Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy replaces our Privacy Policy dated November 13, 2025.
On this page
Key points
We are pet families ourselves. We collect what we need to keep animals registered, verified and safe, and we tell you exactly who sees it. PawFred registers and verifies; your property decides. We process animal registrations and resident declarations, verify animal documentation against your property’s animal policy, and leave every final decision to your property manager.
We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it for targeted advertising.
Your community sees what it needs to run its animal policy, such as declaration status, verification results and expiry dates. Staff who do not make decisions see only that a unit has a registered animal, not its type. Your community does not see your private messages or your partner purchases.
Assistance animal files are locked down. Only your property manager and a small group of trained PawFred reviewers can open them. We never ask for your diagnosis.
Every animal record is labeled Self-Reported, PawFred-Verified or PawFred-Issued, so everyone knows what has been checked.
Location is shared only when you choose, such as during an SOS or when a finder scans a lost animal’s tag.
AI helps us read documents, but people make the decisions. A person reviews anything an automated check cannot verify, and no automated system ever denies an assistance animal request.
You can access, correct, download or delete your information. Email privacy@pawfred.com.
Cookies. We use the cookies needed to run the Services and, where the law requires, ask before using analytics cookies. We do not use advertising cookies (Section 13).
State privacy rights. Residents of California and other states have the rights in Section 14, and we honor Global Privacy Control signals.
1. Who we are and what this covers
1.1 Scope. This Privacy Policy explains how PAWFRED Inc. (“PawFred,” “we”) collects, uses, shares and protects personal information through the PawFred app, website, NFC tags, dashboards and related services (the “Services”). It covers Members (residents, owners, guests), Non-Animal Residents, Community Administrators, Community Partners, people who scan a PawFred tag, and visitors to our websites. Capitalized terms have the meanings in our Terms and Conditions (pawfred.com/terms-and-conditions).
1.2 Our two roles.
For your Partner Community. When we process animal registrations and resident Declarations, verify animal documentation against your property’s animal policy and administer assistance animal requests, we act for your property, association, hotel or agency, under a written agreement. Your property manager makes every final decision. Your community’s own privacy notice also applies to how it uses that information.
For you directly. For your account, SOS, The Mural, Community Partners and our website, PawFred decides how information is used, as described here.
1.3 Public agencies. Where a city or county is the Partner Community, public records laws, such as Florida’s Chapter 119, may make some records held by that agency available to the public.
2. Information we collect
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| Category | Examples | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Account and contact | Name, email, phone, unit or room, community, emergency contacts, login details | You; your Partner Community (to confirm residency) |
| Household and Declarations | Declaration type (including No-Animal), occupants your community requires, signature, date and time, change history | You |
| Animal profiles | Name, species, breed, weight, color, photos, microchip number, temperament and care notes | You |
| Animal documents | Vaccination certificates, county licenses, insurance, permits | You; issuers, when we confirm a document with your authorization |
| Assistance animal information | Your request, supporting letter or information, reviewer notes, outcome (see Section 5) | You; your health care provider, only if you authorize contact |
| Verification and PawFred-Issued records | Verification status, dates, PawFred ID, tag ID, Animal Clearance Certificate | We create them |
| Safety and community | SOS alerts, lost and found reports, incident reports, Mural posts and replies | You; other Members |
| Community Channel reports | Description of an animal issue, date, time, place and photos | You; other residents and property staff |
| Tag scans | Time of scan, tag ID, and the finder’s location and message if the finder chooses to share them | The person scanning the tag |
| Payments | PawFred Animal Community Registration, transactions, billing contact. Card details are handled by Stripe; we do not store full card numbers. | You; Stripe |
| Partner activity | Offers viewed and redeemed | You; Community Partners (redemption confirmations) |
| Device and usage | Device type, app version, IP address, device identifiers, crash logs, feature use, and data from cookies and similar technologies (Section 13) | Automatically, through the app and website |
2.1 Non-Animal Residents. If your Household has no animals, we collect only your account details, your No-Animal Declaration and its history, and anything you choose to submit, such as a Mural post or a safety report.
