Privacy Policy | Barkiva

About Us

Barkiva (“Barkiva”, “we”, “our”, or “us”) is a pet-on-demand shop and pet services platform operating in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Through the Barkiva app and website (the “Platform”), we connect pet owners with a wide range of pet-related products and services, including but not limited to quick pet food and product delivery, veterinary services, grooming, boarding, training, adoption support, and related delivery services.

This Privacy Policy explains how Barkiva handles the Personal Data of customers who interact with the Platform. It sets out our responsibilities and how we comply with applicable data protection laws, including the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s Personal Data Protection Law (“PDPL”) and its Implementing Regulations. We aim to protect individuals’ privacy, act transparently, and handle Personal Data responsibly.

Barkiva Technologies LLC is the data controller for the Personal Data processing activities described in this Privacy Policy. As such, any references in this Privacy Policy to “Barkiva”, “we”, “our”, or “us” will be interpreted as a reference to Barkiva Technologies LLC, and any references to “you” or “your” will be interpreted as a reference to Barkiva customers.

When we refer to “Personal Data” in this Privacy Policy, we mean any data that can be used to identify you as an individual, whether directly or indirectly.

This Privacy Policy applies to all Personal Data processed by Barkiva, in any format and across all locations, systems, and business functions, including processing carried out by employees, contractors, and third-party service providers acting on Barkiva’s behalf. It applies to all data processing activities throughout the Personal Data lifecycle, from collection through to deletion or anonymization. This Privacy Policy is reviewed periodically and updated to reflect changes in our processing activities, legal requirements, or best practices.

Our contact details in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia are:

Legal Entity: Barkiva Technologies LLC
Address: 3160 Al Hussein Ibn Ali, At Taawun, 7258, Riyadh 12475, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Email Address: wecare@barkiva.com

What does this Privacy Policy cover?

This Privacy Policy:

sets out the types of Personal Data that we collect about you;
explains how and why we collect and use your Personal Data, and the lawful bases for such processing;
explains how long we keep your Personal Data for; and
explains your rights in relation to your Personal Data and how to exercise these rights.

What information do we collect?

A. Personal Data You Provide to Us

This refers to Personal Data you actively provide when you create an account, place an order, book a service, create a pet profile, or communicate with us.

Identity and Contact Data: We collect data used to create your account, verify your identity, and contact you. This includes, but is not limited to, your full name, email address, phone number, and precise delivery address. Where required to complete a transaction, verify your identity, or comply with applicable Saudi regulatory requirements (for example, for certain veterinary or high-value service bookings), we may also collect your national ID or Iqama number.
Pet Profile Data: To enable you to book services and receive personalized recommendations, we collect information about your pet(s) that you choose to provide. This includes, but is not limited to, your pet’s name, species, breed, age, weight, photograph, vaccination records (if uploaded), and any medical or health information you voluntarily provide (for example, allergies, existing conditions, or notes for a veterinarian or groomer).
Profile and Preferences Data: We collect data you provide to personalize your account and experience. This includes, but is not limited to, your username, password, saved preferences (e.g., language selection, notification preferences), your list of pet products or service providers marked as favorites, as well as demographic details you choose to provide, such as optional gender information.
Financial and Payment Data: We collect data necessary to complete your purchases and service bookings. This includes, but is not limited to, your payment methods and related payment details (e.g., credit or debit card number).
Communications and Feedback Data: We collect information you provide when communicating with us or other third-party service providers who act on our behalf through the Platform. This includes, but is not limited to, records of your communications with our customer support team, delivery partners, veterinary clinics, groomers, boarding facilities, and trainers (via in-app chat, email, or phone recordings), your responses to surveys, and any reviews or feedback you submit regarding pet stores, service providers, delivery partners, or products.
Sensitive Information for Security Verification: To protect your account and transaction security, under specific high-risk circumstances, we may require you to provide additional verification information. This may include your biometric information, such as a photo taken via your device’s camera to perform facial verification. We only process such sensitive Personal Data when permitted or required by applicable law, or when we have obtained your specific and explicit consent, while always adopting reinforced security measures for such processing.

B. Personal Data We Collect Automatically

This refers to Personal Data we automatically collect from your device when you interact with our Platform.

