Privacy Policy

TailsTrails Social Inc.

Version 1.0

Effective Date: October 12, 2026

Last Updated: October 12, 2026

Table of Contents

1. Who We Are

2. Our Privacy Promise

3. Information We Collect

4. How We Use Your Information

5. How We Use Artificial Intelligence

6. Advertising, Sponsorship, and Marketplace

7. Pack Leader Data Practices

8. Location Data, Maps, and Privacy Zones

9. The Social Feed and User-Generated Content

10. How We Share Your Information

11. Cookies, Analytics, and Tracking Technologies

12. Payment Processing

13. Data Retention and Deletion

14. Your Rights and Choices

15. Children and Age Requirements

16. International Data Transfers

17. Data Security

18. Region-Specific Disclosures

19. Changes to This Policy

20. How to Contact Us

1. Who We Are

TailsTrails is operated by TailsTrails Social Inc., a company incorporated federally in Canada with provincial registration in British Columbia ("TailsTrails™," "we," "us," or "our"). TailsTrails is a hyper-local, gamified community platform that helps dog owners connect with compatible dog owners in their own neighborhood for meetups, curated walks, and experiences. We currently operate a waitlist web application at tailstrails.app, tailstrails.ca and tailstrails.us, with a mobile application planned for launch in early 2027.

This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and protect your information when you use the TailsTrails website, mobile application, and related services (collectively, the "Service"). It also describes your rights regarding your personal information and how you can exercise them.

If you have any questions about this policy, you can reach us at [email protected].

2. Our Privacy Promise

Trust is the foundation of every pack. Before we get into the legal details, here are the commitments we make to every TailsTrails member:

• We never sell your data. Not to advertisers, not to data brokers, not to anyone. Ever.
• Your location is yours to control. You decide who sees where you are. On the mobile app (launching early 2027), Ghost Mode will let you walk completely incognito if you choose, and we will blur your home location by default.
• Our AI works for you, not on you. We use AI to help you find compatible dogs and dog owners nearby, and to show you locally relevant dog-friendly spaces, trails, and restaurants, as well as dog businesses and services, as well as content based on your interests and location. We never sell AI-derived insights about you to third parties, and you can opt out of personalized targeting at any time.
• Advertisers never see your personal data. When we show sponsored content or host a sponsored event, the data stays with TailsTrails. Advertisers receive only anonymized aggregate performance reports—impressions, clicks, and conversions—never individual user data.
• You own your data. You can delete your account and your data at any time from your dashboard settings, or by emailing [email protected]. When you delete your account, your personal data is permanently removed following a 30-day restoration window.
• We minimize what we collect. We collect only what we need to deliver the Service. Every data field in TailsTrails exists to help you build your pack, connect with your community, or keep the platform safe.

These commitments are not just words. They are built into the architecture of the platform. The rest of this policy provides the full legal detail behind each one.

3. Information We Collect

3.1 Information You Provide Directly

Account and Profile Information

When you create an account and use TailsTrails, you may provide:

• Your first name, last name, email address, and mobile phone number
• A username (@handle) for your human profile
• A password for account security
• Your Zip, and neighborhood or city
• Your lifestyle activity preferences (e.g., hiking, beach, café, urban)
• Your confirmation that you are 18 or older, and the date you gave it

Dog Profile Information

Because TailsTrails is a dog-first platform, your dog's profile is the primary public-facing entity. You may provide:

• Your dog's name, breed (primary and secondary), birthday or age, and sex
• A username (@handle) for your dog(s)
• Personality traits, energy level, and play style preferences
• Favorite food and toy preferences
• Training level
• Vaccination status, spay/neuter status, and optional microchip ID
• A photo of your dog (required to activate the profile)

Pack Leader Information

If you qualify as a Founding Pack Leader through our Discovery Quest, you may also provide:

• Responses to our personality quiz (Discovery Quest)
• A shipping address for the VIP Leader Box delivered quarterly following the launch of the full-featured mobile app
• Commitment acknowledgments and leadership preferences

Social and Community Content

When you use our community features, you may provide:

• Posts, photos, videos, and comments
• Likes and reactions
• Event RSVPs and attendance information
• Referral invitations you send to friends
• Meetup and walk spots you suggest to us, including the place name, its city, and any description you write

Communications

When you contact us for support or provide feedback, we collect the content of your communications, including email addresses and any attachments.

3.2 Information Collected Automatically

Device and Usage Information

When you access TailsTrails, we automatically collect:

• Device type, operating system, browser type, and version
• IP address
• Pages visited, features used, time spent, and navigation patterns
• Referring URL and how you arrived at our Service
• Crash reports and performance data

Location Information

We collect location information in several ways, each with your knowledge and control:

• Zip: The Zip you enter during signup
• IP Geolocation: We use the country your network connection appears to come from — supplied to us by our hosting network, not looked up by us — to pre-fill your country and to show you locally relevant content. You can always edit or override it. We store that two-letter country code with your waitlist record. Your IP address itself is not part of your profile — we use it only for short-lived security checks, such as limiting repeated sign-in attempts.
• GPS Location (Mobile App): When you use the interactive map features in our mobile app (launching early 2027), we may collect precise GPS location data with your explicit permission. You can enable Ghost Mode at any time to walk incognito, and you can revoke location permissions in your device settings. Our default is that only mutual friends in your pack can see your dog's full identity, and you can change your settings at any time.

