google, review Google’s website, “How Google uses data when you use our partners’ sites or apps” located at www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners/. You can learn about Google Analytics’ currently available opt-outs, including the Google Analytics Opt-Out Browser Ad-On here: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout/.
We also use Microsoft to allow us to analyze the activity and characteristics of the Website and users of the Website, including capturing data about user mouse movements and performance data about specific web pages. To provide us with Microsoft Advertising, Microsoft may collect personal data from individuals using the Website, or receive personal data from us, and offer opt-out choices as required by applicable data privacy laws. For more information, please visit https://privacy.microsoft.com/en-us/privacystatement.
We may also utilize certain forms of display advertising and other advanced features through Google Ads. These features enable us to use first-party cookies (such as the Google Analytics cookie) and third-party cookies (such as the DoubleClick advertising cookie) or other third-party cookies together to inform, optimize, and display ads based on your past visits to the Services. You may control your advertising preferences or opt-out of certain Google advertising products by visiting the Google Ads Preferences Manager, currently available at https://google.com/ads/preferences, or by visiting NAI’s online resources at http://www.networkadvertising.org/choices.
Protection and Storage of Your Information
We only keep your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which the information was collected, unless a longer retention period is permitted or required in order to comply with applicable law and defend the company from legal claims. We will also retain and use your information as necessary to resolve disputes, protect us and our customers, and enforce our agreements.
We take steps a variety of physical, technical, administrative, and organizational security measures based on the sensitivity of the information we collect to protect your personal information against accidental or unlawful destruction or accidental loss, alteration, unauthorized disclosure or access. with reasonable physical, administrative and technical safeguards. These include encryption, security audits, vulnerability assessments, access controls, secure coding practices, and managed threat response.
However, the transmission or storage of personal information via the internet or other electronic means is not completely secure. Accordingly, we cannot ensure, warrant or guarantee the security of your personal information that is transmitted or stored via our Sites, Apps or by other electronic means. Any such transmission or storage is at your own risk to the extent permitted by applicable law. We do not accept liability for unintentional disclosure.
Please inform us if any of your personal information changes. Failure to do so could invalidate your use of our Services or prevent our ability to deliver our communications to you. You can inform us of a change to your personal information by contacting our Customer Support Team or contacting us at the information provided below.
Depending on where you are located, your country or state of residency and subject to certain limitations and exceptions under applicable laws, you may have the following rights with respect to your personal information:
- Right to Know: The right to confirm whether we are processing personal data about you and, in some cases, to obtain certain personalized details about the personal data we have collected about you.
- Right to Access & Portability: The right to obtain access to the personal data we have collected about you and, where required by law, the right to obtain a copy of the personal data in a portable and, to the extent technically feasible, readily usable format that allows you to transmit the data to another entity without hindrance.
- Right to Correction: The right to correct inaccuracies in your personal data, taking into account the nature of the personal data and the purposes of the processing of the personal data.
- Right to Deletion: The right to have us delete personal data we maintain about you.
- Accessing, Modifying or Deleting Your Information. You may access and modify your Account Information by logging into your MyAKC account. You may also have the right to access, modify or delete other personal information we have about you. If you wish to exercise such rights, or have any other questions about reviewing, modifying, or deleting your information, you can contact us directly at privacyinfo@akc.org. We may not be able to modify or delete your information in all circumstances.
- Messaging Program. Consent to receive automated messages is not a condition of any purchase. You can opt-out of receiving further commercial text messages via the Messaging Program by responding to any of our text messages with any of the following replies: STOP, END, CANCEL, UNSUBSCRIBE, QUIT, REVOKE, or OPT OUT. For additional opt-out information, please review our Terms of Use.
- Email Communications Preferences. You can stop receiving promotional email communications from us by clicking on the “unsubscribe” link provided in such communications. You may not opt-out of service-related communications (e.g., account verification, transactional communications, changes/updates to features of the Services, technical and security notices).
- Cookies: For information about our and our third-party relationships’ use of cookies and related technologies to collect information automatically, and any choices you may have in relation to cookies, please see the Information We Collect Automatically section above.
