Privacy policy

1Who we are

dogwalking.pt processes your data as the data controller. Contact for anything about personal data: filipe@dogwalking.pt.

2What we keep

• Account: name, email, phone, language, password (encrypted).
• Home (owners only): address, keys and access instructions, home notes, vet, emergency contact. The door code and key instructions are stored encrypted.
• Dogs: name, profile (personality, behaviour with people and animals, fears, whether it has bitten, health, allergies, medication, vaccinations, microchip, emergency instructions, food, routine, walking habits, whether it may go off the lead) and photos. Before accepting, the walker sees the profile without contact details or the microchip number.
• Bookings: service, dates, times, dogs, messages, keys record, cancellations and any incidents the walker records (bites, injuries, a dog running off), shared with the owner and the team.
• Reports: checklist, notes and up to 3 photos per walk, visit or night, start and end times.
• Reviews: those owners leave walkers (public, on the profile) and those walkers leave clients after 3 services (stars and a short text). These are not public: only the client and the walkers the client sends a request to can see them. Both stay hidden until both sides have written, or 14 days. The client can ask the team to check a review they think is wrong.
• Cancellations after acceptance: how many bookings you cancelled after a walker accepted your first request, shown to the walkers you send new requests to, so they know what to expect.
• Walkers' refund requests: the reason and the text the walker writes, read only by the team.
• Walk location: while a walk is under way, the GPS position of the walker's phone (never the owner's), to show the route live and in the report, with the duration and distance. It is recorded only between the start and the end of the walk.
• Walkers: in addition to the account, photo, introduction, areas, services, prices, group walk times, experience, languages, the vetting details (for the "Identity confirmed" badge, the link to the video introduction the walker sends us and, only until the team decides, a copy of an identity document, kept in a private folder only the team can open), the commission and credits record and tax details (NIF, date of birth, tax address), which the law (DAC7) requires us to report to the tax authority.
• Invitations: who invited whom.
• Requests to partners (such as insurance or relocation): what you wrote in the form. Sent to the partner only with your consent, and deleted after 12 months.
• Technical: IP address (only to limit form submissions, stored hashed for one hour) and language preferences.
• Waiting list: the email you leave for an area with no walkers yet. It is used only for one notice, and deleted after it or after 12 months.
• Contact messages: the name, email, topic and message you send through the Contact page. They go to the team by email and are not stored on the site; they stay in the mailbox for as long as they are needed to reply and follow up.
• Confirmations: when you create an account, ask for a service or accept a request, which confirmation you ticked, when, and the version of the terms, to be able to show the agreement. Kept while the account exists and, for bookings, as long as the booking is kept.
• Statistics: we count visits per page and per day, and which site they came from, with no cookies, nothing stored in your browser and no IP address kept. If your browser asks not to be tracked, we do not count.
• Business listings we make: some directory listings are created by dogwalking.pt from the information the business itself publishes (name, address, phone, website, contact email and opening hours), with the source shown. The business can claim the listing or ask us to remove it at any time, and we remove it.
• A business's QR code: if you arrive through the poster or card of a vet, shop or other business, we keep for 24 hours, with the hashed IP address, which business you came from, to tell it how many accounts and first bookings it brought. The business only sees numbers, never who.
• The dog's professionals: the trainer, vet or other professional you link to your dog sees the dog's name and your first name, and can leave notes that stay on the dog's profile for the walkers. You can unlink them at any time, and the notes go with them.
• Lost and found dogs: the notice you post (photo, the dog's name, area, where and when, description) is public for 30 days or until you remove it. For a dog found during a walk we also keep the approximate spot (about 100 metres), shown on a map. Walkers in that area and people who asked for alerts get a notice. Anyone with information writes to you through the site: your contact details are never public, and the message reaches you by email.
• How you found us: the answer you choose when you sign up or apply as a walker, so we know which channels work.

3What for

To put owners and walkers in touch, make and follow bookings, show the owner the route of each walk, send the service emails (confirmations, reminders, reports, alerts), vet walkers, work out the commission and credits and respond when something goes wrong.

The legal basis is our contract with you and, for vetting and safety alerts, our legitimate interest in keeping the service safe.

Walkers' tax details and reports of illegal content are handled under a legal obligation (DAC7 and the Digital Services Act). Phone notifications, requests to partners and the use of your dog's photos on the site depend on your consent, which you can withdraw at any time.