Cookies and Similar Technologies

We use cookies and similar technologies as described in Section 11 of this policy.

Funnel and Engagement Data

To understand how users interact with TailsTrails and improve the experience, we also collect and store:

• Your progress through onboarding steps and feature completion status
• Your waitlist position and cohort assignment (a category reflecting how far you've progressed in the platform, used for analytics and feature unlocking)
• A log of Treats earned, including the action that triggered each award (e.g., completing a profile chapter, referring a friend)
• Funnel events such as page views, button clicks, quiz completions, and feature interactions, stored both in our analytics tools and in our own database
• Your signup platform (web or mobile) and most recently active platform

3.3 Information from Third Parties

We may receive limited information from third parties, including:

• Referral Partners: If you sign up through a referral link, we associate your account with the referring user for the purpose of awarding referral rewards. When a user or a member of our team sends an invitation, we may temporarily store the invited person's email address, and — for Pack Leader invitations — their first name and the place they were invited for, so we can address the invitation and track whether it was used. If the invited person does not create an account, that record is deleted within 90 days.
• Payment Processors: We receive confirmation of successful payment transactions from our payment processors (Apple App Store, Google Play Store). We do not receive or store your full credit card number.
• Authentication Providers: If you authenticate through a third-party service (e.g., Apple, Google), we receive basic profile information as permitted by that service and your settings.
• Advertising Technology Partners: If we use third-party ad networks or SDK-based advertising partners (such as Google AdMob or similar services), those partners may collect device-level information (such as device identifiers, IP address, and interaction data) directly from your device through their own technologies. This collection is disclosed in Section 6 of this policy.

4. How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect for the following purposes:

4.1 To Provide and Operate the Service

• Creating and maintaining your account and your dog's profile
• Matching you with compatible dogs and dog owners in your neighborhood based on location, breed, age, play style, temperament, energy level, and lifestyle preferences
• Displaying neighborhood-specific content, events, and community information, including safety and hazard alerts
• Processing referrals and awarding Treats (our gamified reward currency)
• Facilitating the Founding Pack Leader qualification process and Discovery Quest
• Fulfilling the VIP Leader Box (shipping to your provided address)
• Assisting Pack Leaders with best practices and support
• Operating the social feed and community features
• Displaying locally relevant sponsored content and marketplace listings (see Section 6)

4.2 To Improve and Develop the Service

• Understanding how users interact with TailsTrails to improve features and fix issues
• Analyzing aggregate, anonymized trends in dog ownership, neighborhood density, and community engagement
• Conducting A/B tests to optimize the user experience
• Training and improving our AI matching algorithms using anonymized and aggregated data
• Performing AI-driven cohort analysis and user segmentation to improve content relevance and product development (see Section 5.1)

4.3 To Communicate With You

• Sending transactional emails (e.g., magic link verification, referral notifications)
• Delivering regular neighborhood digests, launch countdown updates, and Pack Leader communications (each of which you can opt out of using the unsubscribe link in any email we send)
• Responding to support requests
• Sending the exit intent recovery email series (up to 3 emails) if you provide your email via the landing page modal
• Sending the newsletter if you have signed up

4.4 To Keep the Platform Safe

• Detecting, preventing, and addressing fraud, abuse, and security incidents
• Enforcing our Terms of Service, Privacy and No Jerks policy
• Protecting the safety of dogs and community members
• Complying with legal obligations

4.5 Legal Bases for Processing (GDPR)

If you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or another jurisdiction that requires a legal basis for processing, we rely on the following:

• Contract Performance: Processing necessary to perform the contract between you and TailsTrails (e.g., account creation, matchmaking, fulfillment)
• Consent: Your explicit consent for optional processing activities (e.g., precise GPS location, marketing emails, cookies, personalized advertising)
• Legitimate Interests: Processing necessary for our legitimate interests, such as improving the Service, fraud prevention, analytics, displaying non-personalized sponsored content, and AI-driven cohort analysis, where those interests are not overridden by your rights
• Legal Obligation: Processing necessary to comply with applicable laws

5. How We Use Artificial Intelligence

TailsTrails uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to power core features of the Service. We are committed to the ethical, transparent, and aligned use of AI. Trust is central to our community, and that extends to how we deploy AI.

