Privacy Policy

A note on how Sniffr works

Sniffr is a platform that dog-walking businesses use to run their operations. When you use the app, you’re using software that is run by your dog walker’s business on top of Sniffr. That means two parties handle your data:

• · Your dog walker’s business (your “tenant” — for example, Hamilton Bark) decides what data to collect, how to use it, and how long to keep it. They are the data controller.
• · Sniffr (Papyrus Labs) provides the platform that stores and processes the data on their behalf. We are the data processor.

If you have questions about your data — what’s stored, how to delete it, how it’s used — your first stop should be your dog walker’s business. We help them respond to those requests but we don’t make those decisions independently. This marketing site is the one exception: here, Sniffr is the controller and only collects what’s described in the “This site” section below.

What we collect

Account information

When you sign up (as a dog owner, walker, or business admin): name, email address, phone number (optional), password (stored hashed — we never see your actual password), and an optional profile photo.

Address and home-access information

For dog owners, so walkers can actually do walks: home address, and any key location notes, lockbox codes, parking notes, or building access codes you give your walker. This is sensitive. It’s stored encrypted at rest, visible only to your dog walker’s business and the walkers they assign to you, and never shared outside that business.

Emergency contact

Optional but encouraged: emergency contact name, phone, and relationship — so we can reach someone if there’s an incident during a walk.

Dog information

Name, breed, age, weight, color, behavioral notes; veterinarian contact (optional); medical notes, allergies, medications (optional); and dog photos you or your walker upload.

Service information

Walks scheduled and completed, recurring “windows” you set up, walk reports, photos taken during walks, and messages exchanged between you, your walker, and your dog walker’s business.

Audio recordings (walkers only)

When walkers dictate a walk report, the audio is recorded, transmitted securely to our transcription service, converted to text, and then the audio is discarded. We retain only the text transcript. We do not store the audio file beyond the transcription step.

Camera and microphone

The mobile app uses your camera (to photograph dogs and walk activity) and microphone (for walk-report dictation). Access is granted by you at the OS level when first requested; you can revoke it anytime in your device settings.

Payment information

We use Stripe (Stripe Connect) to process payments. Sniffr never sees, stores, or transmits your card number, CVV, or bank credentials — those go directly from your device to Stripe. We store only transaction metadata (amount, date, what it was for) and a Stripe token that lets your dog walker’s business reconcile payments.

Device and app information

Your device’s push-notification token (an opaque identifier from Apple, Google, or your browser) so we can notify you about walks and messages. We do not run any analytics, diagnostics, or crash-reporting SDK in the app. Apple and Google may provide us aggregated crash and performance reports through their app-store platforms — that data is collected by them, not by Sniffr.

What we do not collect

• · We do not track your live location.
• · We do not read your contacts, calendar, SMS, or call history.
• · We do not use third-party advertising trackers or sell your data.
• · We do not use profile-building analytics SDKs (no Facebook SDK, no Google Analytics).
• · We do not collect photos from your camera roll unless you explicitly pick one to upload.

How we use this information

To provide the service you signed up for (scheduling, reports, payments, messaging), authenticate you, notify you about your dog’s walks and messages, generate walk reports (including automated transcription and AI-generated photo captions), diagnose bugs, and improve the platform in aggregated, anonymized form. We do not use your personal information to train AI models — per-walk AI processing is one-shot, and inputs are not retained by the AI provider for training.

How we share information

Sniffr uses a small set of third-party services to operate — sub-processors that handle data on our behalf under contracts requiring them to protect it:

Beyond those, data goes only to your dog walker’s business (the controller of your data), to you (you can view your own data in the app), and to law enforcement if legally required (we’ll tell you unless prohibited). We do not sell data or share it with advertisers, data brokers, or marketing partners.

How long we keep data

• · Active accounts: kept while you have an active account with your dog walker’s business.
• · Inactive accounts: when your business leaves Sniffr, they take their customer data with them; deleted accounts are removed within 30 days.
• · Walk audio: discarded as soon as it’s transcribed (typically seconds).
• · Photos: kept while your account is active; deleted with your account.
• · Payment records: retained 7 years for financial recordkeeping.
• · Backups: rolling 90-day; deleted data is purged from backups within 90 days.

Your rights

You can, at any time: view your account, dogs, walks, photos, and messages in the app; edit your contact info, address, and dog details; delete photos and messages directly; delete your account (contact your dog walker’s business or email us — complete within 30 days, except payment records as noted); and export your data (email us for a machine-readable copy within 30 days). If you live in a jurisdiction with specific privacy rights (California CCPA/CPRA, EU/UK GDPR, Canada PIPEDA, etc.), those rights apply and we will honor them.

Children & security

Sniffr is not directed at children under 13 and we do not knowingly collect their data; email us and we’ll delete any such account. (Dogs of all ages are welcome.) We protect data with HTTPS/TLS 1.2+ everywhere, hashed passwords (bcrypt), short-lived session tokens in secure device storage, encryption at rest, and restricted, audited production access. If we ever experience a breach affecting your data, we will notify you and the appropriate authorities promptly.

This site

On sniffrpack.com (run directly by Sniffr) we collect only server logs (IP address, user-agent, page requested, retained 30 days for security and traffic analysis) and your email address if you fill out a “book a setup call” form. We do not use cookies beyond what is strictly necessary for the site to function, and there are no tracking pixels.