Privacy Policy

Effective July 29, 2026 · Last updated July 29, 2026

Applies to: the CalmPaw iOS app (com.kududevs.calmpaw) and the website at calmedpaws.app

The short version

CalmPaw is a private walking journal for dogs. It is built to be local-first:

The rest of this policy explains all of that precisely, because "we don't collect anything" deserves details.

1. Who is responsible for your information

CalmPaw is published by Savannah Altman, an individual developer doing business as Kudu Devs, located in Illinois, United States. For the purposes of privacy law, Savannah Altman is the "data controller" or "business" responsible for the app.

You can reach us at support@calmedpaws.app. We will provide a postal address on request if you need one to exercise a legal right.

2. What CalmPaw stores, and where

All of the following is written to a private database inside CalmPaw's own storage area on your iPhone. iOS prevents other apps from reading it. None of it is transmitted to us or to any third party unless you export it yourself (see Section 6).

2.1 Dog profile information

Dog name, an optional photo you choose from your photo library, breed, birth date or approximate age, gender, your ownership role, baseline notes you type, and the trigger, mood, management, and behavior labels you select or create.

2.2 Walk and location data

When you start a walk, CalmPaw records the route using your device's GPS. This includes precise latitude and longitude, altitude, accuracy, speed, and a timestamp for each recorded point, sampled roughly every 5 meters. It also records start and end times, duration, distance, and pace.

Please understand what this means. A route history for a dog walk is sensitive. Taken together, saved routes can reveal where you live, when you leave the house, and the places you go regularly. That is exactly why CalmPaw keeps this data on your device and never uploads it. Treat any export that contains routes with the same care you would treat your home address.

If you deny location permission, CalmPaw still works — walks are recorded as a timer with no map or route.

2.3 Encounter and reflection data

For each marker you tap during a walk (Reacted, Redirected, Calm pass), CalmPaw stores the time, the coordinates where you tapped it, and any note you add. Your post-walk reflection stores moods before and after, trigger type, intensity, distance band, recovery, observed behaviors, management actions, outcome, an experience rating, tags, and free-text notes.

2.4 Saved routes

A name you choose, the route geometry, the starting coordinates, distance, a suitability rating, tags, and notes.

2.5 Dog medication information

Medication tracking is off by default and only becomes active if you turn it on. When you do, CalmPaw stores medication names, dose text, units, instructions, schedules, start and end dates, and a log of doses marked taken, skipped, or missed, along with any notes.

This information describes your dog, not you. CalmPaw does not collect human health data and does not use Apple HealthKit at all.

One thing to be aware of: if you enable medication reminders, the notification that appears on your lock screen includes the medication name (for example, "Time to log Trazodone"). If that is not something you want visible, you can turn reminders off in the app, or hide notification previews in iOS Settings → Notifications.

2.6 Insights

CalmPaw generates observations from your own entries using a fixed set of rules that run entirely on your device. The generated text, its confidence level, the period it covers, and whether you have seen or dismissed it are stored locally.

2.7 App settings

Your selected dog, distance unit, onboarding status, notification preferences, whether medication tracking is enabled, and your CalmPaw Plus entitlement status.

2.8 Local diagnostic files

If the app's database fails to open, CalmPaw writes a small text file into its own storage containing the app version, bundle identifier, the database file path, the error message, and a list of file names in that folder. It does not read or record the contents of your journal, and the file is never transmitted anywhere. It exists only so a problem can be diagnosed on the device itself. Using "Delete all CalmPaw data" or deleting the app removes it.

3. What CalmPaw does not do

To be explicit, because these absences are the point of the product:

4. Permissions CalmPaw asks for, and why

Permission When we ask What it is used for
Location — While Using the App The first time you tap Start Walk To record the route of the walk and pin the location of markers you tap. Not used at any other time.
Location — background updates Enabled only during an active walk, on top of the permission above So the route keeps recording when your screen is locked or you switch apps mid-walk. iOS shows the blue location indicator the whole time. CalmPaw turns background updates back off as soon as the walk ends, and never asks for "Always" location access.
Photo Library Only when you tap to choose a dog's profile photo To read the one image you select. CalmPaw does not browse, scan, or upload your library.
Notifications Only if you turn on a medication reminder To deliver local reminders scheduled on your device. CalmPaw does not use push notifications and has no ability to send you anything remotely.