5.1 What AI Does in TailsTrails

• Pack Matchmaking (Core Service — PackSense™): Using your dog's breed, play style, size, age, temperament, energy level, training level, and behavioral traits, combined with your location and lifestyle preferences, to suggest compatible dogs and dog owners nearby. This is the primary purpose of our AI and is essential to delivering the Service.
• Founding Pack Leader Discovery: Assigning one of seven Pack Leader archetypes based on your responses to the Discovery Quest. This uses a deterministic, weighted scoring algorithm—not a black box.
• Pack Leader Discovery & Archetyping: We use deterministic algorithms to assign Founding Pack Leader archetypes. This process is used solely for community role-matching and does not constitute a background check, professional certification, or safety guarantee.
• Content Personalization: Delivering neighborhood-specific content, events, and community recommendations, relevant to your stated interests.
• Commercial Content Relevance: Using your interests, dog type, and location to determine which sponsored content and marketplace listings are most relevant to you. This is a form of profiling under GDPR (see Section 5.3). The same relevance profiles that power matchmaking also inform which sponsored content you see—but you can opt out of this commercial use without affecting your matchmaking experience.
• Cohort Analysis and Segmentation: We use AI-driven analytics to group users into anonymized cohorts based on engagement patterns, dog types, location density, and platform behavior. This internal segmentation helps us improve the product, understand community trends, and measure the effectiveness of features. Cohort data is aggregated and cannot identify individual users.
• Safety and Moderation: Assisting in detecting patterns that may indicate spam, abuse, or safety concerns on the platform.

5.2 Our AI Commitments

• Human oversight: All AI-generated matches and recommendations can be reviewed, adjusted, or dismissed by you.
• No sale of profiles or insights: We do not sell AI-derived profiles, relevance scores, or behavioral insights to third parties. Advertisers never receive individual user data or AI-generated profiles. They receive only aggregate performance metrics (impressions, clicks, conversions).
• Third-party and in-house AI: We use a combination of Anthropic's Claude AI for certain technical development and processing tasks, and custom in-house machine learning models that we build and maintain for matchmaking and recommendation features. These are informed by established scientific research fields and include: Anthrozoology, a multidisciplinary field bridging social, behavioral and biomedical sciences, including anthropology, sociology, psychology, and veterinary medicine to understand complex interactions and relationships between humans and animals; Applied Ethology, understanding canine behavior in human environments, such as high-density urban settings or suburban parks focused on social interaction and welfare; Behavioral Genetics, the heritability and polygenicity of behavioral traits across and within breeds; Psychometrics, standardized measurement of human personality and canine temperament; and Sociology, including community dynamics, social class, and cultural capital in pet ownership. Data sent to third-party AI providers is subject to their data processing agreements, which prohibit them from using your data to train their general models. Our in-house models are trained on anonymized and aggregated data only.
• Data minimization in AI: We anonymize and aggregate data before using it to train or improve our matching models. We do not train AI models on identifiable personal data.
• Opt-out: You have the right to opt out of AI-powered matchmaking. If you opt out, you may still use TailsTrails, but personalized match recommendations will be limited. You also have the separate right to opt out of AI-based commercial content targeting (see Section 6.4).

5.3 AI Profiling Transparency

Under GDPR and similar laws, some of our AI use constitutes "profiling"—that is, automated processing of personal data to evaluate certain personal aspects. We distinguish between two types of profiling in TailsTrails:

• Matchmaking profiling (core service): Processing your dog's traits, your location, and your preferences to generate pack match recommendations. This profiling is necessary to perform the contract between you and TailsTrails (GDPR Article 6(1)(b)). You can opt out, but match recommendations will be limited.
• Commercial relevance profiling: Using the same underlying data to determine which sponsored content is most relevant to you. This profiling is based on our legitimate interest in sustaining a free platform through relevant advertising (GDPR Article 6(1)(f)). You have the right to object to this profiling at any time (see Section 14), and we will immediately cease commercial profiling for your account while maintaining your matchmaking experience.

6. Advertising, Sponsorship, and Marketplace

TailsTrails displays user-generated organic content, and alongside that it may display sponsored content, local business listings, and marketplace features within the Service. This section explains how advertising works on our platform and the choices you have.

6.1 How Sponsored Content Works

TailsTrails shows locally relevant sponsored content—such as sponsored events, local business promotions, and product recommendations—based on your interests, dog type, and location.

This is similar to how platforms like Nextdoor display sponsored posts. The key difference from traditional advertising networks: your data stays with TailsTrails. We determine which sponsored content to show you using our own AI relevance engine. Advertisers submit their content and targeting criteria (e.g., "dog owners in Portland interested in hiking") to TailsTrails, and we match it to relevant users internally.

Advertisers never see your name, profile, email address, or any individual user data. They receive only aggregate fulfillment analytics: impressions served, clicks, and conversion metrics.

