Your information in OurCat

What you provide

Your email address and password to create an account. Cat profiles and practical information, such as the cat's name, care notes, vet details, microchip number and optional pet-insurance provider and policy reference. Care records, reminders and preferences. Optional photos. Your optional display name and telephone number, and the names, relationships, phone numbers or email addresses you choose to enter for vets, carers or emergency contacts. OurCat does not read your phone's address book.

Care notes and other free-text fields can contain personal information if you type it, including information about other people. Enter only information you are comfortable sharing with the authorised carers of that cat.

Outdoor records can include a location description that you type about your cat. OurCat does not use your phone's location for that feature, and the description is not an automatic report of where your phone is. The Android closed test offers email and password sign-in only. Google sign-in is not available.

Information used to run the service

The app generates identifiers, timestamps, the cat's home time zone, membership and access state, reminder completions, upload details and deletion-request status.

OurCat uses Google Firebase to sign you in, store and synchronise records and photos, run protected backend features and deliver notifications. To do this, Firebase processes your account identifier and email address, and also:

• a Firebase installation identifier and a notification-delivery token;
• IP addresses;
• app version and device and software information;
• the name of the backend feature the app asks it to run.

Firebase creates the installation identifier and delivery token automatically when the app starts. Refusing notification permission stops notifications from being shown, but it does not stop these identifiers being created.

Limited account-scoped information can be stored on your phone, including unfinished care updates and reminder preferences. A care update saved on the phone while you are offline is sent to the cloud when connectivity returns.

The app also remembers which cat you last selected, so that after a restart it can reopen on that cat once your access has been confirmed. This choice is kept only on your phone, in the app's secure storage, separately for each account, and is not sent to our servers. It is forgotten when you sign out, and when OurCat finds that your access to that cat has ended or been refused, that the cat has been deleted or that your account has been deleted. It is never used to show a cat you can no longer access.

Google's backend services monitor Cloud Function execution counts, status, execution time and memory use at project and function level. This supports backend operation and troubleshooting. It is separate from Firebase Analytics and crash reporting.

Why we use it

To create and secure accounts, keep care records, show the right cat, share care with the carers you authorise, deliver reminders and care notifications, store optional photos, enforce access and limits, answer support requests and process deletion requests.

We do not use your information for advertising. We do not sell it. We do not use Firebase Analytics or an advertising SDK in this release. Normal service operations still process the technical information described below.

Who can see it

Carers you authorise can see the relevant cat's information according to their household role and access. Some information and actions are available only to the cat's owner. Temporary carers have time-limited access, described below.

If you share an invitation code, or export History as a CSV file and share it, the app or person you choose receives that content and handles it under their own rules.

Google provides OurCat's sign-in, database, file storage, backend functions and notification delivery through Firebase Authentication, Cloud Firestore, Cloud Storage for Firebase, Cloud Functions and Firebase Cloud Messaging. Google processes OurCat's records to provide these services for us.

Google also handles some technical Service Data to provide, secure, maintain and improve its Firebase services, and to meet legal obligations. Our project's optional setting that would let Google use this Service Data for non-Firebase Google services is switched off. Google's own Firebase processing continues. See Firebase privacy information and the Google Cloud Privacy Notice.

Support emails are handled through our public support mailbox.

Temporary carers and phone alerts

An owner can give one temporary carer time-limited access. While it lasts, the temporary carer can see the care records and details available to their role for the cats shared with them, and can record everyday care and respond to reminders. They cannot manage invitations, the cat profile, shared reminder schedules or uploads. Access ends at the time the owner chooses, or sooner if the owner removes it.

When temporary access ends:

• the temporary carer's app stops showing the household's protected records and blocks reminder actions, and our servers refuse their requests to read or change those records;
• the optional details they added about themselves in the care team, such as a display name or telephone number, are no longer shown to the household;
• if the owner removes access while the carer's phone is offline, the phone learns this when it reconnects. Until then, an app that is already open may keep showing information it had already loaded, but not beyond the original end time. Opening an OurCat notification needs a fresh access check, and if that check cannot complete, protected content stays hidden.

Reminder alerts can show the reminder title, cat name and due time, so please avoid sensitive text in reminder titles. OurCat does not post a new reminder alert to a temporary carer at or after their access end time, and it tries to cancel scheduled alerts and remove visible ones. Android may delay that removal, or keep an alert that was already shown, especially while the phone is offline.

Care-update notifications tell household members who recorded which type of care for a cat, and when. They never include notes, doses or other free text. Before one is shown, the phone checks that the recipient can still access that cat. If access has ended, the notification is not shown; if the check cannot complete, only a general OurCat message appears, without the cat's name or the type of care.

