Carefully is operated by Vakil Ventures LLC (“Carefully,” “we,” “us,” or “our”). This policy explains what information Carefully handles, why we use it, which service providers receive it, how long we keep it, and the choices available to you. Carefully was previously named PawCast; references to PawCast in an older app version, receipt, system identifier, or legacy URL refer to the same service and operator.
The short version: Carefully does not sell personal information, run third-party advertising, or use Vet Visit recordings to build advertising profiles. We use data to provide the features you request, secure the service, process purchases, and improve reliability.
Information we collect
- Account information: your email address and, when supplied by Apple or Google, your name and provider account identifier.
- Pet and household information: pet name, photo, breed, age, size, coat details, birthday or adoption date, notes you add, invited email addresses, membership role, and household activity. The current complete pet experience is designed for dogs.
- Location and weather: precise coordinates when you ask for local conditions or track a GPS walk, a saved place or city, and weather observations and recommendations produced for that place.
- Care and activity records: meals, water, medications, bathroom events, notes, timestamps, walk duration and distance, optional photos, and—when GPS tracking is enabled—route points.
- Vet Visit information: audio you intentionally record, its transcript, and AI-generated structured summaries, questions, medications, and aftercare items.
- Purchases: product, entitlement, transaction, renewal, and expiration information supplied by Apple or Google. Carefully does not receive your full payment-card details.
- Technical information: app version, device and platform type, request and security logs, crash diagnostics, and pseudonymous feature events needed to operate and understand the service.
- Support communications: messages and files you choose to send to us.
How we use information
- Provide personalized weather and activity guidance, Care logging, walk tracking, read-only sharing, Vet Visit summaries, synchronization, and account support.
- Authenticate accounts, prevent abuse, maintain subscription entitlement state, and protect users and the service.
- Send notifications you enable, such as safer walk windows, weather changes, and medication reminders.
- Diagnose failures and improve performance and usability using minimized, pseudonymous telemetry.
- Comply with law, enforce our Terms, and respond to valid legal requests.
Location and background activity
Carefully uses location in two different ways. For weather, it uses a coordinate or city to retrieve nearby conditions. For an active GPS walk, it uses location while the walk is running, including when Carefully is in the background, so it can calculate your route, distance, and duration. Android displays a persistent notification during this tracking. You can deny or revoke location access in device settings and use city-based weather or a time-only walk where offered.
Vet Visit recordings and AI
Recording starts only after you choose it and confirm consent. Audio is held in app-private local storage while recording or retrying, streamed for transcription, and removed from the device after successful processing or when you delete it. Carefully does not intentionally retain raw audio on its servers. Transcripts and structured summaries are retained with your account until you delete the visit or your account.
We use OpenAI as a processor for transcription and structured summarization. OpenAI states that API data is not used to train its models by default. Depending on the endpoint and Carefully’s approved data-control configuration, limited data may be retained for abuse monitoring for up to 30 days. Vet summaries are informational, may contain errors, and are not veterinary advice.
When we share information
We disclose only what is needed to service providers acting on our behalf or when required by law. Providers may include:
- Open-Meteo for weather, using coordinates without your Carefully identity.
- OpenAI for Vet Visit transcription and structured summarization.
- Apple, Google, and Resend for sign-in, purchases, and email verification.
- Hosting, database, monitoring, and analytics providers for secure operation, diagnostics, and pseudonymous product measurement.
A pet owner may invite a viewer to one dog. A viewer can see the shared profile, place-level weather, Care history, walk summaries without route geometry, Vet questions, and structured summaries. Viewers cannot access precise coordinates, route geometry, raw Vet transcripts, owner account information, or billing information.
Storage, security, and retention
We use access controls, encrypted transport, app-private device storage, and other administrative and technical safeguards appropriate to the information. No method of storage is completely secure. Account-created records are retained while your account is active unless you delete an individual record. Operational and security logs are retained only as long as reasonably needed. When an account is deleted, active data is removed or de-identified and encrypted backups age out within 14 days, except information we must retain for security, fraud prevention, dispute resolution, or law.
Your choices and rights
- Review or edit pet profiles, logs, permissions, sharing, and notification settings in Carefully.
- Turn off precise or background location, microphone, photos, camera, or notifications in device settings.
- Leave a shared pet or revoke a viewer’s access.
- Manage subscriptions through Apple or Google. Deleting Carefully does not automatically cancel store billing.
- Delete individual records where available or delete your full account in Carefully account settings.
- Request account deletion without the app at carefully.pet/delete-account.
Depending on where you live, you may also have rights to access, correct, export, object to, restrict, or request deletion of personal information. Contact us to make a request. We may verify your identity before acting.
Children
Carefully is designed for adult pet parents and is not directed to anyone under 18. We do not knowingly collect personal information from a person under 18. Contact us if you believe a minor has provided information.
International use and changes
Carefully is operated from the United States. If you use it elsewhere, information may be processed in the United States and other places where our processors operate. We may update this policy as Carefully changes. Material updates will be communicated in the app or by another appropriate method, and the date above will change.
Contact
Email support@carefully.pet with privacy questions or requests. Carefully is operated by Vakil Ventures LLC.