Privacy Policy
Last updated: September 9, 2026
Pawlse ("we", "our", or "the app") is a cat-care companion for iOS, operated by a Bengal cat owner in Canada. This policy explains what data Pawlse collects, where it goes, how long it is kept, and your choices. It is written to match what the app actually does.
See also our Terms of Service.
1. The short version
- Pawlse is offline-first. Your records live on your device and keep working with no network connection.
- Pawlse requires an account. Signing in is also what syncs your data to our servers, so you can restore it on another device.
- AI features send content to a third-party AI provider. Accepting this is part of accepting our Terms. Whether you use those features is up to you: without a scanned label, Pawlse estimates from your cat's own details instead.
- We do not sell your data, we do not use it for advertising, and we do not use it to train AI models.
- You can delete your account and everything in it from inside the app.
2. Data we collect
Data you provide
- Account information — your email address, if you sign up with email; or the identifier Apple or Google gives us if you use Sign in with Apple or Google. If you use Sign in with Apple's private relay, we never see your real address.
- Cat profiles — name, breed, birth date, sex, neuter status, weight, activity level, and whether the cat lives indoors.
- Care records — feedings, weigh-ins, medications, symptoms, litter, play, grooming, vaccinations and other events you log.
- Health records and notes you add.
- Photos you choose to attach — cat photos, symptom photos, food labels, vet invoices, receipts, and images attached to an Ask Pawlse chat.
- Expenses you log — amounts, categories and vendors.
- Questions you type into Ask Pawlse.
- Feedback you send us, and any screenshots you attach to it.
Data collected automatically
- Crash reports and diagnostics (Sentry), to fix bugs. These are scrubbed on your device before they are sent — see section 5.
- Anonymous usage analytics (PostHog), to understand which features are used. Pawlse never identifies you to PostHog.
- Subscription status (RevenueCat), to know whether your subscription is active.
- Device type and OS version, for compatibility and app updates.
3. Where your data goes
This table is the complete picture. Nothing leaves your device except as described here.
| What | Where it is stored | Who else receives it | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Account email / sign-in identifier | Your device; our servers (Supabase) | Apple or Google, if you sign in with them; RevenueCat | To sign you in and restore your data; to link your subscription |
| Cat profiles and care records | Your device; our servers if signed in | The AI provider, only for the AI features described in section 4 | To run the app and sync between your devices |
| Cat photos and health photos | Your device; a private storage bucket if signed in | The AI provider, only when you scan one | To display them and to run a scan you asked for |
| Ask Pawlse conversations | Our servers, so a chat resumes across devices | The AI provider | To answer your question |
| Ask Pawlse photo attachments | A private storage bucket, readable only by you | The AI provider | To answer a question about a photo |
| Food labels, food photos, breed photos, vet invoices, receipts | Your device; our servers if you save the result | The AI provider | To read the image and return a result |
| Scan results | Our servers, cached for up to 30 days | — | So a repeat scan does not cost another AI call |
| Feedback messages and screenshots | Not stored by the app | Resend, which emails them to us | To receive your feedback |
| Crash diagnostics | — | Sentry | To fix bugs. Not linked to your identity |
| Usage analytics | — | PostHog | To see which features are used. Anonymous |
| Subscription status | Your device; RevenueCat | RevenueCat, Apple | To unlock the app for subscribers |
4. AI features
Some parts of Pawlse use artificial intelligence to save you time. When you scan a food label, a vet invoice or a receipt, or when you ask Pawlse a question, the content you provide is sent to a third-party AI provider so it can be read and understood. Six features do this.