2.2 Information about other people. If you add emergency contacts or Household members, make sure they know you are sharing their details with us. If you report a concern about another Household through the Community Channel, we pass it only to your property manager.
3. How the three information levels are handled
Each animal data point is stored with its level, the date it reached that level, and who set it.
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| Level | Stored with | Who can change it | When it changes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Self-Reported | The Member who entered it and the date | That Member | Any edit is logged with the prior value |
| PawFred-Verified | Verification date, expiry date, the source document, the property policy requirement it was checked against, and the reviewer or process that verified it | Only PawFred | Returns to Self-Reported or is marked expired when the source expires or the Member edits the item |
| PawFred-Issued | Issue date, status (active, suspended, revoked) and the records it relies on | Only PawFred | Updated or revoked when the records it relies on change |
3.1 Labels travel with the data. When information is shown to your Partner Community or anyone you share it with, the label goes with it. We never present Self-Reported Information as verified.
3.2 Source documents. We keep the documents behind each verified item so that the verification can be audited. Your community sees the verification result and, where its policy requires, the document itself (see Section 4).
4. Who can see what
Access is role-based: each person sees only what their role needs, and every access to animal documents and assistance animal files is logged.
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| Who | Can see | Cannot see |
|---|---|---|
| You (account holder) | Everything in your account, including all labels, documents and history | Other Households’ information |
| Adults in your Household | Household animal profiles, shared Declarations, verification status, SOS alerts for Household animals | Your private messages; your assistance animal file unless you share it |
| Property staff who do not make decisions (for example leasing, maintenance or front-desk staff) | Whether a unit has a registered animal (shown only as “registered animal,” never the animal’s type), Declaration status, verification status and expiry dates, tag IDs, and incidents and Community Channel reports linked to the unit | The animal’s type (pet or assistance animal); animal documents; assistance animal requests, supporting documents and reviewer notes; your private messages; your partner purchases and redemptions; your device data |
| Your property manager, as final decision-maker | Declarations, animal profiles and types, verification results and expiry dates, the animal documents the community’s policy requires, assistance animal requests and supporting information, and Community Channel reports, to make final decisions | Anything the request does not need, such as your diagnosis, which we do not collect |
| Property owners and asset managers | Reports and aggregate figures, such as registration rates and pet revenue by property | Individual assistance animal information; names, unless the owner also operates the property |
| PawFred support and verification staff | What they need to run verification, support and safety for your account | Assistance animal files |
| PawFred restricted assistance animal reviewers | Assistance animal files they are assigned | Anything outside their assignments |
| Other Members of your community | Your Mural posts and replies, and alerts you send. Your first name and building, not your unit number. | Your Declarations, documents, verification status, assistance animal status, contact details and Community Channel reports |
| Anyone who scans your animal’s tag | The public tag profile you set: the animal’s name, photo and lost status, any care alert you add, and a button to contact you through a masked relay | Your name, phone, email, address and unit, unless you choose to show them |
| Community Partners | Redemption codes and the minimum needed to honor an offer you redeem | Anything else, unless you choose to share it |
| Service providers (hosting, payments, email, AI) | Only what they need to provide their service to PawFred, under contracts that limit their use | They may not use your information for their own purposes |
| Government authorities | Information we are legally required to disclose, or that you ask us to send, such as an alert routed to animal services | Anything else, absent valid legal process |
5. Assistance animal and disability-related information
We treat assistance animal information as sensitive personal information and use it only to process your request.
Minimum collection. We ask only what the law allows a housing provider to ask. We never ask for a diagnosis, medical records or the nature of your disability. If you send them, we may redact them and will not use them.
Consent. We process this information with your consent, given when you submit the request. You may withdraw your request at any time.
Separate storage. Assistance animal files are stored apart from regular animal records, with database-level access restricted to assigned PawFred reviewers and your property manager.
Confirming documentation. We contact the provider who wrote your letter only with your authorization, and only to confirm that they wrote it and that they meet the legal standard.