We cannot remove information that was already seen, copied or captured in a screenshot, or alerts kept in Android's notification history or on paired devices such as watches.

Where information is processed

Our cat-record database and photo storage are located in the United States. Firebase Authentication runs from US data centres. Other Firebase processing, support and technical logs can take place in other countries. Google's terms describe the safeguards it applies to international transfers.

Crash reporting and analytics

Crash reporting and its supporting session-measurement component are configured off for this closed test. Firebase Analytics is not used. Any later optional crash-reporting programme would need a separate explanation and your individual choice before any collection starts.

Security

Information sent between the app and Firebase uses encrypted HTTPS connections. This protects information while it travels. It is not end-to-end encryption: authorised servers process the records so that sign-in and shared care work.

Account access is authenticated, and shared information is restricted by role and access controls. Before upload, the app removes embedded metadata, including camera location data, from photos in supported formats (JPEG, PNG and WebP). Anything visible in the picture itself can still be seen by authorised carers.

Use a secure password, and share invitations only with the carers you intend.

Keeping and deleting information

We keep information only while it is needed for your account, shared care and the necessary operation of the service. We do not keep information simply because it might be useful one day.

You can request account deletion in Settings → Account & privacy, or request it here without installing the app. After the request is verified and the applicable shared-care step is complete:

• your account records, sign-in identity and personal identity links are removed or pseudonymised;
• cats and households that only you own, and their uploads, can be removed where the supported deletion conditions are met.

If you are a co-parent, the shared cat and the care history that its remaining authorised carers need stay available to them, with your personal identity links cleaned.

If you own a cat that a co-parent also cares for, your request can enter a 14-day survival window. Shared household information is kept during that window and you can reclaim your account. Ownership is not transferred automatically. If the request expires, shared ownership needs to be resolved before a new request. We will explain any steps needed.

The 14-day window applies only to that shared-ownership situation. It is not a deadline for removing every copy or technical record. Under the current provider settings:

• deleted photos can be recovered by the storage provider for up to 7 days;
• deleted database data may remain in recovery copies for up to 7 days under managed point-in-time recovery; no scheduled database backups are configured;
• ordinary technical logs are kept for 30 days, and required audit logs for 400 days, where such records exist;
• Firebase Authentication keeps sign-in IP addresses for a few weeks, and completes deletion of a removed account, including from its backups, within 180 days.

Firebase installation identifiers follow their own lifecycle, and an OurCat account-deletion request does not currently delete them. They are replaced when the app is reinstalled or its data is cleared, and after 270 days of inactivity. Our encrypted local maintenance copies, made before launch, are retired seven days after each maintenance task is verified.

If a legal, security or other necessary exception requires us to keep something, we keep only what that purpose needs and explain the exception where we are allowed to. Deletion is a request and may not be immediate, but we will not delay verified requests unnecessarily.

Website

This website is hosted on GitHub Pages. GitHub logs visitors' IP addresses for security when it serves the pages. The website adds no analytics or advertising.

If you choose to make an optional contribution through the Revolut payment link on this website, Revolut processes the payment under its own terms and privacy notice. We receive only the payment details Revolut shares with us, such as your name and the amount, and use them only to keep a record of the contribution.

Test invitations and feedback forms

You can ask to join the test, or send feedback, using our Google Forms. You can always email us instead.

• The invitation form asks for your Google Play account email, Google Play country, confirmation that you have an Android phone with Google Play and are 16 or over, and an optional message. We use these answers to check eligibility, arrange your invitation and contact you about this test, not for marketing. The earlier invitation form also asked how you care for cats and allowed an optional phone model and assistance details; any answers already received remain private under the same purposes and retention approach.
• The feedback form asks for a message about your experience, with optional device and version details and an optional reply email. Giving a reply email lets us contact you about that feedback. Earlier feedback forms also asked separate questions about what you tried, expected and experienced; existing answers remain private under the same purposes and retention approach.

Google Forms stores the answers in the OurCat (mycatapps) Google account. Responses are not shared publicly. Google provides Google Forms and handles this information under its own terms and the Google Privacy Policy. The forms do not ask for passwords, medication details or other people's information, so please don't include them.

If you are invited, we add the email address of your Google account to Google Play's tester list so that you can install the test. We delete invitation requests once they are no longer needed for recruitment, and keep feedback only while it helps us improve OurCat. Email mycatapps@gmail.com to withdraw your request or have your form answers deleted.

Your questions and choices

Contact mycatapps@gmail.com to ask about, correct, or request removal of, information linked to your account. We will verify a request using the minimum information needed. Never send your password.

Changes to this policy

We will update this page and its "Last updated" date when OurCat's data handling changes.