Privacy Policy

What we collect

• Your account. Your email address, the @nickname you choose, and an avatar image if you upload one. If you sign in with Apple or Google we receive a stable identifier for you and, where you allow it, your verified email address - never your password.
• What you post. The videos you upload, their cover frames, captions, the emoji tags you put on them, comments, likes, everything you tail, and the packs and animals you create - including the emoji you pick for each animal.
• Your pack's public details. A pack can optionally publish a website, an email address, a phone number, a postal address, and Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp handles. These are shown on the pack's page to anyone who visits it, including people who aren't signed in - the form warns you about this before you fill them in. Only add details you're happy to publish; you can clear any of them at any time.
• Safety records. Reports you file about other posts, and the accounts you block.
• Sign-in records. When a sign-in link or code is requested we record the time, the email address it was for, and the IP address and country the request came from. We record the same things when you sign in with Apple or Google, at the moment that sign-in goes through, or is refused - there is no link or code to ask for on those, so the sign-in itself is the only moment there is to record. This is to detect abuse of the sign-in system. We do not log your general browsing of the site. We also keep the date you last signed in, and, when an email address we've never seen before is entered, we let ourselves know somebody new has arrived.
• The devices you're signed in on. Staying signed in means keeping a record of each device you signed in from, because that record is what signing out again removes. With it we store the moment you signed in, the browser or app you used and the kind of device it was running on, the IP address and country you signed in from, the time a request last arrived from that device, and - if it's the app - which version of the app that device is running. Those last two are the ones that get updated: the date is how a device still in use is told apart from one you've forgotten about, and the version is how we know who still needs to update, and who to stop and ask to. Both are single values that get overwritten, not a history of what you did or where you were. The rest is recorded once, when you sign in, and never updated afterwards. The whole record goes when you sign out, when we sign you out, and by itself 30 days after you signed in.
• When you last looked at your buzz. The app's Buzz tab shows you who has hearted or commented on your clips, who has started tailing you or your animals, and any pack invite waiting for an answer. So it can tell you what's new since last time, we store one date on your account: the moment you last opened that tab. It's a single date that gets overwritten, not a history - nothing records which items you looked at or how long for. The list itself isn't stored anywhere: it's worked out from the hearts, comments and tails that already exist each time you open it.
• How often a clip is played. Each clip counts how many times it has started playing. It's a single running total on the clip and nothing more - we don't record who watched what, when, or for how long, and the number isn't shown to you or to anyone else using Pet Disco. It exists so we can see which clips people actually watch. So that scrolling back to the same clip isn't counted twice, your browser briefly remembers which clips it has already counted - that list stays on your device, is forgotten a few minutes later, and is gone when you close the tab.
• Asking to join the beta. The website is for browsing - Pet Disco accounts live in the app, and the app isn't open to everyone yet. If you ask to be part of the beta test, we collect the email address you enter, whether you told us you have an iPhone or an Android phone, and the IP address and country the request came from. That goes straight to us as an email and isn't stored anywhere else - there is no waiting list in the app or on the website. We use it to invite you to the beta and for nothing else, we don't pass it to anybody, and we delete it once the beta is over. Ask us at [email protected] and we'll take you off the list sooner.
• Diagnostic reports. When something goes wrong in the app - it crashes, the camera stops responding, a request fails, or the phone reports it's low on memory - it sends us a short report so we can fix it. A report says what went wrong and where: an error message, the screen you were on, and a few technical details about the failure itself, along with the IP address it arrived from. It does not contain your videos, photos, captions, comments or messages, and nothing you type is collected this way. These reports are sent automatically and there is currently no way to turn them off.

How long we keep it

Your account and everything you post is kept until you delete it or close your account. Sign-in records are deleted automatically after 90 days. The record of a device you're signed in on lasts as long as that sign-in does: it goes when you sign out, and by itself 30 days after you signed in, whichever comes first.