No other use. We never use this information for marketing, Community Partners, analytics or AI model training.
Not public. PawFred tags look the same for every animal, and staff who do not make decisions see only “registered animal.” Your tag profile, The Mural and other Members never show that an animal is an Assistance Animal unless you choose to show it.
Your community’s duty. Partner Communities agree to keep this information confidential and to share it only with people who need it to decide or carry out your accommodation.
6. SOS alerts, tag scans and location
6.1 No background tracking. We do not track your location or your animal’s location in the background. PawFred tags are passive NFC tags with no battery or GPS.
6.2 When location is used.
SOS: if you choose to share your location when sending an alert, recipients see it for the life of the alert.
Tag scans: a finder may choose to share their location with the animal’s Household. We never show the Household’s address to the finder.
Community alerts: we use your community, not your device location, to decide who receives an alert.
6.3 What alert recipients see. Recipients see the alert, the animal’s photo and description, and the location if shared. They see your first name, and your contact details only if you include them.
6.4 Emergencies. If an alert suggests an immediate threat to someone’s safety, we may share relevant information with emergency services. SOS is not monitored by emergency services and is not a substitute for calling 911 (see the Terms and Conditions, Section 10).
6.5 How long we keep it. SOS location data is deleted 30 days after the alert closes. The alert record itself is kept as described in Section 10.
7. How we use information
We use personal information to:
create and run your account and confirm your link to your Partner Community;
process animal registrations and resident Declarations for your community;
verify animal documentation against your property’s animal policy, and issue PawFred IDs, tags and certificates;
process assistance animal requests (only as described in Section 5);
send SOS, lost-and-found and safety alerts, and run The Mural and the Community Channel;
send reminders, such as upcoming vaccination or license expiry dates;
show and honor Community Partner offers;
process payments through Stripe, manage PawFred Animal Community Registrations, renewal reminders and cancellations, and prevent fraud, including forged documents;
provide support, keep the Services secure and fix problems;
improve the Services, mainly using aggregated or de-identified data; and
comply with law and enforce our Terms.
7.1 Marketing. We send product news and offers from Community Partners only if you opt in, and you can opt out at any time. Every marketing email carries an unsubscribe link; you can turn marketing push notifications off in the app or your device settings; and we ask for your separate express written consent before sending any marketing text message, which you can stop by replying STOP. Service messages, such as verification results and safety alerts, are not marketing.
7.2 De-identified data. We may create aggregated or de-identified data, such as registration rates by city, and use or share it for research, reporting and product development. We do not try to re-identify it and we require recipients not to. Where we process information for a Partner Community as its service provider or processor (Section 1.2), we create and use aggregated or de-identified data from that information only as the community’s agreement with us allows. We never use assistance animal information for this purpose (Section 5).
8. AI and automated processing
8.1 What AI does at PawFred. We use AI services, including large language models, to read uploaded documents and extract data, flag mismatches and possible forgeries, draft messages for staff review, help moderate community posts, and answer support questions.
8.2 Limits we set.
Rule-based checks run first. AI is used for reading and reasoning, not as the final decision-maker.
No automated system approves or denies an assistance animal request. A person reviews every one.
No automated system rejects an animal. Items an automated check cannot verify go to a person, and your property manager makes every final decision.
AI support answers are general guidance, not legal, medical or veterinary advice.
8.3 Training. We do not allow our AI providers to use your personal information to train their general models. We may use de-identified data, and data you consent to share, to improve PawFred’s own tools. Assistance animal information is never used for training.
9. When we share information
9.1 No sale, no ad sharing. We do not sell personal information and do not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising, as those terms are defined in state privacy laws. We have not done so in the past 12 months.
