Privacy Policy

1. Information We Collect

Information you give us

• Account information: name, email address, password (stored only as a salted hash), user tag, passkeys or two-factor settings, role (owner, provider, veterinarian) and time zone.
• Date of birth: collected at registration to enforce our minimum-age requirements (16+ for accounts, 18+ for animal owners). We keep the date, not just the age, so eligibility can be re-checked later.
• Animal profiles: the animals you register, including name, species, breed, sex, date of birth, weight, microchip number, photos and notes.
• Medical records and health information: vaccinations, medications, conditions, visit notes, lab results and similar records entered by you or by veterinarians and providers you have connected with, together with an audit history of changes.
• Documents and photos: files you upload, such as vaccination certificates, invoices, lab reports and photos of your animals, and visit photos taken by providers.
• Professional information: for veterinarians, your practice details and license information and a copy of your license; for service providers, your business profile, services and rates, and the government ID and matching selfie you submit for identity verification.
• Contact preferences: your notification settings and, if you enable SMS, your mobile number.
• Communications: messages you send us, including support requests.

Payment information

Subscription payments are processed by Stripe. AniLink never receives or stores your full card number. We receive from Stripe a token identifying your saved payment method, the card brand and last four digits, expiry, and transaction records (amount, date, status) so we can show you your billing history and manage renewals.

Information collected automatically

• Location when a provider checks in: when a service provider starts or ends a visit, we record the device's location at that moment (with the provider's permission) and attach it to the visit log so the animal's owner can see that the visit occurred. We do not track location continuously.
• Device push tokens: if you enable browser or device push notifications, we store the push subscription endpoint and keys needed to deliver them.
• Login and usage data: login history (time, IP address, approximate location derived from IP, browser/device type), pages visited, and diagnostic logs, used for security and to keep the Service working.

Information from others

Other users may enter information about you or your animals, for example a veterinarian adding a record, an owner granting you access, or someone inviting you by email. When an invitation is sent to an email address that is not yet registered, we hold that address only to deliver the invitation and connect it to an account if one is created.

2. How We Use Information

We use the information we collect to:

• create and manage your account and animal profiles and provide the features you use;
• let you share animal information with the veterinarians, providers and people you choose;
• schedule appointments, log visits and send the notifications you have enabled (in-app, email, SMS or push);
• process subscription payments, renewals and refunds and keep billing records;
• verify the identity of service providers and the licensure of veterinarians, including automated document analysis followed by human review;
• extract structured data from documents you upload so records can be created without retyping (see Section 4);
• enforce our age requirements and Terms, detect and prevent fraud, abuse and security incidents, and maintain audit histories;
• respond to support requests and send important account, security and legal notices;
• understand how the Service is used, fix problems and improve it; and
• comply with legal obligations.

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not use the contents of your animals' medical records or your documents for advertising.

3. How We Share Information

• With people you connect with. Animal profiles, records and documents are shared with the veterinarians, providers and other users the animal's owner grants access to, at the access level the owner chooses. Providers and veterinarians see the owner's name and contact details needed to deliver their services. Owners see providers' and veterinarians' professional profiles and verification status.
• Through share links. If an owner creates a share link or QR code, anyone with that link can view the included information without logging in. Owners control and can revoke these links.
• Stripe (payment processing), which handles your card details under its own privacy policy.
• Microsoft Azure, which hosts the Service and stores its data, and Azure Communication Services, which delivers our emails and text messages. Microsoft processes this data as our service provider.
• AI and document-processing services that we use to extract and verify information from uploaded documents and identity/licensing documents (see Section 4). These providers process the documents only to return results to us.
• Other service providers that help us operate, such as error monitoring and analytics tools, under contracts that restrict their use of your information.
• Legal and safety. We may disclose information if required by law, subpoena or court order, to protect the rights, property or safety of AniLink, our users, animals or the public, or to investigate fraud or abuse.
• Business transfers. If we are involved in a merger, acquisition, financing or sale of assets, your information may be transferred as part of that transaction; we will notify you of any change in ownership or use of your personal information.
• With your consent or at your direction.

4. Automated Document Processing

When you upload a document such as a vaccination certificate, lab report or invoice, we may send it to an automated document-analysis or AI service to extract fields (dates, vaccine names, values) and suggest a record. You review and confirm any suggestion before it is saved, and you can edit or discard it. When veterinarians upload a license or providers upload identity documents, we use similar tools to check that the document appears genuine and matches the information entered; a person makes the final verification decision.

