Privacy Policy
This policy shows which data we process and how – transparently and comprehensibly.
Only the German version of this text is legally binding.
Responsible Body
Pretty Wau GmbH, Fürstenlandstrasse 170, 9014 St. Gallen, Switzerland · info@dogsy.ch · phone +41 77 502 55 13
Which Data We Process
Account and profile data (name, email, phone, location/postal code, country, offered services, information about the dog), the content of your use as well as technical usage data (device/log data). The content also includes voice messages, that is, audio recordings you make and send in a chat yourself. If you save a search, we keep its criteria (search term, place, radius, filters) so that we can notify you as soon as something matching comes along; you can delete a saved search again at any time. For as long as you use DOGSY we also record the time of your last activity – this produces the «last online» indication, which is visible to other users.
Date of Birth and Age
During registration we ask for your date of birth. We need it in order to recognise whether you are of legal age – individual features and safeguards depend on this. The date of birth itself is held in a protected area and is NOT visible to other users. All that is publicly visible is a note on the profile if someone is not yet of legal age.
Minors
You can use DOGSY from the minimum age that applies in your country. If you have not yet reached the age of majority, you need the consent of your parents or legal guardians. During registration we have you confirm that this consent exists; the confirmation is a precondition for your account. All that is visible to others is the note on the profile that the person is under 18 and is taking part with parental consent. We process this information in order to comply with the statutory minimum age, to be able to evidence the consent of the legal guardians, and to better protect minors. We do not collect any further data about parents or legal guardians – in particular no names, addresses or contact details. Parents and legal guardians may withdraw their consent at any time, informally at info@dogsy.ch. We review the withdrawal and then delete the minor's account together with all associated data. Parents and legal guardians may likewise request access, rectification and erasure on behalf of their child (see «Your Rights»). The minor can also delete their account themselves at any time (app and web: Settings → “Danger zone” (at the very bottom of the page) → “Delete account”). DOGSY is not aimed at children below the applicable country minimum age. If we learn that someone below it holds an account, we delete it.
Purposes
Operation of the platform, establishing contact between users, security/verification, abuse prevention and improvement of the offering.
Messages (privately protected)
Chats are private: access is strictly limited at database level to the parties involved – even the DOGSY team CANNOT view chat content via the platform. The exception is the chat with DOGSY itself: there the team is your counterpart and sees the conversation. Transmission and storage are encrypted. The same applies to voice messages and to images and videos you send in a chat. In the case of reports, only what the reporting person voluntarily shares is evaluated.
Verification With an Identity Document
You can have your profile verified voluntarily in order to receive the «✓ Verified» badge. To do so you upload an image of your identity card or passport and a selfie. Both files end up in a protected storage area that only the DOGSY team can access – other users NEVER see them. We use them solely to check whether the person on the identity document and the person on the selfie match and whether the details fit your profile. After the decision, both files are irreversibly deleted. All that remains is the result of the check (verified, rejected or under review) and the time of it – in the case of a rejection, additionally the reason for it, which is shown to you. If you are rejected you can submit again; deletion after the decision applies in that case too. Verification is voluntary. Without it you can continue to use DOGSY – you merely lack the badge. The legal basis is your consent, which you give by uploading, as well as our interest in a safe platform.
Location During Walk Recording (Including in the Background)
When you record a walk, the app captures your location points (latitude and longitude, accuracy, speed, time) and turns them into the route, distance and duration of that walk. So that the route does not break off when you lock your phone or switch apps, location tracking continues in the background – on Android with a permanently visible notification, on iOS with the system's location indicator. It starts EXCLUSIVELY with a recording you started yourself and ends when you pause, finish or discard it; a restart of the app likewise terminates any leftover tracking. This continuous background tracking does not take place outside a recording. Separate from it are individual location requests that you trigger yourself: when opening a map, when reporting a missing dog or a poison bait, when entering an address, or when you send your location in a chat. Each of these returns a single position and does not continue running. Until you save, the points remain on your device only; the finished walk is stored under your profile and is visible exclusively to you, enforced at database level – unless you expressly share a walk with someone yourself. Sharing a finished walk does NOT expire by itself: it applies until you revoke it, and the revocation takes effect immediately. If, on the other hand, you share your live location in a chat during an ongoing walk, that live sharing is time-limited from the outset. In addition, you can voluntarily make a finished walk public – its route is then visible to other users in the vicinity for as long as you leave it public. You can delete any walk at any time and withdraw the location permission in your phone's settings; only the recording then ceases, the rest of the app continues to work.
