Privacy Policy
Last updated 24 August 2026
Parks is built around a simple rule: the app tells people which dogs are at a park, and nothing more precise than that. This page explains exactly what we collect, why, and what we deliberately do not do.
The short version. Your exact location is never shared with other users. Dogs you mark “avoid” are never told. Your visit history is off unless you turn it on. You can delete your account, and everything personal in it, from inside the app.
Who we are
Parks is operated by Eliad Shahar. For any privacy question, or to exercise any right described below, contact hello@tryparks.com.
What we collect
| Data | Why |
|---|---|
| Phone number, or your Apple / Google account identifier | To sign you in. We never see your Apple or Google password. |
| Display name, optional profile photo, language and time zone | So other owners can recognise you, and so notifications arrive in your language and respect your quiet hours. |
| Your dogs: name, and optionally breed, size, sex, birth date, weight, description, warnings and photos | This is the content of the app. Other users see it when your dog is at a park. |
| Device location, while you use the app | To show nearby parks and to notice when you arrive at one. See the section below — this is the part we treat most carefully. |
| Check-ins, planned arrivals, calls, meetups and RSVPs | To show who is at a park and who is coming. |
| Favourite / okay / avoid marks, blocks and mutes | To personalise what you see and to keep you away from people you don't want to meet. These are private to you. |
| Park submissions, reviews, photos and updates you write | To build the shared park directory. |
| Reports you send to moderators | To review and act on safety issues. |
| A push notification token for your device | To deliver notifications. Only if you allow notifications. |
| Visit history — only if you switch it on | Off by default. When on, it records which parks your dogs visited so you can look back at it. Only you can see it. |
Location, specifically
This is the part most people care about, so here is precisely how it works.
- Your device's coordinates are used on your device to show nearby parks and to detect that you have arrived at one.
- What is sent to our server is which park you checked into — never your exact coordinates, and never a continuous location trail.
- Other users therefore see “this dog is at Herzliya Dog Park”. They cannot see where you are within the park, on the way there, or anywhere else.
- Arrival detection is never silent. If the app notices you may have arrived, it asks you to confirm before anyone is told anything.
- You can decline location permission entirely and still use the app — you check in manually instead.
- If you allow background location, it is used only to notice arrival at parks you follow. You can turn it off at any time in iOS or Android settings.
What we deliberately do not do
- We do not publish or share your exact GPS coordinates with other users, ever.
- If you mark a dog as avoid, that dog's owner is never told — not by notification, not in the interface, not indirectly through counts or activity. The warning is shown only to you.
- Your favourite and okay marks are equally private. Owners can only ever see an anonymous count of how many people favourited their own dog.
- If you block someone, the block works in both directions and is enforced on our server, not just hidden in the app.
- We do not sell your personal data, and we do not use it for advertising or share it with advertisers.
- We do not track you across other apps or websites.
Who processes data for us
We keep this list short on purpose.
- Supabase — hosts our database, authentication, file storage and server functions. Data is stored in the European Union (Frankfurt).
- Apple and Google — if you choose to sign in with them, and to deliver push notifications through APNs and FCM.
- Expo — delivers push notifications to your device.
- Google Places — only if you search for a park that isn't in our directory yet, your search text is sent to Google to find it. Community-added parks never involve Google.
How long we keep things
- Live activity is short-lived by design: check-ins, planned arrivals, calls and temporary park updates expire automatically, usually within hours.
- Your profile, dogs and the content you post stay until you delete them or delete your account.
- Visit history, if you enabled it, stays until you turn it off or delete your account.
- Moderation records are kept as long as needed to keep the community safe.
Your rights
You can, at any time:
- Delete your account from inside the app, under Profile. This removes your personal data, your dogs, your relationships and your history.
- Edit or delete individual dogs, photos, reviews and updates.
- Turn visit history off, and turn notifications off per park or entirely.
- Request a copy of your data, or ask us to correct or erase it, by emailing hello@tryparks.com.
If you are in the EU or UK, you also have the right to object to processing, to restrict it, and to complain to your data protection authority. If you are in Israel, you have the rights granted by the Protection of Privacy Law.
Children
Parks is not intended for children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect data from them. If you believe a child has given us data, email us and we will delete it.
Security
Every table in our database enforces row-level security, so the server itself decides what you are allowed to see rather than trusting the app. Photos live in private storage and are served through short-lived links. Sensitive actions run as authenticated server operations rather than direct database writes.
No system is perfect. If you find a security problem, please email hello@tryparks.com and we will take it seriously.
Changes
If we change this policy in a way that matters, we will update the date at the top and tell you in the app before the change takes effect.