You can change any of these at any time in iOS Settings → CalmPaw. Revoking location permission does not delete routes you already recorded; it stops new ones from being recorded. To remove existing data, see Section 8.

5. Third parties

CalmPaw contains no third-party SDKs. There are, however, three Apple services involved in normal operation, and you should know about them:

Apple — App Store and StoreKit. If you purchase CalmPaw Plus, the transaction is handled entirely by Apple. We never see your name, payment card, billing address, or Apple Account. All CalmPaw receives back is a yes-or-no signal about whether an active entitlement exists, which it stores locally. Apple's handling of that transaction is governed by Apple's Privacy Policy.

Apple — Maps. The map shown during and after a walk is Apple's MapKit. Displaying a map involves your device requesting map imagery from Apple, which is subject to Apple's privacy practices. Apple states that Maps is designed not to associate this with your Apple Account. CalmPaw does not send your route to Apple; the route is drawn locally on top of the map.

Apple — device backup. If you have iPhone backups turned on (iCloud Backup or an encrypted local backup), iOS includes CalmPaw's data in that backup, the same as it does for other apps. That backup is Apple's, governed by Apple's terms and encryption, and is not something CalmPaw initiates, controls, or can read. If you would rather CalmPaw data not be backed up, you can exclude the app in iOS Settings → your name → iCloud → Manage Storage → Backups.

Anyone you send an export to. If you share an export (Section 6), the app or service you send it through — Messages, Mail, AirDrop, a cloud drive, a printer — receives that file and handles it under its own privacy policy, not ours. Choose the destination deliberately.

6. When data leaves your device

Data only leaves your iPhone when you initiate it, through iOS's standard share sheet. There are exactly three ways, and they contain different things:

6.1 CSV and JSON export (included free)

Contains walk records (times, duration, distance, experience rating, your notes), encounter records (trigger, intensity, recovery, your notes, custom labels), and, if you use it, medication records including names, doses, and schedules, plus dose logs.

Does not contain GPS coordinates or your dog's photo.

6.2 PDF share pack for a trainer or vet (CalmPaw Plus)

A report covering roughly the last 30 days. Contains your dog's name, breed, age, and photo; walk and encounter counts and rates; trigger breakdown; weekly outcome trends; distance-at-reaction mix; management strategies used; recovery averages; observations; a recent-encounter log including your free-text notes; and, if enabled, a medication section with names, doses, schedules, and adherence percentages.

Does not contain precise GPS coordinates or any map. This is deliberate, so the report is safe to hand to a professional.

6.3 Household journal handoff (CalmPaw Plus)

This transfers a dog's complete journal to another person's device — a partner, a co-handler, a family member.

This export does contain everything, including full GPS routes, saved-route start coordinates, per-marker coordinates, the dog's photo, all notes, and all medication records.

It is protected with AES-256-GCM encryption, and the recipient must type a share code you give them separately in order to open it. Two honest limitations you should know:

  1. The file's outer wrapper leaves the dog's display name readable before decryption, so it can be identified in a file list. Everything else is encrypted.
  2. The share code does not expire and has no attempt limit. Send it through a different channel than the file, and only to someone you intend to have the complete journal.

CalmPaw never sees this file. It is created on your device and handed to whatever app you choose to send it with.

7. Why we process this information, and on what basis

We process your information for a single purpose: to provide the journaling, mapping, reminder, and insight features you are using the app for. There is no secondary purpose — no profiling, no advertising, no product analytics, no resale.

Because the data stays on your device and is processed there, the legal basis in most jurisdictions is the performance of our agreement with you (giving you the app you asked for), together with your consent for the specific device permissions in Section 4, which you may withdraw at any time in iOS Settings.

