Privacy policy
Doggl knows where you go for walks. That is the most sensitive information this app touches — which is why this page says not only what is collected, but also what is explicitly not collected, and why.
This is a translation of the German privacy policy. Both say the same; should they ever differ, the German version applies.
1. Controller
The controller responsible for processing personal data within the meaning of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is:
S2OK Studios UG (haftungsbeschränkt)
represented by
Jakob-Klar-Str. 9
80796 München, Germany
Email: support@doggl.app
No data protection officer has been appointed; the requirements of § 38 BDSG (German Federal Data Protection Act) are not met.
2. The essentials
- The recorded route never leaves your device. The individual location points of a walk are stored in the app. They are not sent to our server, neither during the walk nor afterwards.
- What goes to the server are the conquered cells — whole-number coordinates on a hexagonal grid with sides of roughly 35 metres — plus the distance, duration, start and end of a walk.
- And the shape of your loop, without location, scale or timestamps: a drawing that would look the same anywhere in the world.
- We do not collect the owner’s name or email address. Sign in with Apple explicitly does not ask for either.
- There is no tracking, no advertising and no analytics tool — neither in the app nor on this website.
3. This website
Hosting and server logs
This website is hosted by Cloudflare, Inc. (101 Townsend St., San Francisco, CA 94107, USA). When a page is requested, Cloudflare processes technically necessary connection data, in particular the IP address, the time of the request, the requested address and information about the browser and operating system. Without this processing a page could not be delivered.
The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR; our legitimate interest is the secure and reliable operation of the website. A data processing agreement is in place with Cloudflare; transfers to third countries are safeguarded by the European Commission’s standard contractual clauses.
No cookies, no third-party content
This website sets no cookies, stores nothing on your device and loads nothing from other servers — no fonts, no maps, no videos, no analytics script. That is why there is neither a consent banner nor any consent for you to withdraw.
4. The app: what is collected
4.1 Account
On first launch, the app quietly creates an anonymous account. It consists of a random identifier (UUID) and nothing else; it lets you look at the map. Anyone who wants to go for walks and conquer ground signs in with Sign in with Apple. We receive an identifier for your Apple account; we explicitly do not ask for your name or email address. There is no password.
Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR (performance of the user agreement).
4.2 Location
While a walk you started is running, the app accesses your precise location, including when the screen is locked. It does so only then; without a walk in progress, no location is recorded.
From the location points, the app works out which cells of the grid
you touched. Only these cells are sent to our server
(as whole-number coordinates q and r),
together with the time of the visit. The location points themselves stay
on the device and are deleted when you delete the walk or the app.
When you report a hazard or a helpful spot, the exact position of that point is also stored — that is the purpose of the report. Other users cannot see who reported it.
Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR.
4.3 Walks
For each walk we store start, end, duration and distance, as well as the number of cells gained, held and lost. Also the outline — the shape of your route as a series of numbers, normalised to a fixed frame. It reveals neither where you were nor how far or how fast you walked. And the points the walk scores in a duel (see 4.9).
Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR.
4.4 Profile
To play, you create a profile: your dog’s name (free choice, not unique) and a username (lower-case letters, digits and underscore only, unique across the system). Optionally, your dog’s breed and birthday.
We also store your phone’s time zone, such as
Europe/Berlin. That way days are counted by your clock rather
than ours, and notifications that can wait don’t arrive at night. The
time zone reveals a rough region, not a location.
Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR; for the optional details, Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR.
4.5 Photos
You can take a photo for each walk or choose one from your library; it is scaled down and stored on our server so that it survives a change of device. Only you can see it.
Your dog’s profile photo is stored too. Whether other users see it is up to you, with a switch that is set to off by default; even when it is off, the photo stays stored so it is available to you again after a change of device or a new sign-in, but then only you can see it. The crop you choose for the round picture is stored together with the photo. If you remove the photo or delete your account, we delete both files.
Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR; for sharing the profile photo, Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR (withdrawable at any time by flipping the switch).
4.6 Map points
We store reported hazards and helpful spots with their kind, position, time and the reporter’s identifier. Confirmations from other users (“still there” / “gone”) are stored with their identifier so nobody votes twice. Map points have no free text — it is blocked on the server.
When you open the details of a report, that is recorded. It is how the reporter gets a thank-you once enough people have seen their warning; the record is deleted again afterwards (see section 7).
Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR.
4.7 Notifications
If you allow notifications, we store the device token that Apple assigns to the installation. Without it, no notification can be delivered. Notifications are sent via the Apple Push Notification service (APNs). The content of a notification is transmitted as a text key and only turned into a sentence on your device; free text from the app never appears in a notification.
Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR. You can withdraw permission at any time in the iOS settings; in the app you can also choose whether you get all notifications or hazard warnings only.
4.8 Feedback
You can send us free text through the feedback field in the settings. We store the text, your identifier, and the app’s version and environment — the latter so we know what the feedback refers to.
If you like, you can attach a picture, such as a screenshot. It is kept in non-public storage; nobody but us gets to see it. Because a screenshot of the map shows where you go, the picture — unlike the text — is deleted as soon as you delete your account.
Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (improving the app and answering enquiries).
4.9 Duels
You can challenge another dog to a duel: seven days, whoever scores more points wins. You can do this from their profile, if they have made it visible, or via an invitation link. For this we store who challenged whom, by which route, when, whether and when the challenge was accepted, and when the duel ends. Scoring uses the points of your walks (see 4.3); a duel collects no additional location and no route.
An invitation link contains nothing but a random key — no name, no account, no location. It works once and for 48 hours at most. Whoever opens it in the app sees the challenging dog’s name and, if its profile photo is shared, the photo.
Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR.
4.10 League
Besides the neighbourhood and the global leaderboard, every dog competes in a league with dogs who walk in a similar way. To do this, the server places each dog according to two questions: are its walks rather short or long (the typical distance of a walk over the last 28 days), and does it mostly walk familiar routes or new ones (the share of cells it had already set foot in during that time)? A dog is placed only after three walks in that period.
For the second question we store which cells you last set foot in on which day — the day only, no time, no order and no link to the individual walk. These records cannot be retrieved by anyone, not even by you, and are deleted after 28 days.
This is an automated evaluation of your walking behaviour and therefore profiling within the meaning of Art. 4(4) GDPR. It decides nothing but which leaderboard your dog appears in and has no legal or similarly significant effect (Art. 22 GDPR).
Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR.
4.11 Paws
You can give another dog a paw. We store who gave which dog a paw and when. The owner only learns how many there are, not from whom. If you take the paw back, we delete the record.
Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR.
4.12 Reporting and blocking
If you report a profile photo, a dog’s name or a map point, we store who reported what and when, and which of the three predefined reasons you chose; there is no free text. The person reported does not learn who reported them. If you block a dog, we store that so it disappears from your views.
Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR. Our legitimate interest is protecting users from offensive content and harassment and recognising abusive reports.
4.13 Server logs
With every request the app makes to our server, Supabase processes technically necessary connection data, in particular the IP address, the time, the interface called and the app’s identifier. These are kept in logs used for troubleshooting and fending off attacks, and are deleted automatically after a short period (see section 7).
Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR. Our legitimate interest is the secure and reliable operation of the app.
5. What is not collected
- No name or email address of the owner. The public identity in Doggl is the dog.
- No password. Sign-in goes through Apple.
- No address, no place of residence, no phone number.
- No usage or crash statistics. There is no analytics SDK in the app.
- No tracking across other apps or websites and no advertising. That is why the app never asks for tracking permission.
- No automated decision with legal or similarly significant effect within the meaning of Art. 22 GDPR. Placement in a league (4.10) only decides about a leaderboard.
