Privacy Policy · the Off-Leash.club

1. Personal information we collect

Information you provide

Account data — email address, optional password (stored as a one-way hash when set), public @handle, and when you use Google or Facebook sign-in, your provider user id and the email/name/profile picture they share (picture may be copied to your avatar once).
Profile data — optional blurb, avatar, banner, and home place (coordinates used to personalize the nearby portion of your feed).
User-generated content — posts, replies, votes, ratings and dimension scores, photos/videos, mentions, and follows (users or locations). Much of this is public on the Service by design (directory + social feed). Soft-hidden content (after moderation) is kept for review but excluded from public feeds and score calculations.
Reports — when you file a content report: target type and id, reason category, and your written detail; admin notes and resolution. Reports are not public. Ownership disputes over location management use a separate dispute process and evidence path (see claim/dispute below).
Claim, verification, and dispute data — when you claim or join a claim race, vote agree/disagree on a claim, manage a location, request verification, or file a dispute: claim status and timestamps; public association of your @handle with a claim or management role; optional contact fields you publish for a place; verification method and outcome; channel snapshots used to check control (for example website host from place data, and a business email address you nominate for a one-time code); and evidence files you upload (documents or video) for verification or disputes. Evidence is stored privately for review and is not shown on public location pages.
Communications — messages you send us about the Service, transactional emails we send you for verification codes when that method is used, optional manager summary emails when you enable a premium listing digest, and occasional B2B listing outreach to business contact emails we have for a place (opt out at /unsubscribe; we keep an unsubscribe record so we do not re-mail).
Notifications — in-app notification history (kind, text, link target, read state); optional browser push subscription data (endpoint and encryption keys stored when you opt in on your profile notification settings); digest frequency preference for premium managers.

Information from third parties and infrastructure

Place data — we may ingest place names, addresses, coordinates, categories, hours, phone, website, and related attributes from Google Places (server-side) and OpenStreetMap to build and refresh directory listings and to choose verification channels. Google ratings shown as snapshots are not first-party the Off-Leash.club rating rows. Logged-in users may also submit first-party places (name, pin coordinates, category, optional address/website/blurb); those submissions are attributed to the account and may appear on public listings.
Cloudflare — when you visit, Cloudflare may provide approximate location from IP (used for logged-out nearby feed when you have not shared coordinates). Media and private proof objects are stored in Cloudflare R2.
Turnstile — on signup, login, forgot-password, claim, dispute, propose, and add-place flows when enabled, to reduce bots.
Email delivery — when email-domain verification is configured, an SMTP transactional email provider sends one-time codes to the address you nominate on the listing’s website domain. The same SMTP path may send listing outreach to business contact emails; recipients can opt out at /unsubscribe.
Website / DNS checks — for website verification we may request DNS TXT records or fetch pages or well-known URLs on the listing’s domain to confirm a challenge token you published. Those checks contact infrastructure you (or the place) control, not unrelated third-party accounts.

Automatic collection

Session cookie — a session identifier cookie so we can keep you signed in (see Cookies below).
Device and request data — IP address, user agent, and similar request metadata processed by our hosting stack; structured application logs (without passwords or API keys).
Approximate page and list views — first-party counters for place pages, post permalinks, and how often a place appears in destination or discovery lists. These are approximate totals (not unique visitors) used for premium manager insights and platform admin analytics.
Sampled engagement aggregates — on a small sample of sessions we may record coarse feed scroll-depth and dwell buckets and media open/play kinds. Events are stored only as daily aggregates (no per-user rows, no scroll trails, no third-party analytics pixels).
Optional precise location — if you allow browser geolocation (for example to reload the nearby feed), we use those coordinates for that purpose. Soft check-in for ratings may be added later under the same principle: distance checks, not tracking trails.

