Privacy Policy

1. What we collect

• Account: your email address and a password. Sign-in is handled by Supabase Auth; your password is stored only in encrypted form by our provider and is never readable by us.
• Profile: your display name, account type (pet or owner), species and breed, status, and an optional ZIP code. Your ZIP code itself is kept in your private account data and is never shown to other members. Your age is private too, unless you publish a Mate Match for people card (see Dating profile below).
• Pet details: the names, species, breeds, ages, health notes and descriptions you choose to add for your animals.
• Photos and videos (optional): anything you post to a feed, attach to a listing, or set as an avatar. These are stored in Supabase Storage and are reachable by their URL once posted, so only upload what you are happy to share.
• Content: your posts, comments, likes, groups, favorites, marketplace listings and breeding (Mate Match) listings.
• Dating profile (optional, Owner accounts, 18+): if you use Mate Match for people, you give your age, your gender, who you are interested in (men, women or everyone), the age range you are looking for, whether they should have a pet, a search radius and an optional one-line bio. Saving it publishes your card: your first name, age, gender, who you are interested in, the age range you want, your bio, the kinds of pets you have, whether you are ID-verified, and your town with a point rounded to about 1 km. While your card is published it is visible to other signed-in members — it is what people browsing Mate Match for people see — so only add what you are comfortable sharing. Your ZIP code, email and exact location are never on the card. To take your card down, email support@petfi.pet and we will delete it, or delete your account, which removes it with everything else.
• Recent searches: the last 5 things you searched for in the app are saved with your private account data, so they follow you to your other devices. They are never shown to other members.
• Messages: messages between you and other members are stored so they can be delivered and read.
• Care data: reminders, calendar entries and your pets' health records — meds and prescriptions, vaccines, vet visits, weight, symptom journal entries, vet and microchip details, supplies and any spending you log. These are private to you and are never shown to other members unless you share a health passport. Petfi is not a veterinarian or a pharmacy and does not send this information to one.
• Health passport links (optional): when you share a pet's health passport, the parts you choose (for example vaccines, medications, allergies, your vet's name and number, and an emergency phone number) are stored with the link. Anyone who has the link can see them until the link expires or you turn it off in the app.
• Pet ID tags and lost mode (optional): anyone who scans your pet's Petfi tag sees the pet's name, species, breed, the note you add and — only if you add one — a phone number. If you mark a pet lost, the area you describe, a point for the ZIP code you give (rounded to about 1 km), the date and any reward are shown on the tag page and to members within 25 miles, who may receive one alert. When a finder writes to you through the tag page, we store their message, any contact details they choose to leave and — only if they tick the box — the location of their phone at that moment, and only you can read them.
• Notifications (optional): if you allow alerts, we store your device's push address so care reminders, refill and vaccine alerts, messages from finders, and the social alerts you leave on (messages, friend requests, comments, likes, Mate Match) can reach you while the app is closed. An alert shows the sender's name and, for a message or comment, the start of what they wrote.
• Care team (optional): if you invite someone to a pet's care team, they see that pet's name, breed and age, medications and dosing, vaccines, food, allergies, conditions, microchip and vet, and everyone on the team sees what each person logs (fed, walked, meds given, notes) with their name and the time. Your other records, reminders and calendar stay private. Anyone can leave a team, and the owner can stop sharing at any time, which deletes the shared log.
• AI avatar (optional, included with ID verification): the photo you choose — of your pet, or a selfie — is sent to Google's Gemini AI to draw a cartoon avatar. Petfi does not keep that photo or use it to identify you. The cartoon is saved as your profile picture, which other members can see. Google processes the photo under its API terms.
