Privacy Policy
Last updated: October 3, 2026
This policy explains what personal information Dogs of Downtown ("we", "us", McKinney, Texas) collects through our two services, how we use it, who we share it with, how long we keep it and how you can control or delete it:
- dodcomic.com, our website, where we sell Bark Station access codes and take wholesale inquiries; and
- pupGO at go.dodcomic.com, our location-based dog-collecting game, where you create an account, play, and redeem access codes.
The short version: we collect only what we need to take your payment, deliver your access code, run your game account and make the location-based game work. We don't sell your information, we don't use it for marketing or advertising, and we don't keep a history of where you have been.
1. Summary
| Where | What we collect | Why |
|---|---|---|
| dodcomic.com checkout | Email address, Stripe payment reference, payment status, the access code issued to you | Confirm your payment, issue and email your code, link it to your pupGO account |
| dodcomic.com wholesale form | Shop name, your name, email, phone and message you type | Reply to your inquiry |
| pupGO account | Email address and password, or your name, email and profile picture from Google or Facebook | Sign you in and secure your account |
| pupGO gameplay | Your game progress, collection, scores and arcade initials | Save your game and show leaderboards |
| pupGO location | Your device's GPS position while the app is open | Show you on the map and check you are at a game location |
| pupGO photos and submissions | Photos you upload, and Bark Station details you submit | Social-share rewards and adding stations to the map |
| Both | IP address, browser and request data | Deliver the services, limit repeated attempts and block abuse |
2. Information we collect on dodcomic.com
Bark Station purchases (payments)
Bark Station access codes are sold only on dodcomic.com. When you click Buy Now you are sent to a checkout page hosted by Stripe, our payment processor.
- What Stripe collects. On its own page Stripe collects your email address, your card or other payment details, and the billing details it needs to process the payment (such as cardholder name, country and postal code). Your card number and payment credentials go directly to Stripe. They never pass through or are stored on our website or servers, and we never see your full card number.
- What we receive from Stripe. The email address you entered at checkout, the checkout session's reference number, the amount, whether the payment succeeded or is still clearing, and any promotion code applied. Stripe also tells our server, through a signed notification, when a payment completes.
- What we store. When the payment is confirmed, we assign you one access code and record, in our pupGO database: the code, the email address you paid with, the Stripe checkout reference, the time of sale, whether the code has been emailed and when, whether it has been redeemed, and, if your checkout email matches a confirmed pupGO account email, a link to that account.
- Account linking. If the email you pay with matches the confirmed email on a pupGO account (now, or one you create later with that address), the code is attached to that account so it appears under Info → For Shops → Your codes when you sign in. We match on exact, confirmed email addresses only.
- The thank-you page. After payment, the page shows your code and a partly hidden version of your email (for example, r•••@example.com). The Stripe checkout reference stays in the page address so a refresh brings your code back; treat that link as private.
- Emails. We send one transactional email per purchase with your code and a link to claim it at go.dodcomic.com. Depending on our setup, it is sent to you directly through Resend, or a sale notice containing your email address and code is sent to our own inbox (info@dodcomic.com) and we forward the code to you.
We do not store your card details, billing address or phone number, and we do not create a customer list or marketing list from purchases.
Wholesale inquiries
If you use the wholesale form on the Stock Comics page, we receive the details you type (shop name, contact name, email, phone, what you're interested in and your message). They are emailed to info@dodcomic.com and are not stored in a database on our website. The form is protected by Cloudflare Turnstile, which checks your browser for signs of automation to stop spam.
Technical data
Our website is hosted by Cloudflare. Like any web server, it processes your IP address, browser type, the pages you request and the time of each request to deliver the site, keep it secure, and limit how many checkout and inquiry requests one address can make per minute. We do not use analytics, advertising or tracking scripts on dodcomic.com.
3. Information we collect in pupGO (go.dodcomic.com)
Account information
- Email sign-up. Your email address and a password. Your password is stored by our authentication provider (Supabase) only in hashed form; we cannot read it. We send a one-time code to confirm your email.
- Sign in with Google. We receive your email address, name and profile picture from the basic
openid,emailandprofilescopes, and nothing more. See "Google user data" below. - Sign in with Facebook. We receive your email address, name and profile picture from your public Facebook profile, and nothing more. We do not post to Facebook or access your friends, messages or other Facebook data.