2. How we use personal information

operate the directory, feed, profiles, ratings, boards, claims, verification, and disputes;
authenticate sessions and secure accounts;
show public content you choose to post, and attribute media where required;
run claim races (including public claim cards and agree/disagree participation);
verify managers or stewards and review uploaded evidence;
send transactional emails for password reset, signup email confirmation, and claim email-domain verification;
send list mail (welcome, outreach) when you are enrolled and SMTP is configured;
send occasional B2B listing outreach to business contact emails associated with places, with an unsubscribe option;
deliver in-app notifications, optional browser push (when you subscribe), and optional premium manager email digests summarizing place activity;
personalize nearby results using home or IP approximate location;
prevent abuse (Turnstile, content reports, soft-hide moderation, admin tools, rate limits on claims, disputes, and reports);
comply with law and enforce our Terms;
improve reliability and understand operational errors (logs).

We do not sell personal information for money. We do not run interest-based advertising.

3. How we share information

Publicly on the Service — @handle, profile fields you set public, posts, ratings, follows, claim-race participation (that you claimed or your claim is in a race), agree/disagree is reflected in public scores, and location manager / verified / steward attributions are visible to other users and may be indexed where pages are public. Private verification and dispute evidence files are not published on location pages. The same public place details shown on location and discovery pages (such as name, address, category, score, and map position) may also be requested through a public lookup for personal AI assistants — described at Ask your AI assistant.
Service providers — Cloudflare (Workers, D1, KV sessions, R2 media and private proofs), Google (Places API called from our servers; API keys never sent to your browser; Google sign-in when configured), Meta/Facebook (Facebook Login when configured), Turnstile when configured, an SMTP transactional email provider when email-domain verification is enabled, and Dodo Payments when you start a paid listing checkout (payment details are collected on Dodo’s hosted pages; Dodo is the merchant of record). They process data to provide those services.
Legal and safety — if required by law or to protect users, animals, or the Service.
Business transfer — in a merger, acquisition, or similar transaction, personal information may transfer as part of the assets.

4. Cookies

We use a first-party session cookie to keep you logged in. We do not use advertising cookies or third-party analytics pixels on the Site. Sampled engagement and performance timing use a first-party beacon to our own /api/metrics endpoint (latency buckets and aggregate counts only — no per-user rows). You can clear cookies in your browser; doing so will sign you out and reset sampling state.

5. Retention

We keep account and content data while your account is active and as needed to operate the public directory and feed. After account deletion or content removal, residual copies may remain briefly in backups or logs. Claim, verification, and dispute records (including outcomes and admin notes) may be retained longer when needed for trust and safety, appeals, or legal obligations.

Verification and dispute evidence (documents, video, and similar uploads) is stored privately for review. We keep evidence while a verification or dispute is open, and may retain it afterward for trust and safety, appeals, legal hold, or abuse prevention. Challenge tokens and one-time codes expire as described in the verification flow.

6. Security

We use industry-standard measures appropriate to a small web service (hashed passwords, encrypted secrets at rest where configured, TLS via our host). No method of transmission or storage is perfectly secure.

7. Your choices and rights

You can edit profile fields, unfollow, and remove some content through the Service. Depending on where you live (including under GDPR, UK GDPR, or POPIA and similar laws), you may have rights to access, correct, delete, or obtain a copy of personal information, or to object to or restrict certain processing. To exercise these rights, contact us at admin@bmd-studios.com. We may need to verify your request.

If you are in Europe, BMD-Studios is the controller for processing described here. You may have the right to lodge a complaint with your local supervisory authority.

8. Children

The Service is for users 18 and older. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has provided personal information, contact us and we will take appropriate steps.

9. International transfers

We host on Cloudflare’s global network. Your information may be processed in countries other than where you live. Where required, we rely on appropriate safeguards offered by our providers and applicable law.

10. Changes

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we will update the effective date on this page. Continued use of the Service after an update means you accept the revised policy.

11. Contact

Privacy questions: admin@bmd-studios.com
922 Touches str Weltevredenpark Roodepoort Gauteng 1709 South Africa

See also our Terms of Use and Managing places.