If we disable an account, nothing is deleted. The profile, its clips and its comments stop being visible to anyone else, and its animals go too if no other person is left in the pack, but everything stays exactly where it is and comes straight back if the account is re-enabled. You can still sign in to an account we've disabled - the app tells you it's disabled and how to reach us. If you'd rather it were gone for good, ask us, or delete the account yourself.

When you delete your account we remove it straight away, along with your clips and their video files, your comments, likes, tails and pack memberships, and you are signed out on every device. Sign-in records are the one exception: they are kept for up to 90 days for abuse detection, but your email address and the link to your account are removed from them, leaving only the time, IP address and country.

Packs are handled by who else is in them. A pack with other people in it stays with them, and if nobody left is an owner, one of them becomes one. A pack nobody else is in is deleted with your account, along with its animals, their photos and its own photo.

An owner can also delete a pack outright, from its settings. That deletes everything in it: every animal, every photo, and every clip ever posted under it, whoever posted it. Anyone else who was in the pack is disassociated from it - their own account, their other packs and anything they posted elsewhere are untouched. It is immediate and can't be undone, which is why we ask twice.

An owner can delete a single animal from the same place. That removes the animal and its photo, and deletes any clip that tagged no animal other than that one. A clip that also tags another animal is kept and simply loses the tag.

Diagnostic reports are not stored in your account or in our database - they only ever go to our server's logs, which we read when investigating a problem and clear once they're no longer useful. Deleting your account doesn't hunt through old logs for them, but they aren't linked to your profile and nothing in them identifies you beyond the IP address the report came from.

Leaving a pack is different from deleting your account. Clips are posted as a pack, so when you leave a pack the clips you posted stay with it - they are not moved or deleted. If you want them gone, delete them before you leave, or delete your account, which removes every clip you posted wherever it lives.

Why we're allowed to process it

Your account and what you post: because we need it to provide the service you signed up for. Sign-in records and the devices you're signed in on: because we have a legitimate interest in keeping the sign-in system from being abused, and because staying signed in is something you asked for. Play counts: because we have a legitimate interest in knowing which clips people watch. Diagnostic reports: because we have a legitimate interest in knowing when the app breaks so we can fix it. Anything we're legally required to disclose: because the law requires it.

Who we share it with

Only the services needed to run Pet Disco, and only what each one needs. Hetzner hosts our servers in the EU, running the site, the database, and your videos and images ourselves - there's no separate third-party media host. Beyond that: Resend to send sign-in emails, Cloudflare to serve and protect the site, and Apple and Google if you choose to sign in with them.

Resend, Cloudflare, Apple and Google are US companies and may process data outside the country you live in, including in the United States. Where that happens, it's under that provider's own data processing agreement with us, not a separate arrangement of ours.

We may also disclose information where the law requires it, or to deal with abuse, fraud, or a threat to someone's safety.

What other people can see

Your @nickname, avatar, the packs you belong to, their animals, your posts, and your comments are visible to other people using Pet Disco. Any details a pack publishes are visible on its page to anyone who can reach it. Your email address, your sign-in records, the devices you're signed in on, the date you last signed in, and how often your clips have been played are not - those are only visible to you and to the site administrator.

Your choices

You can edit your nickname, avatar and email in your profile, delete individual posts and comments at any time, and block accounts you don't want to interact with. You can request a copy of your data in a portable format, ask us to correct or erase it, or ask us to restrict or object to how it's used, by emailing [email protected].

You can delete your account yourself at any time, without asking us: in the app it's under Settings on your profile. See "How long we keep it" for exactly what that removes. If you can't get into the app for any reason, email [email protected] and we'll do it for you.

If you're in the EU or UK and think we've mishandled your data, you can also complain to your local data protection authority - though we'd rather you emailed us first so we can put it right.

Children

Pet Disco is not intended for children. You must be at least 13 to hold an account. If we learn that an account belongs to someone younger, we'll remove it.

Changes

When this policy changes in a way that affects you, we'll ask you to review and accept the new version next time you open Pet Disco. The date at the top always reflects the current version.

Contact

Questions about any of this go to [email protected].