This Privacy Policy explains how Canine Konnect (“we,” “our,” “us”) collects, uses, shares, and protects your personal data when you use our website, mobile apps, and services (the “Service”). We are committed to transparency and to complying with the UK GDPR, EU GDPR, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), and the privacy requirements of the Apple App Store and Google Play.
1. Data Controller
The data controller for personal data processed through the Service is Canine Konnect. To contact us about privacy matters email privacy@konnect-canine.com.
2. Data We Collect
| Category | Examples |
|---|---|
| Account data | Name, email, password hash, profile picture, bio, role (user / professional / admin). |
| Google OAuth | Google account email, display name, avatar (only with your consent). |
| Content | Questions, answers, comments, event listings, messages, uploaded images. |
| AI inputs | Images you upload for breed detection and prompts you send to the AI assistant. |
| Location (events) | City, country, and optional latitude/longitude for events you create or attend. |
| Financial | Stripe customer ID, subscription status, transaction metadata. We do not store full card numbers — Stripe handles payment details. |
| Device & usage | IP address, device model, OS, app version, crash logs, push notification token (Expo), advertising ID (mobile only, for AdMob). |
| Verification (optional) | Credential documents you submit to apply for a verified vet / trainer / behaviourist badge. |
3. How We Use Your Data
- Provide, maintain, and improve the Service.
- Authenticate you and secure your account.
- Process payments and manage subscriptions (Stripe).
- Send transactional emails — email verification, password reset, subscription receipts (Resend).
- Send push notifications you have opted in to (Expo).
- Power AI features — dog breed detection and the AI chat assistant.
- Display and personalise non-tracking ads on the free mobile tier (AdMob).
- Detect, investigate, and prevent fraud, abuse, spam, and security incidents.
- Comply with legal obligations and enforce our Terms.
- Analytics to understand platform usage and build features — always in aggregate where possible.
4. Lawful Basis for Processing (UK/EU GDPR)
- Contract — to provide the Service you signed up for (account, subscriptions, bookings).
- Legitimate interests — security, fraud prevention, product improvement, and non-intrusive analytics.
- Consent — marketing emails, push notifications, precise event location sharing, and personalised mobile ads. You can withdraw consent at any time.
- Legal obligation — tax, accounting, and responding to lawful requests.
5. How We Share Your Data
We share personal data only with trusted service providers acting as data processors on our behalf:
- Stripe, Inc. — payment processing, subscription management, customer portal.
- Google LLC — Sign-in with Google, AdMob (mobile).
- OpenAI LLC (via Emergent LLM) — AI breed detection and AI chat assistant inference.
- Resend, Inc. — transactional email delivery.
- Expo (608 Northwest, Inc.) — push notifications.
- MongoDB Atlas — encrypted database hosting.
We do not sell your personal data. We may disclose data when required by law, to protect our rights, to prevent fraud, or in connection with a corporate transaction (merger, acquisition, insolvency) — in which case we will notify you.
6. International Transfers
Some of our processors are based outside the UK/EU. Where data is transferred internationally we rely on appropriate safeguards such as Standard Contractual Clauses and the UK International Data Transfer Addendum.
7. Data Retention
- Account data: for as long as your account is active, and up to 30 days after deletion.
- Content (questions, answers, events): kept for the life of the platform unless you delete it.
- Payment & subscription records: retained for 7 years to meet tax/accounting obligations.
- AI inputs: images and prompts may be retained by our AI provider for a short period (typically up to 30 days) for abuse prevention, then deleted.
- Backups: rotated and purged within 35 days.
8. Your Rights
Depending on your location you have the right to:
- Access — request a copy of your personal data.
- Rectify — correct inaccurate data.
- Erase — delete your account and personal data (“right to be forgotten”).
- Restrict / object — stop certain types of processing.
- Portability — receive your data in a machine-readable format.
- Withdraw consent — for any processing based on consent.
- Lodge a complaint — with your supervisory authority (UK: the Information Commissioner's Office — ico.org.uk).
To exercise any right, email privacy@konnect-canine.com. We respond within 30 days. You can also download a copy of your data instantly from your Settings page.
9. Cookies & Similar Technologies
We use a small number of cookies and local storage items, grouped as follows:
- Strictly necessary — authentication token, CSRF protection, language preference. These are always active; the Service cannot function without them.
- Functional — theme preference (dark/light), UI state.
- Analytics (aggregate) — we may track pseudonymous page views to improve the product.
On your first visit we show a consent banner. You can change your choices any time by clearing site data in your browser or by emailing us.
10. Mobile Advertising (Google AdMob & Advertising ID)
The free tier of our mobile app shows banner advertisements served by Google AdMob (a service provided by Google Ireland Limited / Google LLC). To run these ads, AdMob automatically reads your device's advertising identifier:
- Android: Google Advertising ID (GAID / AAID)
- iOS: Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA)
What we use the Advertising ID for:
- Advertising — to show you contextual (non-personalised) banner ads in the free tier so we can keep the app free.
- Analytics — frequency capping (so the same ad doesn't repeat), counting unique impressions for revenue reporting, and measuring ad performance.
- Fraud & abuse prevention — detecting click-fraud, bot traffic, and policy violations on Google's ad network.
What we do NOT do:
- We do not request personalised ads. Our app explicitly sets
requestNonPersonalizedAdsOnly: trueon every ad request, which means AdMob is instructed not to use your data to build a behavioural profile or serve ads based on your interests. - We do not sell, rent, or share the Advertising ID with any third party other than Google, who is bound by their own AdMob privacy policy.
- We do not show advertisements at all to verified Pro subscribers.
Your choices: you can reset or limit your Advertising ID at any time:
- Android: Settings → Privacy → Ads → Delete advertising ID or Opt out of ads personalisation.
- iOS: Settings → Privacy & Security → Tracking → toggle Allow Apps to Request to Track off, and Settings → Privacy & Security → Apple Advertising → toggle Personalised Ads off.
- Subscribe to Canine Konnect Pro — verified subscribers see no ads at all.
More info on how Google uses the Advertising ID: Google Play Console — Advertising ID policy.
11. Children's Privacy
The Service is not intended for children under 16. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children. If you believe a child has provided us with personal data, contact us so we can delete it.
12. Security
We use industry-standard safeguards including TLS encryption in transit, bcrypt-hashed passwords, encrypted database storage, principle-of-least-privilege access, and regular dependency scanning. No system is perfectly secure; please use a strong unique password and notify us promptly if you suspect unauthorised access.
13. Changes to This Policy
If we make material changes we will notify you by email or in-app notice before the change takes effect. The “Last updated” date at the top of this page always reflects the current version.
14. Contact
Privacy questions or rights requests? privacy@konnect-canine.com
See also our Terms of Service.