Privacy policy

Kootzoo is operated by Kootzoo SRL, Chișinău, MD-2026 ("Kootzoo", "we"). We are the controller of the personal data described here.

For any question about your data, including your rights below, write to support@kootzoo.app. The same address also reaches our data protection contact.

Data you give us:

• Your account. Your email address and a password or, if you sign in with Google or Apple, the data they share with us: your name, email address and, in Google's case, your profile picture. We never see your Google or Apple password.
• Your profile. The name you choose and, if you want, a username, a photo and a neighbourhood. You decide whether others see your full name or only your first name and initial.
• Your listings. The animal's details (species, name, breed, colour, size, whether it has a microchip, a description), up to four photos, the date it happened and a point on the map. Photos are re-encoded before they are stored, which removes the location and camera data they may contain.
• Sightings you add to someone's lost-animal listing: a point on the map, a time and, optionally, a note.
• Messages you exchange with other people about a listing, plus the listings and messages you report and the people you block.
• Your settings: your language, whether you want an email when someone writes to you, and whether your lost-animal listings show the exact location.
• The waitlist, if you join it: your email address, language and phone type.
• The contact form: what you write reaches us by email. We do not keep the message in the site's database.

Data we collect while you use the site:

• Anonymous visit counts (see "Cookies and analytics"): which pages are opened, from which country (and, if you accept, which city), on what kind of device and for how long, and a few key steps, such as posting a listing. Without your consent this uses no cookie and stores nothing in your browser, and cannot tell your visit from the same person's next day. If you accept, we also recognise your browser across visits and record where you click and how you move around a page. We never record your email, your name, what you typed or a precise location.
• Error reports when something breaks: the error and the page, never what you typed.
• Your position, only when you ask for it: when you press "Nearby" or "Use my location", your browser asks for permission first. "Nearby" sends a point rounded to about 100 m, which we do not store or log. "Use my location" only places the marker on the map, and you can move it before you post.
• Technical data our hosting providers need to deliver the pages, such as your IP address in their short-term logs.

• To provide the service you signed up for (performance of a contract): your account, your listings and their photos, sightings, messages, the emails that tell you someone has written to you, that your listing is about to expire or what the team decided about it, and your settings.
• To keep Kootzoo safe and working (legitimate interest): the team reads listings to check them, before or after they appear on the map, as well as reported ones. A moderator reads a conversation reported by one of the two people in it, while the report is open. We also use blocks, rate limits, error reports and security logs. Our interest is a map people can trust, and we keep only the minimum data necessary.
• To understand how the site is used (legitimate interest for the anonymous visit counts, which identify no one; your consent for everything beyond them: a persistent browser id, click and heatmap data, only if you accept them in the cookie notice). If your browser sends Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control, all of it stays off, even if you accept.
• With your consent: the waitlist, where you tick a box when you join (we then send you one thank-you email), extended analytics (clicks, heatmaps), which you can accept or reject in the cookie notice, and your device location, which your browser asks about every time. You can withdraw any of these consents at any time.
• To comply with legal obligations, for example when a court or authority lawfully requests data from us.

We do not sell your data, we do not show ads and we do not use your data to train artificial intelligence models.

• A listing is public once it appears on the map. Anyone can see it on the map, in the list and on its own page, and can share its link, without signing in. That is what a listing is for. While a listing is waiting to be checked, or if it is not approved, only you and the team can see it.
• Its point on the map. The point for a lost animal is exact by default, because that is where to look. You can turn this off in Settings, and then everyone else sees it rounded to about 150 m. The point for a found animal is always rounded, to protect the person who found it.
• Your name appears on your listings, sightings and messages, either in full or as "Ana C.", as you choose. Your email address is never shown to anyone.
• Messages are seen only by the two people in the conversation. If one of them reports it, a moderator may read it until the team decides, and each time a moderator opens it, this is logged.

These companies process data on our behalf, as processors, under data processing agreements, only to provide their service:

• Supabase (Frankfurt, Germany): the database, authentication and photo storage.
• Fly.io (Frankfurt, Germany): the servers that run the Kootzoo API.
• Vercel (EU and United States): hosts the website and, only if you accept analytics, counts page views without cookies (Vercel Web Analytics).
• Cloudflare (global network): stores and delivers the map tiles. It sees the map area your browser requests, not who you are.
• Resend (United States): sends our emails. It receives your email address, the sender's display name and the animal's name, never the text of a message.
• Sentry (EU region): error reports.
• PostHog (EU region): anonymous visit counts and, if you accept, clicks and heatmaps. The country comes from our hosting network, so no IP address reaches PostHog for anonymous counts; if you accept, PostHog also works out your city from your IP address and does not keep it.
• Komoot / Photon (Germany): turns a search or a point on the map into a place name. It receives the search text or a point, never who you are.