6.2 Third-Party Ad Networks and SDKs

TailsTrails may also work with third-party advertising networks and SDK-based partners (such as Google AdMob, Meta Audience Network, or similar services) to display advertising within the Service. When we use these partners:

• What TailsTrails shares: We do not provide your first-party personal data (name, email, profile information, dog data) to ad network partners.
• What ad network SDKs may collect directly: Third-party ad network SDKs that run on your device may independently collect device-level information, including device identifiers (such as IDFA or GAID), IP address, and interaction signals. Under CCPA/CPRA, this direct collection by ad networks may constitute "sharing" of personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising. Under GDPR, it requires your explicit consent.
• Server-side ad insertion: Where we use server-side ad serving (where TailsTrails controls the entire ad request without an SDK on your device), no third-party code runs on your device and no device-level data is collected by the ad partner.

We will clearly identify which advertising method is in use and update this policy accordingly as our advertising model evolves.

6.3 Marketplace Listings

TailsTrails may feature a local marketplace where businesses and Pack Leaders can list dog-related products, services, and events. Marketplace listings are displayed based on your location and interests. Marketplace sellers receive only the information you choose to share with them when you initiate a transaction or inquiry—they do not have access to your TailsTrails profile data.

6.4 Your Advertising Choices

• Opt out of personalized targeting: You can opt out of AI-based personalized ad targeting by emailing [email protected]. When you opt out, you will still see sponsored content, but it will not be personalized to your interests or dog profile. This is consistent with Apple App Tracking Transparency (ATT) and Google Privacy Sandbox requirements.
• Device-level ad tracking controls: On iOS, you can disable ad tracking through Apple's App Tracking Transparency prompt or in your device's Privacy & Security settings. On Android, you can opt out of personalized ads through your device's Privacy settings. TailsTrails respects these device-level choices.
• Do Not Sell or Share (CCPA/CPRA): If third-party ad network SDKs are active in TailsTrails, the device-level data they collect may constitute "sharing" under CCPA/CPRA. You have the right to opt out of this sharing. See Section 18 (Region-Specific Disclosures) for details.

7. Pack Leader Data Practices

Pack Leaders occupy a unique role within TailsTrails. They create and manage events, organize neighborhood packs, report hazards, and have elevated visibility within the community. This section explains the data practices that apply to Pack Leaders, similar to how platforms like Meetup address event organizers or Nextdoor addresses neighborhood leads.

7.1 What Pack Leaders Can See

When a user joins a Pack Leader's event or neighborhood pack, the Pack Leader can see the following information about that member:

• The member's dog profile (name, breed, photo, age, personality traits, training level, energy level, play style, and spay/neuter status)
• The member's first name
• The member's neighborhood (general area, not precise address)

Pack Leaders cannot see a member's email address, phone number, last name, home address, precise location, or any health or vaccination data about the member's dog.

7.2 Pack Leader Responsibilities

Pack Leaders are TailsTrails users, not employees, contractors, or agents of TailsTrails Social Inc. By accepting the Pack Leader role, they agree to the TailsTrails Terms of Service, which include obligations to:

• Use member information only for the purpose of organizing and managing TailsTrails community activities
• Not share, sell, export, or misuse any member information accessed through their Pack Leader role
• Abide by TailsTrails' Pack Leader Code of Conduct available on the Pack Leader Dashboard
• Not contact members outside of TailsTrails using information obtained through the platform, unless the member has independently shared their contact details
• Comply with all applicable privacy laws in their jurisdiction

7.3 Platform vs. Pack Leader Responsibility

TailsTrails is responsible for the platform's data practices: what data is collected, how it is stored, what is made visible through the Pack Leader interface, and the technical safeguards that protect it. Pack Leaders are responsible for how they use the information they access through their elevated role. If a Pack Leader misuses member data, TailsTrails may revoke their Pack Leader status and take appropriate enforcement action under our Terms of Service.

If you believe a Pack Leader has misused your information, please contact us at [email protected].

7.4 Non-Commercial Use of Pack Data

Pack Leaders are contractually prohibited from using any accessed member data for their own commercial gain or for soliciting members for services outside the Platform. Access to member data by TailsTrails staff and elevated accounts is restricted by role, and every administrative change to member data is recorded in a permanent audit log.

8. Location Data, Maps, and Privacy Zones

Location is central to TailsTrails—we help you build your pack in your neighborhood. But we also recognize that location data is among the most sensitive personal information. We've built strong privacy protections directly into our map and location features.

8.1 How Location Data Works

• Waitlist Web App (Current): During signup, you provide a Zip. We use this to place you in a neighborhood and city for community matching.
• Mobile App (Launching Early 2027): When we launch the mobile app, you will have the option to share precise GPS location for real-time interactive map features. This requires your explicit, informed consent via your device's permission system. You can adapt settings at any time or revoke this permission at any time.