Notifications on Your Device
So that notifications reach you (new message, call, warning in your vicinity), we store a delivery key for every device on which you use DOGSY. This includes whether it is an iPhone or an Android device, the device name and the installed app version – the latter only so that we can attribute delivery problems to a particular version. This is NOT an advertising identifier; DOGSY does not use any. From app version 1.0.1, the app also transmits a device identifier when notifications are set up. It lets us recognise older delivery keys of the same device, for example after a reinstall, and stop sending to them. The identifier is calculated on your device as a hash value (SHA-256) from the operating system's device identifier (Android ID, or Apple's identifier for apps from the same provider) and the app's identifier. The original identifier never leaves your device and cannot practically be derived from the hash value. We store the identifier together with the delivery key and use it only to deliver notifications, never for advertising and never to recognise you across other apps or websites. If you delete your account, it is deleted. Sending runs via the service Expo and from there via the delivery services of Apple or Google. In doing so, these services receive the delivery key and the text of the notification. For a new chat message this includes the displayed name of the sender and the beginning of the message text (at most 80 characters) – exactly what can be read on your lock screen. You can switch this preview off: Settings → Notifications → «Push preview». With it off, only a neutral note without a name and without message text goes out. It is switched on by default. The rest of a chat history is never transmitted. You can also switch notifications off entirely at any time, in your device settings or in DOGSY. If you sign out on a device or delete your account, that device's delivery keys are deleted – including the separate key through which calls ring on the iPhone.
Advertising
Only our own advertising is displayed on DOGSY. No third-party ad network is embedded, and no data is passed on to advertisers or data brokers. Which ad you see depends on general criteria: country, language, whether you have entered a dog, and whether you are within the radius the advertiser has chosen for their campaign. For this radius we do NOT use your precise position, but the deliberately coarsened home location from your profile (a grid of roughly 100 metres). Your chats, your messages and your behaviour in the app play no part. So that we can bill correctly and prevent abuse, we record for every ad displayed and clicked which profile saw or clicked it. We need this in order not to charge the same click twice and to detect when someone clicks their own ad. Advertisers NEVER see these details – they receive only totals, that is, how often an ad was seen and clicked and what it cost. When we run ads on Facebook or Instagram ourselves, we tell Meta Platforms Ireland Ltd. via a server interface when an ad has led to a sign-up – so that the ads are only shown to people who actually want to use DOGSY. The only data transmitted are the click identifier from the ad link, your IP address, your browser identifier, the page visited and the campaign name – NOT your name, e-mail address or phone number, not even in encrypted form. No Meta pixel is loaded into your browser and no Meta cookie is set. The legal basis is our legitimate interest in measuring and reducing advertising costs. You avoid this report by signing up directly on dogsy.ch rather than via an ad link.
Payments and Donations
Payments run via our payment service provider Stripe. Your card details NEVER reach DOGSY – you enter them directly with Stripe, we do not receive them at any point and do not store them. To Stripe we transmit only what is necessary for the payment: amount, currency, language and an identifier so that we can assign the payment to your transaction. Back from Stripe we receive the confirmation that a payment has been made, together with the details we need for the receipt and for bookkeeping. We keep donation receipts and invoices for as long as the law requires (ten years in Switzerland). With a donation you decide yourself whether your name is stated or the donation is shown anonymously. There are no payment paths in the apps for iPhone and Android: donations and topping up advertising credit are possible exclusively via the website.
