Privacy Policy

1. Scope and who we are

PupMarks is a dog-centered map, walk, diary, and social application operated by Nestory LLC. This policy applies to the PupMarks mobile applications, the public PupMarks website, and support communications about those services.

It does not replace the privacy terms of a third-party service you choose to use, such as an app store, sign-in provider, or map provider. Their independent practices are described in their own policies.

2. Data we collect

Account and profile data

We process your email address, account identifiers, sign-in provider, display name, username, profile photo, account settings, and optional discoverability settings. If you use walker or business features, we also process the profile, contact, verification, role, and business information you submit.

Website update signups

If you ask to receive PupMarks launch or product updates on the website, we process the email address you enter, the consent language and time, confirmation status, and provider contact identifier needed to manage that subscription. You do not need a PupMarks account to join the updates list, and the address is not added until you confirm it through the email we send.

Dog, social, and user content

This can include dog names, nicknames, photos, breeds, birthdays, stories, memorial information, PupMarks, posts, notes, reactions, follows, blocks, reports, shared links, business content, and other material you create or interact with. PupMarks does not offer general comments or memorial condolences. Any older comment-like or memorial-note record is retained only where needed for deletion, privacy, safety, or legal cleanup.

Pet care records

If you choose to use care features, we process dog timeline entries, vaccinations, grooming records, provider details, vet-verification requests, walk receipts, and related notes. These are pet records; PupMarks is not a human health service.

Location and walk data

We process precise and approximate coordinates, route points, timestamps, distance, duration, map bounds, PupMark locations, and the dogs associated with a walk. During an explicit active walk, handoff walk, or live-share session, the app can collect high-accuracy updates every few seconds while open, backgrounded, or locked.

Photos and files

We process the individual photos, and videos where that feature is available, that you choose for profiles, PupMarks, posts, walk notes, or business content, along with basic file information. A video can include the sound recorded with it. PupMarks does not upload your address book and does not record microphone audio outside a video you choose to capture or upload.

Device, notification, and technical data

If you enable push alerts, we process a device notification token, platform, app version, notification preferences, and related timestamps. The app and hosting providers also receive ordinary technical data needed to deliver requests, such as IP address, device or browser information, request time, and service diagnostics.

Analytics and product interaction

PupMarks uses an app analytics service for selected product-interaction events, onboarding and feature usage, and aggregate reliability or growth measurement. The analytics service automatically processes an identifier for your app installation, event times, device and operating-system information, app opens and sessions, app updates, general geography (such as city or region) based on your network connection, and in-app purchase or subscription events that can include product name and price. On Android, it can also receive the source of an install, such as a link or campaign, when the app store provides it.

Optional website analytics and ad measurement: If you choose Accept cookies, our public website may use cookies, pixels and similar technologies from analytics and advertising partners to measure page visits, app-store link clicks and the performance of our advertising. These partners may receive browser and network information (including IP address), cookie and device identifiers, the pages you visit and how you arrived at them, and may connect this information with your activity on their own services as described in their privacy policies. We do not send form entries, email addresses, phone numbers or private app content to these partners. These technologies stay off unless you choose Accept cookies, and we respect Global Privacy Control signals. You can withdraw your choice at any time by choosing Reject optional cookies in Cookie preferences in the website footer. Website choices do not enable ad measurement in the mobile app.

The PupMarks mobile app's custom analytics events do not include account identifiers, dog names, precise coordinates, exact routes, private text, URLs, deep-link values, or advertising click identifiers. We do not use app analytics information for third-party advertising. Optional ad measurement in the app is separate and is described below.

Optional ad measurement in the app

On iPhone, the app uses ad measurement only if you allow tracking in Apple's prompt. On Android, it is on by default and you can turn it off at any time in Privacy & Location. When it is on, we and our advertising and measurement partners may collect and receive information about your use of the app, including:

• Device and network information (such as device type, operating system, app version and IP address), identifiers assigned to your app installation and, where your device settings permit, your device's advertising identifier.
• App events such as installs, app opens and subscription events (for example trial starts, purchases and renewals, with the product and price). These may be sent from the app or by our service providers, such as our subscription provider.

We and our partners use this information to measure and improve the performance of our advertising, for example to understand which ads lead people to install PupMarks or subscribe. Our partners may also use it as described in their own privacy policies. We do not share your name, email address, phone number, photos, walk routes, precise location, dog details or messages for ad measurement. You can keep using PupMarks without it. You can turn it off at any time in Privacy & Location in the app; on iPhone you can also turn off tracking for PupMarks in the Settings app. Turning it off stops new measurement going forward; it does not delete information our partners have already received.

