PetCompanion — Privacy Policy
PetCompanion helps you track your pets: profiles, medical records (vaccines, medicines, vet visits, weight), recurring care tasks, and reminders. This policy explains what data the app handles, where it is stored, and the choices you have.
1. Who is responsible
The app is developed and operated by Jérémy Falck (individual developer).
Contact for any privacy question or request: falckapps@proton.me
2. Data stored on your device
When you use PetCompanion without an account, the following is stored only in the app's local storage on your device and is not transmitted to us or anyone else:
- Pet profiles — name, species, breed, sex, date of birth, identification/microchip details, notes, and any photo you add.
- Medical records — vaccinations, medicines/treatments, veterinary consultations, weight and growth history.
- Care tasks — grooming, feeding and other recurring tasks, with their schedules.
- App settings — theme, language, reminder preferences.
Pet photos are stored in the app's private storage on your device. Without an account they are never uploaded. If you enable Premium, each pet's profile photo is also backed up and synced (see section 3).
Uninstalling the app permanently deletes all of this local data.
3. Optional account and cloud sync (Premium)
PetCompanion Premium is an optional paid feature. If you choose to use it, you can sign in with a Google account. This enables:
- Authentication — Google Sign-In via Firebase Authentication. We receive and store your Google account email address, display name, and a Firebase user identifier (UID).
- Cloud sync — your pet profiles, medical records and care tasks (the data listed in section 2) are copied to Google Cloud Firestore so they can be restored and kept in sync across your devices.
- Pet photos — each pet's profile photo is uploaded to Google Cloud Storage (Firebase) so it syncs across your devices and is visible to anyone you share the pet with. These files are held in a Google Cloud Storage bucket located in the United States. Photos are only uploaded while Premium is active; a photo added by a non-Premium co-manager stays on their device only.
- Pet sharing — you can invite another person to co-manage a pet by entering their email address. That email address is stored in an invitation record until the invite is accepted or revoked. Once accepted, that person can view and edit the shared pet's data, and their name may be shown to other members as the last editor of a record.
Your device's local database remains the source of truth; the cloud copy is a backup/sync mirror. If you never enable Premium and never sign in, no pet data leaves your device.
4. Analytics and crash reporting
On Android, the app uses Google Firebase to help us understand usage and fix crashes:
- Firebase Analytics — aggregate, non-identifying usage events (for example, which screens are opened) and coarse device information (device model, OS version, app version, language, a randomly-generated app-instance identifier).
- Firebase Crashlytics — crash and error diagnostics (stack traces, device state at the time of a crash, app version).
This data is not used to identify you personally and is not combined with your pet data. The current iOS build does not include analytics or crash reporting.
5. Purchases
Premium subscriptions and purchases are processed by the platform store — Google Play Billing or the Apple App Store — and by RevenueCat, which manages subscription status on our behalf. We receive your entitlement status (whether Premium is active) and an anonymous purchaser identifier. We never receive or store your payment card or bank details.
6. Device permissions
| Permission | Why |
|---|---|
| Notifications | To show local reminders for vaccines, medicine doses and care tasks. Reminders are scheduled on your device; no reminder content is sent to a server. |
| Exact alarms / scheduling (Android) | To fire reminders at the specific time you set. |
| Run after restart (Android) | To re-schedule your pending reminders after the device reboots. |
| Photos / files access | Only through the system picker, so you can attach a photo or document to a pet. The app does not scan your gallery. |
7. Legal bases (EEA/UK users)
- Contract — providing the app's core features, and providing sync/sharing and purchases when you enable Premium.
- Legitimate interests — keeping the app stable and secure (crash reporting) and understanding aggregate usage (analytics).
- Consent — where required by local law for analytics; you can also opt out (section 9).
8. Data retention
- Local data is kept until you delete it in the app or uninstall the app.
- Cloud data (Premium), including uploaded pet photos, is kept while your account exists and is synced from at least one device. Deleting a pet in the app removes its synced records; its photo file is also removed from cloud storage.
- Analytics data is retained according to Firebase's default retention settings; Crashlytics diagnostics are retained up to 90 days.
- Pet-sharing invitations are kept until accepted or revoked.
9. Your choices and rights
- Use the app without an account — the default. No pet data leaves your device.
- Access / export — your data is visible in the app; contact us for a copy of any cloud-stored data.
- Correction / deletion — edit or delete any record in the app. Deleting a record also removes it from cloud sync for Premium users.
- Leave a shared pet — removes you from that pet's member list and deletes the local copy on your device.
- Delete your account — use "Delete account" in the app's Account screen. This unlinks your Google sign-in and removes you from pets shared with you.
Because the app has no server-side cleanup functions, documents for pets you own, their uploaded photos, and a minimal user record may remain in Firestore and Cloud Storage after in-app deletion. Email falckapps@proton.me and we will delete them manually.
- Opt out of analytics — email us and we will disable analytics collection for your app instance, or reinstall after clearing app data to reset the analytics identifier. You can also limit ad/analytics identifiers in your device settings.
- Notifications — turn reminders off in the app or in your device's notification settings.
- EEA/UK/California residents may have additional rights (objection, restriction, portability, non-discrimination). Contact us to exercise them. You may also complain to your local data protection authority.
10. Data security
Data transmitted for Premium sync travels over encrypted connections (HTTPS/TLS). Access to cloud data is restricted by Firebase Authentication and Firestore security rules so that only members of a pet can read or write its records. Local data is held in the app's private storage area. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security.
11. Children
PetCompanion is not directed to children under 13 (or under the minimum age of digital consent in your country), and we do not knowingly collect personal data from them.
12. International transfers
Our third-party providers (Google, RevenueCat, Apple) may process data on servers located outside your
country, including in the United States, under their respective safeguards. In particular, Premium cloud data
is stored in Google Cloud Firestore (multi-region eur3, in the European Union) and pet photos are
stored in a Google Cloud Storage bucket in the United States.
13. Third-party services
- Google Firebase (Authentication, Cloud Firestore, Cloud Storage, Analytics, Crashlytics) — Firebase privacy, Google Privacy Policy
- RevenueCat — revenuecat.com/privacy
- Google Play Billing — Google Privacy Policy
- Apple App Store — apple.com/legal/privacy
14. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy as the app evolves. Material changes will be reflected by the "Last updated" date above and, where appropriate, noted in the app or the store listing.
15. Contact
Questions or requests: falckapps@proton.me