- Account records. A unique account ID, when the account was created and last signed in, and whether the account has staff (admin) access.
Game data
To save your game we store, linked to your account: the dogs and stickers you have collected, your rank, points and in-game items, your chosen avatar and buddy dog, completed events, daily tasks, landmarks discovered, QR codes you have claimed and when, trades you post, social shares you submit, and arcade high scores with the 1–3 letter initials you choose.
Location
pupGO is a location-based game and asks your browser for permission to use your device's precise location (GPS) and, on some phones, its compass direction. If you allow it:
- Your position is used on your device to place you on the map and show nearby dogs, Bark Stations and trails. It is only read while pupGO is open; we do not track your location in the background.
- When you check in at a Bark Station, dig up a bone, visit a landmark or scan a shop's QR code, your current coordinates are sent to our server only to check that you are close enough (and inside the downtown play area). We record that the check-in or claim happened, not where you were standing.
- To show local weather and nearby buildings, your coordinates are sent to our server, which looks them up with the U.S. National Weather Service and OpenStreetMap. Those services receive only the coordinates from our server, not who you are.
- To draw the map and walking trails, your browser loads map tiles and walking directions from Mapbox, which receives your IP address and the map area or route points requested.
We do not store a history of your movements, sell or share your location for advertising, or use it for anything except gameplay. You can turn location off at any time in your browser or phone settings; map and check-in features will stop working, but your account and collection stay intact.
Photos and Bark Station submissions
- Social shares. If you upload a photo to earn a social-share reward, we store the photo, the shop name and caption you give. Uploaded photos are stored with a public web address so they can be displayed in the app, so don't upload anything you want kept private.
- Bark Station submissions. If you submit a Bark Station, we store the photo, title, description, any discount code and social or website links you enter, and the GPS location where you submitted it. Submissions are reviewed by us; once approved they are shown publicly on the pupGO map.
- Photos are compressed in your browser before upload. Check your phone's settings if you don't want photos to carry embedded location data.
Redeeming access codes
When you redeem a Bark Station code, we record that the code has been used. Because redemption can happen before you have an account, we keep a short-lived count of redemption attempts by IP address to stop people guessing codes; it is cleared when you redeem successfully and otherwise expires after a few minutes.
Storage on your device
pupGO saves some settings in your browser's local storage so the app works smoothly: your sign-in session, permission choices (such as compass access), cooldown timers, cached events and weather, sound settings and your last-used arcade initials. This data stays on your device. You can clear it by clearing your browser's site data, which also signs you out.
4. How we use your information
- To process your payment, issue your access code, email it to you, and link it to your pupGO account.
- To create and secure your account, sign you in and recognize you when you return.
- To run the game: save your progress, verify location-based check-ins, show the map, weather and leaderboards, and review Bark Station submissions.
- To answer your questions, support requests and wholesale inquiries.
- To prevent fraud and abuse (such as code guessing, fake check-ins and spam), keep the services running, and meet legal, tax and accounting obligations.
We do not use your information for marketing or advertising. We don't send newsletters or promotions, we don't add anyone to a mailing list, and we don't build advertising profiles. Emails from us are transactional: email confirmation, password resets, your access code, and replies to messages you sent. We do not use your information to train AI or machine-learning models, and we do not make automated decisions about you that have legal or similarly significant effects.
5. Google and Facebook user data
The data we receive from Google or Facebook sign-in (email address, name and profile picture) is used only to create your pupGO account, sign you in and show you which account you are using. It is not used for advertising, is not sold or transferred to others except to the service providers listed below that run the app, and is not read by our staff except as needed for security, support you request, or to comply with law.
Our use and transfer of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.
You can remove pupGO's access at any time: for Google at myaccount.google.com/permissions, and for Facebook under Settings & privacy → Settings → Apps and websites. Removing access stops future sign-ins through that provider but does not delete the data we already hold; to delete it, see "Deleting your data" below.