Documents sent for processing are used only to produce results for your account. We do not permit these providers to use your documents to train their models, and extracted data is stored with the same protections as the rest of your records.

5. Retention

• Account and animal data is kept while your account is active. After you close your account, or after a prolonged period of inactivity, we delete or anonymize it within 90 days, except as described below.
• Medical records entered by professionals and their audit history may be retained after an owner closes an account for as long as the professional who created them has a legitimate need for them (for example veterinary record-keeping obligations), and copies legitimately obtained by other users through the Service are not recalled.
• Verification documents (licenses, government IDs, selfies) are kept only as long as needed to complete verification and to maintain a record of the decision, and are then deleted or reduced to the decision and non-sensitive metadata.
• Billing records are kept for the period required by tax and accounting law (generally seven years).
• Login history and diagnostic logs are kept for a limited period (typically 12 months or less) for security purposes.
• SMS consent records (the number, the time you opted in or out) are kept as long as needed to demonstrate consent, as carriers require.
• Backups may hold copies for a limited time after deletion and are overwritten on a rolling schedule.

6. Security

We protect your information with encryption in transit (TLS) and at rest, hashed passwords, support for passkeys and two-factor authentication, role-based access controls, private file storage served only through authenticated links, audit logging of record changes, and secrets kept in a managed key vault. No system is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee the security of information you transmit to us. Please use a strong, unique password, enable two-factor authentication, and tell us at [email protected] if you believe your account has been compromised.

7. Children

The Service is not directed to children, and we do not knowingly allow anyone under 16 to create an account. We ask for a date of birth at registration and reject registrations that do not meet our minimum age. If you believe a child under 16 has created an account, contact us at [email protected] and we will delete the account and its information. Animal owner accounts, which involve payment, require the user to be at least 18.

8. Your Rights and Choices

Depending on where you live you may have rights to access, correct, delete, restrict or port your personal information, to object to certain processing, and to withdraw consent. You can exercise most of these yourself:

• Access and correction: view and edit your profile, animals, records and documents in the Service. Records entered by professionals cannot be edited by owners; if you believe one is wrong, ask the professional to amend it or contact us.
• Download: export the personal data associated with your account from Account › Personal data.
• Deletion: delete your account from Account › Danger zone, or email us. Some information is retained as described in Section 5.
• Sharing controls: revoke access grants and disable share links at any time from your animal's Sharing page.
• Notifications: change email, SMS and push preferences in Account › Notifications.

For anything you cannot do in the Service, or to appeal a decision we have made about your request, email [email protected]. We will verify your identity before acting on a request and respond within the time required by applicable law. We will not discriminate against you for exercising your rights.

9. Email and Text Communications

Email. We send transactional and notification emails (appointment updates, access requests, verification outcomes, billing notices). Every notification email includes an unsubscribe link and a link to manage preferences; unsubscribing stops notification emails but not essential account or security messages such as password resets, payment receipts or legal notices.

Text messages. SMS notifications are optional and sent only after you enable them and provide your mobile number. Message frequency varies; message and data rates may apply. Reply STOP to any message to opt out or HELP for help. Your opt-out is recorded by our messaging provider and by us, and we stop sending texts to that number. Mobile numbers and SMS consent are not sold or shared with third parties for their marketing. See the SMS Terms.

Push notifications. You can turn push notifications off in your notification settings or in your browser or device settings.

10. Cookies and Similar Technologies

We use cookies and similar browser storage that are strictly necessary for the Service to work: keeping you signed in, protecting forms against cross-site request forgery, remembering your session and preferences, and maintaining the real-time connection the application uses. We also use first-party analytics and diagnostic tools (such as Azure Application Insights) to measure performance and detect errors. We do not use third-party advertising cookies or cross-site tracking. You can control cookies through your browser settings, but disabling essential cookies will prevent you from signing in.

11. International Users

The Service is operated from the United States and information is stored on servers in the United States. If you use the Service from outside the U.S., you understand that your information will be transferred to and processed in the U.S., where privacy laws may differ from those in your country. Where required, we rely on appropriate safeguards for these transfers.

12. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will post the updated policy with a new "Last updated" date and, for material changes, notify you by email or through the Service before the change takes effect. Your continued use of the Service after the effective date means you accept the updated policy.

13. Contact

Questions, requests or complaints about privacy can be sent to [email protected].

AniLink
Attn: Privacy
[Mailing address]