Terms & Conditions

1. Eligibility

Pawfile is not intended for children under 13. Users under 18 must have permission from a parent or legal guardian to create an account or use the app. Pawfile includes direct messages between users and optional location sharing on walks.

While Pawfile is designed for all ages, we genuinely believe that children and teenagers benefit most from real-world interactions with people and animals. We encourage younger users to prioritise physical experiences — playing with their pets, spending time with family and friends, and exploring nature. Embracing the digital world more gradually as you grow tends to support better long-term wellbeing.

2. User Accounts

You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account and for all activities that occur under it. You agree to provide accurate information and to update it as necessary. We reserve the right to suspend or terminate accounts that violate these terms.

3. Community Conduct

Pawfile is a global community for pet lovers. You agree NOT to:

• Post content that is abusive, harassing, hateful, obscene, or discriminatory.
• Share content depicting animal abuse, cruelty, or illegal activity.
• Spam, scam, or mislead other users.
• Impersonate any person or entity.
• Post false or misleading pet adoption listings.
• Artificially manipulate engagement signals (including reactions, follows, or Paws of approval endorsements) through automated or deceptive means.
• Submit fake, misleading, or duplicate place listings or reviews on the Maps feature.
• Use walk-related features to track, follow, or harass another user or their pets.

We have zero tolerance for objectionable content and abusive users. You can block any user and report users or content from their profile or a message thread. We review reports and may remove content or suspend or terminate accounts, with or without notice.

4. Content Ownership & License

You retain ownership of all content you upload, including pet photos, diary entries, profile content, and messages. By submitting content to Pawfile, you grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to display, store, and distribute that content solely for the purpose of operating the app and its features. We will never sell your content to third parties.

You confirm that you own or have the necessary rights to all content you submit, and that it does not infringe any third-party intellectual property rights.

User-generated content — including adoption listings, profile text, and direct messages — may contain links to external websites provided by other users. Pawfile does not review, endorse, or guarantee the safety or accuracy of any external URLs. Access external links at your own discretion and risk.

5. Pet Profiles & Medical Records

Pawfile allows you to create detailed pet profiles including health records, vaccinations, medications, appointments and care reminders, diary entries, and memories. This information is stored for your personal reference and the users you choose to grant access to. You may invite specific Pawfile users to connect with your pet's profile and assign them a caretaker role with defined permissions — see Section 11 for details.

Important: Pawfile does not provide veterinary advice. Any health-related information stored in the app is user-provided and should not substitute for professional veterinary consultation.

6. Pet Adoption

Pawfile facilitates connections between pet owners and prospective adopters. We are a platform only — we do not participate in, guarantee, or take responsibility for any adoption arrangement.

Adoption listings may be marked as Looking for a home, On trial, or Adopted. These statuses are set by pet owners and are not verified by Pawfile. Choosing On trial invites the adopter to the pet's care team as a co-owner. Choosing Adopted sends the adopter a handover request; ownership of the pet's profile moves to them only if they accept, and the previous owner stays on as a co-owner.

• We do not conduct background checks on users.
• We do not handle financial transactions between users.
• We are not responsible for the health, temperament, or history of any pet listed.

Always exercise due caution: verify information independently, meet in public places, and consult a veterinarian before adopting. Adoption listings may include links to external websites provided by the listing user. Pawfile cannot verify the safety or content of these external links.

7. Discover Feed

Discover shows pets to other users of the app. Unless your pets are private, your pet's name, photos, species, and latest diary entry by the owner or a co-owner (with the name of the person who wrote it) may appear there. Pets with recent diary entries are shown higher. Discover also lists pet-care professionals under Services.

Users can like pets and comment on them and on individual diary entries. You agree not to use automated tools to inflate engagement counts.

8. Maps & User-Added Locations

Users may add pet-friendly places (such as parks and cafés), tags, and reviews to the map. Pawfile does not verify the accuracy, pet-friendliness, safety, or current status of any user-submitted place or review. Business details sourced from Google (such as addresses, websites, and phone numbers) are captured when a place is added and may become outdated — verify before you visit. We are not liable for any incident, injury, or loss arising from visiting a location discovered through the app. Location entries may also include links to external websites — Pawfile cannot verify the content or safety of these URLs.

Maps are displayed with Apple Maps on iOS and Google Maps on Android, and place search uses Google Places. These services which may be restricted or unavailable in certain regions including but not limited to: China, North Korea, Iran, Cuba, Syria, and Crimea. Pawfile is not responsible for unavailability of map features due to regional restrictions on third-party services.

9. Direct Messaging

Pawfile lets users message each other one-to-one about pets, care, or adoption, including photos. You are responsible for what you send. Do not send abusive content, fraudulent offers, malware links, or unlawful material. You can turn off incoming messages, and block or report a user from the message thread. We may restrict messaging or suspend accounts for misuse.