6. Who we share it with
We share personal information only with the companies that run parts of our services for us, each acting as our service provider and allowed to use the data only to provide that service:
| Provider | What it does | Data involved |
|---|---|---|
| Stripe | Payment processing on dodcomic.com | Email, payment and billing details, purchase records |
| Supabase | pupGO database, sign-in and photo storage; also stores access-code records for purchases | Account, game, purchase and code records, uploaded photos |
| Cloudflare | Hosting for dodcomic.com and go.dodcomic.com, security, rate limiting, Turnstile, image storage | IP address and request data; wholesale form contents in transit |
| Resend | Sending access-code emails | Your email address and the email's content |
| Sign in with Google (if you choose it) | Sign-in data described above | |
| Meta (Facebook) | Sign in with Facebook (if you choose it) | Sign-in data described above |
| Mapbox | Maps and walking directions in pupGO | IP address, map area and route coordinates requested |
| National Weather Service, OpenStreetMap | Weather and building data for the map | Coordinates only, sent from our server, not linked to you |
Some information is visible to other people by design: approved Bark Station submissions on the pupGO map, arcade initials and scores on leaderboards, and trades you post. We don't sell or rent personal information, and we don't "share" it for cross-context behavioral advertising. We may disclose information if required by law, to protect against fraud or abuse, or to a successor if the business is ever sold or transferred, under the same protections as this policy.
7. How we protect it
All traffic to dodcomic.com and go.dodcomic.com is encrypted with HTTPS. Payments are handled entirely on Stripe's PCI-compliant checkout, and our server confirms every payment directly with Stripe and verifies the signature on each Stripe notification. Account, game and access-code records are stored in Supabase with row-level security, so each player can read only their own records; access codes and redemption records can't be read from the app at all. The keys that reach these records are held as server-side secrets and never sent to your browser. Only the people who run Dogs of Downtown can view these records. No system is perfectly secure, but we limit what we collect so there is less to protect.
8. How long we keep it
- Purchase and access-code records (code, email, Stripe reference, dates): kept for as long as needed to deliver and support the code and for up to 7 years to meet tax and accounting requirements. Stripe keeps its own payment records under its privacy policy.
- Code emails and sale notices: kept in our mailbox only as long as needed to support your purchase.
- pupGO account and game data: kept while your account is active. When you ask us to delete your account, we delete your account, progress, scores, claims, trades and uploads within 30 days. Purchased codes are kept as purchase records (above) but unlinked from the deleted account.
- Bark Station submissions: kept while the station is on the map, or until you or we remove it.
- Wholesale inquiries: kept only as long as needed to respond and do business with you.
- Redemption-attempt counters: minutes. Server and security logs: kept by our hosting providers for a short period, typically no more than 30 days.
9. Your choices and rights
- Access, correction and deletion. You can ask us for a copy of your information, to correct it, or to delete it, including data received from Google or Facebook, by emailing info@dodcomic.com from the email address on your account or purchase. We may ask you to confirm it is you, and we will respond within 30 days.
- Location. You can allow or block location at any time in your browser or phone settings.
- Sign-in providers. You can remove pupGO's access to Google or Facebook as described above.
- Device storage. You can clear pupGO's local data by clearing site data for go.dodcomic.com.
Depending on where you live (for example, California, other U.S. states with privacy laws, or the EU and UK), you may have additional rights, such as to know what we collect, to opt out of sale or targeted advertising (we do neither), to object to or restrict processing, to data portability, and to complain to your local data protection authority. We will not treat you differently for exercising these rights. Where those laws apply, we rely on performing our contract with you (purchases and your account), our legitimate interests (security and fraud prevention), your consent (location and optional sign-in providers) and legal obligations (tax records). Our services are run from, and data is stored in, the United States.
Deleting your data
To delete your pupGO account and its data, including anything received from Google or Facebook sign-in, email info@dodcomic.com with the subject "Delete my pupGO data" from the email address on the account. We will confirm when it is done, within 30 days.
10. Cookies and similar technology
We use only what is needed to make the services work: sign-in session storage in pupGO, the local settings described above, Cloudflare's security and Turnstile checks, and Stripe's own cookies on its checkout page to process payment and prevent fraud. Staff pages use a Cloudflare sign-in cookie. We don't use advertising, analytics or cross-site tracking cookies.
11. Children
Our services are not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. Children under 13 may enjoy the comics and play alongside a parent, but should not create a pupGO account or make purchases. If you believe a child under 13 has given us information, contact us and we will delete it.
12. Changes
If we change this policy we will update the date above, and for material changes we will also notify account holders by email or in the app before the change takes effect.
13. Contact
Dogs of Downtown, McKinney, TX · info@dodcomic.com
Dogs of Downtown · McKinney, TX · Privacy Policy · Terms of Service