Privacy Policy

Chaeon Studio (대표 / Representative: Chaeyeon Seo; "Company," "we," "us," or "our") operates the mobile application Paw Print (발자국, the "Service"). This Privacy Policy explains what personal information we collect, how we use and share it, how long we keep it, and the rights you have. We process personal information in accordance with the Korean Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA) and the Network Act, and — for users in the relevant regions — the EU/UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA/CPRA).

By creating an account or using the Service, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, please do not use the Service.

1. Information We Collect

(a) Account information. When you sign up, we collect your email address and a social-login identifier from Google or Apple. We do not collect or store any password of our own — sign-in is handled entirely by your Google or Apple account. Optionally, you may provide a nickname and a profile image.

(b) Pet and health information you enter. The Service is built to record your pet's care, so you may enter: pet profiles (name, species, breed, sex, date of birth, profile photo, weight and other body measurements, allergies and prohibited foods, notes); medical records (hospital name, visit reason, notes, attached photos such as prescriptions or lab sheets); appointments; vaccination records; health metrics (e.g. weight, BUN, creatinine); and health diary entries (text, tags, photos).

(c) Community content. Posts, comments, and likes you create in the in-app community.

(d) Care-sharing information. Share invitation codes and the identifiers of members who accept a share, used to let trusted family or friends view a pet's data.

(e) Purchases and subscriptions. Subscription status and receipt identifiers passed to us by the Apple App Store or Google Play Store. We never collect or store your underlying payment-method details (card numbers, etc.) — those are handled by Apple and Google.

(f) Device and push-notification information. Device push token, operating system (iOS/Android), app version, and a device identifier used to manage notifications across your devices.

(g) Location information. Only if you grant the OS location permission, your approximate latitude/longitude is used on a one-time basis to find nearby 24-hour emergency animal hospitals and to provide weather-based care tips. Coordinates are used for the immediate request and are not stored on our servers.

(h) Automatically collected information. Service usage records, access logs, and error logs generated while you use the app.

2. How We Use Your Information

We use personal information to: identify members and operate the Service; store, retrieve, and synchronize the pet data you enter (medical records, appointments, vaccinations, health metrics, diaries); provide added features such as OCR of prescription/lab images and automatic parsing of medical records; send push notifications you have configured (vaccination reminders, appointment reminders, care-share acceptance, daily care checks); provide location-based features (emergency-hospital search and weather-based care tips); enable care-sharing among family and friends; respond to your inquiries and improve the Service; prevent and act against fraudulent or abusive use and violations of our terms or applicable law; and perform aggregate, de-identified analysis of how the Service is used.

3. AI Features and Automated Processing

To provide optical character recognition (OCR) for prescription and lab images, voice-memo transcription, and AI-assisted symptom guidance, the relevant image, audio, or text is transmitted to Google's Gemini API for processing and the result is returned to you. This data is processed only to deliver the feature you requested; we do not use it for advertising, and we do not sell it. We do not make decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects about you solely by automated means.

4. How We Share Your Information

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it with advertisers, ad networks, or marketing partners. We engage the following service providers (sub-processors) solely to operate the Service, and they may not use your information for any other purpose:

For weather-based care tips we query the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) and Korea Environment Corporation (KECO) APIs using only weather-grid coordinates derived from your location; no personal identifiers are sent and these are not processed under a data-processing relationship.

We may also disclose information when required to comply with applicable law, legal process, or a lawful government request, or where necessary to protect the rights, safety, or property of our users, the public, or the Company. If the Company is involved in a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, your information may be transferred, subject to this Privacy Policy.

5. International Data Transfers

We are based in the Republic of Korea, and our primary data storage region is AWS Asia Pacific (Seoul). Some information — such as member identifiers, device push tokens, images submitted for OCR/AI processing, and subscription receipt identifiers — is processed by the service providers listed in Section 4, including providers located in the United States. Transfers occur over the network in encrypted form at the time you use the relevant feature.

