Privacy policy

1. What Fetch is

Fetch is a booking and client-management platform for council-licensed dog daycare, boarding, walking and grooming businesses. This policy covers data handled by the Fetch platform itself.

2. What we collect

From businesses using Fetch: business and contact details, licence information, prices, and bank details for showing on invoices. From their clients: name, email address, phone number, postal address, emergency contact details, and booking dates, submitted when signing up or requesting a booking.

About your dog: name, breed, date of birth, sex, weight, microchip number, neutering status, vet details, allergies and medication, and any notes you add. You may also upload a photo of your dog and a copy of their vaccination record or other paperwork. These files are stored by Google Firebase Storage and are visible to the dog-care business you are booked with.

3. Bank connections

A business may optionally connect their bank account so Fetch can see when a client payment has arrived and mark the matching invoice as paid. This access is read-only: Fetch can see transactions but can never move, send, or spend money. The business connects by logging into their own bank's website directly; Fetch never sees or stores their banking password. Bank transaction data retrieved this way is used only to match payments to invoices and is not shared with anyone else.

4. Where data is stored

Records are stored using Google Firebase (Firestore for records, Authentication for logins, and Storage for photos and uploaded documents). Emails are sent via Resend. Bank connections are made through FreeAgent, which reads the account through the bank's own Open Banking feed. The site is hosted on Vercel, and uses Vercel Analytics and PostHog (EU) to understand how it is used (section 5). Data may be processed on servers outside the UK by these providers as part of their standard infrastructure.

In short, the companies that handle data for Fetch are: Google Firebase (accounts, the database, photos and documents, and notifications to your phone), Vercel (hosting and simple visit counts), Resend (the emails Fetch sends), PostHog (how Fetch is used, section 5), Stripe (card and bank payments, section 9) and FreeAgent (a business's own bank feed, section 3). Fetch does not sell your data.

5. Recording how Fetch is used

We use PostHog, hosted in the EU, to record how the Fetch app and website are used, so we can see what works, what confuses people and what breaks, and make Fetch better. This includes screen recordings of your visit: the pages you open, what you tap and type, and what was on the screen. If you are signed in, it is linked to your account (your name, email, and your business or the business you book with) so we can help you if something goes wrong.

Passwords and bank or card details are never recorded. Password boxes, one-time codes, card details, a business's bank details and bank connection, the bank details on invoices and a business's contract are hidden before anything leaves your device.

Screen recordings are kept for up to 90 days. The record of which pages were opened and which buttons were pressed is kept for up to 12 months. Both are then deleted.

We do this on the basis of our legitimate interests in running and improving Fetch. You can object at any time and we will stop. If you have an account, switch on Don't record my use of Fetch in your account settings (on your account page for dog owners, in Settings for businesses). It is saved to your account, so it applies on every phone and computer you sign in on. Without an account, you can stop it on this device here:

In the Fetch iPhone app, none of this happens unless you agree. The first time you sign in, the app asks “Help us improve Fetch?” and only counts which screens are used if you press Allow. If you press No thanks, nothing is sent. Inside the app Fetch never records the screen or what you type, and your name and email are not sent to PostHog: only an anonymous account number is. You can change your mind at any time with Don't record my use of Fetch in your account settings.

6. How long it is kept

Your account details, your dog's records, photos and uploaded documents are kept for as long as your account exists. If you delete your account, they are deleted, except for the two kinds of record below.

Invoices are kept afterwards, with your name and contact details removed from them. A business is required to keep its own financial records for tax purposes, so the amounts and dates remain in their books even once you are no longer identifiable on them.

Dog-care businesses are licensed by their council, and the licence requires them to keep their records for 3 years. So when you delete your account, the business you booked with keeps, for 3 years from that day: your dog's details for its register (name, breed, date of birth, sex, whether neutered, microchip, your name, postal address, phone and email, the emergency contact, the vet, medical, behaviour and diet notes, and the vaccination date), the days your dog was booked in, and its register of walks and arrival and collection times. These records are locked: you can't see them, and nobody, including the business, can change them. The business can still read them, for example to show its licensing inspector. After 3 years they are deleted automatically.

7. Deleting your account

You can delete your account yourself, at any time, from your account page. There is a Delete my account option at the bottom. It removes your login, your app notifications, the contact details on your account, your dogs' photos and every document you uploaded, and cancels any bookings still to come so the business knows not to expect your dog. The licence records described in section 6 are kept, locked, for 3 years, and the deletion screen tells you what they are. This cannot be undone.

If you run a dog-care business on Fetch, you can ask for your business account to be deleted in the app: open Menu, then Settings, and choose Delete my business account. Because a business holds its clients' records, a person at Fetch completes the deletion within 7 days and emails you when it is done.

8. Who can see what

A business can see their own clients' details and bookings, and their own bank connection status. Clients can see their own booking details. The Fetch team can see the usage records and screen recordings described in section 5. Fetch does not sell or share personal data with third parties beyond the service providers listed above.

When a business records your dog's arrival, collection or walks, Fetch saves the time from its own clock and which login made the entry. If an entry is changed later, the earlier value is kept too, so the record shows what was changed, when and by whom. The business can see this history; it can't change or delete it.

9. Payments (Stripe)

When a dog owner pays a dog-care business for care through Fetch, or a business sets up to receive those payments, the card or bank details are collected and held by Stripe, a payment company, on its own secure pages. Fetch never sees or stores your card number or bank login. Fetch is told only whether a payment worked, how much it was and which bill it was for. Stripe has its own privacy policy. The payment is between you and the business, for the care it provides.

10. Notifications on your phone

In the iPhone app you can choose to turn on notifications about bookings and messages. If you do, your phone gives Apple's notification service and Google Firebase Cloud Messaging a notification token (a long code that identifies your phone, not you), which Fetch keeps against your account so it can send them. The app asks first, in its own words, and only when you press Turn on does your phone show its own question. You can turn them off at any time in the iPhone Settings app, under Fetch, then Notifications. Signing out removes this phone's token.

11. What Fetch keeps on your device

To keep you signed in, Fetch saves a login token and a session in your browser or app (cookies and local storage). It also remembers small choices, such as that you have seen a tour, that you chose Not now for notifications or that you chose not to be recorded. These stay on your device and are used only to run Fetch. Vercel Analytics counts visits without cookies. PostHog (section 5) is the only usage tool, and in the iPhone app it is off until you agree.

12. Contact

You can delete your own account and data from your account page (section 7). For anything else, such as a copy of your data, a correction, or a question about this policy, contact the dog-care business you booked with, or email hello@fetchthedog.com.