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Privacy Policy

Last update: June 10, 2025

This privacy notice for Max & Molly Urban Pets GmbH ("Company," "we," "us," or "our"), describes how and why we might collect, store, use, and/or share ("process") your information when you use our services ("Services"), such as when you:

  • Download and use our mobile application (Gotcha! Lost & Found App), or any other application of ours that links to this privacy notice
  • Engage with us in other related ways, including any sales, marketing, or events

Questions or concerns? Reading this privacy notice will help you understand your privacy rights and choices. If you do not agree with our policies and practices, please do not use our Services. If you still have any questions or concerns, please contact us at contact@max-molly.com.

SUMMARY OF KEY POINTS

This summary provides key points from our privacy notice, but you can find out more details about any of these topics by clicking the link following each key point or by using our table of contents below to find the section you are looking for.

  • What personal information do we process? When you visit, use, or navigate our Services, we may process personal information depending on how you interact with Max & Molly Urban Pets GmbH and the Services, the choices you make, and the products and features you use. This includes information you provide directly, data collected automatically from your device, and limited data received from social login providers.
  • Do we process any sensitive personal information? We do not process sensitive personal information.
  • Do you receive any information from third parties? Yes, we receive limited profile information from social login providers if you choose to register or log in using these services.
  • How do you process my information? We process your information to provide, improve, and administer our Services, including enabling pet finding features, facilitating communication, for security and fraud prevention, and to comply with law. We may also process your information for other purposes with your consent. We process your information only when we have a valid legal reason to do so.
  • In what situations and with which parties do we share personal information? We may share information in specific situations and with specific third-party service providers to enable app functionality, analytics, and other operational purposes, as well as in other situations like business transfers. We will also ask for your explicit consent if we engage in app tracking across other companies' apps and websites.
  • How do we keep your information safe? We have organizational and technical processes and procedures in place to protect your personal information. However, no electronic transmission over the internet or information storage technology can be guaranteed to be 100% secure, so we cannot promise or guarantee that hackers, cybercriminals, or other unauthorized third parties will not be able to defeat our security and improperly collect, access, steal, or modify your information.
  • What are your rights? Depending on where you are located geographically, the applicable privacy law may mean you have certain rights regarding your personal information, including the ability to control app tracking.
  • How do I exercise my rights? The easiest way to exercise your rights is by contacting us. We will consider and act upon any request in accordance with applicable data protection laws.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

  • WHAT INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT?
  • HOW DO WE PROCESS YOUR INFORMATION?
  • WHAT LEGAL BASES DO WE RELY ON TO PROCESS YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION?
  • WHEN AND WITH WHOM DO WE SHARE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION?
  • DO WE USE COOKIES AND OTHER TRACKING TECHNOLOGIES?
  • HOW DO WE HANDLE YOUR SOCIAL LOGINS?
  • HOW LONG DO WE KEEP YOUR INFORMATION?
  • HOW DO WE KEEP YOUR INFORMATION SAFE?
  • DO WE COLLECT INFORMATION FROM MINORS?
  • WHAT ARE YOUR PRIVACY RIGHTS?
  • CONTROLS FOR DO-NOT-TRACK FEATURES
  • DO CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS HAVE SPECIFIC PRIVACY RIGHTS?
  • DO WE MAKE UPDATES TO THIS NOTICE?
  • HOW CAN YOU CONTACT US ABOUT THIS NOTICE?
  • HOW CAN YOU REVIEW, UPDATE, OR DELETE THE DATA WE COLLECT FROM YOU?

WHAT INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT?

Personal information you disclose to us

In Short: We collect personal information that you provide to us, including details for your account and information you share related to lost and found pets.

We collect personal information that you voluntarily provide to us when you register on the Services, express an interest in obtaining information about us or our products and Services, when you participate in activities on the Services (such as reporting a lost or found pet), or otherwise when you contact us.

Personal Information Provided by You.