8.2 Privacy Protections on the Map

These protections apply to the interactive map in the mobile app (launching early 2027):

• Ghost Mode (Incognito Walking): You can enable Ghost Mode at any time to walk completely incognito. When Ghost Mode is active, your identity is invisible to all other users on the map. No one can see your location, your direction of travel, or that you are active.
• Home Location Blurring: TailsTrails automatically creates a privacy zone around your home address (similar to Strava's privacy zones). Within this radius, your location is blurred or hidden on the map. Other users cannot see your precise home location.
• Visibility Controls: On the live interactive map, other users can only see your dog's full profile and your secondary profile if you are mutual friends. Non-connected users may see general indicators such as "reactive dog", "dog in training" or "match" tags, but not your identity.
• No Sale of Location Data: We do not sell your location data. We do not share your precise location with third parties for advertising purposes. Location data is used solely to power the map features and pack matching.

8.3 IP Geolocation

On the web app, we use the country your network connection appears to come from to personalize your experience. This is a country-level signal only — not a city lookup, and not GPS tracking — and you can always change what we show you. We do not keep your IP address with your location information.

9. The Social Feed and User-Generated Content

The TailsTrails mobile app will include a social feed where you can share posts, photos, and updates about your dogs and your community activities. It also enables groups known as "packs", which may be private or public. This section explains how we handle that content.

9.1 What You Post

Content you post to the social feed—including photos, videos, text, and comments—may be visible to other TailsTrails users in your neighborhood or broader community. Your dog's @handle and profile photo will be displayed alongside your posts. Please be mindful that photos from dog parks, group walks, and social events may include other people's dogs or people in the background.

9.2 Content Moderation

We may use a combination of AI tools and human review to moderate content on the social feed for safety, spam, and compliance with our community guidelines and No Jerks policy. Moderation decisions can be appealed through our support channels.

9.3 Content Removal

You can delete your own posts at any time. If you delete your account, all content you posted to the social feed will be removed within the 30-day deletion window. Other users may request removal of content that features them or their dogs by contacting us at [email protected].

9.4 Blocking and Reporting Users

You may choose at any time to "unfollow" or block another user. The mobile app will also provide a mechanism by which you can report a user for violation of TailsTrails policies, including privacy, terms and conditions, and other published guidelines available on the website and mobile app.

10. How We Share Your Information

We do not sell your personal information. We have never sold personal information, and we have no plans to do so. We share your information only in the following limited circumstances:

10.1 With Other TailsTrails Users

Certain information is visible to other users as part of the Service's core functionality:

• Your dog's profile (name, @handle, photo, breed, age, personality traits, energy level, training level, play style)
• Your first name and @handle
• Your earned status and achievement badges, e.g. "Gold Map Pin", "Verified Green Checkmark", "Founding Member" or "Founding Pack Leader".
• Your neighborhood or city (general area, not precise address)
• Posts and comments you share on the social feed or in a digital pack group
• Your Pack Leader status and archetype badge (if qualified)

Your email address, phone number, last name, home address, and precise location are never visible to other users.

For information visible to Pack Leaders specifically, see Section 7.

10.2 With Service Providers

We work with trusted third-party service providers who process data on our behalf and under our instructions. These providers are contractually obligated to use your data only to provide services to TailsTrails and are bound by data protection agreements. Our current providers include:

• Infrastructure: Database hosting and authentication (Supabase, Postgres)
• Hosting: Web hosting and content delivery (Vercel)
• Content Delivery, Network Security & Backup Storage: DNS, content delivery, and edge protection for our websites, which processes the network address of every request; and, when available, encrypted backup storage of photos you upload (Cloudflare)
• Email: Transactional and marketing emails (Resend)
• Analytics: Cookieless traffic analytics (Plausible) and anonymous product analytics (PostHog)
• Error Monitoring: Application error and performance monitoring (Sentry)
• Rate Limiting & Caching: Request rate limiting and caching infrastructure (Upstash)
• Credential Safety: Breached-password screening using privacy-preserving partial hashes — your password is never sent (Have I Been Pwned)
• Payments (mobile app, when available): Payment processing for subscriptions and in-app purchases (Apple, Google)
• AI Services: Technical development, research, and some content processing (Anthropic)
• SMS (when available): SMS notifications and OTP verification
• CMS (when available): Content management for blog and informational pages (Sanity.io)
• Advertising Partners: Third-party ad networks and SDK-based advertising services, where applicable (see Section 6.2)

Some parts of TailsTrails hand you off to services we do not control. Where anything travels with you, we say so here; otherwise they receive only what you give them there, and they handle it under their own privacy policies:

• Scheduling: Booking a call or hangout with our team (Cal.com). When we email you a booking link, we pre-fill your email address and first name so you only have to pick a time — those two fields travel to Cal.com in the link. Anything else you enter on their page is between you and them.
• Community Chat: Joining a Pack Leader group chat from a link we send you (WhatsApp, a Meta service). We send them nothing; joining is your choice.