- Online Ads: To learn more about interest-based advertising and how you may be able to opt-out of some of this advertising, you may wish to visit the Digital Advertising Alliance’s (DAA) resources and/or the Network Advertising Initiative’s (NAI) online resources, at www.aboutads.info/choices or
http://www.networkadvertising.org/choices/ and you can opt-out of receiving some interest-based advertisements on mobile apps by visiting http://www.aboutads.info/appchoices. You may also be able to limit interest-based advertising through the settings menu on your mobile device by selecting “limit ad tracking” (iOS) or “opt-out of interest-based ads” (Android). You may also be able to opt-out of some — but not all — interest-based advertising served by mobile ad networks by visiting http://youradchoices.com/appchoices and downloading the mobile AppChoices app.
- Withdrawing Consent. Where consent is relied upon to process your personal information, and depending on the circumstances, you may withdraw consent to our continued collection, use and/or disclosure of your personal information. To exercise this right, contact us directly at privacyinfo@akc.org. You may also unsubscribe to our marketing emails by using the unsubscribe button provided in each message.
- Complaint. You may submit a complaint to us about our handling of your personal information, please see the Complaint Process section below.
Depending on your location and state of residency, you may also have the right to not receive retaliatory or discriminatory treatment in connection with a request to exercise the above rights. However, the exercise of the rights described above may result in a different price, rate or quality level of product or service where that difference is reasonably related to the impact the right has on our relationship or is otherwise permitted by law.
In certain circumstances, we may decline or limit your request, particularly where we are unable to verify your identity or locate your information in our systems, or where you are not a resident of one of the eligible states. We do not recognize requests that come from authorized agents unless there is documentary evidence that the agent has the authority to make the request on behalf of the customer. In order to verify the authorized agent’s authority, we generally require evidence of either (i) a valid power of attorney or (ii) a signed letter containing your name and contact information, the name and contact information of the authorized agent, and a statement of authorization for the request. Depending on your country or state of residency, you may be able to appeal a decision we have made in connection with your privacy rights request. All appeal requests should be submitted by replying to the communication resolving your original request.
To exercise your right to opt-out as it relates to the use of cookies and related technologies that involve the sale of personal data or the use of personal data for targeted advertising purposes, please click the “Cookie Settings” image and link in the footer of the website and adjust your preferences accordingly. If you are visiting our site with the Global Privacy Control enabled, any cookies that constitute sales or are used for targeted advertising should already be turned off automatically in our cookie preference manager. Please note this opt-out tool is website, device, and browser specific, so you will need to change your preferences on each device and browser you use to interact with the specific website you are visiting. In addition, you can also opt-out of cookie-based sales by businesses that participate in the Digital Advertising Alliance’s CCPA Opt-Out Tool by visiting https://www.privacyrights.info/. Lastly, you may follow the other steps set forth in the Control Over Your Information section of our Privacy Notice to further exercise control over automatic data collection technologies.
If you want to opt out of receiving online interest-based advertisements on mobile apps, please follow the instructions at http://www.aboutads.info/appchoices.
Please note that when you opt out of receiving interest-based advertisements, this does not mean you will no longer see advertisements from us or on our online services. It means that the online ads that you do see from DAA program participants should not be based on your interests. We are not responsible for the effectiveness of, or compliance with, any third-parties’ opt-out options or programs or the accuracy of their statements regarding their programs. In addition, third parties may still use cookies to collect information about your use of our online services, including for analytics and fraud prevention as well as any other purpose permitted under the DAA’s Principles.
Our process for dealing with complaints related to the protection of personal information generally includes:
- Acknowledgement of receipt without undue delay;
- Appropriate steps to confirm the identity of the complainant, and to obtain the details of the complaint as well as any relevant documentation;
- Consideration of applicable laws;
- An appropriate, fair and impartial investigation, escalating the complaint as needed; and
- Communicating the outcome of the investigation to the complainant, including any remediation measures we take (where justified).
