Legal
Privacy policy
Last updated August 2026 · Draft
What Pipsqueak is
Pipsqueak connects people who want to adopt small and exotic animals with rescues that have them. This policy covers the Pipsqueak website and iOS app.
What we collect
Account: email address, name, date of birth (to confirm you are 18 or older), country and postal code, and a password hash. If you sign in with Apple, we receive a stable identifier and the email Apple shares (which may be a relay address).
Adopter Profile: the questionnaire you choose to fill out — phone number, housing type, whether you rent, other animals in your home, and your experience. You control when it is sent to a rescue.
Activity: animals you favorite, messages you exchange with rescues, and applications you submit.
Location: we convert your postal code to approximate coordinates so listings can be sorted by distance. We do not collect precise device location unless you grant it in the app, and we do not store device location.
Technical: standard server logs (IP address, browser, timestamps) kept briefly for security and debugging.
How we use it
- To run the service: show listings, deliver messages, keep you signed in.
- To share your Adopter Profile and messages with a rescue only when you send them. A rescue sees what you send, plus your display name.
- To email you about your account and replies to your messages. We do not send marketing email.
- To protect the service from abuse (rate limiting, fraud checks).
We do not sell personal data, and we do not use advertising trackers.
Who sees your data
Rescues see what you send them. Once sent, a rescue keeps its copy of a message or profile even if you later delete your account, the same as email.
Service providers that host our servers, deliver email, and geocode postal codes (OpenStreetMap Nominatim, which receives only the postal code and country). They process data on our behalf and are not permitted to use it otherwise.
Legal requests we are required to honor.
Retention and deletion
Your data is kept while your account exists. You can delete your account at any time from My Account → Delete account in the app or on the website. Deletion is immediate and permanent: your account, profile, favorites, applications, and your side of every conversation are removed. Rescues retain the copy of anything you already sent them.
Children
Pipsqueak is for adults. You must be 18 or older to create an account, and we delete accounts we learn belong to minors.
Security
Passwords are stored as salted scrypt hashes. Connections use HTTPS. Uploaded photos are stripped of embedded location metadata.
Contact
Questions or requests: privacy@pipsqueak.app.