Transaction and Booking Data: We retain records of the orders and service bookings you make and your purchasing activities. This includes, but is not limited to, your order and appointment history, details of products purchased or services booked (e.g., grooming, boarding, training, veterinary appointments), order and booking values, applied discounts or vouchers, payment methods and times, order/booking status (e.g., pending, confirmed, in progress, out for delivery, completed), and any notes you provide for an order or appointment.
Device and Technical Data: We automatically collect technical information about the device you use to access our Platform. This includes, but is not limited to, your IP address, unique device identifiers (e.g., Advertising IDs [IDFA/GAID], MAC address), device model, operating system and version, browser type, mobile network information, and time zone settings.
Usage Data: We collect information about how you browse and use our Platform. This includes, but is not limited to, your search query history, pet stores or products you have viewed, your clickstream and navigation paths on the Platform, features you use, app crash logs, performance data, and the dates and times of your visits or interactions.
Precise Location Data: We collect precise data about your geographic location, which is essential for confirming your delivery address, assigning delivery partners, and tracking order or service delivery. This may include, with your authorization, real-time geographic location obtained via your device’s GPS, Wi-Fi, or cellular network.

C. Personal Data We Receive from Third Parties

We may receive data about you from other sources to supplement our records and support our operations.

Third-Party Login Services: If you choose to register or log in using your account from another provider (e.g., Google or Apple), we will receive your account verification information and other necessary data required for login from that provider, in accordance with your privacy settings and authorization on that provider.
Payment and Anti-Fraud Partners: We receive data from our partners to confirm transactions, verify identity, and prevent fraud. This may include transaction status confirmations, risk assessment data, or identity verification results from our payment service providers, identity verification services, and anti-fraud partners.
Pet Stores, Veterinary Clinics, and Service Providers: In certain situations, our partners (including pet stores, veterinary clinics, groomers, boarding facilities, trainers, and adoption partners) may provide us with information related to an order or booking, such as reports regarding order or appointment issues, service or delivery confirmation, or safety incidents involving you or your pet.
Marketing and Analytics Partners: We receive data from partners to help us measure the effectiveness of our advertising and understand our user sources, such as data about how you found our Platform (e.g., which platform’s ad you clicked).

How and why do we use your Personal Data and what lawful bases will we rely on?

We will use your Personal Data for the purposes set out below and rely on the lawful bases listed for such processing activities.

To manage your Barkiva account: To register your new account, verify your identity, enable you to log in, and manage your profile, pet profiles, and preferences, as required to support our legitimate interests in ensuring secure and compliant account setup and to fulfil our contractual obligations.
To process your purchases: To receive your submitted orders, confirm order details, and accurately transmit order information to our partner pet stores, as necessary to perform our contract with you.
To manage pet profiles and service history: To create and maintain profiles for your pet(s), including relevant health and vaccination information you provide, so that veterinary clinics, groomers, boarding facilities, and trainers can deliver appropriate and safe services, as necessary to perform our contract with you.
To book veterinary, grooming, boarding, and training appointments: To receive, confirm, and manage your service bookings and appointments with our partner veterinary clinics, groomers, boarding facilities, and trainers, as necessary to perform our contract with you.
To process payments, refunds, and assist transaction compliance: To securely process your payments for products and services, manage refund requests, and assist with transaction-related compliance, as necessary to perform our contract with you and to meet applicable legal obligations. This may include collecting necessary identity data and transmitting it as required to transaction parties (e.g., pet stores, service providers, or payment institutions) for them to process the transaction or fulfil their compliance obligations.
To coordinate deliveries: To assign your delivery address and contact details to delivery partners, allow you (and pet stores) to track order progress in real-time, and confirm delivery completion, as necessary to perform our contract with you.
To provide customer support: To respond to your inquiries, investigate and resolve your issues or complaints (e.g., order errors, missing items, appointment issues). This is necessary to perform our contract with you and to maintain service quality and clear, effective communication.
To send essential service communications: To send you necessary non-marketing notifications, such as order confirmations, appointment reminders, delivery status updates, service interruptions, or changes to our terms and policies, as necessary to perform our contract with you and to support our legitimate interests in ensuring reliable service communication.
To prevent fraud and financial crime: To monitor and detect fraudulent transactions (e.g., payment card theft) and to detect and block the abuse of vouchers or promotions. This processing is carried out based on our legitimate interest in safeguarding the Platform and preventing fraudulent or harmful activity.
To ensure Platform security and integrity: To protect your account from unauthorized access, monitor and prevent malicious activity, and ensure the stability of our application (e.g., analyzing crash logs), as required to support our legitimate interests in maintaining a secure and reliable Platform.
For analytics and service improvement: To analyze aggregated, anonymized, or pseudonymized user behavior to understand trends, fix bugs, optimize the user interface (UI/UX), and develop new features and services, as required to support our legitimate interests in improving and enhancing our Platform and overall user experience.
To personalize your Platform experience: To display personalized pet store listings, product recommendations, or home page content based on your order history, pet profile(s), browsing behavior, location, and inferred preferences, as required to support our legitimate interests in developing and improving our Platform.
For marketing, advertising, and promotions: With your prior explicit consent, which you may withdraw at any time, we may use your data to send you general promotions, discounts, and newsletters that we believe may be of interest to you, via email, SMS, WhatsApp messages, or push notification.
To perform high-risk security and identity verification: To actively trigger additional identity verification to protect your account security under specific high-risk circumstances (e.g., when we detect suspicious account activity, high-value transactions, or to comply with anti-fraud regulations), as required to support our legitimate interests in Platform security and to comply with applicable laws.
To comply with legal and regulatory obligations: To fulfil our legal responsibilities, such as retaining financial and tax records, or responding to valid legal requests from law enforcement, regulators, or courts. This processing is necessary to meet our legal obligations under applicable law.
To establish, exercise, or defend legal claims: To manage, prepare, and defend our legal position in the event of a dispute (e.g., with you, pet stores, service providers, or delivery partners), as required to protect our legal rights.

