Last updated: October 4, 2026. Contact: ludbeeai@gmail.com.
Privacy policy
You can explore the globe and save private dog profiles without an account. Private names, photos, chosen coordinates and settings stay in this browser or device until you remove them or clear its app data. Private dog locations are chosen manually; GPS is requested only when you explicitly choose a one-time precise share with an accepted friend. Hugging Pup does not track live movements.
Accounts store a username, a salted password hash, session records and your agreement to these standards. Submitting a dog sends its name, bio, icon and profile photos, optional breed and age, country and approximate area to the service. The app snaps public coordinates to a broad grid, roughly 100 km across, before submission and excludes your street-address label. Public pins are approximate areas, not homes or current locations. Do not choose your home as a public pin. Photos and descriptions can still reveal a place; review them before sharing. Profile originals keep their dimensions and encoded image quality. Separate thumbnails are cropped for previews. Before sharing, private image metadata is removed while orientation and color information are preserved.
All submitted public profile text and images are reviewed before public display. Approved profiles and photos are visible to other users. Account identifiers link shared dogs to their owners so users can block them. Never include addresses, phone numbers, people’s identifying details or children’s images in a shared profile.
The service stores reports and signed-in blocks. Device blocks are also saved locally for offline use. Reports include a profile identifier, the selected reason and time; signed-in reports include your account identifier. Rate limits temporarily use an IP address to prevent abuse. Thumbs-ups store the profile and signed-in account identifiers so each account can vote once; totals are public. This prototype does not use advertising, tracking or analytics SDKs and does not sell profile data.
Detailed map requests go to OpenFreeMap and include the requested region and your IP address. A location search sends the text you explicitly enter to OpenStreetMap’s Nominatim service. Previously viewed map resources and searches may be cached locally. These services have their own policies: OpenFreeMap and OpenStreetMap Foundation.
Optional Google and Apple sign-in, when available, stores the provider name and its unique account identifier to sign you in. We do not request or store your Google or Apple email, full name, contacts or profile picture. Apple authorization refresh tokens are encrypted on the server so account deletion can revoke that authorization. Temporary sign-in records expire after ten minutes. Connecting a provider while signed in keeps the same Hugging Pup account; accounts are never merged by email. Provider sign-in needs an internet connection. Your provider also processes sign-in according to its own privacy policy.
Remove a private dog from its profile. Make a shared dog private again to remove its live public copy. In Account, choose Delete my account to permanently delete the account, sessions, submitted dogs and photos, related reports, agreements, blocks, friendships, private shares and messages. Linked dog copies on the current device are removed too. Unlinked private dogs remain until you remove them. Other people’s offline copies may remain until they reconnect; deleted information cannot be recalled from screenshots or independent copies.
Data remains until you remove it or delete the associated account. Hosted pilot account data is stored by Render in the United States. A local development preview stores its test data on the development computer. Provider backup retention and protections must be finalized before general registration opens. Email the support address for access, correction, deletion or safety concerns.
Public maps show city / state areas with no roads or street labels and stop at city-level zoom. Street detail opens in a separate private map only for an active, accepted one-time precise share between accepted friends. Private maps close on expiry, offline use, backgrounding or lost authorization, with remote changes checked every five seconds. Friend requests require acceptance. Friendship alone reveals no location. Each private share also requires sender consent and recipient acceptance. A meeting spot expires after 15 minutes, 1 hour or 24 hours; a one-time precise share expires after 15 minutes or 1 hour. The service stores the private share. Only its two participants can retrieve it through the app. Private shares are not stored in the offline cache. Stop sharing, removing a friendship, blocking, or deleting an account revokes access. Expired records are purged on the next friends or sharing request. Screenshots and independent copies cannot be recalled. Precise GPS is read once, never streamed.
Messages are available only between accepted friends. The service stores message text, sender and recipient account identifiers, timestamps and read positions to deliver conversations. Messages use HTTPS in the hosted app but are not end-to-end encrypted. They are not saved in the offline cache. Do not send passwords, financial details or sensitive personal information. Report a received message using its flag; reported text and account identifiers enter a private moderation queue. Blocking or removing a friend stops access and removes the live conversation; reported copies remain until a moderator resolves them or a participant deletes their account. Account deletion removes associated messages and reports. Messages need an internet connection and do not include attachments or calls.
Community standards
Share only dog profiles and photos you own or have permission to use. Do not post sexual content, violence or animal abuse, harassment, hate, threats, impersonation, scams, advertising, illegal content, or private information about another person. Do not include children or identifiable people in dog photos. The same standards apply to private messages. There is no matchmaking for people or live-location tracking.
Every submission and edit requires review before it appears publicly. Moderators can reject or remove content. Report a shared profile using Report this profile; block its owner to hide their dogs immediately. Contact ludbeeai@gmail.com for urgent concerns. The operator must monitor reports and respond promptly; the prototype’s queue alone is not a staffed moderation service.
Creating an account or submitting a dog requires agreement to these standards. This service is not designed for children under 13; it is not an Apple Kids Category app. The final App Store age rating must reflect its public user content and safety controls.
Support and acknowledgments
Support: ludbeeai@gmail.com. Include a description of the problem without passwords or exact home addresses.
Earth imagery: NASA Blue Marble and Black Marble, historical composites rather than live imagery. NASA does not endorse Hugging Pup. Country boundaries: Natural Earth public-domain data. Detailed maps: OpenFreeMap, OpenMapTiles and OpenStreetMap contributors. MapLibre GL JS is bundled under its BSD-3-Clause license.