The personal information that we collect depends on the context of your interactions with us and the Services, the choices you make, and the products and features you use. The personal information we collect may include the following:

  • Names: Your first and last name for account identification.
  • Phone numbers: For account verification, contact preferences, and emergency contact related to lost/found pet incidents (only if you choose to make them public or share them with specific users).
  • Email addresses: For account creation, login, important notifications, and communication regarding your account or lost/found pet activities.
  • Mailing addresses: Collected only if necessary for specific services or support, such as sending physical rewards or official correspondence.
  • Photos:
    • Profile Pictures: When you provide them directly or through social authentication, used solely to display your profile within the app and to help other users identify you in lost/found pet features.
    • Pet Photos: Photos of lost or found pets are collected when you submit a report to visually aid in identification and recovery. These photos, along with other relevant pet details, are publicly displayed within the app to other users.
  • Usernames: For your public profile within the app.
  • Passwords: For secure account access.
  • Contact preferences: To manage how we communicate with you.
  • Contact or authentication data: Information used to authenticate your account and ensure secure access.
  • UIDs related to social platforms (while doing social authentication): Unique identifiers provided by social media platforms (e.g., Facebook, Apple ID, Google) are collected to facilitate your login and account creation via the social media provider. They are solely used for authentication purposes and to link your account to our Services.

Information related to Lost & Found functionality:

  • Lost Pet Report Data: When you report a lost pet, we collect information such as your pet's name, species, breed, description, photo(s), and the last known location. This information, along with your public username and chosen contact details (if you opt to share them), is made visible to other users within the app and on the app's public map view to facilitate the return of your pet.
  • Found Pet Report Data: When you report a found pet, we collect information such as the pet's description, photo(s), and the precise location where it was found. This information is also made visible to other users to help locate the owner.
  • In-App Communication: If users communicate directly within the app regarding lost or found pets, these communications are stored on our secure servers for a limited time to facilitate dispute resolution and ensure appropriate use of the service. We do not monitor the content of these communications beyond automated moderation for safety and policy compliance.

Sensitive Information. We do not process any sensitive information.

Data Minimization: We are committed to collecting only the personal information that is strictly necessary for the purposes outlined in this privacy notice and to provide the requested Services.

Application Data.

If you use our application(s), we also may collect the following information if you choose to provide us with access or permission:

  • Geolocation Information: We may request access or permission to track location-based information from your mobile device. This can be either precise (e.g., GPS coordinates) or imprecise (e.g., based on IP address).
    • Precise Location: We may collect precise location data continuously or while you are using our mobile application(s) to provide core location-based services, such as pinpointing the location of lost or found pets on a map, showing you nearby reported incidents, and providing location-based alerts. We may also collect precise location in the background if you grant us specific permission to do so, for example, to alert you to nearby lost pets even when the app is not actively open.
    • Imprecise Location: Your general location (based on IP address or network information) may be collected for internal analytics, reporting, and to tailor general content or services to your region.

    If you wish to change our access or permissions for location data, you may do so in your device's settings. Please note that opting out of location collection may limit or prevent the use of certain location-dependent features of the Services.

  • Push Notifications: We may request to send you push notifications regarding your account (e.g., password resets, security alerts) or specific features of the application(s) (e.g., alerts for a found pet in your area, updates on a pet you reported). If you wish to opt out from receiving these types of communications, you may turn them off in your device's settings, and where available, adjust your preferences within the app's settings for more granular control.

This information is primarily needed to maintain the security and operation of our application(s), for troubleshooting, for our internal analytics and reporting purposes, and to deliver the core functionality of the "Gotcha! Lost & Found App."

All personal information that you provide to us must be true, complete, and accurate, and you must notify us of any changes to such personal information.

Information automatically collected

In Short: Some information — such as your Internet Protocol (IP) address, device identifiers, and/or browser and device characteristics — is collected automatically when you visit our Services.