Where Personal Data is not made available to us, we may not be able to provide you the products and services you have requested, or otherwise carry out our activities in the context of our relationship with you.

How we use cookies and similar technologies

Cookies are small text files stored on your browser or device. Cookies allow us to recognize your preferences in order to tailor our pages and services to your specific needs. Some information is saved in these text files so that, when you visit our pages again, your browser or device is recognized and configured according to your previous preferences.

Cookies usually have an expiration date. Some cookies, for example, are automatically deleted when the browser is closed, while others may be stored on the device for a longer period until they are manually deleted.

We may use the following types of cookies under this Privacy Policy:

Strictly necessary cookies: to ensure our pages or services function properly, such as authenticating logins. If you wish to continue accessing our Platform, it will not be possible to refuse these types of cookies;
Analytics cookies: to improve the content of our Platform by providing information about how it is used and how often it is visited;
Functionality cookies: to store information you previously provided, such as your language preferences, in order to enhance your browsing experience; and
Marketing cookies: to allow us to display advertisements that are more relevant to your interests, avoid showing you the same ads repeatedly, and optimize the delivery of our promotional content.

If you wish to refuse the installation of these cookies on your device or opt to remove cookies, you can do so through your browser settings. For more information on how to configure cookie usage in your browser, please refer to the website of your browser’s developer (e.g., Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari, or Microsoft Edge).

It is important to clarify that we are not responsible for the use of cookies by third parties. Cookies placed by third parties may continue to track your online activities, so we recommend regularly managing the cookies installed in your browser.

Who do we share your Personal Data with?

We share your Personal Data with government authorities, law enforcement, and third-party service providers only when it is necessary to provide our services, operate our business, or comply with legal, contractual, and regulatory obligations. When sharing is required, we ensure that recipients process your Personal Data securely and only for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy, implement appropriate data protection measures, and we apply additional safeguards to preserve the confidentiality, integrity, and security of your Personal Data.

Pet stores and service providers: our Platform allows you to place orders for products, or book services, from third-party pet stores, veterinary clinics, grooming providers, boarding facilities, and trainers. When you use our service for this purpose, we will share certain Personal Data we collect from you (and, where relevant, information about your pet) with the relevant third-party provider, which may include your name, address, telephone number, order or booking reference, order or appointment details, and other relevant information in the context of your order or booking. We share this Personal Data to make sure your order or appointment is properly fulfilled and your interests (and your pet’s wellbeing) are protected, because it may be necessary for the provider to contact you directly (for example, if there is a question over the order or appointment, if an item becomes unavailable, or for other important reasons such as public safety and animal health matters). We are not responsible for how such an independent party uses your information once received, and you should review their privacy policy as well before proceeding.
Adoption partners: where you use the Platform to express interest in, or proceed with, a pet adoption, we may share relevant Personal Data with the shelter, rescue organization, or adoption partner facilitating the adoption, as necessary to coordinate the process.
Delivery partners: To complete your delivery, we provide the delivery partner responsible for delivery with the Personal Data necessary to perform their duties. This typically includes your name, precise delivery address, and contact phone number (which may be encrypted via our system).
Payment service providers and fraud prevention partners: We share your Personal Data with third-party partners to securely process your payments, verify your identity, and prevent fraud. This may include sharing necessary payment, transaction, device, or identity information with payment processors, anti-fraud services, and identity verification providers to facilitate transactions and maintain the security of your account and our Platform.
Technology and operational service providers: We rely on third-party service providers to help us operate our technical infrastructure and Platform services. These providers help us with tasks such as data hosting, customer support management, service communications, and Platform analytics and improvements, processing relevant data according to our instructions.
Marketing and advertising partners: Where permitted by applicable law, we may share certain information (such as anonymized identifiers or aggregated data) with partners to help us with marketing, measuring advertising effectiveness, and conducting audience analysis.
Promotion and rewards partners: If you choose to participate in a specific promotion offered by a third-party partner, we may share the necessary Personal Data (e.g., transaction data, user ID) with the partner to calculate or redeem your reward.
Professional advisors: We may share data with our professional advisors, including our lawyers, accountants, auditors, and insurers, when necessary (e.g., to handle legal disputes, conduct audits, or respond to security incidents).