We also name the providers we have selected but are not yet using, so that this policy covers both the web app and the mobile app without being re-issued each time one of them goes live. None of the following processes your data today. If that changes, they move into the list of current providers above and remain bound by the same data processing agreements:

• Payments: Subscription and in-app purchase processing (Stripe; Apple and Google for their app stores; RevenueCat for subscription management)
• SMS and Phone Verification: SMS notifications and one-time passcodes (Twilio)
• Content Management: Blog and informational page content (Sanity.io)
• Maps and Boundaries: Neighborhood and place boundary data for map features (Mapbox)
• Lifecycle Messaging: Marketing and lifecycle email once it moves off our current provider (Customer.io)
• AI Services: Additional model providers for matching and content processing (OpenAI)

As TailsTrails evolves, we may add additional service providers (such as shipping and fulfillment partners for the VIP Leader Box, or a merchandise platform). When we do, we will update this policy and ensure all new providers are bound by data processing agreements that meet the same standards described above.

10.3 For Legal Reasons

We may disclose your information if we believe in good faith that disclosure is necessary to:

• Comply with applicable law, regulation, legal process, or governmental request
• Enforce our Terms of Service or other agreements
• Protect the safety, rights, or property of TailsTrails, our users, or the public
• Detect, prevent, or address fraud, security, or technical issues

10.4 In Business Transfers

If TailsTrails Social Inc. is involved in a merger, acquisition, reorganization, or sale of assets, your personal information may be transferred as part of that transaction. We will provide notice before your personal information is transferred and becomes subject to a different privacy policy.

10.5 With Your Consent

We may share your information with third parties when you explicitly consent, such as when you use the share features to post your avatar card or referral link to social media platforms.

11. Cookies, Analytics, and Tracking Technologies

11.1 What We Use

• Essential Cookies: Session cookies for authentication and maintaining your login state. We may also use functional cookies to remember your preferences (e.g., a light/dark theme choice). We also set two small operational cookies: one recording the country your connection appears to come from, so pages show the right spellings and local details for where you are without a lookup on every request; and, if you arrived through an invitation link, one holding that invitation so it survives signup. Both expire after 30 days.
• Attribution Cookies: If you arrive through a friend's referral link or a marketing campaign link, we set a first-party cookie recording the referral code or how you first found TailsTrails, so we can credit the referral. These cookies expire after 30 days, cannot be read by scripts running in your browser (httpOnly), and are never shared with our analytics providers or with advertisers.
• Traffic Analytics: We use Plausible for cookieless, privacy-friendly aggregate traffic metrics (page views, referrers, and country-level breakdowns). Plausible sets no cookies and processes no personal data, so no cookie banner is required.
• Product Analytics: We use PostHog for anonymous, no-profile product analytics (funnel tracking and feature optimization). PostHog runs in a cookieless mode under a strict zero-PII rule—we never send your email, name, location, or uploaded media—and it sets no analytics cookies.
• Local Storage: We use localStorage for client-side state management (e.g., quiz progress, session flags). If you have an account, we also keep your first name and your dog's name on your device so we can greet you when you come back to sign in. This greeting data expires on its own 90 days after your last visit. This data stays on your device and is not transmitted to our servers except as part of normal Service functionality.
• Advertising Technologies: If TailsTrails integrates third-party ad network SDKs (see Section 6.2), those SDKs may set their own cookies or use device identifiers for advertising purposes. These are separate from TailsTrails's own cookies and are subject to the ad network's privacy policy. You can control these through your device's ad tracking settings and the opt-out mechanisms described in Section 6.4.

11.2 What We Do Not Use

• Our analytics tools set no cookies.
• We do not run session replay or record your screen interactions.
• We do not use our own advertising cookies or tracking pixels to build cross-site profiles.
• We do not participate in real-time bidding.
• We do not build cross-site tracking profiles using first-party data.

Note: If third-party ad network SDKs are integrated into TailsTrails, those networks may use their own tracking technologies as described in Section 6.2. Your device-level opt-out controls and TailsTrails's in-app advertising settings (Section 6.4) govern these technologies.

11.3 Your Choices

You can manage cookies through your browser settings. Disabling essential cookies may affect the functionality of the Service. We do not sell your personal information. We do not currently respond to 'Do Not Track' browser signals. If we ever share personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising (see Section 18), we will honor Global Privacy Control (GPC) signals as a valid opt-out where required by law.

12. Payment Processing

When the mobile app launches, TailsTrails will offer a free and paid subscription tiered program, and may process payments for events, premium features, and merchandise. We do not store your credit card number, bank account details, or other payment credentials on our servers.

All payment processing is handled by trusted third-party payment processors:

• Apple App Store: For iOS in-app purchases
• Google Play Store: For Android in-app purchases

These processors collect and handle your payment information in accordance with their own privacy policies and PCI-DSS compliance standards. We receive only a confirmation of the transaction, a transaction identifier, and the subscription tier purchased. We will never receive your full card number.

