Your pet's data is yours.
This page explains — in plain words, not legal fog — what VetCheck collects, what we don't, and what you can do about it.
i. Quick summary
If you read nothing else:
- We collect what we need to run the app: your email to sign you in, your pet's profile (name, species, age, weight, health history you choose to enter), and the assessments you generate.
- We never sell your data. We don't run a personalized ad network. We don't use your information to build advertising profiles.
- We never use your pet's assessments to train any AI model — ours or anyone else's. Our model provider is contractually bound to the same rule.
- Pet photos you upload (optional, for profile avatars) live only as long as you keep them. They are never used for face recognition or animal identification.
- You can delete your account at any time. Everything — profiles, assessments, photos — is erased within 30 days.
01 What we collect
Information you give us
- Account: email address, optional display name.
- Pet profile: name, species (cat or dog), date of birth, sex, breed, weight, indoor/outdoor lifestyle, vaccination status, chronic conditions, current medications, known allergies — only the fields you choose to fill in.
- Pet photo (optional): a profile avatar. Stored encrypted; never analyzed.
- Assessments: the symptoms you report, the answers to follow-up questions, free-text notes you write, the AI's urgency read, and any follow-up check-ins you submit.
- Saved vet contacts: phone numbers and addresses you save for one-tap calling.
- Support correspondence: what you write to us, kept so we can follow up.
Information collected automatically
- Device info: OS version, device model, app version, preferred language. Used for compatibility and crash reports.
- Crash logs: anonymous stack traces. No pet data, no personal content.
- Usage analytics: which screens you open, aggregated and anonymized. No assessments, no notes, no pet names are sent. Toggleable in Settings → Privacy → Share usage analytics.
- Approximate location (optional): only if you use the "find nearest vet" feature, and only at that moment. Not stored.
What we do not collect
- Your contacts, microphone, or precise GPS location.
- Third-party advertising identifiers (IDFA, AAID). We have no ad SDKs.
- Photos beyond the optional pet avatar you choose to upload.
- Biometric identifiers of any kind — pet or human.
02 Pet health information
This is the piece most owners care about, so we'll be specific.
How it's stored
- Pet profiles and assessments are stored on your device by default. If you sign in, they sync — encrypted in transit (TLS 1.3) and at rest (AES-256) — to your account so you can restore them on a new phone.
- If you use VetCheck without signing in, nothing leaves your phone except the symptom payload sent to our AI for the assessment itself (see below).
How AI assessments work
- When you start an assessment, the symptoms you select and the questionnaire answers are sent to our AI pipeline over TLS.
- The pipeline returns the urgency read and the written summary. The conversation is held briefly in a processing queue.
- The full transcript of any single assessment is deleted from the model provider's servers within 24 hours. We retain only the structured result (symptoms list, urgency score, summary) in your account.
- Your assessments are never used to train any AI model. Our model provider is contractually bound to a no-training, no-retention data-processing agreement.
What we do with this data, in one sentence
We use it only to make VetCheck work for you — show your history, run follow-ups, and generate the PDF report you send to your vet. That's it.
03 How we use it
- To run the app: run assessments, save your history, send follow-up notifications, generate vet-ready PDF reports.
- To sync your data across your signed-in devices.
- To communicate with you: account security, replies to your support requests, and an optional short newsletter.
- To improve VetCheck: understand which features are helpful, fix bugs, plan what to build next — from aggregated, anonymized analytics, not from your assessments.
- To comply with law where required.
We do not use your data to train third-party AI models, build advertising profiles, or sell to data brokers. We do not perform automated decision-making about you under GDPR Article 22 — the AI assessment is about your pet's symptoms, you remain in control of the next step, and we always recommend a human vet for medical decisions.
04 What we share
As little as possible, only with processors we've vetted:
- Cloud infrastructure — encrypted storage and app delivery (EU & US regions).
- AI model provider — processes assessment requests under a no-retention, no-training data-processing agreement.
- Authentication — email magic-link sign-in and optional Apple/Google sign-in.
- Payment processing — App Store and Google Play handle subscriptions. We never see your card details.
- Crash reporting — anonymous traces, no content.
- Map providers — Apple Maps (iOS) and Google Maps (Android) for the "find nearest vet" feature. They see only your approximate location at the moment you use it.
Each has a data-processing agreement with us and may only use your data to provide their service to VetCheck. A full sub-processor list is available on request from privacy@vetcheck.app.
05 Storage & security
Your data is encrypted in transit (TLS 1.3) and at rest (AES-256). Assessment transcripts live only in an ephemeral processing queue at the model provider; the structured result is stored in your account, encrypted at rest.
We retain data only while your account is active. On account deletion, all personal data is removed from production within 30 days and from backups within 90 days. Anonymous aggregate analytics may be retained indefinitely.
VetCheck is built by a small team in Istanbul, and data is primarily stored in the EU (Frankfurt) with a US replica for signed-in users outside Europe.
06 Your rights
Wherever you live, you can:
- Access a copy of your data — export it from Settings → Privacy → Export my data.
- Correct any inaccurate information (email, pet profile fields).
- Delete your account and all associated data.
- Object to analytics — toggle it off in Settings → Privacy.
- Port your data as JSON.
Under GDPR (EU/UK), CCPA/CPRA (California), KVKK (Turkey), and similar frameworks elsewhere, you also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority.
07 Children
VetCheck is not intended for anyone under 13, and in regions where a higher age applies (e.g. 16 in parts of the EU), not under that age either. If you believe a child has given us information, email privacy@vetcheck.app and we will delete it.
08 Changes to this policy
If we make a material change to this policy, we will notify you in the app and by email (if you're signed in) at least 30 days before it takes effect. Smaller clarifications will simply update the "last updated" date above.
09 Contact
Questions about this policy, a data request, or a concern about how your information is handled?
Write to privacy@vetcheck.app. We answer every message — usually within two business days.
VetCheck Labs · Cihangir, Istanbul · Türkiye · a very small company that cares about your pet