10. Events

Events listed on Pawfile are created by users. We do not organize, endorse, or take responsibility for user-created events. Attendance at any event is at your own risk. Always verify event details directly with the organizer. Event listings may also include links to external websites — Pawfile cannot verify the content or safety of these URLs.

11. Pet Profile Sharing & Caretaker Roles

As a pet's owner you can invite other Pawfile users to its care team by searching for their name (or entering their user ID) and choosing a role. They get access only after they accept. You can change a member's role or remove them at any time, and members can leave.

• Co-owner — medical records, appointments, the care guide, the pet's profile details, and diary entries
• Veterinarian — medical records, the care guide, and diary entries (no household appointments)
• Trainer, Behaviourist, Groomer, Pet Sitter, Dog Walker — write diary entries and read the care guide (no medical records or appointments)

Main owner: the owner decides who can see the pet, and is the only person who can delete it. The owner can hand the pet to a co-owner; this happens only if the co-owner accepts, and the previous owner stays on as a co-owner. If an owner deletes their account, the pets they own are deleted with it, including pets that have co-owners, so hand a pet over first if it should stay.

You are responsible for the roles you assign and for who has access to your pet's information.

12. Notifications

Pawfile may send in-app and device push notifications for relevant app activity such as follower activity, care team requests, comments, profile updates, adoption-related actions, and message updates. You can choose which kinds of alerts you receive in Settings, and turn notifications off entirely in your device settings.

13. Allergens

The Allergens section contains general information about substances that may be harmful to pets. This information is provided for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional veterinary care. Please let us know if any of the contents is incorrect. If your pet is in distress, please contact a licensed veterinarian immediately.

14. Paw Walks & Location Sharing

Walk recording uses your device's GPS position while a walk is active, including while the screen is off. Sharing your live location is optional and chosen per walk: if you share, other users nearby see an approximate (deliberately imprecise) pin with the pets on the walk that they are allowed to see or that you choose to show. You can record without sharing, stop sharing at any time, and choose whether each finished route is public or private. A public route is shown in full.

Stay aware of your surroundings while walking — do not interact with the app in situations where doing so is unsafe. Consider carefully before sharing routes that reveal places you visit regularly, such as your home area. You use location features at your own discretion and risk.

14a. Professional Profiles & Endorsements

Users may present themselves as pet-care professionals (such as veterinarians, groomers, trainers, or sitters) with a public business card including contact details and a workplace location. Professional roles are self-declared. Pawfile does not verify licences, certifications, or qualifications. Community trust signals — care-team membership counts and Paws of approval endorsements — reflect activity by other users and are not an endorsement, recommendation, or verification by Pawfile. Always perform your own due diligence before engaging any professional.

Turning on the service card makes it, and the phone number and website on it, visible to everyone in Discover → Services. A private profile is not listed there. Tags on diary entries by a client's owner may appear as examples of your work.

Counters such as likes and endorsements have no monetary value. We may modify, suspend, or discontinue any feature at any time.

15. Third-Party Services

Pawfile uses third-party services, listed in our Privacy Policy, including Clerk (sign-in), Convex (data storage), Cloudflare R2 (media storage), Apple and Google sign-in, Apple Maps and Google Maps Platform (maps and place search), Expo, Apple, and Firebase push services (notifications), and PostHog (usage analytics and crash reports, which you can turn off in Settings). Your use of these services is also subject to their respective terms and privacy policies. We are not responsible for the practices of these third parties.

16. Disclaimer of Warranties

Pawfile is provided “as is” and “as available” without warranties of any kind, express or implied. We do not guarantee that the app will be error-free, uninterrupted, or free from harmful components. We do not warrant the accuracy or completeness of any user-generated content.

Photos, videos, and other media files you upload are stored on Cloudflare R2, a third-party cloud storage service. While we take reasonable precautions, we cannot guarantee against data loss caused by failures of third-party infrastructure. We recommend keeping your own backup copies of any media that is important to you.

17. Limitation of Liability

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, Pawfile and its developers shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, including loss of data, profits, or goodwill, arising from your use of or inability to use the app.

18. Account Deletion

You may delete your account at any time from Settings. This permanently removes your profile, the pets you own (including pets with co-owners), your diary entries, messages, walks, and related media, and your links to other people's pets. A few things are kept without your profile attached, as described in our Privacy Policy: medical records you entered on another person's pet, places you added to the map, and reports you filed. Deletion cannot be undone.

19. Changes to These Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. The date at the top shows when they last changed; for significant changes we will also let you know in the app where practical. Continued use of Pawfile after changes constitutes your acceptance of the updated terms.

20. Contact Us

If you have questions about these Terms, please use the in-app feedback form or visit our Support page.

21. Image Credits

The allergen reference images displayed within the pet health section of Pawfile are sourced from Unsplash, a platform providing freely usable photographs. These images are used in accordance with the Unsplash License. We gratefully acknowledge the photographers and contributors whose work helps make Pawfile's allergen guide more informative and accessible. Unsplash images are not our property, and all credit belongs to their respective creators.