6. Who else sees the data
We do not sell data or pass it on for advertising. The following are involved in providing the service:
| Recipient | Purpose | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Supabase, Inc. | Database, sign-in, file storage — all the app data described above is kept here | Data centre in Ireland (EU); data processing agreement, standard contractual clauses for the provider |
| Apple Inc. | Sign in with Apple and delivery of notifications (APNs) | USA/EU; standard contractual clauses |
| Mapbox, Inc. | Displaying the map in the app. When map tiles are loaded, the IP address and the requested map area are transmitted. Beyond that, the Mapbox map SDK would collect its own usage data — precise and approximate location, a device identifier and information about how the map is used, including for analytics. We have switched this off; it stays off unless you change it. You can switch it on via the ⓘ at the bottom of the map | USA; standard contractual clauses |
| Cloudflare, Inc. | Delivering this website | USA/EU; standard contractual clauses |
Beyond that, we only pass on data where we are legally obliged to.
7. How long data is kept
| What | How long |
|---|---|
| Account, profile, walks, cells, photos | until you delete your account |
| Duels and duel requests | until you or your opponent deletes their account |
| Cell visits (the intermediate trail from which ownership is calculated) | a few hours; cleared every hour |
| Which cells you set foot in on which day (league) | 28 days |
| Time zone, paws, reports and blocks | until you delete your account; a paw also when you take it back |
| Server logs at Supabase | 1 day |
| Opened hazard reports | 7 days |
| Sent notifications (log) | 4 weeks |
| Retired map points | 30 days after expiry |
| Anonymous accounts without a profile | 3 months after last use |
| Device tokens for notifications | until you sign out, at the latest with the account |
| Feedback from the feedback field | until dealt with, at most 24 months |
| Picture attached to feedback | like the feedback, at most until the account is deleted |
8. What other users see
Visible to other signed-in users are:
- your dog’s name and the size of your territory in the leaderboards,
- the cells that belong to you on the map — as a grid, not as a route,
- your profile photo, if you have shared it,
- your profile (photo, name, breed, age), if you have made it visible,
- in a duel, your score for your opponent: points, number of walks and of closed loops. It only updates at fixed times, every six hours — so it cannot be used to tell when you are out,
- your league: dogs in the same league see your dog in that leaderboard.
Not visible are: your walks, your routes, your walk photos, your username, your time zone, who reported which map point, who gave whom a paw, and who reported or blocked whom.
Anyone who misbehaves can be reported and blocked in the app; details in the terms of use.
9. Your rights
You have the right of access (Art. 15 GDPR), rectification (Art. 16), erasure (Art. 17), restriction of processing (Art. 18) and data portability (Art. 20). You can withdraw any consent you have given at any time with effect for the future.
Right to object (Art. 21 GDPR). Where we process data on the basis of a legitimate interest (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR — feedback, reporting and blocking, and server logs), you may object to that processing at any time on grounds relating to your particular situation. We will then no longer process the data unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds that override your interests, or the processing serves the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.
To exercise these rights, contact support@doggl.app. We reply within one month.
You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority, in particular the one responsible for us: Bayerisches Landesamt für Datenschutzaufsicht (BayLDA), Promenade 27, 91522 Ansbach, Germany.
10. Deleting your account and data
In the app under Profile → Account → Delete account. This removes your profile, walks, cells, photos, duels, paws, reports and blocks, league, time zone, notification settings and the account itself. It cannot be undone.
What you wrote to us through the feedback field is kept, no longer linked to your account, until it has been dealt with (see 4.8 and section 7); an attached picture is deleted with the account.
If you have already deleted the app and can no longer get into your account, write to support@doggl.app. Because we never stored your name or email address, we then need your username or your dog’s name to find the right account.
11. Children
Doggl is not aimed at children under 16. Anyone younger needs the consent of a parent or guardian.
12. Changes to this policy
When the app changes, this policy changes with it. The current version is always at this address; the date below shows when it was last changed.
Last updated: 31 October 2026