Business and deletion records

Business features can create verification, trial and paid subscription, promotion, offer, and redemption records. A business claim includes the business-domain email, EIN, and full ownership-document image you submit. PupMarks sends that private document to an AI text-recognition service provider and keeps the result of the check, showing whether the submitted business name, address, EIN, and claimant name matched, but not the text read from the document. Authorized reviewers use the evidence and results for ownership verification, fraud prevention, safety, dispute, and audit purposes. When you use a PupMarks Business or PupMarks Plus subscription, Apple App Store or Google Play processes the purchase and our subscription service provider helps PupMarks present, restore, and manage the subscription. PupMarks receives subscription status, trial and renewal dates, and purchase and renewal events, but not your full payment card number or bank account. Older plan or payment records may remain where needed for deletion, privacy, safety, dispute, or legal cleanup. We also process support messages, account-deletion requests, review status, and audit information needed to complete or document a request.

3. Location and sharing choices

For new accounts, new PupMarks initially use Pup pals and Exact all: approved pup pals can see the exact PupMark pin. You can change the default audience to Only me or Nearby/public, change the default precision, or override either choice for each PupMark. Other precision choices can keep the exact point for you while showing an approximate point to others, or show an approximate point to everyone. Exact walk routes remain private. Delegated walks start private; the owner can later share a route-free summary.

New accounts are discoverable by name and exact username or dog nickname by default. Email discovery is off by default. You can change these discoverability settings in the app; turning them off does not remove content already shared with approved pup pals.

Your full walk route is private. Shared walk summaries leave out the exact route. Live sharing is time-limited and requires an active walk or explicit sharing action.

Public-post share links can remain active for up to 30 days. Dog-profile-only and care-team share links expire after no more than three hours. Every share link can be revoked, and the preview is rechecked against the content's current visibility. Anyone with an active public link may view its public preview without signing in. Privacy controls affect what PupMarks displays and what active links resolve, but they cannot retrieve screenshots, copies, or media URLs someone previously saved.

When you explicitly use Share, the visual sent to an external app can include the selected photo, note or caption, dog identity, PupMark type, and the location presentation allowed by your chosen setting. That external visual can be displayed, copied, or forwarded by its recipients even when the live PupMark is private or follower-only. Opening a restricted live PupMark still requires the recipient to sign in and have access; the shared visual does not automatically make the live PupMark public.

4. How we use data

• Authenticate accounts, maintain profiles, and synchronize data across sessions.
• Record walks, generate diary and recap views, display map content, and preserve private route history.
• Apply visibility, following, blocking, reporting, moderation, delegation, and business permissions.
• Store and deliver selected photos and public or follower-visible content.
• Send notifications you enable, such as follow, activity, walk, care, birthday, or safety alerts.
• Send an opt-in confirmation and occasional launch or product updates you request by email.
• Prevent abuse, investigate reports, enforce our Terms, secure accounts, and maintain audit records.
• Measure selected product interactions and improve functionality and reliability.
• Use automated tools, including artificial intelligence (AI), to help review content, verify submissions, and detect abuse, and to generate features such as summaries, insights, and suggestions about your dogs, walks, and activity.
• Measure the performance of our advertising, such as which ads lead to installs or subscriptions, when you allow ad measurement.
• Respond to support, privacy, and account-deletion requests and comply with legal obligations.

Automated analysis, AI, and human moderation

We use automated processing to analyze information needed to operate the service, verify submissions, detect abuse, and apply safety and content-moderation rules. We may use automated tools, including artificial intelligence (AI) systems operated by us or our service providers, to help detect, flag, and review content that may break our Terms, such as photos, captions, notes, and profile information. For business verification, an AI text-recognition service processes the ownership-document image you submit to recognize text and help check the business details. Automated analysis can produce match results, flags, and other review records.

Authorized human moderators and support or safety personnel may access and review reported, flagged, restricted, or blocked content, together with relevant photos, text, profile information, report details, and account or activity records when needed to investigate abuse, handle an appeal, verify a business, or enforce our Terms and Community Guidelines. Content does not have to be public to be reviewed for these purposes. Blocking an account changes your interactions and visibility; it does not by itself mean a human review has occurred.

Automated tools can make mistakes, and we do not guarantee that every item is reviewed or every harmful item is detected. If you believe a moderation action is incorrect, contact support@pupmarks.com with the information needed to investigate. Review records may be retained for the safety, dispute, legal, and audit purposes described below. The service providers involved in processing are identified in the next section.

5. When data is disclosed

People you choose to share with

Content is displayed according to the visibility you select. Public or Nearby content and active public share links may be viewed by people who are not your followers. Approved followers can see follower-visible content. Owners, walkers, or care-team participants may receive information necessary for delegated features.

Rehoming a pup

When you rehome a pup to another family, nothing moves until they accept. After they accept, the pup's live profile and the history you chose to move (PupMarks and posts, solo walks, care notes and grooming, or vaccinations) transfer to the new family and become theirs. You keep a read-only Past Pups archive of that pup. For PupMarks you chose to move, the archive keeps a saved copy of the title, note, date, place name, approximate location, and photo as they were at the hand-off. The new family cannot see your archive, and their later changes do not update your copy. History you chose not to move stays with you in the archive.