Business Accounts and Contact Persons
Companies that maintain a company profile on DOGSY or place advertising use a business account in the business portal for this. For this purpose we store the company details (name, address, country, VAT number, email address, phone, website, profile texts, logo and images, industries, locations and events), the details of the contact person (name, position, email address, phone), the details of team members the company invites to the business portal (email address, position, phone, role and permissions), the confirmation of email address, phone number and postal address, as well as the business data: campaigns including ad creatives, bids, advertising credit and credit notes, bookings, invoices and billing records. We process these data to run the business account, display the company profile and advertising, bill for services, prevent abuse and reach the company if there are questions. The basis is the contract with the company and our statutory bookkeeping obligations. We keep invoices, billing records, bookings and the other business records and vouchers for ten years from the end of the financial year, as required by Art. 958f of the Swiss Code of Obligations. We keep the other company data for as long as they are needed for billing, records and evidence, and the contact person’s contact details for as long as they are required for billing and records. If the company deletes its business account, the public company profile, the locations in the Guide and the company events are no longer visible with immediate effect. Running campaigns are ended, logo, images and ad creatives are moved from public to non-public storage, and access to the business portal is blocked for the company and its team. The data themselves remain stored internally as described above; they are no longer publicly accessible. Existing chats remain readable for the users involved; the company name appears there marked «deleted». Team members’ personal DOGSY accounts are not affected. The company cannot undo the deletion itself; signing in and registering again with the same address are then only possible via support. Contact persons and team members can request access or the erasure of their personal details at support@dogsy.ch. We then remove their name and direct contact details (personal email address, phone number, position) from the business account or replace them with general details of the company. The company data and the records remain.
Usage Statistics (Pseudonymous)
So that we know which areas are actually used, we record how long you spend in which main area (DOGSYgram, Search, Discover, Messages, Daily, Profile, plus «other» for all remaining screens). Only the following is stored: area, duration in seconds, whether app or website, a random key per app start or page load, and your profile identifier as a pseudonym. NOT stored is any content – no post, no search term, no IP address, no device identifier. Evaluation takes place exclusively in aggregated form (totals, averages, daily curve); a query of «what did person X do» is not provided for. The raw data is deleted automatically after 90 days, and immediately when you delete your account. The purpose is improving the offering; you may object to the evaluation at any time at info@dogsy.ch.
Visitor Counting on the Public Website
On the publicly accessible pages of dogsy.ch we count views in order to see which content is in demand. The signed-in area, the administration area and the advertising area are expressly excluded – we count no page views there; what is counted anonymously there is described in the section «Reading and Search Counters». Only the following is stored: the page called up, how long it was open (visit duration), the country, the city, the type of device (phone or computer), the referring page, for certain buttons – for example «Sign up», «Sign in» or the button for the app on the home page – which button was pressed on which page, and a recognition value calculated from IP address, browser identifier, date and a secret addition. This value changes daily and cannot be calculated back. In addition, from the same details – address, browser identifier, date and the secret addition – we form a second value that changes every month; it likewise cannot be calculated back to your device or your address. Once the month ends, you count as a new visitor. This lets us see how many visitors register over the course of a month – the registration itself is counted only as an event, without any link to your account or your email address. If you reach us via a link with campaign tagging (utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign, utm_content, utm_term) – for example from an ad, a flyer, or a post or invitation shared by a user –, we store only this tag, so we can see which paths lead to us. So that a later registration can be attributed to this path, your browser keeps the tag and the referring page in the storage of the open tab; this is not a cookie, and these details are normally gone when you close the tab. If you then register, we note only the path, not who you are; the tag says nothing about you and is never linked to your account. All of these details are evaluated only in aggregated form, for example as totals per day, page and ad; none of them is attributed to your account or to you as a person. Your IP address itself is not stored, your browser identifier not in plain text, and no link to your account is established. We use NO cookies for this, and we do not use any advertising or tracking cookies either. That is why there is no cookie window on dogsy.ch. Technically necessary cookies do nevertheless exist: they keep you signed in after logging in and remember which profile is currently active. Without them DOGSY could not be operated; no consent is required for them. In addition, a cookie (NEXT_LOCALE) remembers for one year the language you last chose or called up, so that dogsy.ch appears to you in that language; it contains only the language code. On some pages, for example in the search of the knowledge articles and in the feed, dogsy.ch also sets a session cookie (dogsy_mw); it only records whether loading times are measured in this browser session («1» or «0»), contains no identifier and is normally gone once you close the browser (see «Error and Performance Data»). Independently of the visitor counting, we record on your account the way