Privacy Policy

Overview

MyPetDex ("we," "us," or "our") is committed to protecting your privacy. This policy describes how we collect, use, and protect your personal information when you use the MyPetDex platform, including our web app, mobile app, and any related services.

Information We Collect

We collect information you provide when creating an account, including your name, email address, city, state, and pet information (such as breed, age, weight, vaccines, and reminders). We also collect usage data to improve the app experience. If you grant permission, we may access your device camera and photo library solely to let you upload pet profile photos. We collect push notification tokens to send you reminders you have requested.

Waiting list. If you join our waiting list, we collect your name, email address, whether you are a pet owner, shelter or service provider, and your ZIP code if you give it. We use this only to tell you about the MyPetDex launch. You can ask us to remove you at any time at help@mypetdex.app.

If you subscribe to a paid plan, your purchase is made through Apple In-App Purchase and managed by RevenueCat, our subscription management provider. Payment is handled entirely by Apple — we never receive, see, or store your card details. RevenueCat receives your MyPetDex account identifier so that your subscription can be linked to your account. We retain a record of your subscription plan and billing status.

If you use location-based features (such as finding local pet services or animal shelters), we collect your approximate location (city or region level). We do not collect or store your precise GPS coordinates. We do not collect government IDs.

AI Assistant & AI-Generated Content

MyPetDex offers an AI-powered assistant to help you with pet care questions. When you use this feature, your queries and your pet's profile data (such as breed, age, and health notes) are sent to Google (the provider of the Gemini AI model) to generate a response. Google processes this data in accordance with their privacy policy.

AI responses are generated automatically and are for informational purposes only. They are not a substitute for professional veterinary advice. We do not use your AI queries to train AI models. You can stop using AI features at any time, and you may request deletion of your AI interaction history by contacting us.

Nutrition & Recipe Data Sources

Pet recipe nutrition in MyPetDex is calculated by our own code from publicly published veterinary nutrition standards — those figures are not generated by AI. Google Gemini is used only to write the recipe name, description, and cooking instructions around them.

Our nutrition data sources: AAFCO 2023 Nutrient Profiles — the official US standard for pet food nutrition; USDA FoodData Central (public domain) — nutritional breakdown for whole food ingredients; WSAVA Global Nutrition Guidelines — calorie targets using the RER formula (70 × weight in kg^0.75) with life-stage multipliers. USDA As-Fed values are converted to Dry Matter basis to align with AAFCO 2023 targets.

Toxicity Safeguards

MyPetDex maintains a hard-coded blocklist of ingredients toxic to dogs and cats per ASPCA and AVMA guidelines. These include grapes, raisins, onions, garlic, chocolate, xylitol, macadamia nuts, avocado, alcohol, and caffeine. These ingredients are permanently excluded from all recipe suggestions and cannot be selected by users.

User-Generated Content & Moderation

Users, service providers and animal shelters on MyPetDex can post content such as messages, reviews, business profiles and adoptable pet listings. Some of this content is visible to other users. Shelter listings are reviewed by us before they appear. We reserve the right to review, moderate or remove any content that violates our community standards or Terms of Service.

Reporting and blocking

If you report a message, review, provider page or shelter listing, we receive the report by email at help@mypetdex.app, including the reported content, any details you add, and your account ID so we can follow up. We review reports promptly, usually within 24 hours and remove content or accounts that break our Terms. If you block a user, the list of users you blocked is stored in your account so their content stays hidden from you, and we receive a notification so we can review the blocked account. You can unblock users at any time under Me → Blocked users.

Pet emergency QR page

Each pet has an emergency QR code and link. Anyone who scans the code or has the link can view that pet's emergency information, such as name, species, breed, age, weight, sex, license number and health records, without signing in. Only share the code or link with people you trust, such as your vet, sitter or boarder.

How We Use Your Information

We use your data solely to provide our services — including displaying your pet profiles, sending reminders and notifications you have requested, showing local service providers and animal shelters near you, processing subscription payments, and powering AI-assisted features. We also use it to communicate important updates about your account and to investigate reported content.

Data Sharing

We do not sell your personal data. We share data only with the following essential service providers, solely to operate the platform:

• Firebase / Google Cloud — data storage, authentication, and infrastructure
• Resend — transactional email and reminders
• Apple — subscription purchases and billing via the App Store
• RevenueCat — subscription management and purchase validation
• Google Gemini — AI response generation (AI Assistant feature only)
• Adopt-a-Pet.com — optional adoption search. If you tap "Search on Adopt-a-Pet", their website opens inside the app with the ZIP code you entered. We do not send your name, email or account details. Adopt-a-Pet's own privacy policy applies to their website, which may show its own advertising.
• PostHog — product analytics (US servers). The app sends anonymous usage events such as "pet added", "reminder created" or "subscription screen viewed", along with your plan type, account role and number of pets. These events use a random install ID and are never linked to your name, email address or account. We do not send pet names, ZIP codes, messages or anything you type. PostHog also receives basic device information (device model, operating system and app version) and your IP address, which may be used to estimate your approximate country or city. We use this only to understand which features are used and to improve the app. It is not used for advertising and is not sold.
• Vercel — website hosting. Our website and the pet emergency page opened from a MyPetDex QR code are hosted by Vercel. Like any web host, Vercel processes standard technical information such as IP address and browser type to deliver the pages.
• Apple Maps — if you tap "Search nearby in Maps", the Maps app opens with the type of service and the ZIP code you searched. That search is handled by Apple under Apple's privacy policy.
• FormSubmit — website forms. When you use the contact form or join the waiting list on our website, FormSubmit delivers your message to our inbox (help@mypetdex.app).

We will never share your data with advertisers or marketing companies.

Your Rights & Account Deletion

You may request access to, correction of, or deletion of your personal data at any time by contacting us at help@mypetdex.app. You can also delete your account directly from Settings → Delete My Account in the app. When you delete your account, all associated data — including your profile, pet records, saved recipes, reviews, and AI history — is permanently removed within 30 days.

If you have an active subscription, deleting your account does not automatically cancel your subscription. Please cancel your subscription through your App Store account settings before deleting your account to avoid future charges.

If you are located in the European Economic Area (EEA) or the United Kingdom, you have additional rights under GDPR, including the right to data portability and the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority.

Data Security

MyPetDex encrypts all data in transit using TLS/HTTPS and at rest using AES-256 encryption via Firebase. Access to your personal information and pet records is authenticated and restricted solely to your account. We enforce strict Firestore Security Rules to prevent unauthorized access. We recommend using a strong, unique password and enabling any available account security features.

Data Retention

We retain your personal data for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide services. Push notification tokens are removed when you sign out or delete your account. Following an account deletion request, all personal data is permanently removed within 30 days, except where we are required to retain it for legal or compliance purposes.

Cookies

We use essential cookies only to maintain your login session and app functionality. We do not use tracking or advertising cookies.

Children's Privacy

MyPetDex is intended for users aged 18 and over. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. If you believe we have inadvertently collected such information, please contact us immediately at help@mypetdex.app and we will promptly delete it.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of significant changes via email or in-app notification. The effective date at the top of this page reflects when the policy was last updated. Continued use of MyPetDex after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

📬 Contact

For privacy questions, data access requests, or deletion requests, contact us at help@mypetdex.app. We aim to respond within 5 business days.