Legal, regulatory, and corporate transactions

We may disclose your Personal Data in the following specific circumstances:

To comply with legal obligations: When we have a good faith belief that we must do so to respond to a valid legal request (e.g., a court order or subpoena) or requirements from government or law enforcement agencies.
To protect rights and safety: When disclosure is necessary or permitted under applicable law to enforce our agreements, investigate potential violations, or protect the rights, property, or safety of our delivery partners, service providers, pets, or the public.
In a corporate transaction: In any proposed or actual merger, acquisition, asset sale, or business restructuring, your Personal Data may be transferred to the proposed or actual acquiring party (and its advisors) as part of the transaction, under confidentiality agreements.

How your Personal Data is transferred

Barkiva operates within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and we primarily store and process your Personal Data on servers located within the Kingdom. In certain cases, we may rely on technology or service providers whose infrastructure is located outside the Kingdom in order to operate the Platform.

Where your Personal Data is transferred outside the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, we will only do so in accordance with the PDPL and its Implementing Regulations, including, where required, by relying on an adequacy decision issued by the competent authority, obtaining your explicit consent, or implementing appropriate contractual or technical safeguards (such as standard contractual clauses) to ensure your Personal Data remains protected to a standard equivalent to that required under Saudi law.

Information relating to children and minors

We do not seek or knowingly collect any Personal Data about children under the legal age of consent in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. If you learn that anyone younger than the legal age of consent has provided us with their Personal Data in connection with our services, please contact us and we will make commercially reasonable efforts to delete such Personal Data from our database.

How long will we keep your Personal Data?

We only keep your Personal Data for as long as is reasonably necessary for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy and to fulfil our legal obligations. We will securely erase or anonymize your Personal Data as soon as the purpose for collecting it has expired. We will adopt different deletion rules according to different purposes and the concrete conditions of the processing. Upon expiration of the retention period, we will process your Personal Data pursuant to the requirements of applicable law, including deleting or anonymizing your Personal Data.

Your rights in relation to our processing of your Personal Data

We provide you with the ability to access, manage, and update some of your Personal Data (and your pet’s profile) directly within your account settings.

Depending on the applicable data protection laws, you may have specific rights regarding the Personal Data we collect from you. These rights may include:

Access: The right to request access to the Personal Data we hold about you and to receive your Personal Data in a readable and clear format.
Rectification: The right to request correction or updating of your inaccurate or incomplete Personal Data.
Erasure: The right to request, under certain circumstances, that we delete your Personal Data.
Withdraw Consent: The right to withdraw your consent at any time for processing based on your consent (withdrawal does not affect the lawfulness of processing before withdrawal).
Object: The right to object to our processing of your Personal Data for direct marketing purposes, or other processing based on legitimate interests where applicable law grants you this right.
To be informed: The right to be informed about how we collect your Personal Data, the legal basis for collecting and processing it, how such Personal Data is processed, stored, and destroyed, and to whom it will be disclosed. You can access these details through this Privacy Policy or by contacting us.

To exercise the rights above, you may log in to the Platform with your account and manage your Personal Data directly, or you may raise your requests regarding these rights or other related matters by emailing us at wecare@barkiva.com

You may also delete your relevant Personal Data through our Platform. Specifically, you can delete your account by navigating to [Account] → [Your Name] → [Delete Account], or by submitting a deletion request to the same email address (wecare@barkiva.com).

Upon receiving your request, we will verify your identity and process it in accordance with applicable law and our internal procedures. Please note that certain information may need to be retained as required by law or for legitimate business purposes (such as fraud prevention, record-keeping, or dispute resolution).

Please note that these rights are not absolute and may be subject to certain conditions or limitations under applicable law.

If you wish to exercise any rights you may have under applicable law, please contact us using the details provided in the “Contacting Us” section of this Privacy Policy. We will assess and respond to your request in accordance with the requirements of applicable law.

Contacting us

Our contact details are set out at the top of this Privacy Policy. Please contact us if you would like to exercise any of the rights listed above, or if you have any questions or complaints about this Privacy Policy or about how we handle your Personal Data. You also have the right to file a complaint with the Saudi Data & Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA) as the competent supervisory authority. We would, however, always appreciate the opportunity to address your complaint first.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

From time to time, we may make changes to this Privacy Policy to ensure that it is accurate and up to date and to reflect any changes in the law. When we update the Privacy Policy, we will update the “Last Updated” date at the top of the new Privacy Policy, or provide any other notice required by applicable law. We recommend that you review this Privacy Policy each time you visit the Platform to stay informed of our privacy practices.