What is sent:
- Photos you choose to scan (food labels, vet invoices, your cat)
- Your cat's name, age, weight, breed and diet details
- Questions and notes you type into Ask Pawlse
You agree to this when you accept our Terms of Service, which you do at the welcome screen, at the screen that explains these AI features, and when you create an account. The table below sets out exactly what each feature sends.
| Feature | What is sent to the AI provider |
|---|---|
| Ask Pawlse | Your question, any photo you attach, and a summary of the cat you are asking about — including the cat's name, breed, age, life stage, weight, sex, neuter status, activity level, indoor status, recent foods, medication plans, and relevant recent care records. |
| Food scanner | The food photo, plus the same cat details — including the cat's name, breed, age, life stage, weight, indoor status, activity, neuter status, diet goal and target weight — so the food can be scored for your specific cat. |
| Food label scanner | The label image only. |
| Breed scanner | The cat photo only. |
| Vet invoice scanner | The invoice image only. |
| Receipt scanner | The receipt image only. |
Why a cat's name is included: Pawlse uses it to tell whose symptom you are describing, and its emergency detection relies on it to recognise that "Luna can't pee" is about the cat. It is an animal's name, never yours.
Your own name, your email address and your account identifier are never sent.
The provider uses this only to answer that one request. It is not used to train their models. Whether you use these features is up to you: without a scanned label, Pawlse estimates from your cat's own details instead. If you would like to know which provider we currently use, write to us at the address in section 12 and we will tell you.
Scan images themselves are not stored on our servers. We store only a fingerprint of the image and the result, for up to 30 days, so that re-scanning the same thing does not cost another AI call.
5. What we deliberately do not send
Crash reports are useful because they carry context, and context is where private things hide. Before any crash report leaves your device, Pawlse strips out email addresses, photo and file paths, image data, the text of assistant prompts and replies, symptom and care notes, cat names, clinic and vendor names, passwords and tokens.
Sentry is not told who you are. Pawlse never sends your account identifier to Sentry, and personally identifying context is switched off. Diagnostics are not linked to your identity.
PostHog is not told who you are either. Pawlse never identifies you to it, and analytics events carry no personal or animal data.
The one service that does receive your account identifier is RevenueCat, which needs it to know which account a subscription belongs to.
6. Data storage and security
Your data is stored on your device and, when you sign in, on our servers hosted by Supabase on AWS in Canada. Every row is protected by row-level security keyed to your account, so another user can never read your data. All connections use HTTPS.
Photos are stored in private buckets. Ask Pawlse attachments are readable only by your own account.
7. Third-party services
- Supabase — database, authentication, file storage (Canada) — privacy policy
- A third-party AI provider — AI processing, server-side only. We will name the current provider on request; see section 12
- Resend — delivers your feedback messages and screenshots to us by email — privacy policy
- Apple — Sign in with Apple, and all subscription payments — privacy policy
- Google Sign-In — authentication, if you choose it — privacy policy
- RevenueCat — subscription management — privacy policy
- Sentry — crash reporting — privacy policy
- PostHog — anonymous analytics — privacy policy
- Expo / EAS — app delivery and over-the-air updates — privacy policy
8. Data retention and deletion
Your data is kept for as long as your account exists. You can delete your account at any time from Settings → Account & security in the app.
When you delete your account, we permanently delete:
- your care events, cat profiles, health records and expenses;
- your stored photos, including Ask Pawlse chat attachments;
- your Ask Pawlse conversations and messages;
- your AI usage records and cached scan results;
- your app settings and synced state;
- your authentication account itself.
This process is irreversible. Data you have already exported to a PDF, and feedback emails you have already sent us, are not affected — you can ask us to delete feedback emails using the contact address below.
Deleting the app from your phone does not delete your cloud data or cancel a subscription. Use the in-app deletion, and manage subscriptions in your App Store account.
9. Children's privacy
Pawlse is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, contact us and we will delete it.
10. Your rights
Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access, correct, export or delete your personal information, and to withdraw consent. In practice:
- Access and export — export your records as a PDF from within the app.
- Delete — delete your account and all associated data in the app.
- Stop the AI processing — accepting our Terms, which include the AI features, is a condition of using Pawlse, so it cannot be withdrawn separately while you keep using the app. You can stop using those features at any time, and Pawlse will estimate from your cat's own details instead. To withdraw altogether, delete your account.
- Ask us anything else — contact us at the address below.
If you are in Canada and are not satisfied with our response, you may contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.
11. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy from time to time. If we make significant changes we will notify you through the app. The "last updated" date at the top reflects the most recent revision.
12. Contact
Questions about this policy or your data:
support@pawlseapp.com