Privacy Policy
Effective date: 22 May 2026
1. Introduction
This Privacy Policy describes how your personal data is collected, used and disclosed when you visit, browse or make a purchase on www.thebarkingcat.com (the "Site"). Your personal information is collected by, and may be shared within, The Barking Cat, a partnership firm registered in India. When we use "we", "us", "our" or "The Barking Cat" in this Policy, we refer to that firm.
We respect your privacy and are committed to protecting your personal data. This Policy tells you how we look after your personal data when you visit our Site, regardless of where you visit it from, and explains your privacy rights and how the law protects you. We sell to customers in India and internationally, including in the European Union and the United Kingdom. This Policy is written to meet the requirements of India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (the "DPDP Act") and, for visitors located in the EU or UK, the General Data Protection Regulation and UK GDPR (together, "GDPR"). Where these regimes differ, we apply whichever standard gives you stronger protection.
We keep this Policy under regular review. If you would like to see an earlier version of this Policy, please contact us at contact@thebarkingcat.com. It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current, so please let us know if any of your details change.
Third party links
Our Site may include links to third party websites, plug ins and applications, including social media platforms such as Instagram and TikTok. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. We do not control those third party websites and are not responsible for their privacy practices. When you leave our Site, we encourage you to read the privacy notice of every website you visit.
Children
Our Site is a general audience streetwear platform and we do not knowingly collect personal data from children under the age of 13, nor do we knowingly sell products to a child under that age. If you are between 13 and 18 years of age, you may browse the Site, but you should only create an account, place an order or otherwise submit your personal data to us with the involvement and consent of a parent or legal guardian, who will be responsible for that order and for reviewing this Policy on your behalf. If we become aware that we have collected personal data from a child under 13 without appropriate consent, we will delete that data and may suspend the associated account. If you believe we hold personal data from or about a child, please contact us at contact@thebarkingcat.com and we will act on it promptly.
2. Information we collect about you
Personal data means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. It does not include data where identity has been removed, which we refer to as anonymous data. We may collect, use, store and transfer the following categories of personal data about you.
• Identity Data, including your first name, last name, username and date of birth where you provide it.
• Contact Data, including your billing address, delivery address, email address and telephone number.
• Financial Data is not collected or stored by us directly. Your payment details are entered into and held by our payment processor, and we only receive confirmation that payment was successful.
• Transaction Data, including details of orders placed, items purchased, order value, order history, and returns or exchanges.
• Technical Data, including your internet protocol address, login data, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, browser plug in types and versions, operating system and platform, and other technology on the devices you use to access the Site.
• Usage Data, including information about how you browse and use our Site, our products and our marketing emails.
• Marketing and Communications Data, including your preferences in receiving marketing from us and your communication preferences.
We may also collect, use and share Aggregated Data such as statistical or demographic data for any purpose. Aggregated Data may be derived from your personal data, but it is not considered personal data because it does not directly or indirectly reveal your identity. However, if we combine or connect Aggregated Data with your personal data so that it can identify you, we treat the combined data as personal data in accordance with this Policy.
We do not ask for or knowingly collect special categories of personal data such as health information, biometric data or government identity numbers, except where sizing or fit information is voluntarily shared by you to help us serve your order, and such information is retained only for as long as needed to fulfil that order.
If you do not provide personal data that we need by law or under the terms of a contract with you, we may not be able to fulfil your order or provide the requested product or service. We will let you know if this is the case at the relevant time.
3. How we collect your information
We use different methods to collect data from and about you, including through the following.
• Direct interactions. You give us your Identity, Contact and Transaction Data when you create an account, place an order, sign up to our waitlist or newsletter, request customer support, or otherwise contact us by email or through the Site.
• Automated technologies. As you interact with our Site, we and our service providers automatically collect Technical and Usage Data using cookies, server logs, pixels and similar technologies. You can control non essential cookies through the cookie settings described in Section 9.
• Third parties. We may receive limited data about you from the service providers described in Section 6, such as delivery confirmation from our logistics partner or engagement data from our email marketing provider.
4. How we use your personal information
We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. In most cases we rely on one of the following lawful grounds: performance of a contract we have or are about to enter into with you, our legitimate interests provided your rights do not override those interests, your consent, or compliance with a legal obligation. We rely on your consent in particular for sending marketing communications and for using non essential cookies, and you may withdraw that consent at any time by using the unsubscribe link in any marketing email, adjusting cookie settings, or contacting us directly.
Purposes for which we use your data
• To register and manage your account, including to create your account, verify your identity, and prevent fraud. This relies on performance of a contract with you and, for fraud prevention, our legitimate interests.
• To process and fulfil your order, including to take payment through our payment processor, arrange delivery through our logistics partner, and handle returns or exchanges. This relies on performance of a contract with you.
• To communicate with you, including sending order confirmations and shipping updates, responding to your queries, and providing customer support. This relies on performance of a contract with you and our legitimate interest in providing good service.
• To send you marketing communications about drops, promotions and brand updates where you have opted in. This relies on your consent, which you may withdraw at any time.
• To run and measure advertising, including on Meta platforms such as Instagram and Facebook. This relies on your consent to marketing cookies where required, or our legitimate interest in promoting our business where consent is not required.
• To understand how the Site is used, to improve our products, and to develop new products and services. This relies on our legitimate interest in growing and improving our business.
• To administer and protect our business and the Site, including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, system maintenance, and preventing fraud or abuse. This relies on our legitimate interests and, where applicable, compliance with a legal obligation.
• To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations, including tax, accounting and consumer protection requirements applicable in India. This relies on compliance with a legal obligation.
We will only use your personal data for a new purpose that is different from the purpose for which we collected it if we reasonably consider that the new purpose is compatible with the original purpose, or if we have your consent, or if we are otherwise required or permitted to do so by law. If we need to use your personal data for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and explain the legal basis that allows us to do so.
