Privacy Policy

Kin is built on a simple idea: your dog’s life is yours. We designed Kin so your information stays with you by default, and so the few things that do leave your device are encrypted and kept to a minimum. This policy explains what we collect, what we don’t, and the choices you have. Where this policy reads more simply than the engineering behind it, the stricter practice always wins.

The short version

• Your dog’s records, photos, and locations live on your device by default.
• What syncs across your family is end-to-end encrypted — we can’t read it.
• We sign you in with Apple. No passwords; we don’t collect your email or phone number for your account.
• We don’t sell your data, run ads, or use third-party analytics trackers.
• You can export everything anytime, and delete your account in one tap.

What stays on your device

Medical records, medications, the photos you choose, behavior notes, walk routes, and the signals that power reminders are stored on your device and protected by the operating system’s encryption. If a feature can work on-device, it does.

What syncs through iCloud — and how it’s protected

So your dog’s information is there across your devices and for the family you share with, Kin uses iCloud with end-to-end encryption. The keys are held by you through iCloud Keychain — Apple holds no keys, and neither do we. Health records carry an additional layer of encryption, so only family members you’ve granted health access can read them.

How you sign in

Kin uses Sign in with Apple only. There are no passwords. We don’t collect your real email address or phone number for your account; we may receive Apple’s private relay email solely for essential notifications.

Sharing with your family

A dog belongs to a family, so Kin lets you share with scoped roles — co-owner, caregiver, sitter, walker, vet. Each role sees only what it should. When you revoke someone’s access, it takes effect immediately, and they can’t read anything shared afterward. We never share your Apple ID with anyone.

Cloud reasoning (premium, opt-in)

Most of Kin’s intelligence runs on your device. For a few advanced premium features, you can opt in — one category at a time — to send a minimal, relevant summary to our cloud reasoning provider (Anthropic) to produce a result. These requests use zero-retention (your data isn’t stored by the provider), never include raw medical records, photos, audio, or precise location unless you’ve specifically consented, and stay off unless you turn them on.

Connected devices and services

When you pair a device (such as a camera or collar) or use Find My, the data flow is named at the moment you connect, pairing credentials are stored securely on your device, and connected-device data stays on-device wherever possible.

Affiliate links

Some options in Kin’s Find section are affiliate links — for food, pharmacy, or insurance, for example. If you tap one, we may receive anonymous referral and attribution data so we earn a referral fee. We never send your personal information or your dog’s data, and this is referral revenue, not a sale of your data.

Anonymous product analytics (off by default)

To understand whether Kin is genuinely helping, you can opt in to share anonymous, aggregate usage counts — how often core features are used. These are not linked to your identity, are not used to track you across other apps or websites, and contain no personal information. This is off unless you turn it on, in Settings → Privacy.

This website

kin.dog is a simple marketing site. If you join the closed beta, we store the email you give us only to contact you about the beta, and you can ask us to remove it at any time. We use privacy-friendly, cookieless analytics for the site — no cross-site tracking and no advertising cookies.

Your choices and rights

• Export your data anytime, encrypted with a password you choose.
• Delete your account in one tap — a short grace period, then permanent.
• Revoke any sharing or consent as easily as you granted it.
• Access and correct your data directly in the app.

We honor GDPR and CCPA/CPRA rights regardless of where you live. We do not “sell” personal information.

Children

Kin is family software. Child accounts use Apple Family Sharing; they see no commercial surfaces, can’t start cloud reasoning or device pairing, and we never share any third-party data about a child account.

Data retention

We keep data only as long as it’s needed — nothing is kept indefinitely. After you delete your account, your data is purged within the windows described in the app, and backups follow shortly after.

Changes to this policy

If we change this policy, we’ll update the date above. For material changes that affect your data, we’ll ask for any new consent rather than changing things silently.

Contact

Questions about privacy? Email privacy@kin.dog.

This is a plain-language summary. Read the full Privacy Policy →