9.2 Who we share with. We share personal information only as described in Section 4 and with:
your Partner Community, to administer its animal policy;
Community Partners, only the minimum needed to honor an offer you redeem, or more if you choose;
service providers who host data, process payments (Stripe), send messages, provide AI services or support us, under contracts that limit their use to serving PawFred; we will give you a current list of our service providers on request at privacy@pawfred.com;
document issuers, such as a veterinary clinic or county, when we confirm a document with your authorization;
authorities, when the law requires it, to respond to valid legal process, or to protect someone’s safety;
a successor company, in a merger, acquisition or sale of assets, under this Policy’s protections; and
anyone else you direct, such as when you share a PawFred-Issued Item with a groomer or another landlord.
9.3 Community Partners and offers. Featuring or redeeming an offer does not give the partner your contact details. If a partner asks you to sign up directly with them, their privacy policy applies to what you give them.
10. How long we keep information
We keep information only as long as we need it for the purposes below, then delete or de-identify it.
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| Data | Kept for |
|---|---|
| Account and contact details | While your account is open, then 90 days |
| Declarations and their history | Length of your residency or stay plus 3 years, so your community can show compliance |
| Animal documents and verification records | Length of your residency or stay plus 3 years |
| Assistance animal files | Length of your residency or stay plus 3 years, then deleted. |
| SOS location data | 30 days after the alert closes |
| SOS alert records, incident reports and Mural posts | 2 years, or until you delete a post |
| Tag scan records | 12 months |
| Payment records | 7 years, for tax and accounting |
| Device and usage logs | 12 months |
| Community Channel reports | 2 years after the report is closed |
| Records of subscription consent and cancellation | 3 years, or 1 year after the PawFred Animal Community Registration ends, whichever is longer |
We may keep information longer if the law requires it, or for an active dispute, investigation or legal hold.
11. Security
11.1 Safeguards. We use administrative, technical and physical safeguards suited to the sensitivity of the information, including encryption in transit and at rest, role-based access, multi-factor authentication for staff, confidentiality obligations and training for staff, security and privacy reviews of our service providers, an incident response plan, separate restricted storage for assistance animal files, access logging, and regular access reviews. Payments are processed by Stripe, a PCI DSS certified provider.
11.2 No system is perfect. We cannot guarantee absolute security. Protect your password and tell us at security@pawfred.com if you suspect unauthorized access.
11.3 If something goes wrong. If a breach affects your personal information, we will notify you and the relevant authorities as the law requires, including under Florida Statutes § 501.171 and the breach notification law of each other state where affected people live, and tell you what we are doing about it.
12. Your choices and rights
12.1 Rights we offer everyone. Wherever you live, you can ask us to:
access the personal information we hold about you and learn how we use it;
correct inaccurate information;
delete your information;
download a portable copy;
withdraw consent, including for assistance animal processing and marketing;
explain and review an automated output, such as a document verification result, with a person; and
appeal if we decline your request.
Residents of California and other states with comprehensive privacy laws have the additional rights and disclosures in Section 14, and may use an authorized agent. We will not discriminate against you for using your rights.
12.2 Limits. Some information may be kept even after a deletion request. This includes Declarations and verification records your Partner Community must keep for its compliance, payment records, and information needed for an active dispute. If we hold information for your Partner Community, we may pass your request to them and help them answer it.
12.3 How to ask. Use the privacy settings in the app, email privacy@pawfred.com, or write to us at PAWFRED Inc., Attn: Privacy, 2 S Biscayne Boulevard, Suite 2450, Miami, FL 33131. We will verify your identity and respond within 45 days, or tell you if we need longer as the law allows. To appeal, reply to our decision with “Appeal” in the subject line.
12.4 Settings you control. In the app you can turn alerts on or off, choose whether to share location during an SOS, and manage marketing messages. We honor Global Privacy Control signals as described in Section 13.3.
