Privacy Policy

PETLIFE PRIVACY POLICY

Effective date: September 18, 2026

1. Scope and identity

This Privacy Policy explains how the PetLife Android application ("PetLife", "we", "us", or "our") accesses, collects, uses, stores, shares, retains, and deletes information when you use the app. PetLife is operated by the publisher identified for PetLife on Google Play. This policy applies to PetLife accounts, pet-owner features, professional workspaces, marketplace features, messaging, community features, safety tools, and other functionality available in the app.

PetLife uses cloud services for authentication and synchronized app data. Some information also remains on the device for app preferences, local continuity, selected document references, and temporary or cached app state.

2. Information you provide or create

The exact information collected depends on the features you choose to use. A field described as "required when used" means the feature cannot be completed without it. A field described as "optional" is provided only if you choose to enter, select, upload, or share it.

A. Account and identity information

For email/password accounts, required when used:

• Email address, used to create and authenticate the account and support account security.
• Password, submitted directly to Firebase Authentication for authentication. PetLife does not store the raw password in its own app database.
• Display or contact name, used to identify the account inside PetLife.
• Account role, such as Pet Owner, veterinary workspace, pet business, or shelter/rescue, used to enable the appropriate workspace.

For professional accounts, required when used:

• Workspace or business name, used to create the professional workspace.

For Google sign-in, information received from the Google identity flow may include the Google account identifier, email address, display name, and profile photo when provided by Google and permitted by the sign-in flow. This information is used for authentication and account profile setup.

Optional account/profile information may include an owner contact field and account preferences.

B. Pet profiles

Required when creating a pet profile:

• Pet name.
• Pet type/species.
• Breed selection.
• Sex selection.

Optional or owner-controlled pet information includes:

• Age or age label.
• Weight.
• Color.
• Birthday.
• Microchip information.
• Pet biography.
• Pet profile photo.
• General city/region label.
• Discoverability setting.
• Whether sex is shown on a public pet profile.
• A precise private map pin for the pet.

Pet profile photos chosen by the user are resized/re-encoded before cloud use in the app. Re-encoding removes embedded image metadata used by the original file. PetLife stores bounded profile or thumbnail image bytes in Cloud Firestore for features that require cross-device or shared display. The current build does not use Firebase Storage.

A precise pet pin is private to the owner by default and is not copied into the public pet profile. Exact location is shared with another account only when the user deliberately uses a location-sharing flow, or when a separate marketplace/public business feature explicitly asks the user to publish a location.

C. Pet health, care, and medical information

When you use health or care features, information may include:

• Record title and category.
• Record date and next-due date.
• Provider, veterinarian, or clinic name.
• Notes.
• Diagnosis and treatment information entered by the user or provider workflow.
• Medication name, dose, frequency, and duration.
• Follow-up information.
• Document type, issuer, issue date, and expiry date.
• Vaccination and health-check information.

These fields are feature-dependent and may be required or optional according to the form being completed. Pet health information concerns the pet, not the human user's medical record.

PetLife can also let a user select a medical document from the Android system document picker. Private medical documents that are not explicitly uploaded remain referenced locally on the device through the system-selected URI and local app storage. PetLife does not request broad device storage access for this purpose.

D. Veterinary appointments and professional care

When requesting or managing an appointment, PetLife may process:

• Owner and pet identifiers and names.
• Provider/professional identifier and name.
• Clinic name.
• Appointment type, date, time, slot, and duration.
• Reason for the appointment.
• Appointment status.
• Provider notes when entered.
• Related conversation identifier and messages.

The pet, provider/slot, and appointment request details are required when that appointment feature is used. Free-text reasons and provider notes are collected when the user or provider enters them.

E. Professional profile and verification information

Users who create a professional workspace may provide information used to present and verify that workspace. Depending on the professional role, fields may include:

• Professional/contact display name.
• Business or clinic name.
• Phone number.
• Business type.
• Qualification.
• Issuing authority.
• Professional licence or registration number and expiry date.
• Years of experience.
• Address, city, and country.
• Exact business/clinic map location.
• Opening hours.
• Supported pet species.
• Specialties and services.
• Consultation fee and currency.
• Biography.

Verification evidence may include uploaded images and metadata for identity documents, degrees, professional licences, business or clinic registrations, shop licences, address proof, and other evidence selected by the user. Verification submissions are used for admin review, trust, fraud prevention, and professional status decisions. Verification documents are not intended for public display.

