Privacy Policy

Loulu is a neighborhood pet-care community: neighbors trade pet care with each other using Lu points. This policy explains what information we collect through the Loulu app and website, how we use it, and the choices you have. It applies to everyone who creates a Loulu account.

• Account info. When you sign in with Google or Apple, we receive your name, email address, and (for Google) profile photo.
• Profile info. Your bio, home type, whether you have a yard, and whether you work from home — all optional, and shown to other signed-in neighbors.
• Location. Your neighborhood location (latitude and longitude), so we can show you nearby neighbors and rank the care feed by distance. This is visible to other signed-in users so they can find you too.
• Pet info.Your pets' names, photos, breed, birthday, weight, and care details — including health information such as allergies, medications, vaccination status, and your vet's name. This helps a sitter care for your pet safely, and is shown to neighbors you interact with.
• Emergency contact. If you add a backup contact for a booking, we store the name and phone number you provide. This is another person's information — only add someone you've confirmed is okay being listed.
• Care activity. Booking requests, messages and photos you send in a booking thread, reviews and ratings you leave, and your Lu points balance and transaction history.
• Shipping address (Luwards). If you redeem a Luwards drop for a physical item, we collect the name, phone number, and mailing address you enter so the item can be shipped to you. This is used only to fulfill that order — it is never shown to other members.
• Support requests. Anything you send us directly, if you contact us for help.
• Reports & blocks. If you report or block another member, we store who was involved and why. Reports are reviewed by us only — never shown to the reported member or other users.
• Payment details. To send a care request you add a payment method for the matching fee. Your card is entered into and stored by Stripe, our payment processor — Loulu never receives or stores your full card number. We keep only what Stripe returns to us: a customer reference, the card brand and last four digits, and the status and amount of each charge or refund.

• Usage analytics. We use Google Analytics for Firebase to understand how the app is used (e.g. which screens are visited, how often care requests are completed).
• Crash and diagnostic data. We use Firebase Crashlytics to detect and fix crashes.
• Push notification token.If you allow notifications, we store a device token (via Expo) so we can notify you about booking activity. No notification content is stored beyond what's needed to deliver it.

To operate Loulu's core features: matching you with nearby neighbors, displaying profiles and pet info to people you interact with, processing bookings and Lu points, sending booking notifications, preventing abuse (e.g. one signup bonus per person), and improving the app based on aggregate usage and crash data. We do not use your information to build advertising profiles, and we do not sell your information.

• Other Loulu members. Your profile, pet info, and reviews are visible to any signed-in user. Booking details, messages, and photos in a booking thread are visible only to the two neighbors in that booking.
• Service providers. We use Google Firebase (database, file storage, authentication, analytics, crash reporting), Expo (push notification delivery), and Stripe(payment processing for the matching fee) to run the app. These providers process data on our behalf and don't use it for their own purposes. Stripe handles your card details directly under its own privacy policy.
• AI bio suggestions.If you use the “suggest a bio” feature, the public profile facts you've entered are sent to Google's Gemini AI to generate a suggested blurb. You choose whether to use the result.
• Legal reasons. If required to comply with the law, or to protect the safety of our members.

• Most profile and pet fields are optional and can be edited anytime from within the app.
• You can delete your account at any time from My Profile → Edit My Profile → Delete account. This permanently removes your profile, pets, photos, and Lu ledger. (Bookings you were part of are kept, since they also belong to the other neighbor; care history in a completed booking thread isn't deleted with your account. Luwards redemptions, including the shipping address on an order, are kept as well, for fulfillment and order records.)
• You can turn off push notifications and location access anytime in your device settings — note that turning off location will limit Loulu's ability to show you nearby neighbors.
• California residents may have additional rights under the CCPA to know, access, or delete personal information — contact us below to exercise them.

Loulu is not directed at children, and you must be old enough to form a binding agreement in your jurisdiction to create an account. We don't knowingly collect information from children as account holders.

We keep your information for as long as your account is active, plus a reasonable period afterward for records we're required or permitted to keep (e.g. transaction history, abuse-prevention signals). We use industry-standard safeguards (encrypted connections, access-controlled cloud infrastructure) but no system is 100% secure, and we can't guarantee absolute security.

We'll update the date below if this policy changes, and post the new version here. Continued use of Loulu after a change means you accept the update.

Questions, or want to exercise a privacy right? Email devby.kc@gmail.com.