About Privacy Settings

This section of the guide is an overview to the privacy-related settings and options available to users of our RescueGroups.org services. Some of these are available for all services, and others are only available to those with the Website Service. 


Where do I find it?

Because the privacy settings and options are nested in the tabs and menus of the account screens, there is no one place for you to see all of your privacy options, or to view what the public can see.

Please be aware that RescueGroups.org services may not be used for the collection, storage, or processing of Personally Identifiable Information (PII) or sensitive information (in whole or in part), such as Birthdates, Social Security Numbers (SSN), Driver’s License numbers, or credit card numbers. This is discussed further in the RescueGroups.org Terms of Service.


There are privacy settings and options nestled in each of these sections of your account:

  • Organization contact information

  • Exports to individual websites and services

  • Default settings for exports to new websites and services

  • Caretaker/foster contact information

  • Public/shared animal statuses

  • Animal Locations

  • Animal fields

  • Animal-specific privacy

  • Animal Network

  • Do Not Adopt list

Organization contact information

RescueGroups.org provides several options to protect your organization contact information in the Organization Contact Information page under Account Administration. Please note that your organization information is not shared with any organizations until you enable your exports.

You can adjust these settings:

  • Your organization street address can be hidden from the public by selecting Prevent organization's street address from showing on website.

  • Your organization phone number can be hidden from the public by selecting Make organization's phone number private.

Exports to individual websites and services

RescueGroups.org gives you control over where your adoptable pet and organization information will be sent. You can enable or disable individual websites and services at any time (although the third party is responsible for removing your information in this case). Please see the About animal exports section of the service guides for additional information.

Default settings for exports to new websites and services

RescueGroups.org provides every organization the ability to enable or disable exports by default. For example, when a new export is added to the RescueGroups.org system (for example, a new adoption listing website), your settings will be used to determine if your export to that new service should be automatically disabled.

For additional information please see the About animal settings section of the individual service guides. 

The settings are by website or service category. Not only is RescueGroups.org the only service that allows you to control your exports on a per-website/per-service basis, but it's the only service that allows you to control those exports by category before the export is even added.

Caretaker/foster contact information

Caretaker/foster contact information is only made public under the following conditions:

  1. The caretaker's contact record is selected as Caretaker Info Public. See Special Contact Fields in About Privacy Settings for more information.

  2. The contact fields are selected as public. See Caretakers and fosters in our guide for more information.

You have control over which contact fields will be shared (first name, email address, etc) and the specific contacts who will have their information shared.

Public/shared animal statuses

By default, only the Available and Adopted animal statuses are public. At any time, you may change the public animal statuses.

Please see Animal Status for additional information.

Animal Locations

Each animal can have a specific location selected. The location information is shared if the Location is set as Public on the animal record.

See Locations for additional information.

Animal fields

Many of the animal fields are private and never shared. See About Animal Fields for additional information.

The private fields include (but not limited to):

  • Internal ID

  • Origin

  • Journal entries (except when optionally exported for contracts)

  • Colony

  • Transferred To

  • Owner

  • Foster Notes

Animal-specific privacy

Each individual animal can be selected to be not accessible to the public. This can be accomplished in one or more of the following ways:

  1. Change the animal's status to one that is not selected as Public (see Public/shared animal statuses above).

  2. Change the Do Not Sync option.

  3. Deselect the Adopt-a-Pet.com and/or Petfinder export account (the animal will still be exported via the RescueGroups.org API).

Animal Network

Only organizations that you approve can view your shared pets in the Animal Network. See Network and Partnerships articles for additional information.

An Animal Network Partner may be able to see animal statuses that you have not specifically marked as public. Only the animals that you have marked as Shared will be visible to your approved Partnerships in the Animal Network.

Do Not Adopt list

Your organization can select if they would like to share their Do Not Adopt (DNA) list. See Contact Groups (the DNA group is a contact group) in our guide.

If you would like to share your organization's DNA list with other RescueGroups.org organizations, go to Contacts > Settings and enable the option, Share your organization's Do Not Adopt list.