If you choose to sign in with Google or Apple, they act as controllers in their own right, under their own policies.

Push notifications. If you turn on push in your browser, notifications are delivered through your browser maker's push service: Google (Chrome), Apple (Safari), Mozilla (Firefox) or Microsoft (Edge). These services are mostly in the United States. They receive the address your browser gave us for push and the time of each push. The content is encrypted end to end, so they can't read it. Your browser chose this service, not us, so they aren't our processors; we send them only what's needed to deliver the push. You can turn push off at any time in Settings or in your browser.

Where data leaves the EU (Vercel, Cloudflare, Resend, and the push services above), the transfer is covered by the European Commission's standard contractual clauses for our processors.

• Your account and profile: for as long as you have your account. When you delete it (Settings › Delete account), your profile, listings, photos and messages disappear from the site immediately. The account record, with only your email address, is kept for another 30 days, then deleted.
• Listings: they disappear from the map and the list 30 days after posting, unless you renew them. The page stays reachable by link for another 12 months, then is deleted. You can delete a listing at any time from My listings.
• Messages: for as long as you have your account. If you delete it, your messages are deleted and the other person keeps the rest of the conversation.
• Moderation records (reports, decisions, each opening of a reported conversation): 12 months after the case is closed, or for as long as a suspension or appeal lasts.
• The waitlist: until you unsubscribe. An address entered before the confirmation step was removed and never confirmed is deleted after 7 days.
• Unsubscribe links: 90 days.
• Error reports and security logs: 90 days.
• Usage events: 12 months, without data that identifies you.
• Backups: 7 days, then they disappear. If a backup is restored, deletions are applied again.

You can ask us at any time to:

• show you the personal data we hold about you (right of access);
• give you a copy in a format you can pass to another service (right to data portability);
• correct inaccurate data (right to rectification): you can change most of it yourself in your profile and in Settings;
• delete your data (right to erasure): Settings › Delete account does this immediately;
• restrict how we use it (right to restriction).

You can object at any time to processing based on our legitimate interests (right to object), and you can withdraw your consent once given, without the withdrawal affecting earlier processing.

You have the right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing (right regarding automated decisions). We do not make such decisions about you.

Write to us at support@kootzoo.app from the email address linked to your account. We reply within one month at most.

You can also lodge a complaint with a data protection authority: in Romania, the National Supervisory Authority for Personal Data Processing (ANSPDCP, dataprotection.ro); in Moldova, the National Centre for Personal Data Protection (datepersonale.md); or the authority in the EU country where you live.

Kootzoo keeps a few things in your browser. The Cookie policy lists every one, with what it is for, how long it stays and who provides it.

In short:

• Necessary storage is always on: the sign-in cookies (only if you sign in), the cookie that remembers your language, the bot check on our forms, your answer to the cookie notice and, only if you turn on push notifications, a cookie and a small background script (a service worker) that show them.
• Anonymous visit counts (PostHog) are always on. They use no cookie and store nothing in your browser.
• Extended analytics (PostHog's persistent browser id, clicks and heatmaps, plus Vercel Web Analytics) run only if you press Accept in the notice at the bottom of the page. Reject, or no answer, keeps them off. We collect no clicks on your messages, profile, account or sign-in pages.

Your answer is kept in your browser for 12 months, and you can change it at any time with Cookie settings in the footer. If your browser sends Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control, analytics don't load at all, even if you accept.

The map and the community places on it (vets, parks, pet shops) come from OpenStreetMap, © OpenStreetMap contributors, available under the Open Database License (ODbL). Place names in a search also come from OpenStreetMap, through Photon. Places that a business claims and edits belong to that business, not to OpenStreetMap.

You must be at least 16 to create an account. If you believe a child under 16 has given us personal data, write to us at support@kootzoo.app and we will delete it.

When we change this policy, we update the date and version at the top of the page. If a change affects how we use your data, we tell you by email or on the site before it takes effect.