Privacy Policy

Effective date: June 12, 2026

ChattyHound ("we", "us") helps people discover adoptable shelter dogs and chat with an AI companion about each dog. This policy explains what we collect, how we use it, and the choices you have. It applies to our website and mobile apps.

Information we collect

• Email address — only if you choose to sign in. We use it as your account identifier to save your data and sync it across devices. Signing in is optional; you can browse and chat as a guest.
• Match preferences — the gender, age, size, and location filters you set.
• Saved dogs — the dogs you "heart."
• Chat messages — the messages you send to a dog and the AI's replies, so we can show your conversation history.
• Limited technical data — when you chat, our servers may record your IP address and approximate city (from your network connection) for security, abuse prevention, and analytics. Standard device and diagnostic data may also be provided by the app stores.

We do not collect precise GPS location, contacts, photos, or payment information.

How we use your information

• To provide the core experience: showing dogs, saving favorites, and powering AI chat.
• To save your preferences, favorites, and chat history to your account.
• To improve matching quality and the overall service.
• To keep the service secure and prevent abuse.

AI processing

Messages you send in chat are processed by our AI provider (OpenAI) to generate responses about the dog. Please don't share sensitive personal information in chat. AI responses are informational and may be inaccurate — always confirm medical, behavioral, and adoption details with the shelter.

Service providers

We share data only with vendors that help us run the service, under their respective terms: Supabase (database and image storage), OpenAI (AI chat responses), and Vercel (hosting). Dog information is sourced from publicly available shelter listings. We do not sell your personal information.

Data retention and deletion

You can permanently delete all of your data at any time from within the app: Profile → Delete my account & data. This removes your preferences, saved dogs, and chat history from our servers. You can also email us at the address below to request deletion.

Children's privacy

ChattyHound is not directed to children under 13 (or under 16 in the EEA/UK), and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. If you believe a child has provided us data, contact us and we will delete it.

Your rights

Depending on where you live (e.g. GDPR in the EEA/UK, CCPA in California), you may have rights to access, correct, delete, or restrict use of your personal data. To exercise these rights, use in-app deletion or contact us.

Security

We use reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect your data. No method of transmission or storage is 100% secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. We will revise the effective date above and, where appropriate, notify you in the app.

Contact

Questions about this policy or your data: hello@chattyhound.com.