• Selling (optional, ID-verified members): a listing shows the contact phone or email you add to it, and your name, to signed-in members. Petfi keeps a record of your ID verification and of your agreement to the Seller & Service Provider Terms.
• Usage counts: we record which steps of Petfi are used — for example "opened the app", "reached the ZIP screen", "made a tag" — with a random ID for your device, the link you arrived from (such as a tag page) and, if you are signed in, your account. We never record what you write. These counts stay in Petfi's own database; we use no third-party analytics or advertising trackers.
• Approximate location (optional): if you give a ZIP code, we convert it to a coordinate and store it rounded to about 1 km — town level, never a street address. That rounded point is what powers the Local feed, nearby places, distance on breeding listings, Mate Match, and the list of members near you. It is stored privately; other members see only your town and an approximate distance in whole miles.
• Device location (only at the moment you use it): Mark Your Territory asks your browser for your GPS position solely to confirm you are standing at the park you are claiming. We record which park you marked, not your position — the coordinates themselves are not stored. If you add a new spot to the map, the spot is saved with a pin rounded to about 100 m and with your account; the map does not show who added it.
• ID verification (optional, Pet and Owner accounts): if you get the trust badge (a one-time $3, or a free verification code from Petfi), the payment is taken by Google Play (inside the Android app) or by Stripe (on petfi.pet), and the check itself runs on Stripe Identity's own pages, where you photograph a government ID and take a selfie. Those images and the details read from the document are collected and held by Stripe, not Petfi. Petfi stores only the fact of payment, a reference to the Stripe session, and the outcome: passed, failed (with Stripe's reason code) or refunded. We never receive or store your ID number, address or the photos. Stripe does tell us whether the document shows you are 18 or older, because Petfi is adults only — an account whose ID shows under 18 is closed rather than verified.
• Gifts to the Petfi Pledge fund (optional): if you give, the payment is taken by Google Play (inside the Android app) or by Stripe (on petfi.pet); Petfi never sees your card. We store the amount, the date, which of the two took the payment, and its reference id, against your account — that is how we know who has given the most when a member asks the fund for help. Totals shown in the app are counts and sums only; no member is named as a giver, and if a gift from the fund pays one of your bills it is listed on the public ledger by what it paid for, never by your name. A monthly gift ($1 to $1,000 a month) is a Stripe subscription started on petfi.pet; you can cancel it at any time on the Pledge page, and deleting your account cancels it first.
• Help requests (Pledge assistance, ID-verified members): if you ask the Pledge fund for help with a vet bill, a cremation or pet food, we store what kind of help, the pet's name, the amount on the bill, who the bill is from and their phone, email or website, your optional note, and the bill itself (a photo or PDF). The bill is kept in a private storage area: only you and Petfi's reviewers can see it. Petfi may contact the provider to confirm the bill, and if we help, we pay the provider directly. A reviewer can delete the bill file once a request is settled; your bills and requests are deleted when you delete your account, and you can ask us to remove a bill sooner at support@petfi.pet. Requests open once the fund reaches its opening goal.
• Spotlight ads (optional, Owner accounts): an ad you buy is stored with its text, photos, business name, the reach and length you chose, the amount paid, which of Google Play or Stripe took the payment and its reference id, and — for a local or statewide ad — the coordinates and state of your ZIP code, so it can be shown to the right members. Everything in the ad except the payment details is public by design.
• Crash and error reports: when something in the app breaks, it sends us a short report: the error message, the technical stack trace, the app version, the page address, your browser's user agent (which browser and device type you use) and your user id if you are signed in. No more than 5 are sent per visit, and only Petfi's admins can read them.