13. Cookies and similar technologies
13.1 What we use. Our website and app use cookies, software development kits (SDKs) and similar technologies.
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| Type | What it does | Examples | Can you turn it off? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strictly necessary | Keeps you signed in, secures the Services, prevents fraud, remembers your privacy choices and processes payments | Login session, security tokens, Stripe fraud-prevention cookies | No, because the Services do not work without them |
| Functional | Remembers your settings, such as notification preferences | App preference storage | Yes, in your browser or device settings |
| Analytics | Shows us how the Services are used so we can fix problems and improve them | Website and app usage analytics; app crash reporting | Yes. Where the law requires, we ask for your consent first |
| Push notifications | Delivers alerts and reminders to your device | Apple and Google push notification services | Yes, in your device settings |
13.2 What we do not use. We do not use advertising cookies, cross-context behavioral advertising, social media tracking pixels or session replay tools. Our analytics providers process data on our behalf under contracts that prohibit them from using it for their own purposes.
13.3 Your choices. You can manage cookies through the “Cookie settings” link in our website footer, your browser settings and your device settings. Blocking strictly necessary cookies may stop parts of the Services from working. We treat a Global Privacy Control signal from your browser or device as a valid request to opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information and of targeted advertising, for that browser or device and, if you are signed in, for your account, and we show you when the signal has been honored. There is no common standard for other “Do Not Track” signals, so we do not respond to them, but we do not track you across other companies’ websites or apps.
13.4 How long they last. Session cookies end when you close your browser. Other cookies last no longer than 13 months, and we keep the data they collect as described in Section 10.
14. Additional disclosures for U.S. state privacy laws, including California
14.1 Who this applies to. This Section gives the disclosures required by the California Consumer Privacy Act, as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act, and its regulations (CCPA), and by other state consumer privacy laws, including those of Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Virginia. We apply these protections to all users, whether or not a particular law applies to PawFred. This Privacy Policy is our notice at collection: we link to it wherever we collect personal information, including in the app’s settings menu. Where we process information for a Partner Community as its service provider or processor, the Partner Community’s notice also applies (Section 1.2).
14.2 Personal information we collected in the last 12 months. We do not sell personal information or share it for cross-context behavioral advertising, and we have not done so in the last 12 months. We do not knowingly sell or share the personal information of anyone under 16.
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| Category | What we collect | Disclosed for a business purpose to | Sold or shared? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Identifiers | Name, email, phone number, account ID, IP address, device ID, tag ID | Service providers (hosting, email and messaging, support, AI, analytics); your Partner Community; Stripe | No |
| Customer records (Cal. Civ. Code § 1798.80(e)) | Name, address or unit, phone, payment details | Your Partner Community; Stripe | No |
| Protected classification characteristics | Disability-related information only in an assistance animal request; occupants such as minors only if your community requires it | Your property manager; PawFred restricted reviewers; hosting providers | No |
| Commercial information | PawFred Animal Community Registration, transactions, offers viewed and redeemed | Stripe; Community Partners (only the minimum to honor a redemption) | No |
| Internet or other electronic network activity | Feature use, crash logs, data from cookies and similar technologies | Hosting and analytics service providers | No |
| Geolocation data | Precise location only when you choose to share it during an SOS, or a finder chooses to share it after a tag scan | Alert recipients; the animal’s Household; hosting providers | No |
| Audio, electronic or visual information | Photos of animals, documents you upload, posts and Community Channel reports | Your Partner Community; other Members (Mural posts only); service providers | No |
| Professional information | Work contact details of Community Administrators and Community Partner staff | Service providers | No |
| Inferences | None. We do not build profiles to predict your preferences or characteristics | Not applicable | No |
| Sensitive personal information | Account login credentials; precise geolocation you choose to share; disability-related information in assistance animal requests | As listed for those categories above | No |
We do not collect biometric, genetic, Social Security, driver’s license or financial account information other than payment details handled by Stripe. The sources of each category are listed in Section 2, our purposes in Section 7, and retention periods in Section 10.
14.3 Sensitive personal information. We use sensitive personal information only to provide the Services you ask for, keep them secure, prevent fraud and comply with the law, which the CCPA allows without a right to limit. We collect it only where it is strictly necessary for those purposes, we process disability-related information and precise geolocation only with your consent, and we never sell it.