8. Retention, and how to delete your data

We hold nothing, so there is nothing for us to retain or delete on your behalf. Your data lives on your device and persists until you remove it. You are in complete control:

Two caveats worth stating plainly:

If you purchased CalmPaw Plus, your purchase record lives with Apple and is tied to your Apple Account, not to anything we hold. Deleting your data does not cancel a subscription; manage that in iOS Settings → your name → Subscriptions.

9. Your privacy rights

Because CalmPaw stores nothing on our side, the app itself gives you more direct control than a rights request could: you can already access, correct, export, and permanently delete every piece of information at any time, without asking us and without waiting.

That said, your legal rights still apply, and we will honor them.

If you are in the United States

Depending on your state — including California, Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia, Texas, Oregon, Montana, and others with comprehensive privacy laws — you may have the right to know what personal information is collected, to access and delete it, to correct it, to obtain a portable copy, to opt out of sale or targeted advertising, and not to be discriminated against for exercising these rights.

For California residents specifically: in the twelve months preceding this policy's effective date, and at all times since CalmPaw's release, we have not sold personal information, have not shared it for cross-context behavioral advertising, and have not disclosed it to any third party for a business purpose. We do not use or disclose sensitive personal information — which here would include your precise geolocation — for any purpose other than providing the app's features to you on your own device. There is no "Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information" link because there is nothing to opt out of.

The categories of personal information the app handles on your device are described in Section 2, and correspond to identifiers, precise geolocation, photographs, and information you voluntarily write. Every category is collected directly from you, and is used only to operate the app's features on your device.

If you are in Canada

Under PIPEDA and provincial privacy legislation including Quebec's Law 25, you have the right to access the personal information an organization holds about you, to request its correction, and to withdraw consent. As described above, we hold none — it remains under your control on your device, and the in-app deletion tools give immediate effect to a withdrawal of consent. No personal information is transferred outside your device by us, so no cross-border transfer disclosure applies.

If you are elsewhere

If you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or another region with comprehensive data protection law, you have rights of access, rectification, erasure, restriction, portability, and objection, and the right to lodge a complaint with your supervisory authority. Again, the practical route to all of these is inside the app itself.

Making a request

Write to support@calmedpaws.app. We will respond within 30 days, or within the shorter period your local law requires. In most cases our answer will be to confirm that we hold no information about you and to point you to the in-app controls, since that is the honest and complete answer. We do not charge for requests and will not treat you differently for making one.

10. Children's privacy

CalmPaw is a general-audience app intended for adults who walk dogs. It is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children. The app has no account system, no sign-up, no social features, no chat, no user-generated content visible to anyone else, and no advertising — so there is no mechanism by which a child's information could be collected by us or exposed to others.

If you believe a child has used the app on your device and you want the data removed, use Settings → Delete all CalmPaw data, or delete the app.

11. Security

Your journal is protected by the security of your iPhone. iOS sandboxing prevents other apps from reading CalmPaw's storage, and if you use a passcode, Face ID, or Touch ID, your device's file encryption protects that storage when the device is locked. We strongly recommend keeping a device passcode enabled.

The encrypted household handoff file uses AES-256-GCM with a key derived from your share code using HKDF-SHA256.

Because there is no server, there is no database of CalmPaw users to breach, no credentials to steal, and no account to be taken over. This eliminates the most common category of privacy risk — but it also means that if you lose your device and have no backup or export, your journal is gone, and we cannot restore it. Please keep device backups on, or export periodically.

12. About this website

calmedpaws.app is a static informational site hosted on Cloudflare Pages. It has no analytics, no advertising, no tracking pixels, no embedded third-party scripts, and sets no cookies. Cloudflare, as our hosting provider, processes standard server request data such as IP addresses for security and delivery purposes, under Cloudflare's privacy policy.

13. Changes to this policy

If we change how CalmPaw handles information, we will update this page and revise the "Last updated" date. If a change is material — for example, if a future version were ever to introduce optional cloud sync or an account — we will describe it clearly here before or when that version ships, and where the change requires your consent, we will ask for it in the app rather than assuming it. We will not retroactively apply a weaker policy to data you have already logged.

Past versions are available on request.

14. Contact

Questions, requests, or concerns about privacy:

support@calmedpaws.app

Savannah Altman (d/b/a Kudu Devs) Illinois, United States