13. Data Retention and Deletion

13.1 Active Accounts

We retain your personal information for as long as your account is active and as needed to provide you with the Service. Your dog profiles, posts, referral history, Treats balance, and Pack Leader status are maintained for the duration of your account.

13.2 Account Deletion

You can delete your account at any time through Settings > Danger Zone on your dashboard, or by emailing us at [email protected] — emailed requests are verified and actioned within 30 days. When you request deletion:

• Your account is closed immediately and the Service can no longer be used. For the next 30 days you can still see your deletion notice, request a copy of your data, and contact us.
• You have a 30-day window to contact support to restore your account.
• After 30 days, your personal information—including your profile, dog profiles, posts, photos, and social feed content—is permanently and irreversibly deleted from our active system.
• Photos you uploaded: permanently deleted along with the rest of your account data.
• All email communications are suppressed immediately upon deletion request.
• Backup copies expire on a rolling schedule and are no longer retained within 90 days of the deletion request.

13.3 Anonymized and Aggregated Data

After deletion, we may retain anonymized, aggregated data that can no longer be linked to you or your dog (e.g., neighborhood density statistics, cohort conversion rates). This data is used solely for product improvement and analytics and cannot be used to re-identify you.

13.4 Legal Holds

We may retain certain data beyond the standard deletion timeline where required by law, to resolve disputes, or to enforce our agreements. We will retain only the minimum data necessary and will delete it when the legal obligation expires.

13.5 If You Never Created an Account

We also hold limited personal information from people who interact with TailsTrails without joining — for example, a contact-form message (your name, email, phone number if you provided one, and the message itself), an email address shared with us through a newsletter or waitlist prompt, or the email address of a friend a member invites. We keep each of these only as long as its purpose requires:

• Contact-form messages: deleted 24 months after you send them. Messages reporting a safety concern are kept for 3 years, because we may need them to keep our community safe.
• Newsletter and update emails: kept until you unsubscribe. We don't track whether you open or read what we send — so instead, if we haven't sent anything to your address for 12 months, we delete it.
• Invited friends' emails: if your friend does not create an account, their email is deleted within 90 days (see Section 3.3).

These deletion clocks run automatically. One exception, in your favor: when we delete an unsubscribed email address, we keep a minimal suppression record — an unreadable fingerprint of the address, used for nothing else — so that your unsubscribe is honored permanently. You can unsubscribe from any email we send, at any time, with one click.

14. Your Rights and Choices

We respect your rights over your personal information. Depending on where you live, you may have some or all of the following rights:

14.1 Universal Rights (All Users)

• Access and Correction: You can request access to, or correction of, your profile information, dog profiles, and communication preferences by emailing [email protected].
• Deletion: You can delete your account and all associated data through Settings > Danger Zone, or by emailing [email protected].
• Communication Preferences: You can unsubscribe from all marketing communications using the unsubscribe link in any email we send.
• Location Controls: On the mobile app (launching early 2027), you can enable Ghost Mode, adjust your home privacy zone, and control who sees your information on the map.
• Device Permissions: On the mobile app, you can revoke GPS location permissions through your device settings at any time.
• Advertising Controls: You can opt out of personalized ad targeting by emailing [email protected]. You can also control device-level ad tracking through your iOS or Android privacy settings. See Section 6.4 for full details.
• AI Profiling Controls: On the mobile app, you can opt out of AI-powered matchmaking and, separately, opt out of AI-based commercial content targeting. See Section 5.2 for details.

14.2 Additional Rights by Region

Residents of certain jurisdictions have additional rights. Please see Section 18 (Region-Specific Disclosures) for details specific to California (CCPA/CPRA), the European Economic Area and United Kingdom (GDPR), and Canada (PIPEDA).

14.3 How to Exercise Your Rights

To exercise any of these rights, you can:

• Email us at [email protected]
• Write to us at the address provided in Section 20

We will respond to verified requests within 30 days (or sooner where required by law). We will not discriminate against you for exercising your privacy rights.

15. Children and Age Requirements

TailsTrails is not intended for users under the age of 18. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18 years of age. If we learn that we have inadvertently collected information from a child under 18, we will promptly delete that information and terminate the associated account.

If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child under 18 has provided us with personal information, please contact us at [email protected] and we will take immediate steps to remove it.

16. International Data Transfers

TailsTrails Social Inc. is based in Canada. Our core Service infrastructure — database, authentication, storage, hosting and photo backup — is located in Canada and the United States. Two of our analytics providers process data in the European Union: Plausible, which stores no personal data, and PostHog, which we run on its EU cloud so that product-analytics data stays in the EEA. If you access TailsTrails from anywhere else, your information may be transferred to, stored in, and processed in these locations.

