Last updated: October 8, 2026
Pawz Pet Grooming Salon (“Pawz”, “we”, “us”) operates pet grooming salons in Milton and Kitchener, Ontario, and the website pawz.ca. This policy explains what personal information we collect, how we use it, who we share it with, and the choices you have. By using our website or booking our services, you agree to this policy.
1. Information we collect
- Contact details: your name, phone number, email address and postal address.
- Pet information: your pet’s name, breed, age, coat and behaviour notes, health and vaccination details, and grooming history.
- Photos: photos of your pet taken before, during or after grooming.
- Booking and payment information: appointment details and the last four digits and brand of a card on file (see section 3).
- Messages and forms: anything you send us through our contact, referral or booking forms, by email, or by text message.
- Website usage data: IP address, device and browser type, pages viewed and how you arrived at our site, collected through cookies and similar technologies (see section 6).
2. How we use your information
- To book, confirm, remind you of and carry out grooming appointments.
- To care for your pet safely, including keeping health and behaviour notes.
- To process payments and, where applicable, no-show charges.
- To respond to your questions and run our referral program.
- To send promotions or updates by text or email, only where you have agreed.
- To promote our business, including using photos of pets on our website and social media.
- To understand how our website is used and to measure and improve our advertising.
- To meet legal and accounting requirements.
3. Payment cards and no-show protection
To reduce no-shows, we ask for a credit card to be held on file when you book. Our booking system (GrooMore) is integrated with Square, a leading payment processor.
- Your card details are entered into and stored by Square, which is certified PCI-DSS Level 1. Card information is encrypted.
- Pawz staff see only the last four digits and the card brand (for example, Visa). We do not have access to your full card number or security code (CVV).
- Holding a card on file does not result in a charge. You pay for your service as usual after the grooming is finished.
- If you do not show up for an appointment without notice, or cancel late, we may charge up to 50% of the service fee plus applicable taxes to cover our groomers’ reserved time, depending on the circumstances.
- You can ask us at any time to remove your card from file by contacting ops@pawz.ca. Doing so may affect our ability to accept future bookings.
4. Text messages (SMS)
With your consent, we send appointment confirmations, reminders and service-related messages by text. Where you have agreed to receive promotional messages, we also send offers and promotions by text. Message and data rates from your carrier may apply. You can opt out at any time by replying STOP to a text or by contacting ops@pawz.ca. Opting out of promotional messages will not stop essential appointment messages.
5. Email and marketing
We send promotional emails only with your consent, and every promotional email includes an unsubscribe link. You can withdraw consent at any time.
6. Cookies, analytics and advertising
Our website uses cookies and similar technologies, including:
- Google Analytics, which reports on how visitors use our site.
- Facebook (Meta) Pixel, which helps us measure the results of our advertising and show relevant ads on Facebook and Instagram.
These services may collect information such as your IP address and pages visited, and may share it with Google or Meta under their own privacy policies. You can control cookies through your browser settings, opt out of Google Analytics with the Google Analytics opt-out add-on, and manage ad preferences in your Facebook and Google account settings.
7. Photos of pets
We take photos of pets in our care for grooming records, to share with the pet’s owner, and for promotional purposes. Photos may be posted on our social media channels (such as Facebook and Instagram) and on our website to promote Pawz. We do not name owners or share their contact details alongside photos unless you agree. If you do not want your pet’s photos used for promotion, tell our team at drop-off or email ops@pawz.ca at any time, and we will stop using them and remove existing posts where reasonably possible. Once a photo has been shared or reposted by others on social media, we may not be able to remove every copy.
8. Who we share information with
We do not sell your personal information. We share it only with service providers who help us run our business, such as Square (payments), GrooMore (booking), our SMS and email providers, website hosting and analytics providers (including Google and Meta), and professional advisers. These providers may only use your information to provide services to us. We may also disclose information where required by law. Some providers store data outside Canada, so your information may be subject to the laws of other countries.
9. Internal advertising reporting
Pawz uses a small internal reporting tool that connects to our own Google Ads account through the Google Ads API. This section explains what that tool accesses, how the information is used, and who can see it. It applies only to this tool; our booking systems and the pawz.ca website have no connection to it.
What the tool accesses. When we authorize the tool with Google, it is granted the adwords scope, which allows it to read and manage advertising data for our own Google Ads account. In practice, we use it to pull:
- campaign names, statuses and budgets;
- performance metrics: impressions, clicks, cost and conversions; and
- keyword-level Quality Score and delivery diagnostics.
No customer, booking or payment data from Pawz ever passes through this tool. It only touches advertising account data inside Google Ads.
How we use it. The data is used solely to monitor and improve our own ad campaigns, for example checking which campaigns are spending efficiently or drafting better ad copy. It is used internally by our own staff and is not repurposed for any other business.
Sharing and storage. We do not sell, share or transmit this data to any third party. The tool does not maintain a persistent database; data is pulled from Google Ads on request and used only for that immediate purpose.
Revoking access. Because the connection is authorized through a Google Account, access can be revoked at any time from Google Account → Security → Third-party access. Revoking access immediately stops the tool from reading any further data.
10. How long we keep information
We keep client and pet records for as long as you are a client and for a reasonable period afterwards, and as long as needed for legal, tax and safety purposes. When information is no longer needed, we delete or anonymize it.
11. Security
We use reasonable physical, technical and administrative safeguards to protect your information. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security.
12. Your choices and rights
You may ask to see the personal information we hold about you, correct it, or have it deleted, and you may withdraw consent for marketing, text messages, photos or a card on file at any time. Contact us at ops@pawz.ca. We may need to verify your identity first, and some records must be kept to meet legal obligations.
13. Children
Our website and services are directed at adults. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children.
14. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy from time to time. The “Last updated” date at the top shows when it was last revised. Continued use of our website or services after a change means you accept the updated policy.
15. Contact us
Pawz Pet Grooming Salon
Email: ops@pawz.ca
Milton: 1228 Main St. E, Milton, ON L9T 8M7 · (905) 459-9384
Kitchener: 3310 King Street E, Kitchener, ON N2A 1B3 · (226) 476-2530