2. How we use it

• To run the app: show your profile to other members (if you are visible), deliver messages, publish posts, display listings.
• To let you share: a profile link or QR code (Me → Share my profile, or Share on another member's profile) opens that profile for anyone who has it, including people without a Petfi account. They see the same public profile members see: name, picture or icon, species or breed, account type, badge and status message. A link you send also carries your member id, so if the person joins from it, Petfi sends you a friend request from them, which you can accept or ignore.
• To show you what is nearby: the Local feed, dog parks, vets, groomers and pet stores around your ZIP code, and distance to breeding listings or — if you opt in — to other Mate Match members.
• To keep the community safe: reviewing reports, removing content that breaks the rules, and suspending accounts. If you block someone, the block is stored with your account so it holds on every device: they can no longer message you, send you a friend request or see your profile.
• To fix problems and improve the app, including reading the crash and error reports the app sends us.

We do not sell your personal data. Petfi carries no advertising networks and embeds no third-party ad or analytics trackers.

3. Who else sees your data

• Supabase — hosts our database, login and photo/video storage. Data is held on servers in the United States.
• Amazon Associates — some products in the Pet Store are affiliate links to outside retailers. Following one takes you to Amazon's own site, where Amazon may set cookies and where Amazon's privacy policy applies. As an Amazon Associate, Petfi earns from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you.
• OpenStreetMap services (Nominatim and Overpass) and Zippopotam.us — receive a ZIP code or coordinate when you look up nearby places or when a ZIP is converted to a location. They never receive your name, email or account.
• Google (Gemini) — receives the photo you choose for an AI avatar, only to draw that avatar.
• Vercel — hosts go.petfi.pet, the share links that show a preview card (a name and picture) when a Petfi link is pasted into a chat. It receives the visit to the link, like any web host.
• Stripe — takes payments on petfi.pet (the $3 trust badge, Spotlight ads, one-time and monthly gifts to the Pledge fund) and runs the ID check (Stripe Identity). Stripe's privacy policy applies to the ID images and selfie you submit on its pages; Petfi only receives the outcome.
• Google Play — takes the same payments when you make them inside the Android app. Google's privacy policy applies to those purchases.

We also disclose information if the law requires it, or where it is necessary to investigate abuse or fraud, or to address a threat to a person's or an animal's safety.

4. Your choices and controls

• Visibility, message privacy (friends only) and notification switches live in Me → Settings.
• You can delete individual posts, photos, messages and listings at any time.
• Giving a ZIP code, sharing device location, posting photos and making an AI avatar are all optional. The app works without them.
• You can block or report any member. Reports are anonymous to the person reported.

5. Deleting your data

You can erase your account and its data yourself: in the app go to Me → Account & security → Delete my account, type DELETE and tap Permanently delete everything, and your profile, posts, comments, likes, messages, groups, marketplace and breeding listings, help requests and uploaded bills, uploaded media and private account data are permanently removed. There is no undo. If you have a monthly gift, it is cancelled first; if that cancellation fails, nothing is deleted and the app tells you so you can try again.

You can also request deletion by emailing support@petfi.pet from the address on the account; we process those requests within 7 days. Full details are on the Delete your Petfi account page.

If you completed an ID check, deleting your account also sends Stripe a redaction request for the ID images, selfie and extracted details it holds from that check; Stripe finishes redaction within about 4 days.

Payment records are the one exception: the record of a gift to the Pledge fund or of a paid Spotlight ad (amount, date, processor reference) is kept for accounting, but it is detached from your account at deletion, so it no longer identifies you. Stripe and Google keep their own records of the payments they processed under their own policies.

Your login is removed with everything else, so the same email address is free to sign up again later.

6. Data retention and security

We keep your data for as long as your account exists. When you delete your account, your content is removed immediately; routine encrypted backups held by our hosting provider age out on their own schedule. Traffic to and from Petfi is encrypted in transit, and database access is restricted by row-level security so members can only read and write the records they are entitled to.

7. Children

Petfi is for adults. You must be 18 or older to have a Petfi account of any kind, Pet or Owner. Petfi is not directed to children, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. The app asks you to confirm your age when you sign up and remembers your answer on your device only. The optional ID check also reads the date of birth on the document: if it shows under 18, the account is closed instead of verified. If we learn that an account belongs to someone under 18, we remove it.

To report an account you believe belongs to someone under 18, email support@petfi.pet with the member name.

8. Changes to this policy

If this policy changes in a meaningful way we will post the update here and in the app. Continuing to use Petfi after an update means you accept the revised policy.

9. Contact

Questions, data requests or privacy concerns: support@petfi.pet.

Last updated: November 12, 2026 · Questions? support@petfi.pet