14.4 Your rights. Depending on where you live, and in any case as a matter of our policy, you may:
know what personal information we collect, use and disclose, including the specific pieces we hold, for any period you choose;
delete personal information we collected from you;
correct inaccurate personal information;
receive a portable copy of your personal information;
opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information, targeted advertising and profiling that produces legal or similarly significant effects (we do none of these);
limit the use of sensitive personal information (we already limit it as described in 14.3);
withdraw consent to the processing of sensitive information;
get a list of the specific third parties to which we have disclosed personal information, where state law gives this right;
appeal our decision on your request; and
use these rights without being discriminated against.
14.5 How to make a request. Use the privacy settings in the app, email privacy@pawfred.com, or write to us at PAWFRED Inc., Attn: Privacy, 2 S Biscayne Boulevard, Suite 2450, Miami, FL 33131. We confirm receipt within 10 business days and respond within 45 days, which we may extend once by 45 days where the law allows, with notice. We verify your identity by matching information we already hold, such as by asking you to sign in; for requests about sensitive information or specific pieces of information, we may ask for more. An authorized agent may make a request for you with your signed permission, and we may ask you to confirm your identity directly with us. If we deny your request, you may appeal by replying with “Appeal” in the subject line. We answer appeals within the time your state’s law requires, and in any case within 60 days. If your appeal is denied, you may contact your state attorney general.
14.6 Automated decision-making. We do not use automated decision-making technology to make significant decisions about you, including decisions about housing. AI and automated tools assist our staff (Section 8), and every final decision about an animal or an accommodation is made by your property manager. If this changes, we will give you notice before use, along with any opt-out, access and appeal rights the law provides.
14.7 Consumer health data. Information in an assistance animal request about a disability-related need may be consumer health data under laws such as Washington’s My Health My Data Act and similar laws in Nevada and Connecticut. We collect it only from you and, with your authorization, from the provider who wrote your letter. We use it only to process your request. We share it only with your property manager, PawFred restricted reviewers and the service providers that host it. We never sell it, and we do not use geofencing around health care locations. You may access or delete it, withdraw your consent, and ask for a list of everyone we have shared it with, using Section 14.5.
14.8 Notice of financial incentive. Some perks, discounts and rewards, such as Pawsport stickers and Golden Vouchers, are available only to Members with an account, which requires personal information. Some laws treat this as a financial incentive. The material terms are shown with each offer. You join by opting in to an offer and can withdraw at any time in the app or by emailing privacy@pawfred.com; withdrawing ends your participation in that offer but not your PawFred Animal Community Registration. We estimate in good faith that the value of the personal information involved equals the value of the perk, discount or reward you receive, based on the reasonable expenses we incur to provide it.
14.9 California Shine the Light and Nevada. We do not share personal information with third parties for their own direct marketing purposes (Cal. Civ. Code § 1798.83). We do not sell covered information as defined in Nevada law (NRS Chapter 603A); Nevada residents may still send an opt-out request to privacy@pawfred.com.
15. Children, international processing, changes and contact
15.1 Children. The Services are for adults 18 and older. We do not knowingly collect personal information directly from anyone under 18. Occupant information about minors is collected only where a Partner Community requires it, and only from the adult account holder. If you believe anyone under 18 has given us information directly, contact us at privacy@pawfred.com and we will delete it.
15.2 Where information is processed. We store data in the United States. Members of our team and some service providers work in other countries, including Brazil, and may access information from there. That access is covered by written data processing agreements imposing the protections in this Policy, by role-based access controls and access logging, and, where a transfer mechanism is required, by the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses or another lawful mechanism.
15.3 Changes. We will post any update here with a new effective date. If a change is material, we will tell you in the app or by email at least 30 days before it takes effect. We will ask for your consent before using sensitive information in a new way.
15.4 Contact. PAWFRED Inc. · 2 S Biscayne Boulevard, Suite 2450, Miami, FL 33131 · Privacy: privacy@pawfred.com · Security: security@pawfred.com · Partners: partner@pawfred.com · Help center: pawfred.com/faq. For an urgent animal situation, call 911 or your local animal services first, then use SOS in the app.