F. Messages and shared locations

PetLife stores private conversation records and messages between authorized participants. This may include:

• Participant account identifiers.
• Conversation context, such as an appointment, order, pet listing, service booking, professional contact, adoption application, or pet-social conversation.
• Message text.
• Sender identifier.
• Read status and timestamps.

If a user chooses Share location in a private conversation, the selected latitude/longitude and the associated location message are shared with the participants in that conversation. PetLife does not automatically expose a pet owner's private exact pet location to other users.

For professional conversations, a verified clinic or business location may be displayed when it is relevant to the conversation.

G. Marketplace products, cart, Cash on Delivery, and orders

When using product shopping, PetLife may process:

• Product identifiers, product name, category, description, compatible pet types, price, stock, product image, seller/shop identity, and seller verification state.
• Cart product and quantity selections.
• Favourite product selections.
• Delivery-zone name/city, delivery fee, and minimum order values configured by sellers.

For Cash on Delivery checkout, required when used:

• Receiver/buyer name.
• Phone number.
• Delivery address.
• Selected seller delivery zone when a zone is required.
• Products, quantities, item price, totals, and delivery fee.

Optional at checkout:

• Delivery/order notes.

Order records may include order status, seller and buyer identifiers, shipment grouping, conversation identifiers, timestamps, and stock-adjustment status.

PetLife does not provide card entry or online card processing in this release. It does not ask for or store full payment-card numbers, CVV/CVC, card PINs, online-banking passwords, or raw banking credentials. Physical-product orders use Cash on Delivery and non-sensitive order/payment status information.

H. Pet Sale, Rehome, and Adoption listings

A pet owner or authorized shelter/rescue can create a live-animal marketplace listing separate from the normal product cart. Depending on the listing type, PetLife may process:

• Seller and pet identifiers.
• Pet name, species, breed, sex, and age label.
• City.
• A public meeting/handover point label and precise latitude/longitude deliberately selected for the listing.
• Sale price or rehome fee when applicable.
• Sale, Rehome, or Adoption intent.
• Listing description.
• Vaccination, recent-health-check, and pedigree-availability indicators.
• Pet image.
• Listing status and timestamps.

City, a public handover map pin, and a description are required to publish a listing. A positive price/fee is required for Sale or Rehome when the listing flow requires one; Adoption can use a zero price. Health and pedigree indicators are optional user declarations.

The public handover point is intentionally visible to signed-in marketplace users. Users should choose a safe public meeting location rather than a private home address unless they intentionally want that exact point disclosed.

Pet ownership transfer is a separate protected workflow. Records can include current owner, new owner, pet/listing identifiers, price or fee where applicable, status, conversation reference, and timestamps.

I. Pet services and service bookings

Service providers can publish supported services. Service data may include provider identity, service type/title/description, supported pet types, price, pricing unit, duration, city, at-home/provider-location availability, verification state, and availability slots.

A service booking can include:

• Owner, provider, pet, and service identifiers and names.
• Requested date/time or date range.
• Price.
• Optional special instructions.
• Optional feeding instructions.
• Optional medication instructions.
• Optional pickup requirement.
• Booking status, provider notes, and related conversation.

J. Adoption and breeding workflows

If used, adoption applications can include home type, housing status, landlord approval, number of adults/children, current pets, pet experience, hours a pet may be alone, fenced-yard status, optional veterinary reference, reason for applying, responsible-care confirmation, visit date/time/location, application status, and conversation records.

If used, responsible-breeding features can include pet/breeder identifiers, city, registry and registration information, pedigree number, health summary, stud fee, health-test name/result/provider/date/notes, breeding-request messages and status, pedigree parent information, pregnancy/due-date notes, litter information, offspring sex/color/birth weight, and related status records.

K. Community and social information

If you use community features, information can include:

• Public/discoverable pet-profile information and pet thumbnails.
• Pet gallery photos and captions.
• Pet journey entries and captions.
• Follow relationships.
• Group names, descriptions, city, and species focus.
• Playdate city/area, schedule, note, participating pet, and guest limit.
• Community-event title, description, city, venue, date/time, species focus, and RSVP information.
• Pet-friendly place name, category, city, address, and notes.

Information intentionally published to a community/public feature can be visible to other signed-in users according to that feature's design and privacy controls.