Service providers and platform services

• Cloud infrastructure providers provide sign-in, data storage, hosting, analytics, and push notification services.
• AI and text-recognition providers read business-verification ownership documents, and may help detect, flag, and review content as described in Automated analysis, AI, and human moderation. The full submitted document is transferred for business-verification processing.
• Backup storage providers store private recovery copies of app photos and other media. These copies are used only for disaster recovery and are not publicly accessible.
• Map providers provide map styles, tiles, and map images. Map requests can reveal network and device information and the area of the map you are viewing, which may be precise.
• Subscription management providers provide subscription purchase, restore, and management tools for business and PupMarks Plus subscribers. They receive an account identifier and the store subscription information needed to provide those services. If you allow ad measurement in the app, they may also send subscription events to our advertising partners as described in Optional ad measurement in the app.
• Email delivery providers deliver transactional business-verification and business-update emails, update-list confirmations, and the launch or product emails you request. They receive the recipient email address, sender address, subject, message body, contact-list membership, and subscription preference needed to deliver those messages and honor unsubscribes.
• Apple and Google platform services support app distribution, sign-in where selected, device permissions, push delivery, and in-app subscription purchases. See the Apple Privacy Policy and Google Privacy Policy.

We may also disclose information when reasonably necessary to comply with law, protect a person or the service, investigate fraud or abuse, enforce agreements, or complete a merger, financing, reorganization, or sale with appropriate protections.

We do not sell personal information. Optional ad measurement on our website and in the app shares identifiers and activity with advertising and measurement partners as described above: on the website and on iPhone only after you allow it, and on Android unless you turn it off. We do not send app analytics identifiers, push tokens, or private app content to these platforms.

6. Retention and account deletion

We retain account and content data while your account is active and as needed to operate the features you use. You can delete individual content where the app provides that control. Expired or revoked share links stop resolving through the public preview.

An unconfirmed website update request expires after 24 hours. After confirmation, our email delivery provider retains the contact and subscription preference needed to send requested updates and honor unsubscribes. PupMarks retains a limited consent receipt as needed to document the request, respond to privacy requests, prevent abuse, and comply with applicable requirements.

An account-deletion request stops your active walks and live sharing, revokes your share links, and turns off push notifications. If nothing needs to be resolved first, we delete your sign-in account, profile, dog profiles, PupMarks and posts, walks and routes, care records, share links, follows, reactions, photos and other media, business-claim documents and their verification results, and related records.

Deleting an item or account does not remove its separate private media recovery copy at that time. Recovery copies are scheduled to expire after fourteen days; the storage provider's deletion processing may take longer. We use these copies only to recover from a service failure, and a restore does not make deleted content active or public again.

Some records may remain after account deletion when they are part of another person's records or are retained for safety, fraud prevention, dispute resolution, legal, billing, moderation, or audit needs. Current retained categories can include reports and blocks; business, promotion, older subscription, offer, and redemption records; walker reviews; and walks, delegations, or receipts created for another owner. A short-lived deletion confirmation record may remain until it expires automatically.

Past Pups archives, including saved copies and photos of history that moved with a rehomed pup, are deleted with the former owner's account. That deletion does not remove the pup's live profile or the history that now belongs to the new family, and the new family deleting that pup does not remove the former owner's archive.

Retention length depends on the record's purpose, active review or dispute status, and applicable requirements. Aggregate or de-identified analytics that no longer identifies an account may remain. See Delete your PupMarks account for the current process.

7. Your choices and privacy requests

• Change PupMark, post, location-precision, following, and sharing settings in the app, including the default audience for new PupMarks.
• Turn push categories on or off in PupMarks and change system permissions in device settings.
• Update account and dog profile information in the app.
• Use the unsubscribe link in any PupMarks launch or product update to stop those emails.
• Request account deletion in the app under Account controls, or use our web deletion instructions.
• Email support@pupmarks.com to request access, correction, deletion, or another privacy right available where you live.

We may need to verify your identity and authority before completing a request. If we deny a request, you may email us to appeal. PupMarks does not sell personal information, so there is no sale opt-out to activate. You can opt out of sharing for ad measurement at any time: use Cookie preferences on the website, Privacy & Location in the app, or the tracking setting for PupMarks in iPhone Settings.

8. Security

We use measures designed to protect data, including encryption in transit, access controls, secure storage of sign-in credentials on your device, and encryption of sensitive data stored on your device. No service can guarantee absolute security. Protect your account credentials and contact us if you believe your account or a share link has been misused.

9. Age requirement

PupMarks is intended for adults age 18 and older. We do not knowingly offer accounts to children. If you believe a person under 18 has provided personal information through PupMarks, contact us so we can review and take appropriate action.

10. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy when the product, providers, or legal requirements change. We will change the date above and provide additional notice in the app or by another appropriate method when a change is material.

11. Contact us

PupMarks is operated by Nestory LLC. For privacy questions or requests, email support@pupmarks.com.