Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy explains how The Educated Monkey LLC handles information when you use Ask WienerDog at AskWienerDog.com or through the Ask WienerDog Android application.
Our privacy approach
Ask WienerDog is designed so that you can use the core question-and-answer experience and public tools without creating an account. We collect a limited amount of anonymous usage information to operate, protect and improve the service. We do not sell personal information.
Information Ask WienerDog handles
Anonymous visitor and usage information
When you use the public service, Ask WienerDog assigns the browser a random anonymous visitor identifier in a cookie named awd_vid. The cookie is HttpOnly, uses SameSite=Lax, and has a browser lifetime of up to one year. The identifier does not contain your name or email address.
Our server may record information associated with that identifier such as first and last visit times, visit count, whether the browser has been linked to an optional Pack email signup, and limited service-usage events. Question events include the route used, the number of characters in the question, processing time, model/tool usage and technical usage/cost metrics. Ask WienerDog does not store the raw text of your questions in its analytics files.
Questions and tool inputs
The information you enter is used to provide the answer or tool result you requested. Some deterministic calculators run entirely in your browser. Other tools send the necessary lookup value to Ask WienerDog's server or to a relevant public data source. For example, vehicle-identification or recall lookups may use government data services.
When a question uses an AI-assisted or live-web answer route, the question is sent to OpenAI's API so the answer can be generated. Ask WienerDog requests that Responses API application state not be stored by setting store:false. OpenAI's API data controls may still retain API content for limited abuse-monitoring or legal-compliance purposes. OpenAI states that API inputs and outputs are not used to train its models by default unless the API customer explicitly opts in to share data.
Optional email signup
If you voluntarily join the WienerDog Pack or another optional email feature, we store the email address you provide together with signup time, signup source, consent version and status. We may also link that record to the anonymous visitor identifier used by the browser at signup. Email signup is optional and is not required to receive answers or use the free core tools.
Location and place searches
Some astronomy features offer a Use my location button. Location access occurs only after you choose that feature and grant browser permission. In the current WienerDog Sky and Starlink tools, latitude and longitude are used locally in the browser to calculate viewing positions and passes; Ask WienerDog does not send those coordinates to its server for those calculations.
The EV & Alternative Fuel Station Finder also offers an optional Use my location button. For that tool, location is never requested automatically. If you choose the feature and grant browser permission, the coordinates are sent to Ask WienerDog's server only to perform the station lookup. WienerDog rounds them before sending the lookup to the U.S. Department of Energy Alternative Fuels Data Center service. The coordinates are not written to Ask WienerDog's visitor or analytics files. If you search by city, ZIP code or place instead, that text is sent through Ask WienerDog's server to the OpenStreetMap Nominatim geocoding service to obtain coordinates for the requested station search; the raw place query is not written to WienerDog analytics. You can use a city or ZIP code instead of device location.
The Rest Area & Welcome Center Finder uses the same opt-in location pattern. When you run that lookup, Ask WienerDog rounds the selected coordinates before sending a nearby-facility query to the OpenStreetMap Overpass service. Device coordinates and place-search text are not written to WienerDog visitor or analytics files. You can use a city or ZIP code instead of device location.
The Truck Stop & Travel Center Finder also uses this opt-in pattern. When you run that lookup, Ask WienerDog rounds the selected coordinates before sending a selective nearby truck/travel-facility query to OpenStreetMap Overpass. Device coordinates and place-search text are not written to WienerDog visitor or analytics files. You can use a city or ZIP code instead of device location.
The RV Dump Station Finder uses the same opt-in location pattern. When you run that lookup, Ask WienerDog rounds the selected coordinates before sending a nearby sanitary-dump-facility query to OpenStreetMap Overpass. Device coordinates and place-search text are not written to WienerDog visitor or analytics files. You can use a city or ZIP code instead of device location.
The Campground & RV Park Finder uses the same opt-in location pattern. When you run that lookup, Ask WienerDog rounds the selected coordinates before sending a nearby campground/RV-park query to OpenStreetMap Overpass. Device coordinates and place-search text are not written to WienerDog visitor or analytics files. You can use a city or ZIP code instead of device location.
Network and security information
Internet services necessarily receive ordinary network information such as an IP address and browser/user-agent information. Ask WienerDog currently uses IP addresses in short-lived in-memory rate-limit controls to reduce abuse and does not write the IP address into its visitor or analytics files. Hosting, network, browser, public-data and content-delivery providers may process ordinary request information under their own policies.
Why we use information
- To provide answers, calculations, lookups and other requested features.
- To keep the service reliable, measure performance and understand which routes and tools are useful.
- To prevent abuse, excessive automated traffic and security problems.
- To send optional WienerDog email communications only when you have chosen to sign up for them.
Service providers and external data sources
Ask WienerDog uses service providers and public data sources when necessary to operate particular features. These can include OpenAI for AI-assisted answers and web-search capability, hosting/network infrastructure, content-delivery services, government or public information services used by lookup tools, the U.S. Department of Energy Alternative Fuels Data Center for alternative-fuel and EV-station information, OpenStreetMap Nominatim for user-requested place geocoding, and OpenStreetMap Overpass for user-requested nearby rest-area, highway-service, truck-stop and travel-center searches. OpenStreetMap Overpass is also used for user-requested nearby RV dump-station searches. OpenStreetMap Overpass is also used for user-requested nearby campground and RV-park searches. We send only the information needed for the requested function. Their handling of information is also subject to their own terms and privacy practices.
Retention
Ask WienerDog automatically removes anonymous visitor records and anonymous analytics events after 365 days. Raw question text is not retained in Ask WienerDog analytics. Optional email/subscriber records are kept until they are unsubscribed, no longer needed for the requested email relationship, or deleted in response to a valid request. Third-party service providers may apply their own retention periods; under OpenAI's current API data controls, API content may be retained for up to 30 days for abuse monitoring unless longer retention is legally required.
Your privacy choices and deletion
You can delete the anonymous visitor record and analytics events associated with the current browser identifier directly from this page. This does not delete an optional email subscription because we should not remove an email record without confirming the request relates to that address.
To unsubscribe from optional emails, request deletion of an email/subscriber record, or ask another privacy question, contact hello@askwienerdog.com. We may need to verify that you control the email address before deleting or changing an email-linked record.
Where applicable, you may also request access, correction or deletion of personal information associated with an identifiable email record. Anonymous data that has already been deleted or can no longer reasonably be linked to you may not be recoverable.
Security
Ask WienerDog uses HTTPS for the public site and app experience and limits stored public telemetry to the operational information described above. The anonymous visitor cookie is not readable by page JavaScript because it is marked HttpOnly. No security method can guarantee absolute protection, but we use reasonable technical and operational safeguards appropriate to the service.
Changes to this policy
If Ask WienerDog adds material new data practices—such as new account features, advertising technology, uploads, or additional sensitive permissions—we will update this policy and the applicable Google Play disclosures before relying on those practices in the Android app.
Contact
The Educated Monkey LLC
Ask WienerDog privacy contact: hello@askwienerdog.com
Ask WienerDog is the public-facing service of The Educated Monkey LLC.