We automatically collect certain information when you visit, use, or navigate the Services. This information does not always directly reveal your specific identity (like your name or contact information) but may include device and usage information, such as your IP address, browser and device characteristics, operating system, language preferences, referring URLs, device name, country, information about how and when you use our Services, and other technical information. This information is primarily needed to maintain the security and operation of our Services, and for our internal analytics and reporting purposes.

Like many businesses, we also collect information through cookies and similar technologies.

The information we collect includes:

  • Log and Usage Data. Log and usage data is service-related, diagnostic, usage, and performance information our servers automatically collect when you access or use our Services and which we record in log files. Depending on how you interact with us, this log data may include your IP address, device information, browser type, and settings and information about your activity in the Services (such as the date/time stamps associated with your usage, pages and files viewed, searches, and other actions you take such as which features you use), device event information (such as system activity, error reports (sometimes called "crash dumps"), and hardware settings). This data is used for app security, troubleshooting, and internal analytical purposes to understand user engagement and improve our services.
  • Device Identifiers: We may collect device-level identifiers, such as your device's advertising identifier (IDFA on iOS).
    • App Tracking Transparency (ATT): If we use your IDFA or other device-level identifiers to track your activity across apps and websites owned by other companies for purposes such as personalized advertising or advertising measurement, we will first ask for your explicit consent through Apple's App Tracking Transparency framework. If you decline to allow tracking, your device's advertising identifier will be zeroed out, and we will not track your activity for these purposes. Declining tracking will not impact the core functionality of our app.
  • Location Data. We collect location data as described in the "Application Data" section above, which can be either precise or imprecise, depending on your device settings and permissions.

HOW DO WE PROCESS YOUR INFORMATION?

In Short: We process your information to provide, improve, and administer our Services, communicate with you, for security and fraud prevention, and to comply with law. We may also process your information for other purposes with your consent.

We process your personal information for a variety of reasons, depending on how you interact with our Services, including:

  • To facilitate account creation and authentication and otherwise manage user accounts. We may process your information so you can create and log in to your account, as well as keep your account in working order.
  • To deliver and facilitate delivery of services to the user. We may process your information to provide you with the requested service.
  • To save or protect an individual's vital interest. We may process your information when necessary to save or protect an individual’s vital interest, such as to prevent harm.

WHAT LEGAL BASES DO WE RELY ON TO PROCESS YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION?

In Short: We only process your personal information when we believe it is necessary and we have a valid legal reason (i.e., legal basis) to do so under applicable law, like with your consent, to comply with laws, to provide you with services to enter into or fulfill our contractual obligations, to protect your rights, or to fulfill our legitimate business interests.

If you are located in the EU or UK, this section applies to you.

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and UK GDPR require us to explain the valid legal bases we rely on in order to process your personal information. As such, we may rely on the following legal bases to process your personal information:

  • Consent. We may process your information if you have given us permission (i.e., consent) to use your personal information for a specific purpose. You can withdraw your consent at any time.
  • Performance of a Contract. We may process your personal information when we believe it is necessary to fulfill our contractual obligations to you, including providing our Services or at your request prior to entering into a contract with you.
  • Legal Obligations. We may process your information where we believe it is necessary for compliance with our legal obligations, such as to cooperate with a law enforcement body or regulatory agency, exercise or defend our legal rights, or disclose your information as evidence in litigation in which we are involved.
  • Vital Interests. We may process your information where we believe it is necessary to protect your vital interests or the vital interests of a third party, such as situations involving potential threats to the safety of any person.

If you are located in Canada, this section applies to you.

We may process your information if you have given us specific permission (i.e., express consent) to use your personal information for a specific purpose, or in situations where your permission can be inferred (i.e., implied consent). You can withdraw your consent at any time.