L. Safety, emergency identity, reports, and Care Circle

Safety tools can process:

• Lost-pet reports: pet identity, thumbnail, last-seen area/date/time, chosen contact method, and optional note.
• Found-pet reports: species, description, image, found area/date/time, and chosen contact method.
• QR Pet ID: selected emergency-safe pet information, emergency contact, and note.
• Care Circle: owner/caretaker identifiers, invite code, allowed permissions, feeding instructions, medication instructions, emergency contact, expiry, and care notes.
• User blocks.
• Reports about users, conversations, products, pet listings, professional profiles, community content, or other supported targets, including report reason/details and moderation status.
• Safety/admin notifications and audit events used for moderation and trust operations.

3. Device permissions and information accessed

PetLife requests only permissions used by implemented features:

• Internet and network-state access: required for Firebase authentication/synchronization, online map tiles/search, and other cloud-connected app functions.
• Approximate and precise location: optional. Requested when the user chooses a location feature, such as Use my current location. A user can instead select a location manually on the map. PetLife does not require continuous background location permission.
• Notifications: optional on supported Android versions. Used for reminders and app/admin attention notifications when enabled and permitted.

PetLife does not declare camera permission, microphone permission, or broad storage permission in this build. Photos and documents are selected through Android's system picker when the user chooses to add them.

4. Automatically collected technical and analytics information

PetLife includes Firebase Authentication, Cloud Firestore, and Google Analytics for Firebase.

Firebase Authentication may automatically process technical information such as IP address, authentication user-agent information, Firebase application identifiers, and a Firebase user identifier for account security, authentication, abuse prevention, and service operation.

Firebase components may process device/app metadata such as operating-system version, device model/brand/form factor, Firebase SDK/version information, installation metadata, and a Firebase installation identifier used to operate Firebase services.

Google Analytics for Firebase may automatically collect app-usage and behavior information such as app events, session/engagement information, app/device information, and automatically collected user properties or pseudonymous identifiers. PetLife does not include a third-party advertising SDK and does not display ads in this release. Analytics collection is used to understand app usage, stability, and product performance; it is not a substitute for the user-facing data described above.

5. Maps and place search

PetLife uses OpenStreetMap-based map tiles and Nominatim place search. When the map is opened, map tile requests are sent over the internet for the visible map area. When the user explicitly performs a place/address search, the search text is sent to the Nominatim service to return matching locations. Standard network information such as IP address can be visible to those services as part of an internet request.

If the user chooses to open a location in an external map application, Android passes the selected coordinates/label to the external map app chosen by the user. That external app handles data under its own privacy terms.

6. How PetLife uses information

PetLife uses information to:

• Create, authenticate, secure, and manage accounts.
• Maintain pet profiles, health/passport information, reminders, photos, and life-history features.
• Sync supported data across signed-in devices.
• Provide veterinary discovery, appointments, professional workspaces, verification, and service bookings.
• Provide private messaging and user-controlled location sharing.
• Operate product marketplace, cart, Cash on Delivery orders, delivery zones, pet listings, adoption/rehome/sale flows, and ownership-transfer records.
• Provide Discover, community, playdate, event, place, safety, lost/found, QR Pet ID, Care Circle, report, and blocking features.
• Review professional credentials and moderate user-generated content.
• Prevent abuse, investigate reports, protect transaction integrity, and maintain audit records.
• Deliver optional notifications and reminders.
• Understand app usage and improve reliability through analytics.

7. Where information is stored

Cloud data:

• Firebase Authentication stores account-authentication data.
• Cloud Firestore stores synchronized app records and supported image bytes used by the app.
• PetLife does not use Firebase Storage in this build.

Device-local data:

• Android DataStore is used for local app state such as onboarding state, owner/profile details, selected pet, pet/health/timeline snapshots, account/workspace state, preferences, and migration/continuity data.
• System-selected document URIs may be retained locally so PetLife can reopen a document the user selected, subject to Android permissions.
• Temporary caches may exist as part of normal Android/Firebase operation.

Cloud Firestore requests made while signed in include the Firebase user identifier needed to authorize account-specific data.

8. When information is shared

PetLife does not sell personal information.

