Privacy Policy

1. Information We Collect

1.1. Information You Provide

When you use the Application, we collect personal information that you voluntarily provide, such as your name, username, email address, your pets' profiles, and photos you upload (for example, pet and profile pictures).

1.2. Content You Create

We collect content you create in the Application, such as reviews of places, pet information, and walk records. Reviews you submit may be visible to other users of the Application.

1.3. Usage Information

We collect information about how you use the Application, including your interactions, the features you use, and performance and reliability data (such as request timing and error information) used to keep the Application working correctly.

1.4. Device Information

We collect information about your device, including the device type, operating system version, unique device identifiers, push notification tokens, mobile network information, and the time zone your device reports. We store that time zone on your profile, and, if you use the Dog Training feature, on each training session you log, so that daily features such as training streaks and reminders use your local day.

1.5. Location Information

We collect precise location information (via GPS), including while the Application runs in the background during an active walk, in order to record your walk route and provide location-based features. If you choose to share your live location with friends, your location is transmitted to those friends while sharing is enabled. While a walk is active, your shared location, display name, profile photo, and the pets on that walk are also visible on the map to other signed-in users near you, including users you are not friends with; this stops when the walk ends, and turning off live location sharing removes you from that map. When you send a walk invitation to a friend, you may optionally include a precise meeting location, which we store with that invitation. Background location tracking only occurs while a walk is active, and you can stop it at any time.

1.6. Subscription Information

If you purchase a Pet Walker Plus subscription, we collect and store your subscription status, the product purchased, its expiry date, the app store the purchase was made through, and identifiers for the related purchase events. We never receive or store your payment card details; payment is processed by the app store. Some features that require an active subscription, such as hiding yourself from the nearby-walkers map, stop taking effect while your subscription is inactive and take effect again if it resumes; a billing event never changes the settings you saved.

1.7. Training Content

If you use the Dog Training feature, we collect the training sessions you log for your pet, including the skill, level, outcome, and the date and time zone of each session. If you choose to share a skill-mastery achievement with your friends, we collect the photo and the caption (up to 280 characters) you attach to that post.

1.8. Content Reports

If you report another user's content, such as a shared training post, we collect your identity as the reporter, the type of content reported, and any details you choose to provide, up to 500 characters. We use this information to review the report and, where warranted, restrict the reported content's visibility; we do not share your identity as the reporter with the user whose content you reported.

2. How We Use Your Information

2.1. We use the information we collect for the following purposes:

• Providing and improving the Application, including GPS walk tracking and maps;
• Enabling social features, such as sharing your live location with friends you approve and sending walk invites;
• Showing nearby pet-friendly places and place reviews;
• Sending push notifications you have enabled;
• Communicating with you and responding to your inquiries;
• Detecting, preventing, and addressing technical issues;
• Complying with legal obligations.
• Showing walkers near you on the map while a walk is active, and showing you to them;
• Providing, restoring, and managing Pet Walker Plus subscriptions;

3. How We Share Your Information

3.1. We share your personal information only in the following circumstances:

• With other users: your profile and, if you enable location sharing, your live location are shared with the friends you have approved. During an active walk, that same live location, your display name, profile photo, and the pets on the walk are also shown to other signed-in users near you who are not your friends. If you share a skill-mastery post from the Dog Training feature, its photo and caption are visible to your approved friends until you remove the post or it is hidden through content moderation. Reviews you post may be visible to other users.
• Walk invitation meeting points: When you send a walk invitation to a friend, you may optionally attach a precise meeting location (GPS coordinates), a short label, and a meeting time. This location is precise and is not coarsened by your live location sharing setting. It is shown to the person you invited, and it stays readable to the two of you for no longer than 24 hours after the invitation was last changed. We erase the meeting location, label, and time within 24 hours and 15 minutes of that change; we erase them immediately if either of you removes the other as a friend; and they are deleted together with your other data when you delete your account.
• With service providers: we use trusted third parties to operate the Application, including Supabase (database, authentication, and storage hosting), Google Maps (map display on Android), Apple (map display on iOS, App Store purchase processing, and the Apple Push Notification service, APNs), OpenStreetMap data providers (independently operated Overpass API servers in the European Union that supply information about nearby pet-friendly places; the request is sent by our servers rather than your device and carries only a coordinate rounded to about one kilometre, never your precise position, your identity, or your account), RevenueCat (subscription management and purchase validation), Brevo (delivery of account emails such as sign-in and password-reset messages), and Google Firebase (Firebase Cloud Messaging, FCM, for push notifications). If you sign in with Google or Apple, that sign-in is processed by the provider you chose. To manage your subscription we send RevenueCat your account identifier together with the purchase receipt from the app store and basic device information; we do not send it your name or your email address. A push notification may include the name of the friend who triggered it and your device push token. These providers process data on our behalf to provide their services.
• Website and support correspondence: our website and legal pages are hosted by Cloudflare, which also routes email sent to our support address. If you contact us by email, Cloudflare and our email provider process that message, including your email address and anything you choose to include in it.
• As required by law or to protect our rights, safety, and the safety of others.
• With your consent or at your direction.

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not use it for third-party advertising or tracking.

4. Data Security

4.1. We take reasonable measures to protect the security of your personal information and prevent unauthorized access, disclosure, or alteration. However, please note that no method of transmission over the internet or electronic storage is 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

5. Children's Privacy

5.1. The Application is not intended for use by children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you are a parent or guardian and believe that your child has provided us with personal information without your consent, please contact us, and we will take steps to remove the information.

6. Your Rights and Choices

6.1. You can control location sharing at any time from your device settings and within the Application. You may request access to, correction of, or deletion of your personal information, including deletion of your account, by contacting us at the address below.

7. Changes to This Privacy Policy

7.1. We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time by posting a revised version on our website or within the Application. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically for any changes. Your continued use of the Application after the posting of changes constitutes your acceptance of such changes.

8. Contact Us

8.1. If you have any questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy or our privacy practices, please contact us at support@petwalkerapp.com.

9. Data Retention and Deletion

We retain personal information we collect from you for as long as we need it to fulfill the purposes for which it was originally collected, unless otherwise required by law. When personal information is no longer needed, we will delete or anonymize it in a secure manner. When you delete your account, your subscription record is deleted from our database together with the rest of your data, and we ask our subscription management provider to delete the subscriber record associated with your account.

9.2. Retention on Shared Pets After Account Deletion

If your pet is owned only by you, deleting your account deletes your training sessions, skill-mastery titles, and skill status records for that pet along with the rest of your data. If your pet is co-owned with another family member, those same records stay attached to the pet so the household does not lose its pet's history, but they are disassociated from your account: your user identifier is removed from them and cannot be restored.