Hot Dogs ("we", "us", or "our") is a dog social app that helps you find playdate matches for your dog. This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, and your rights.
1. Information We Collect
- Account information — your name and email address, collected via Sign in with Apple.
- Dog profiles — your dog's name, breed, age, fun fact, and photos you upload.
- Location — approximate location when you use the app, used only to find nearby dogs.
- Usage data — swipes, matches, and messages within the app.
- Device token — your device's push notification token, used to deliver match and message alerts.
- Age confirmation — Hot Dogs is for adults 18 and over, so we ask for your date of birth once, when you first sign in. We use it to check that you meet the age requirement and then store only the year you were born, together with the date the check was done. We do not keep the full date of birth.
2. How We Use Your Information
- To operate the app and show you nearby dogs.
- To create and display matches between dogs.
- To deliver push notifications about matches and messages.
- To show advertisements between dog profiles, which is how the app is funded.
- We do not sell your data to third parties.
- We do not use your personal data to personalize advertising, and we do
not track you across other companies' apps or websites.
3. Data Storage
Your data is stored securely in Google Firebase (Firestore and Firebase Storage), subject to Google's security practices. Dog photos are stored in Firebase Storage. All data is protected by Firebase Security Rules that restrict access to only you and your match partners.
4. Third-Party Services
- Firebase (Google) — authentication, database, storage, and push notifications.
- Apple Sign In — account creation and authentication.
- Google AdMob — serves the ads shown between dog profiles. We request
non-personalized ads only, so ads are based on general context rather than
your personal data or browsing history. AdMob still receives basic technical information
needed to deliver an ad, such as your device type, general region, and IP address. See
how Google uses data from
apps that use its services.
These services have their own privacy policies. We only share the minimum data necessary for app functionality.
5. Your Rights
- Access & correction — edit your dog's profile at any time in the app.
- Deletion — delete your account from Profile → Delete Account. This permanently removes your account, dogs, matches, and messages.
- Location — you can revoke location access in iOS Settings → Hot Dogs → Location.
- Notifications — you can disable notifications in iOS Settings → Hot Dogs → Notifications.
- Advertising — ads are always non-personalized, so there is nothing to opt out of.
Because we do not track you, the app never asks for tracking permission.
6. Children's Privacy
Hot Dogs is intended only for users aged 18 and over. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. If you believe we have inadvertently collected such information, please contact us to have it deleted.
7. Changes to This Policy
We may update this policy from time to time. Continued use of the app after changes means you accept the updated policy. We will update the "Last updated" date above.
8. Contact
Questions? Email us at support@hotdogsapp.com