Information can be shared in the following limited ways:

• With Google/Firebase service providers that provide authentication, database, analytics, identity, and related infrastructure used by PetLife.
• With OpenStreetMap/Nominatim when the user loads map tiles or explicitly performs a place search, as described above.
• With other PetLife users when the user intentionally publishes content to Discover, Marketplace, community, lost/found, public-professional, or similar shared features.
• With the participants in a private conversation, appointment, service booking, order, adoption/rehome/sale interaction, or other multi-party workflow when the information is necessary for that interaction.
• With PetLife admins/reviewers for professional verification, safety reports, moderation, and trust/audit functions.
• With an external map application when the user deliberately opens a location outside PetLife.
• When required to comply with applicable law, legal process, protect safety, investigate fraud/abuse, or enforce platform rules.

Private account data is not made public merely because it exists in PetLife. Public or participant-visible information is controlled by the specific feature and the user's action.

9. Data retention

PetLife generally retains cloud data while the account or the relevant record remains active and as needed to provide the feature.

Users can delete or replace many owner-controlled records from their relevant app screens. Device-local app data can also be removed by clearing app data or uninstalling PetLife, but uninstalling alone does not delete the Firebase account or cloud records.

When a PetLife account is deleted through the in-app account deletion flow, PetLife removes owner-controlled data that can safely be deleted before deleting the Firebase Authentication account. This includes core pet and health data, deletable images, public/community content, cart/favourites, active seller content, QR/safety records, and private preferences handled by the deletion workflow.

Some multi-party transaction, trust, moderation, or audit records may be retained when necessary for safety, fraud prevention, dispute resolution, accounting, legal obligations, or the integrity of records involving another user. Examples can include completed orders, appointments, completed ownership transfers, reviews, moderation records, and admin audit history. Retained records are limited to the purpose requiring retention and are not kept merely to continue ordinary use of a deleted account.

Analytics or infrastructure information may follow the retention and deletion controls of the relevant Firebase/Google service and may include aggregated or pseudonymous information that is not stored as an ordinary PetLife profile record.

10. Account and data deletion

PetLife provides an in-app account deletion path under the account/settings experience. The app asks for confirmation before the irreversible deletion process begins.

PetLife's Google Play listing should also provide the external account-deletion request resource required for apps that allow account creation. An external deletion request is intended for users who cannot access the in-app deletion option.

Deleting an account is different from signing out or uninstalling the app. Signing out stops the current signed-in session. Uninstalling removes local app data from that device. Account deletion initiates removal of the Firebase account and deletable associated PetLife cloud data, subject to the limited retention described above.

11. User choices and controls

Depending on the feature, users can:

• Choose whether a pet is discoverable.
• Choose a general location label without publishing a precise home location.
• Choose whether to save or share an exact location.
• Choose a safe public handover pin for a marketplace pet listing.
• Choose which photos/documents to select through the Android system picker.
• Choose what community/listing content to publish.
• Control Care Circle permissions and revoke/expire access.
• Block users and report content.
• Enable or disable supported app preferences such as care reminders, message notifications, market recommendations, and nearby discovery.
• Deny or revoke Android location and notification permissions in device settings.
• Delete the PetLife account and deletable associated data.

12. Security

PetLife uses Firebase Authentication and Firestore access controls to restrict cloud data according to account and feature permissions. Firebase network traffic uses encrypted HTTPS transport. PetLife also limits Android permissions and uses system pickers for user-selected files rather than requesting broad media/storage access.

No internet or software system can be guaranteed completely secure. Users should protect their device and account credentials, avoid sharing passwords, and avoid posting private home addresses or sensitive documents in public fields.

13. Children's privacy

PetLife is a general pet-care platform and is not designed to intentionally solicit personal information from children who cannot legally consent to data processing in their jurisdiction. Where parental or guardian consent is required, a parent or guardian should supervise use of the app and account. If information is believed to have been submitted by a child without required authorization, a deletion request can be made through the available account/privacy support mechanism.

14. Changes to this policy

This policy may be updated when PetLife's features, service providers, permissions, legal requirements, or data practices change. The effective date at the top of the policy should be updated when material changes are published. The privacy policy shown to users and the Google Play Data safety disclosures should remain consistent with the production version of the app.

15. Privacy questions and requests

For privacy-related questions, access requests, correction requests, or deletion questions, use the developer support/contact mechanism shown for PetLife on Google Play. Do not send passwords, full payment credentials, or unnecessary identity/medical documents through ordinary support messages.