In some exceptional cases, we may be legally permitted under applicable law to process your information without your consent, including, for example:

  • If collection is clearly in the interests of an individual and consent cannot be obtained in a timely way
  • For investigations and fraud detection and prevention
  • For business transactions provided certain conditions are met
  • If it is contained in a witness statement and the collection is necessary to assess, process, or settle an insurance claim
  • For identifying injured, ill, or deceased persons and communicating with next of kin
  • If we have reasonable grounds to believe an individual has been, is, or may be victim of financial abuse
  • If it is reasonable to expect collection and use with consent would compromise the availability or the accuracy of the information and the collection is reasonable for purposes related to investigating a breach of an agreement or a contravention of the laws of Canada or a province
  • If disclosure is required to comply with a subpoena, warrant, court order, or rules of the court relating to the production of records
  • If it was produced by an individual in the course of their employment, business, or profession and the collection is consistent with the purposes for which the information was produced
  • If the collection is solely for journalistic, artistic, or literary purposes
  • If the information is publicly available and is specified by the regulations

WHEN AND WITH WHOM DO WE SHARE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION?

In Short: We may share information in specific situations described in this section and/or with carefully selected third-party service providers.

We may need to share your personal information in the following situations:

  • With Other Users: Information you provide for lost or found pet reports (such as pet photos, descriptions, last seen/found locations, and your chosen public contact details like username or phone number if you opt-in) will be visible to other users of the "Gotcha! Lost & Found App" to facilitate the reunification of pets with their owners. Your public profile information (username, profile photo) may also be visible to other users.
  • Business Transfers. We may share or transfer your information in connection with, or during negotiations of, any merger, sale of company assets, financing, or acquisition of all or a portion of our business to another company.
  • With Third-Party Service Providers: We engage trusted third-party service providers to perform functions and provide services to us. We may share your personal information with these providers only to the extent necessary for them to perform their services, and they are bound by contractual obligations to keep your information confidential and use it only for the purposes for which we disclose it to them. These may include:
    • Hosting and Cloud Infrastructure Providers: (e.g., Google Cloud, AWS) to securely store and process our data and operate our Services.
    • Analytics Service Providers: (e.g., Firebase Analytics by Google) to help us understand how users interact with our Services, monitor app performance, and improve user experience. The data shared is typically anonymized or aggregated where possible, but may include usage data, device information, and IP address.
    • Crash Reporting and Performance Monitoring Services: (e.g., Crashlytics, Sentry) to identify and resolve app crashes and performance issues. This may involve sharing crash logs and device information.
    • Push Notification Services: To deliver important alerts and notifications to your device.
    • Customer Support Platforms: To manage and respond to your customer support inquiries.
    • Email Delivery Services: To send transactional and marketing emails (if you opt-in).
  • When we use Google Maps Platform APIs. We share your information with certain Google Maps Platform APIs (e.g., Google Maps API, Places API) to enable mapping functionalities within our application, such as displaying pet locations or finding nearby points of interest. This may involve sharing your device's IP address and, if you have granted location permissions and are using location-based features, your precise location data with Google. To find out more about Google’s Privacy Policy, please refer to this: https://policies.google.com/privacy.
  • Offer Wall. Our application(s) may display a third-party hosted “offer wall.” Such an offer wall allows third-party advertisers to offer virtual currency, gifts, or other items to users in return for the acceptance and completion of an advertisement offer. Such an offer wall may appear in our application(s) and be displayed to you based on certain data, such as your geographic area or demographic information. When you click on an offer wall, you will be brought to an external website belonging to other persons and will leave our application(s). A unique identifier, such as your user ID or device advertising identifier (IDFA), will be shared with the offer wall provider in order to prevent fraud and properly credit your account with the relevant reward. We will only share the device advertising identifier (IDFA) if you have provided consent via Apple's App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework.

DO WE USE COOKIES AND OTHER TRACKING TECHNOLOGIES?

In Short: We may use cookies and other tracking technologies to collect and store your information.

We may use cookies and similar tracking technologies (like web beacons and pixels) to access or store information. Specific information about how we use such technologies and how you can refuse certain cookies is set out in our Cookie Notice.