in which you came to DOGSY: via the website, via the app or via a company's referral link or referral code – in that case also which company it was. We need this to attribute referrals correctly, for example so that a company can receive a credit for a successful referral, and for our statistics. The company only sees how many people per quarter registered via its link or code and confirmed their email address, and the credit it receives for this – never your name, your profile or your email address. We do NOT store an ad's campaign tag on your account. If you delete your account, this information is detached from you: for a referral, only a number per quarter remains for the company, without any link to you. You also have a personal invitation link with your own referral code; we store the code with your account. If someone signs up via your link or code, we record on the new account that you invited them, which way they came (link or code, website or app) and when their email address was confirmed. You only ever see numbers – never the names, profiles or email addresses of the people you invited. Anyone who opens your link or enters your code sees your first name and profile picture, unless your profile is hidden; in that case they only see that they were invited. If you open someone's invitation link, your browser remembers their code for up to 30 days in your device's storage so that a later sign-up can be assigned; this is not a cookie. To prevent people from inviting themselves, we compare the two email addresses at sign-up; we store nothing additional for this. If you delete your account, your code and all assignments to you are deleted; if an invited person deletes their account, their assignment is deleted. The legal basis is our legitimate interest in assigning and counting invitations correctly. If you open a company's referral link, your browser remembers its code for up to 30 days in your device's storage, so that a later registration can be attributed to that company; this is not a cookie. A registration via a company's referral link or referral code is different: to protect against abuse – for example a company creating many accounts itself via its own link – we then store your IP address only as an encrypted value, linked to your account and the referring company, for at most 90 days and only to prevent abuse. We form this value from your IP address and a secret addition; it cannot be turned back into the address. We do not store the IP address itself. In the app, this happens at the first sign-in of a device after registration. If more than three accounts with the same value register for the same company within 30 days, our team receives a notice to review it; the company sees nothing of this. The value is deleted after 90 days, and immediately when you delete your account. The legal basis is our legitimate interest in preventing misuse of the referral credit; this also applies if your browser sends «do not track».
Reading and Search Counters
So that we can see which knowledge articles are read and which searches are made, we keep two anonymous daily counters – on the public website and in the signed-in area. For reading: the address of the article, how far it was scrolled (25 to 100 per cent) and whether it was visible for 30, 60 or 180 seconds. For a search: the type of search, whether there were any results and whether a filter was set – we NEVER store your search term. In each case also the language and whether app or website. Both counters know only the calendar day: no time of day, no IP address, no cookie, no identifier of your account. If you are signed in when you search, your country is also included there, but not who you are. What remains are pure totals, for as long as we keep the statistics.
Automated Checking of Uploaded Images and Videos
Some of the images and videos that you upload are automatically checked for prohibited content before publication (among other things nudity, violence and weapons). Checked are: your profile picture, your profile gallery, DOGSYgram posts, photos attached to reviews, images in guide entries and advertising motifs. NOT checked automatically are: photos of your dogs, images and videos you send in a chat, photos attached to poison bait and missing dog reports, event images and the logo of a company profile – poison bait and missing dog reports appear immediately, because there every minute counts. You can report any content; the DOGSY team then looks at it. The automated check is carried out by the service Sightengine. All that is transmitted to it is the address of the file in our file storage, which it fetches in order to check it. Your name does not go with it; the address does, however, contain a technical account identifier – a random character string from which, without our database, neither your name nor any other detail about your profile can be derived. If the check is triggered, the contribution is not published straight away but held back and looked at by a person from the DOGSY team. If the file is harmless, it appears afterwards. In every case you can contact info@dogsy.ch and have the decision reviewed by a person – an automated verdict is never the last word.
Error and Performance Data
If DOGSY crashes or a technical error occurs, the app or the website automatically sends us an error report. It contains the error message, the technical call chain, the information whether it was iPhone, Android or web, the app and operating system version, the rough screen on which it happened, as well as a random identifier of your device. This identifier is a purely random number; it is NOT linked to your account and allows no conclusions about you. Error message and call chain are already cleaned up on your device: email addresses, phone numbers, access keys and identifiers are removed before the report is even sent. With an error report we store neither your name nor your email address, neither your user identifier nor your IP address or your location. In addition we record purely technical measurements, for example how long the feed or a search takes to load and how many results there were – numbers only, without your search terms, without content and without your location, and likewise without any link to your account. Error reports and measurements are used exclusively to find and fix errors and to make DOGSY faster; they go to no external service and are deleted after 90 days.