We ensure that any international transfers of personal data are protected by appropriate safeguards, including:

• Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) approved by the European Commission for transfers from the EEA
• The UK International Data Transfer Agreement or Addendum for transfers from the UK
• Data processing agreements with each service provider that processes personal data on our behalf, including data protection obligations at least as protective as those described in this policy
• Canada's adequacy status under GDPR for transfers from the EEA

17. Data Security

We take the security of your information seriously and implement appropriate technical and organizational measures to protect it. These include:

• Encryption in Transit: All data transmitted between your device and our servers is encrypted using TLS 1.2 or higher.
• Encryption at Rest: Personal data is encrypted at rest in our database infrastructure.
• Access Controls: We use Supabase Row Level Security (RLS) policies to ensure users can only access data they are authorized to see.
• Authentication: Non-blocking magic link verification plus email OTP fallback for account security.
• Password Security: Passwords are stored as cryptographic hashes, never in plain text.
• Infrastructure Security: Our hosting infrastructure (Vercel, Supabase) provides automatic scaling, connection pooling, and edge network distribution, with network-level protection provided by Cloudflare — and, when available, encrypted photo backup — to protect against common attacks.

No method of transmission or storage is 100% secure. While we strive to protect your information, we cannot guarantee absolute security. If you become aware of a security vulnerability, please contact us immediately at [email protected].

18. Region-Specific Disclosures

18.1 California Residents (CCPA/CPRA)

If you are a California resident, you have the following additional rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act and California Privacy Rights Act:

• Right to Know: You have the right to know what personal information we collect, use, disclose, and sell or share.
• Right to Delete: You have the right to request deletion of your personal information.
• Right to Correct: You have the right to correct inaccurate personal information.
• Right to Opt Out of Sale/Sharing: TailsTrails does not sell your personal information. However, if we integrate third-party ad network SDKs (see Section 6.2), the device-level data those SDKs collect directly from your device may constitute "sharing" of personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising under CCPA/CPRA. You have the right to opt out of this sharing by emailing [email protected] (see Section 6.4) or through your device's privacy controls. Where such sharing occurs, we honor Global Privacy Control (GPC) signals as a valid opt-out.
• Right to Limit Use of Sensitive Personal Information: We do not use or disclose sensitive personal information for purposes beyond those necessary to provide the Service.
• Non-Discrimination: We will not deny you services, charge different prices, or provide a different quality of service because you exercise your CCPA/CPRA rights.

Categories of personal information we collect (as defined by the CCPA): Identifiers; internet or electronic network activity; geolocation data; audio, electronic, visual, or similar information (photos); inferences drawn from the above to create a profile; and, where third-party ad SDKs are active, information collected for advertising purposes. We do not collect financial information directly (handled by payment processors).

18.2 European Economic Area and United Kingdom (GDPR)

If you are in the EEA or UK, you have the following additional rights under the General Data Protection Regulation:

• Data Portability: You have the right to receive a copy of your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format.
• Restriction of Processing: You have the right to restrict how we process your data in certain circumstances.
• Right to Object: You have the right to object to processing based on legitimate interests, including profiling for matchmaking purposes and profiling for commercial content relevance (see Section 5.3). When you object to commercial relevance profiling, we will cease that processing immediately while maintaining your core matchmaking experience.
• Withdraw Consent: Where we process your data based on consent (including consent for personalized advertising via third-party ad networks), you have the right to withdraw consent at any time without affecting the lawfulness of prior processing.
• Automated Decision-Making: You have the right not to be subject to decisions based solely on automated processing that significantly affect you. Our AI matchmaking and ad targeting provide recommendations only—they do not make binding decisions about you.
• Supervisory Authority: You have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority.

Our representative in the EEA can be contacted at [email protected]. We will appoint a formal representative as required once we have an established user base in the EEA.

18.3 Canada (PIPEDA)

As a Canadian company, TailsTrails Social Inc. complies with the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA). Under PIPEDA, you have the right to:

• Access the personal information we hold about you
• Challenge the accuracy and completeness of your information and have it amended
• Withdraw consent for the collection, use, or disclosure of your personal information (subject to legal or contractual restrictions)
• File a complaint with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada

We collect and process personal information with your knowledge and consent (or as otherwise permitted by PIPEDA), limit collection to what is necessary for identified purposes, and protect information with appropriate safeguards.

19. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, technology, legal requirements, or for other operational reasons. When we make changes:

• We will update the "Last Updated" date at the top of this policy.
• For material changes that affect how we use your personal information, we will provide prominent notice (such as an in-app notification or email to your registered email address) at least 30 days before the changes take effect.
• For material changes that require consent under applicable law, we will obtain your consent before implementing the changes.
• Your continued use of the Service after the effective date of any changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

20. How to Contact Us

If you have questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please contact us:

TailsTrails Social Inc.

Email: [email protected]

Website: tailstrails.app/privacy

For security vulnerabilities, please contact [email protected].

We aim to respond to all privacy inquiries within 30 days.

This Privacy Policy is provided by TailsTrails Social Inc. and applies to the TailsTrails website and mobile application. The policy is written in plain language to be accessible to all users. If there is a conflict between this policy and applicable law, the applicable law will prevail.