5. Marketing
We will only send you marketing communications by email where you have opted in, such as by joining our waitlist or newsletter. You may opt out of receiving marketing messages from us at any time by following the unsubscribe link included in every marketing email, or by emailing contact@thebarkingcat.com. Opting out of marketing communications does not affect transactional messages we send you relating to an order you have placed, such as order confirmations or shipping updates.
6. Who we share your information with
We share personal data with the following categories of recipients, and only to the extent needed for them to perform their function for us.
• Shopify and Shopify Payments, our e-commerce platform and payment processing provider, which host our Site, process checkout and manage payment transactions.
• Our email marketing provider, currently Klaviyo, which sends waitlist confirmations, newsletters and marketing emails to those who have opted in, and provides us with engagement data such as opens and clicks.
• Meta Platforms, including Facebook and Instagram, which we use for advertising and, where you consent to marketing cookies, for measuring the performance of that advertising through pixel and conversion tracking.
• Our logistics and delivery partners, who receive the delivery information needed to ship your order to you.
• Google Workspace and Gmail, which our team uses to correspond with you when you contact us by email.
• Professional advisers, including accountants and legal counsel, where necessary for us to obtain advice or comply with our legal obligations.
• Regulators, law enforcement or other authorities, where required by law or where necessary to establish, exercise or defend legal claims, or to protect the health and safety of our Site users or the public.
Our service providers are required to meet appropriate standards of data protection and security, and they are only permitted to use your personal data for the purposes we have instructed and in accordance with this Policy. We do not sell your personal data to third parties for their own independent marketing purposes. If we are involved in a sale, merger or restructuring of our business, your personal data may be transferred to the relevant party under appropriate confidentiality terms, and we will notify you if this affects how your data is used.
7. International data transfers
Several of the service providers listed in Section 6, including Shopify, Meta and our email marketing provider, may process personal data on servers located outside India, including in the United States or within the European Economic Area. Where your personal data is transferred outside your home country, we rely on the safeguards implemented by those service providers, which may include standard contractual clauses approved by the European Commission, adequacy decisions, or equivalent mechanisms recognised under the DPDP Act, to ensure your data continues to receive an appropriate level of protection. You may contact us for further information about the specific safeguard relied on for any particular transfer.
8. Data retention
We retain personal data only for as long as reasonably necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, including to satisfy any legal, regulatory, tax or accounting requirements applicable to us in India. As a general guide, we retain order and transaction records for the period required under Indian tax law, account data for as long as your account remains active and for a reasonable period afterwards, and marketing data until you withdraw consent or unsubscribe. We may retain personal data for a longer period where we reasonably believe there is a prospect of a complaint or litigation relating to our relationship with you. Where we no longer need your personal data, we will securely delete or anonymise it. Where data has been anonymised so that it can no longer be associated with you, we may retain and use it indefinitely for statistical or research purposes.
9. Cookies
We use essential cookies that are necessary for the Site to function, such as those that remember the contents of your cart. With your consent where required by law, we also use analytics cookies to understand how the Site is used, and advertising cookies, including from Meta, to measure and improve our marketing. You can manage your cookie preferences through the cookie banner on our Site or through your browser settings. If you disable or refuse cookies, some parts of the Site may not function properly.
10. How we protect your information
We have put in place appropriate technical and organisational security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed without authorisation, altered or disclosed. We limit access to your personal data to those team members, contractors and service providers who have a genuine business need for it, and they are required to keep that data confidential. We have procedures in place to detect and respond to any suspected personal data breach, and we will notify you and any applicable regulator where we are legally required to do so.
11. Your rights
If you are located in India
Under the DPDP Act, you have the right to obtain a summary of the personal data we hold about you and how it is being processed, the right to correction and updating of inaccurate, incomplete or outdated personal data, the right to erasure of your personal data once it is no longer necessary for the purpose it was collected for, and the right to withdraw your consent at any time where we rely on consent, without affecting the lawfulness of processing carried out before withdrawal. You may also nominate another individual to exercise these rights on your behalf in the event of your death or incapacity. If you are unhappy with how we have handled a request, you may raise a complaint with our Grievance Officer named below, and if the matter remains unresolved you may approach the Data Protection Board of India.
If you are located in the European Union or United Kingdom
Under the GDPR, you have the right to access your personal data, the right to rectification of inaccurate data, the right to erasure in certain circumstances, the right to restrict or object to processing, including for direct marketing, the right to data portability where processing is based on consent or contract and carried out by automated means, and the right to withdraw consent at any time. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local supervisory authority.
How to exercise your rights
To exercise any of the rights described above, please contact us at contact@thebarkingcat.com. You will not usually have to pay a fee, although we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive, and we may decline to act on it in those circumstances. We may need to request specific information from you to confirm your identity before actioning your request, as a security measure to ensure personal data is not disclosed to anyone who does not have the right to receive it. We aim to respond to legitimate requests within the timeframe required by applicable law, which is generally within thirty days, and we will notify you if a more complex request requires additional time.
12. Grievance Officer
In accordance with the DPDP Act and applicable Indian information technology rules, we have appointed a Grievance Officer to address any complaints or concerns regarding the processing of your personal data.
Email: contact@thebarkingcat.in
We will acknowledge and resolve grievances within the timeframe prescribed under applicable Indian law.
13. Changes to this Policy
We may update this Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our tools, service providers, business practices or legal obligations. We will post the updated Policy on this page with a revised effective date, and where a change is material we will take reasonable steps to notify you directly, such as by email or a notice on the Site.
14. How to contact us
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, wish to exercise your rights, or would like to raise a concern about how we handle your personal data, please contact us at contact@thebarkingcat.in