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Privacy Notice

How we handle personal data

This notice explains how DogSphere uses personal data when you browse the service, create an account, contribute information, or choose optional features.

1. Who is responsible for your data

The responsible service operator and privacy contact have not yet been configured for this deployment. This notice is not a complete production notice until the operator supplies those factual details.

2. Personal data we collect

What we collect depends on how you use the service. It can include:

  • Account and profile data: email address, password (stored in protected form), optional display name, public-profile choice, biography, country domain, account timestamps, and marketing preference.
  • Private dog-care data: dog profile details, optional microchip ID, weight entries, vaccination records, reminders, and notes. These records are private to the account owner in normal service operation.
  • Places and community data: saved places, recent views and comparisons, reviews, ratings, photos, business claims, correction reports, suggested places, evidence, and any name, email address, or free-text information you submit.
  • Alerts and notifications: the places you ask us to watch for seasonal restriction changes, your chosen notice period, whether you want notices when a saved place changes, the last recorded dog-access details of each saved place (so we can spot a change), and the in-app notifications we generate for you, including whether you have read them.
  • Location and search data: your location only when you choose to share it with the browser, place-search coordinates, typed search terms, and the preferences you choose in breed-matching tools.
  • Technical and security data: device/browser information, IP-derived security signals, form timing and honeypot data, and—when enabled—a Turnstile verification token.
  • Usage analytics (optional): only if you allow optional analytics — the addresses of pages you view (on search pages these include your search words and any area or rounded map point you chose), how you arrived, device and browser type, approximate location, and product events such as saves and direction clicks. Separately, searches that return no results are counted on our own servers as the search phrase and country only, with no account, IP address, or device identifier attached, so we can see which places to add next.
  • Newsletter data: email address, subscription source, country domain, and subscription status when you choose to join a mailing list.

3. Why we use personal data

  • To provide accounts, saved places, dog profiles, reminders, and the other features you request.
  • To publish and moderate reliable community contributions, resolve claims, and protect the quality of place information.
  • To keep the service secure, prevent spam and abuse, troubleshoot problems, and enforce our terms.
  • To communicate with you about an account, contribution, or newsletter you have requested.
  • With your optional choice, to understand aggregate site use and, where enabled, to support advertising.
  • To comply with applicable law and protect the rights, safety, and integrity of our users and service.

Where required by law, we rely on the performance of a contract with you, our legitimate interests in operating a safe and useful service, your consent for optional technologies and marketing, and legal obligations. You may withdraw consent at any time through Your Privacy Choices.

4. What may be public

If a review, photo, or contribution is accepted and published, its content, rating, optional author name, credit, and an opted-in public contributor profile can be visible to anyone. Please do not put personal, confidential, or sensitive information into public reviews, photo captions, evidence, or free-text submissions. We may retain moderation history and limited audit information to protect the integrity of community content.

5. Who may receive data

We use service providers only as needed to run the service. Depending on what you use and what is enabled, recipients can include:

  • hosting, database, security, backup, and support providers;
  • Cloudflare Turnstile for anti-bot checks when it is configured;
  • Google, as the provider of Google Analytics 4, only when you allow optional analytics — it receives the pages you view (including their address), device and browser details, and your IP address, from which it derives an approximate location. We do not send it your name, email address, dog details, or the text of your reviews and contributions. See how Google uses information from sites or apps that use its services;
  • Plausible Analytics (cookieless) when it is configured and you allow optional analytics;
  • OpenStreetMap tile services, third-party image hosts, and Google Maps when you choose to use linked map or image features; and
  • Google and its advertising technology partners if Google AdSense is enabled and the required advertising consent signals are available.

Our current deployment-specific provider list is published in the Subprocessor Register. We may also disclose data where required by law, to respond to valid legal process, or to protect people, property, and the service. Providers may process information outside your country; where required, we use appropriate transfer mechanisms and safeguards.

6. Retention and deletion

We keep personal data for as long as necessary to provide the service, resolve disputes, meet legal obligations, and maintain reliable moderation and security records. Account-linked recent place views are cleared after 90 days of inactivity; browser-only recent views use the same 90-day limit. In-app notifications are deleted 180 days after they are created, whether or not they have been read. Comparison choices remain until you clear them. The currently implemented controls and any operator-approved retention periods are published in our Data Retention Schedule.

Signed-in account holders can download a copy of account data and delete their account from the account area. Deleting an account or requesting deletion may not erase already-published content, legally required records, immutable audit trails, or backup copies immediately; where appropriate, we will delete, de-identify, or restrict them.

7. Children

The service is not directed to children under 13. Do not create an account or submit personal data for a child unless a parent or guardian has reviewed the request and applicable law permits it. Contact us if you believe a child has provided personal data without appropriate permission.

8. Your rights and choices

Depending on where you live, you may have rights to access, correct, delete, restrict, object to, or receive a portable copy of personal data, and to withdraw consent. Residents of certain US states may also have rights to know, delete, correct, and opt out of covered sale, sharing, or targeted advertising. See Your Privacy Choices for how to use these controls or make a request.

9. Changes to this notice

We may update this notice as the service or legal requirements change. We will publish the updated version here and change the “Last updated” date. Material changes may also be highlighted through the service where appropriate.