If you access the Service from the European Economic Area (EEA) or the United Kingdom, please note that the Republic of Korea has received an adequacy decision from the European Commission (2021), meaning transfers of personal data to Korea are permitted without additional safeguards. Where data is processed in other countries, we rely on appropriate safeguards or your consent as permitted by applicable law.

6. Data Retention

We keep your personal information only as long as needed to provide the Service and fulfill the purposes described here. When you delete your account, your personal information and pet data are deleted without undue delay. A minimal set of information needed to prevent fraud and abuse (such as a hashed email and abuse records) may be retained for up to one year from account deletion.

Where the law requires longer retention, we keep records for the statutory periods, including: records on contracts or withdrawal of subscription — 5 years; records on payment and supply of goods/services — 5 years; records on consumer complaints or disputes — 3 years; records on labeling/advertising — 6 months (Act on Consumer Protection in Electronic Commerce); service access logs — 3 months (Protection of Communications Secrets Act); electronic financial transaction records — 5 years (Electronic Financial Transactions Act).

7. Your Privacy Rights and Choices

All users. You can review and edit your information in the app under More → Profile, and you can withdraw consent at any time by deleting your account in the app (Account Deletion) or by emailing us. You can disable location access, camera/photo access, and push notifications at any time through your device's OS settings; disabling them limits the related features only.

EEA / UK (GDPR). Our legal bases for processing are: performance of our contract with you (to provide the Service); your consent (e.g. location access and other optional features); compliance with legal obligations (statutory retention); and our legitimate interests (security, fraud prevention, and improving the Service). You have the right to access, rectify, erase, restrict, or object to processing of your personal data, the right to data portability, and the right to withdraw consent at any time. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local supervisory authority.

California (CCPA/CPRA & CalOPPA). California residents have the right to know and access the categories and specific pieces of personal information we collect, the right to delete personal information, the right to correct inaccurate information, and the right to non-discrimination for exercising these rights. We do not sell your personal information and we do not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising. To exercise any right, contact us using the details below; we will respond within the time required by law.

8. How We Protect Your Information

We use technical and organizational safeguards to protect your information. All communication between the app and our servers is encrypted in transit using HTTPS (TLS). Authentication tokens are stored in your device's secure storage (iOS Keychain / Android Keystore), and we hold no passwords of our own. Access to personal data is limited to the minimum necessary. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security; if a data breach occurs, we will notify affected users and the relevant authorities as required by law.

9. Children's Privacy

The Service is not directed to children. We allow membership only for users aged 14 or older, in line with Korean law, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 14 (or under 13 where the U.S. Children's Online Privacy Protection Act applies). If you believe a child has provided us personal information without appropriate consent, please contact us and we will delete it.

10. Cookies and Local Storage

The Service is a mobile application and does not use conventional HTTP cookies. To operate, the following is stored on your device: authentication tokens (JWT access/refresh tokens) in secure device storage, and app settings and cache in local storage (MMKV). You can remove this data by clearing the app's data in your OS settings or by reinstalling the app.

11. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy to reflect changes to the Service or the law. Unless a shorter period is required by law, we will give notice at least 7 days before changes take effect (at least 30 days in advance for changes that significantly affect your rights), through an in-app notice, push notification, or email. Your continued use of the Service after the effective date constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

12. Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or wish to exercise your rights, please contact our privacy officer:

Privacy Officer: Chaeyeon Seo Email: chaeon.studio@gmail.com Website: https://chaeon.studio/

If you are a resident of the Republic of Korea, you may also seek assistance from the Personal Information Dispute Mediation Committee (kopico.go.kr, 1833-6972), the KISA Privacy Infringement Report Center (privacy.kisa.or.kr, 118), the Supreme Prosecutors' Office (spo.go.kr, 1301), or the National Police Agency Cyber Bureau (ecrm.cyber.go.kr, 182).