Privacy Policy

1. Information We Collect

We collect several types of information to provide and improve our Service:

Personal Information

When you create an account, we collect your name, email address, username, password, gender, date of birth, profile photograph, phone number, and postal address. Service providers (veterinarians, groomers, pet shop owners, trainers, and house sitters) additionally provide their business name, business address, working hours, professional qualifications, and service offerings with pricing.

Pet Information

We collect information about your pets, including name, species, breed, gender, date of birth, weight, photographs, microchip number, passport number, and medical records (vaccinations, medications, treatments, and veterinary notes). This information is used to facilitate pet care services and maintain health records.

Location Data

With your consent, we collect your device's geographic location to help you find nearby pet services, calculate distances to service providers, and display relevant results on maps. You may disable location services at any time through your device settings, though this may limit certain features of the Service.

Device and Technical Information

We automatically collect device information including device brand, model, operating system type, and a unique device identifier. We also collect login and logout timestamps, IP addresses, browser type, and app version. This data helps us maintain security, diagnose technical issues, and improve the Service.

Usage Data

We collect information about how you interact with the Service, including pages and screens visited, features used, search queries, booking history, and the dates and times of your activity. This data is collected through Firebase Analytics and is used to understand usage patterns and improve our Service.

2. How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect for the following purposes:

• To provide, operate, and maintain the Service, including matching pet owners with service providers, processing appointment bookings, and facilitating communication between users.
• To manage your account, verify your identity, and authenticate your access to the Service.
• To send you important notifications, including appointment confirmations, booking status updates, reminders, and security alerts via push notifications, email, or SMS.
• To analyze usage trends, monitor the performance of our Service, diagnose technical issues, and develop new features.
• To detect, prevent, and address fraud, abuse, security incidents, and other harmful activity.
• To comply with applicable legal obligations and enforce our Terms of Use.
• To respond to your requests, questions, and provide customer support.

3. Data Sharing and Third-Party Services

We do not sell your personal information to third parties. We may share your information in the following circumstances:

Service Providers Within the Platform

When you book an appointment or initiate contact with a service provider (veterinarian, groomer, pet shop, trainer, or house sitter), your relevant profile information and pet details are shared with that provider to fulfil the service. Service providers can view your name, contact information, and the pet information relevant to the appointment.

Third-Party Service Providers

We use the following third-party services to operate our platform:

• Firebase (Google) — for analytics, crash reporting, push notifications, and performance monitoring. Firebase may collect device identifiers and usage data in accordance with Google's privacy policy.
• Google Maps — for displaying maps, geocoding addresses, and calculating distances between users and service providers.
• MessageBird — for sending SMS verification messages and notifications.
• Content Delivery Network (CDN) — for storing and serving uploaded images (profile photos, pet photos, and service-related images).

Legal Requirements

We may disclose your information if required to do so by law, in response to a valid legal request, or to protect the rights, property, or safety of Lipolu, our users, or the public.

4. Data Storage and Security

Your data is stored on secure servers. We use MongoDB as our database system and a dedicated CDN for media files. All data transmissions between your device and our servers are encrypted using HTTPS/TLS protocols.

Chat messages between users are encrypted using AES encryption to protect the confidentiality of your conversations. User passwords are securely hashed and never stored in plain text.

We use JSON Web Tokens (JWT) for secure authentication. Sessions are managed through encrypted tokens with defined expiration periods.

While we implement commercially reasonable security measures to protect your information, no method of transmission over the Internet or method of electronic storage is 100% secure. We cannot guarantee the absolute security of your data.

5. Your Rights

Depending on your location, you may have the following rights regarding your personal information:

• Right of Access — You may request a copy of the personal information we hold about you.
• Right of Rectification — You may update or correct inaccurate information through your account settings or by contacting us.
• Right of Deletion — You may request the deletion of your account and associated personal data. Upon account deletion, we will remove your personal information, subject to any legal retention obligations.
• Right of Data Portability — You may request your personal data in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format.
• Right to Withdraw Consent — Where we rely on your consent to process personal data, you may withdraw that consent at any time. This does not affect the lawfulness of processing based on consent before its withdrawal.
• Right to Object — You may object to the processing of your personal data for direct marketing purposes or other legitimate interests.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at support@lipolu.com. We will respond to your request within 30 days.

6. Cookies and Local Storage

Our web platform uses cookies and local storage for the following purposes:

• Authentication — We store authentication tokens in cookies to keep you signed in across sessions.
• Language Preferences — We store your selected language (English or Greek) to provide the interface in your preferred language.
• Translation Cache — We cache translation data in local storage for up to 24 hours to improve performance.
• Theme Preferences — We store your dark/light mode preference to provide a consistent visual experience.

The mobile application uses local device storage (shared preferences) for similar purposes, including authentication tokens, language settings, and application preferences.

7. Children's Privacy

Our Service is not directed to children under the age of 16. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 16. If you are a parent or guardian and believe that your child has provided us with personal information, please contact us at support@lipolu.com and we will take steps to delete such information from our systems.

8. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, technology, legal requirements, or other factors. When we make material changes, we will notify you by updating the "Last Updated" date at the top of this page and, where appropriate, through a notification in the app or via email. Your continued use of the Service after such changes constitutes your acceptance of the updated Privacy Policy.

9. Contact Us

If you have any questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please contact us at: