Privacy Policy

Last updated: 18 April 2026

PawSeeBility (“the app”) is a local-first Flutter application that turns a photo of your companion’s paw into a playful AI-generated reading. This policy explains what data the app handles, where that data lives, and which third parties see any of it.

Short version: every photo, reading, walk, note, and preference is stored on your device only. We don’t run servers that see your data. The only outbound transmissions are to OpenAI (to generate a reading) and to Mapbox (to load map tiles for the Walks feature), both triggered by you.

Who we are

PawSeeBility is a personal project by John Knipper. You can reach us through the contact page.

Photos and readings

• Photos you capture or pick are stored locally on your device inside the app’s private storage (the attachment store), never uploaded to a PawSeeBility server — we don’t operate one.
• When you ask for a reading, the photo bytes and a text prompt are sent directly from your device to the OpenAI API over HTTPS. OpenAI’s use of those bytes is governed by OpenAI’s privacy policy.
• The generated reading text is saved locally in the app’s history. Deleting a reading or uninstalling the app removes it.

OpenAI API key (bring-your-own-key)

PawSeeBility uses the bring-your-own-key model: you paste your own OpenAI API key in Settings. The key is stored locally in SharedPreferences on your device (unencrypted on web) and sent with each request to OpenAI. It is never transmitted to us, and we have no way to read it.

Location (Walks feature)

• When you start a walk, the app collects GPS samples via the operating system’s location service and stores them locally as part of that walk.
• Location samples are never transmitted to a PawSeeBility server — we don’t have one. They stay in the app’s local database on your device.
• Map tiles are loaded from Mapbox (see below). Mapbox receives the coordinates needed to fetch the right tiles.
• Background location is used only while a walk is actively recording, and surfaces via a persistent notification on Android so you can always see it’s on. Stopping the walk stops the tracking.

Third parties

• OpenAI — receives photo bytes + text prompts when you request a reading, using your own API key. See their privacy policy.
• Mapbox — receives the coordinate tiles you view on the Walks map. Mapbox may log IP address and device identifiers for abuse prevention and analytics. See their privacy notice.
• Google Play / Apple App Store — if you installed the app from one of these stores, the store operator sees your download and may collect crash reports under their own policies.

What we don’t do

• No analytics SDKs. No Firebase. No Mixpanel.
• No advertising, no tracking pixels, no third-party scripts on this page.
• No account, no login, no cloud sync (yet). If that changes, this policy will change with it.

Your data, your choice

• Delete individual readings from History, delete pets from Profile, or clear the local database from Settings → Developer → Reset.
• Uninstalling the app permanently removes every photo, reading, walk, and preference stored on your device.
• Because no data leaves your device (except the transient OpenAI + Mapbox calls described above), there is no PawSeeBility server-side copy to request a deletion of.

Children

PawSeeBility is not directed at children under 13. The AI readings are written for adult readers even when the subject is a pet.

International users

Because the app is local-first, most GDPR and CCPA obligations don’t apply to us — we are neither a controller nor a processor of your data. When you call OpenAI or Mapbox, you are acting as your own data controller. Their privacy policies govern their processing.

Changes to this policy

If we add server-side features, analytics, or any other capability that changes what data we see, this page will be updated and the “Last updated” date at the top will change.

Contact

Questions, requests, or corrections: reach us here.