4Who we share with

• With a walker you send a request to: before they accept, your first name, the request, the dogs' profiles, the reviews other walkers left you and how often you cancelled after acceptance (no contact details); once they accept, your name, phone and address, the keys and home notes.
• With the owner: the walker's name, photo, phone and public profile, and the route of each walk with their dog.
• The GPS route of a walk is shared only with the dog's owner. On group walks, each owner sees the route without the first and last 150 metres, so nobody learns where the other dogs live.
• With our hosting and email providers, who process data on our behalf. Walk maps use OpenStreetMap or another map provider, which receives your browser's request for the areas to display (with the IP address, as any website does).
• With our payment provider (ifthenpay, Portugal), only for walkers who buy credits or Premium: the amount, the payment reference and, for MB WAY, the phone number used.

We do not sell data or use it for third-party advertising.

5For how long

• GPS routes: 90 days, then deleted; the duration and distance stay on the report.
• Walker applications that are never approved: the tax number, date of birth and tax address are deleted after 12 months.
• Report photos: 365 days, then deleted.
• Bookings and reports (without photos or routes): while the account exists, for the history, the commission and credits.
• Requests without an account: 12 months.
• Copy of the identity document sent for the "Identity confirmed" badge: deleted as soon as the team decides, and never later than 30 days; only the date is kept.
• Walker vetting details: while the profile is active, and 12 months after.
• Tax details: as long as tax and accounting law requires.
• Client reviews, the record of cancellations after acceptance and the video introduction link: while the account exists. Walkers' refund requests: with the booking they concern.

6Reports

If you report a profile, we keep your email, the reason, your text and our decision, to look into the report, reply to you and answer any complaint from the walker. The walker does not see who reported them. We delete reports 2 years after the decision.

7Clients recorded by walkers

A walker can record on dogwalking.pt clients of their own who have no account. For that data the walker is the controller; dogwalking.pt processes it on the walker's behalf, only to provide the site's tools, and deletes it when the walker deletes it or closes their account.

If you are one of those clients, you can exercise your rights with the walker or write to us at filipe@dogwalking.pt, and we will pass the request on.

8Your rights

You can see and correct your data in your account and delete it under My account → Home and contacts (walkers: under Profile, with our help), or ask us by email: access, rectification, erasure, restriction, portability and objection.

You may complain to the CNPD (www.cnpd.pt). When you delete your account, we remove your personal data, dogs, photos and messages; bookings stay in the walker's history without your name, and reviews you wrote stay published as "Former client".

9Cookies and browser storage

• Session (wordpress_logged_in and similar): only when you sign in, to keep you signed in. Necessary.
• Invitation (dw_ref, 30 days): only if you press "Keep the invitation" after opening a friend's link, so we know who invited you.
• App notice (dw_app_hint, in browser storage): remembers that you closed the notice about installing the app.
• Walk in progress (only on the walker's phone): GPS points recorded without signal are kept in the browser until they are sent.

The language is in the address (?lang=en), not in a cookie. No advertising or third-party analytics cookies.

10The app and notifications

The dogwalking.pt app is the site itself, installed on your home screen (from the browser or from Google Play). It collects nothing beyond what this policy describes.

• Notifications: if you turn them on, we keep the delivery address your browser creates for this device (and the type of device), and send the alerts through your browser's push service (Google, Apple or Mozilla), which only carries the encrypted message. Turn them off in your phone's settings; when you sign out, we stop sending to that device.
• Location: only the walker's app asks for it, and only during a walk the walker has started. Owners never share their location.
• Camera and photos: only when you choose a photo to send (a report, a dog, a profile).
• On the device: the app keeps copies of the site's styles, scripts and icons so it opens faster (never account pages or personal data), and remembers the notices you closed.
• Uninstalling the app does not delete your account. To delete the account and its data, see "Your rights" or write to filipe@dogwalking.pt.

11Businesses in the directory

For each business we keep the name, category, area, address, phone, website, tax number, the contact person's name and email, and the full profile payments. The name, address, phone and, with a full profile, the website, customer email, opening hours and description are public. The tax number and account email are not.

We keep this data while the business is in the directory; payments, for as long as tax law requires. The contact person can ask for a copy or for the page to be deleted.