HOW DO WE HANDLE YOUR SOCIAL LOGINS?

In Short: If you choose to register or log in to our services using a social media account, we may have access to certain information about you.

Our Services offer you the ability to register and log in using your third-party social media account details (like your Facebook or Twitter logins). Where you choose to do this, we will receive certain profile information about you from your social media provider. The profile information we receive may vary depending on the social media provider concerned, but will often include your name, email address, friends list, and profile picture, as well as other information you choose to make public on such a social media platform.

We will use the information we receive only for the purposes that are described in this privacy notice or that are otherwise made clear to you on the relevant Services. Please note that we do not control, and are not responsible for, other uses of your personal information by your third-party social media provider. We recommend that you review their privacy notice to understand how they collect, use and share your personal information, and how you can set your privacy preferences on their sites and apps.

HOW LONG DO WE KEEP YOUR INFORMATION?

In Short: We keep your information for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in this privacy notice unless otherwise required by law.

We will only keep your personal information for as long as it is necessary for the purposes set out in this privacy notice, unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law (such as tax, accounting, or other legal requirements). No purpose in this notice will require us keeping your personal information for longer than the period of time in which users have an account with us.

When we have no ongoing legitimate business need to process your personal information, we will either delete or anonymize such information, or, if this is not possible (for example, because your personal information has been stored in backup archives), then we will securely store your personal information and isolate it from any further processing until deletion is possible.

HOW DO WE KEEP YOUR INFORMATION SAFE?

In Short: We aim to protect your personal information through a system of organizational and technical security measures.

We have implemented appropriate and reasonable technical and organizational security measures designed to protect the security of any personal information we process. However, despite our safeguards and efforts to secure your information, no electronic transmission over the Internet or information storage technology can be guaranteed to be 100% secure, so we cannot promise or guarantee that hackers, cybercriminals, or other unauthorized third parties will not be able to defeat our security and improperly collect, access, steal, or modify your information. Although we will do our best to protect your personal information, transmission of personal information to and from our Services is at your own risk. You should only access the Services within a secure environment.

DO WE COLLECT INFORMATION FROM MINORS?

In Short: We do not knowingly collect data from or market to children under 18 years of age.

We do not knowingly solicit data from or market to children under 18 years of age. By using the Services, you represent that you are at least 18 or that you are the parent or guardian of such a minor and consent to such minor dependent’s use of the Services. If we learn that personal information from users less than 18 years of age has been collected, we will deactivate the account and take reasonable measures to promptly delete such data from our records. If you become aware of any data we may have collected from children under age 18, please contact us at contact@max-molly.com.

WHAT ARE YOUR PRIVACY RIGHTS?

In Short: In some regions, such as the European Economic Area (EEA), United Kingdom (UK), and Canada, you have rights that allow you greater access to and control over your personal information. You may review, change, or terminate your account at any time.

In some regions (like the EEA, UK, and Canada), you have certain rights under applicable data protection laws. These may include the right (i) to request access and obtain a copy of your personal information, (ii) to request rectification or erasure; (iii) to restrict the processing of your personal information; and (iv) if applicable, to data portability. In certain circumstances, you may also have the right to object to the processing of your personal information. You can make such a request by contacting us by using the contact details provided in the section “HOW CAN YOU CONTACT US ABOUT THIS NOTICE?” below.

We will consider and act upon any request in accordance with applicable data protection laws.

If you are located in the EEA or UK and you believe we are unlawfully processing your personal information, you also have the right to complain to your local data protection supervisory authority. You can find their contact details here: https://ec.europa.eu/justice/data-protection/bodies/authorities/index_en.htm.

If you are located in Switzerland, the contact details for the data protection authorities are available here: https://www.edoeb.admin.ch/edoeb/en/home.html.

