Pawlingo privacy policy
In short: Pawlingo works without an account. Your pets, journal and what Pawlingo learns about your pet stay on your phone. Recordings are only shared if you choose "Yes, I'll help", and you can switch that off or delete what you shared at any time. On Android, the Play tab shows ads via Google AdMob and offers an optional one-time Pawlingo Premium purchase through Google Play Billing.
What stays on your phone
- Your pets' names, breeds and settings.
- Your journal of translations, including any photos taken while translating.
- The Play tab: game progress, lives, the wardrobe, and the photos you add in photo challenges ("moments"). Before a photo is saved, the app re-encodes it, which removes the camera details and any location stored in the picture.
- Your answers in the Play tab's optional treat round (for example your pet's age band or what they do when someone knocks), and simple usage counts the app keeps for its own settings screen. These counts are never sent anywhere.
- The "sound fingerprints" of your pet's sounds and your answers about what they meant, which Pawlingo uses to learn your pet. These are numbers describing pitch, tone and rhythm, not recordings.
We don't receive any of this unless you opt in to sharing (below). Uninstalling the app deletes it.
What we receive if you opt in to sharing
Only if you tap "Yes, I'll help" (you can change this any time in Settings):
- Short sound clips (up to 15 seconds) recorded while you translate. Clips can contain background sounds, including people talking, so please don't translate during private conversations.
- The sound fingerprint and measurements of each clip, and Pawlingo's guess at what it meant.
- Your answers about what was really going on (situation, mood, and any comment you type).
- Your pet's species and breed, a random ID for the pet and a random ID for the app install. These are not linked to your name, phone number, email, contacts or location, which we don't collect.
- The app version and whether the phone is Android or iPhone.
We use this only to train and improve Pawlingo's understanding of pet sounds. We don't sell it, use it for advertising, or try to identify you from it.
Pet photos (optional, separate choice)
Photos from Play tab photo challenges stay on your phone. They are sent to us only if you share clips and you tick a separate choice, "Share pet photos to help Pawlingo learn breeds and moods", which is off unless you tick it. You can turn it off any time in Settings.
A shared photo is a JPEG you chose, with no location or camera details (the app removes them, and our server removes any that are left). With it we receive the labels you gave it: the challenge situation (for example "eating"), and if you answered them, whether it is your pet, its size and whether its breed is right, plus the pet's species, the random pet ID and install ID, the app version and phone type. We use shared photos only to help Pawlingo learn breeds and moods. We don't use them to judge your pet's temperament, and we don't sell them or use them for advertising.
Deleting a photo from your pet's moments also deletes it from our server, and Settings → Delete everything I've shared deletes all of them.
Ads and consent (Google AdMob on Android)
On Android, the Play tab displays optional rewarded ads (to refill a life or continue a run) and occasional interstitial ads between Endless or Chase runs using Google AdMob (Google Privacy Policy). Ad content is rated at most PG and is never tagged for children under 13.
- What Google AdMob collects: your device's Advertising ID, IP address (which may be used to estimate general location), device and app information, ad impressions and interactions, and SDK crash/diagnostics data for advertising, fraud prevention and measurement.
- Consent (Google UMP): Where required by law (including the EEA, UK and applicable regions), the app shows Google's User Messaging Platform (UMP) consent form after onboarding and age confirmation, and only loads ads according to your consent choice.
- Opting out of personalised ads: When the UMP privacy options form is required in your region, you can update your choice in Settings → Ad privacy settings. On any Android phone you can also reset or delete your Advertising ID or opt out of personalised ads in your phone's Settings → Google → Ads (or Settings → Privacy → Ads).
Never-shared pet recordings, journal entries and pet photos are never shared with AdMob or used for ad targeting.
In-app purchases (Google Play Billing on Android)
On Android, you can optionally buy Pawlingo Premium (a one-time non-consumable purchase for unlimited lives, no interstitial ads, and a free Continue once per Endless or Chase run). Payments are processed by Google Play Billing. We do not receive your credit card or banking details; the app only checks with Google Play on your device whether your Google Play account owns Pawlingo Premium so it can unlock and restore your purchase.
Picked clips and video sharing
If you pick a clip from your phone, it is sent to our server only to read the sound, and deleted straight away.
When you tap Share video, the app sends that translation's camera clip or photo (if there is one), its sound clip and the text to our server, only to make the video. The video comes straight back to your phone and the server deletes the clip, photo, sound and video immediately. Nothing from video sharing is kept or used for training, and this happens whether or not you opted in to sharing clips.
Crash reports
If the app crashes, it sends a technical error report (the error message, where in the app it happened, the app version and phone type) with the random install ID, so we can fix it. Crash reports contain no recordings, names or pet details.
Camera and microphone
While the Translate screen is open and "Catch sounds I just missed" is on, the app keeps the last 10 seconds of microphone audio in memory on your phone so tapping the paw right after a bark or meow can still translate it; that rolling buffer is never written to disk or sent anywhere, and is dropped as soon as you leave the screen. The camera is optional. In the Play tab you can also use it to take a photo for a photo challenge. When it's on, it films your pet (without sound) while the paw is lit, for your share card and share video; clips and photos stay on your phone unless you share them yourself (see Video sharing above).
Where it's stored and for how long
Shared clips, answers and photos are stored on Google Cloud in South Africa (Johannesburg region), encrypted in transit and at rest. We keep them while they're useful for training, or until you delete them.
Deleting your data
- In the app: Settings → Delete everything I've shared removes every clip, answer and photo from this install, on the phone and on our servers. Your moments stay on your phone.
- Turning sharing off (or photo sharing off) deletes anything that hasn't been sent yet.
- Or email pawlingo@zdns.co.za. Because we don't know who you are, include your install ID, shown at the bottom of Settings in the app.
Children
Pawlingo is for people aged 13 and over. We don't knowingly collect data from children under 13.
Your rights
Under South Africa's Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA), and the GDPR where it applies, you can ask to access or delete information about you, or object to how it's used. Contact pawlingo@zdns.co.za. You can also complain to the South African Information Regulator.
Changes
If we change this policy, we'll update the date above, and for important changes we'll tell you in the app.
Contact
ZDNS (Pty) Ltd · pawlingo@zdns.co.za