Roles and Responsibilities within Our Organization
Our Director of Data Governance & Oversight has overall responsibility for our compliance with applicable privacy laws. However, certain functions have been assigned to:
- our Director of Data Governance & Oversight, including responsibility for the day-to-day administration and implementation of our privacy program, such as developing and delivering privacy training to relevant personnel, establishing and publishing relevant policies and procedures, investigating and responding to complaints and potential violations of our privacy policies or relevant laws, responding to requests from individuals to exercise their rights under applicable privacy laws, and regularly reviewing and identifying opportunities to improve our privacy program; and
- our Manager, IT Security, including preparing a written information security program, assisting with breach prevention, response and containment, and evaluating and implementing information security controls.
- in addition, all Personnel are responsible for: protecting the confidentiality and security of any personal information they handle in connection with their employment or engagement; following our security measures and policies and procedures for handling personal information; refraining from any unauthorized access, use or disclosure of personal information; facilitating data subject requests; and reporting security or confidentiality incidents.
Children’s Personal Information
Our Services are not directed to, and we do not intend to, or knowingly, collect or solicit personal information from children under the age of eighteen (18). If an individual is under the age of eighteen (18), they should not use our Services or otherwise provide us with any personal information either directly or by other means. AKC policy requires that dogs or litters registered or listed in the names of minors be properly authorized by the minor’s parent or guardian. With respect to an account, this means the parent or guardian must establish, maintain and submit information on behalf of the minor.
If a child under the age of 18 has provided personal information to us, we encourage the child’s parent or guardian to contact us to request that we remove the personal information from our systems. If we learn that any personal information we collect has been provided by a child under the age of 18, we will promptly delete that personal information.
Links to Third-Party Websites or Services
Our Services may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins and applications. Except where we post, link to or expressly adopt or refer to this Privacy Notice, this Privacy Notice does not apply to, and we are not responsible for, any personal information practices of third-party websites and online services or the practices of other third parties. To learn about the personal information practices of third parties, please visit their respective privacy notices.
State or Country-Specific Disclosures
The following disclosures also apply if you are a resident of the identified state or country:
- California – Your California Privacy Rights: If you are a California resident, California Civil Code Section 1798.83 – also known as California’s “Shine the Light” – permits you to request information regarding the disclosure of personal information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes during the immediately preceding calendar year. To opt out of having your information shared in this manner, please email us at CAPrivacy@akc.org.
- Nevada: If you are a resident of the State of Nevada, Chapter 603A of the Nevada Revised Statutes permits a Nevada resident to opt out of future sales of certain covered information that a website operator has collected or will collect about the resident. Although we do not currently sell covered information, please contact us at privacyinfo@akc.org to submit such a request.
- Canada: We may engage third party service providers who may process or store your personal information outside of Canada, including in the United States. Personal information that is processed outside of Canada may be accessible to foreign courts, law enforcement and national security authorities in such countries. If you are located in Quebec, please note that your personal information may be communicated outside Quebec. If you are located in Alberta, you may contact our privacyinfo@akc.org attention Director of Data Governance & Oversight at Director-data-governance@akc.org to (i) obtain written information about our policies and practices with respect to service providers outside Canada; or (ii) ask questions about the collection, use, disclosure or storage of personal information by service providers outside Canada for or on our behalf.
- Additional Notice for Quebec Residents: If you are a resident of Quebec, as of September 22, 2024, you can request a copy of your personal information in a structured, commonly used technological format.
Updates to This Privacy Notice
We will update this Privacy Notice from time to time. When we make changes to this Privacy Notice, we will change the date at the beginning of this Privacy Notice. If we make material changes to this Privacy Notice, we will notify individuals by email to their registered email address, by prominent posting on our Services, or through other appropriate communication channels. All changes shall be effective from the date of publication unless otherwise provided.
If you have any questions or requests in connection with this Privacy Notice or other privacy-related matters, please send an email to our Director of Data Governance & Oversight at privacyinfo@akc.org. If you are experiencing any problems with the Messaging Program, please visit https://support.attentive.com/help and submit the form with details about your problem and request for support, or email support@attentive.com.
Alternatively, inquiries may be addressed to:
The American Kennel Club, Inc.
Attn: Director of Data Governance & Oversight
8051 Arco Corporate Drive
Raleigh, NC 27617