Withdrawing your consent: If we are relying on your consent to process your personal information, which may be express and/or implied consent depending on the applicable law, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time. You can withdraw your consent at any time by contacting us by using the contact details provided in the section "HOW CAN YOU CONTACT US ABOUT THIS NOTICE?" below.

However, please note that this will not affect the lawfulness of the processing before its withdrawal, nor when applicable law allows, will it affect the processing of your personal information conducted in reliance on lawful processing grounds other than consent.

Account Information

If you would at any time like to review or change the information in your account or terminate your account, you can:

  • Log in to your account settings and update your user account.

Upon your request to terminate your account, we will deactivate or delete your account and information from our active databases. However, we may retain some information in our files to prevent fraud, troubleshoot problems, assist with any investigations, enforce our legal terms and/or comply with applicable legal requirements.

CONTROLS FOR DO-NOT-TRACK FEATURES

Most web browsers and some mobile operating systems and mobile applications include a Do-Not-Track ("DNT") feature or setting you can activate to signal your privacy preference not to have data about your online browsing activities monitored and collected. At this stage no uniform technology standard for recognizing and implementing DNT signals has been finalized. As such, we do not currently respond to DNT browser signals or any other mechanism that automatically communicates your choice not to be tracked online. If a standard for online tracking is adopted that we must follow in the future, we will inform you about that practice in a revised version of this privacy notice.

DO CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS HAVE SPECIFIC PRIVACY RIGHTS?

In Short: Yes, if you are a resident of California, you are granted specific rights regarding access to your personal information.

California Civil Code Section 1798.83, also known as the "Shine The Light" law, permits our users who are California residents to request and obtain from us, once a year and free of charge, information about categories of personal information (if any) we disclosed to third parties for direct marketing purposes and the names and addresses of all third parties with which we shared personal information in the immediately preceding calendar year. If you are a California resident and would like to make such a request, please submit your request in writing to us using the contact information provided below.

If you are under 18 years of age, reside in California, and have a registered account with Services, you have the right to request removal of unwanted data that you publicly post on the Services. To request removal of such data, please contact us using the contact information provided below and include the email address associated with your account and a statement that you reside in California. We will make sure the data is not publicly displayed on the Services, but please be aware that the data may not be completely or comprehensively removed from all our systems (e.g., backups, etc.).

DO WE MAKE UPDATES TO THIS NOTICE?

In Short: Yes, we will update this notice as necessary to stay compliant with relevant laws and reflect changes in our data practices.

We may update this privacy notice from time to time. The updated version will be indicated by an updated "Last updated" date and the updated version will be effective as soon as it is accessible. If we make material changes to this privacy notice, we will notify you by prominently posting a notice of such changes within the app and/or by directly sending a notification to the email address associated with your account before the changes become effective. We encourage you to review this privacy notice frequently to be informed of how we are protecting your information.

HOW CAN YOU CONTACT US ABOUT THIS NOTICE?

If you have questions or comments about this notice, you may contact our Data Protection Officer (DPO), Michael Reiser, by email at contact@max-molly.com, by phone at +49 461 40834403, or by post to:

Max & Molly Urban Pets GmbH
Michael Reiser
Lise-Meitner-Str. 1
24941 Flensburg, Germany

HOW CAN YOU REVIEW, UPDATE, OR DELETE THE DATA WE COLLECT FROM YOU?

Based on the applicable laws of your country, you may have the right to request access to the personal information we collect from you, change that information, or delete it in some circumstances. To request to review, update, or delete your personal information, please contact us at contact@max-molly.com.

Email Address Change Request

If you need to update the email address associated with your Gotcha! account, we offer a secure process to ensure the rightful owner is making the request. To proceed with an email change, we will require some details from you to verify your identity.

Please send us the following information:

  • Full name
  • Address
  • Last 4 digits of the telephone number used in your account
  • Names of the pets created under your account (if any)

This information helps us confirm your identity and protect your account from unauthorized changes. Once we receive the requested details, we will process the email change and notify you of the update.

Last updated: Juni 10, 2025