Service Providers and Transfer Abroad
For operations we use processors that process data only on our instructions: Supabase (database, file storage, sign-in), Vercel (hosting of website and interfaces), Stripe (payments and donations), Resend (sending emails), Sightengine (automated checking of uploaded images and videos), MapTiler (map display on the website; address search and location lookup in the app and on the website are routed through our servers), Google (map rendering in the Android app), Apple (map rendering in the iOS app), swisstopo/GeoAdmin (address search in Switzerland; via our servers), Photon/OpenStreetMap (address search only in older app versions up to 1.0.0, directly from the device), Cloudflare (relaying voice and video calls) and Expo (sending push notifications via the services of Apple and Google). For postal codes in Germany and Austria we use data from GeoNames.org (licence CC BY 4.0). For postal codes in Switzerland and Liechtenstein we use the official directory of localities of Switzerland and the Principality of Liechtenstein from the Federal Office of Topography (source: ©swisstopo). The map section you are currently viewing is transmitted to the map services in each case. Some of these providers are based in the USA or process data there. The transfer is based on the standard contractual clauses of the EU Commission in conjunction with the safeguards recognised by the Swiss Federal Council, as well as on the data processing agreements with the respective provider. Our database and our file storage are located in Switzerland (Zurich); the servers on which the website and the interfaces run are located in the EU (Frankfurt). No data is passed on for advertising purposes. We do not sell any data and do not pass any data to data brokers.
Legal Bases
Processing under the Swiss Data Protection Act (revDSG) and, where applicable, the EU GDPR.
Security & Storage Location
Data is transmitted and stored in encrypted form. Database and file storage are located in Switzerland (Zurich), the servers for the website and the interfaces in the EU (Frankfurt). Access according to the principle of least privilege.
Retention
We process data only for as long as is necessary for the stated purposes or for legal obligations. In detail: account, profile, dog data, content and walks remain for as long as your account exists – you can delete individual content and walks yourself at any time. Identity document and selfie from the verification: until the decision, then irreversible deletion. Raw data of the usage statistics: 90 days, immediately when you delete your account. Delivery keys for notifications: until the device is signed out or the account is deleted. Receipts and invoices: ten years, as the law requires. For business accounts, the section «Business Accounts and Contact Persons» applies. Visitor counting of the website: in aggregated form, without reference to a person. Origin of your account (website, app or a company's referral): for as long as your account exists; a referral then remains only as a number per quarter without any link to you. Value derived from the IP address when registering via a referral (abuse protection): 90 days, immediately when you delete your account. When you delete your account, your personal details, content and images are deleted – among them your profile, your dogs including the dog record, your DOGSYgram posts and also the reviews you yourself wrote about others. Reviews that OTHERS wrote about you remain; they belong to the people who wrote them. Your conversations are NOT deleted: chats and messages remain, so that the history does not fall apart for the other person. What remains of your account is a residual marker indicating that this account existed. It deliberately still contains your displayed name, so that the other party can see in the chat who they wrote with; it is shown with the addition «(account deleted)». All other personal details are removed, and no one can sign in with this account any more.
Your Rights
You are entitled at any time to information, rectification, erasure, restriction as well as data portability. Contact: info@dogsy.ch. You can also delete your account yourself at any time (App/Web: Settings → “Danger zone” (at the very bottom of the page) → “Delete account”) – details at dogsy.ch/konto-loeschen. For questions about data protection you can reach us at info@dogsy.ch or in writing at Pretty Wau GmbH, Fürstenlandstrasse 170, 9014 St. Gallen, Switzerland. If you are not satisfied with our answer, you can lodge a complaint with the Swiss Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC), Feldeggweg 1, 3003 Bern. If you live in the European Union, you additionally have the right to lodge a complaint with the data protection authority of your country of residence.
As of: October 2026 · Pretty Wau GmbH, St. Gallen