Privacy Policy

Last updated October 16, 2026. This is a draft and may change before Barki Social's public launch.

This explains what Barki Social collects, why, and the choices you have.

What we collect

Account details: your email address and a securely hashed password. We never store your password itself.
Profile details you choose to add: name, handle, bio, photo, city and state, interests, and for pros, services, prices, service area and booking or website links.
Your dogs: name, breed, birthday, bio and photo, if you add them.
Private pet records: medical documents and the record details you choose to upload. These are kept separate from public posts.
What you post and send: posts, photos, videos, comments, reviews and direct messages.
Classes: enrollments, lesson progress, assignment responses, instructor feedback and classes you create.
Activity in the app: follows, likes, saves, shares, searches, which posts were shown to you, and clicks on booking links.
Purchase details: your order history, email address, phone number, and—when an item needs shipping—the recipient name and shipping address. Stripe processes payment-card details; Barki Social does not store card numbers.

What we don't collect

We don't use your device's GPS. Location is only the city and state you type in.
We remove hidden location and device data (EXIF/GPS) from photos and videos when you upload them.
We don't track how long you look at posts, and we don't infer personal or psychological traits about you.
We don't sell your personal information.

How we use it

To run Barki Social: show your profile and posts, deliver messages and notifications.
To rank the Home feed using clear rules (follows, interests, services, location, recency, engagement). Each post shows why it appears.
Staff may temporarily feature a limited number of posts. Featured posts are clearly labeled and expire automatically.
To show sponsored posts. Businesses can target only the city, state and interests you chose; they never see who you are. Each sponsored post explains why it was shown to you, and businesses see only totals (views, clicks, spend).
To keep the community safe: review reports, prevent spam and abuse.
To send account emails such as email confirmation and password resets.
To provide paid classes, track progress, deliver private assignments to instructors, process purchases, prevent fraud and handle refunds or disputes.

Who can see what

Profiles, posts, comments and reviews are public, including to people who aren't signed in.
Direct messages are visible only to the people in the conversation, and to our moderators if a message is reported or needed to investigate abuse.
Your email address is never shown to other users.
For purchases, the buyer and seller can see the order details needed to fulfill the order. This can include the buyer's phone number and, for physical items, the recipient name and shipping address.
Class instructors can see the enrollment and assignment responses submitted for their classes, along with the student profile needed to provide feedback.
Pet medical records are visible only to the account owner unless the owner creates a temporary link for selected records. Anyone with that link can view those selected records until it expires or the owner revokes it.
Blocked accounts can't see your profile or posts while signed in.

Service providers

We use a hosting provider (Railway) to run the app and store data, and an email provider to send account emails. Uploaded private documents are checked by a malware-scanning service before storage. Purchases and sponsored posts are paid through Stripe, which processes payment details and collects checkout contact information; we never see or store card numbers. Push notifications and account emails (like email confirmation and password resets) are sent through OneSignal, which receives your account's internal ID, device details such as model and OS, and, for emails, your email address. We use an error-reporting service (Sentry) to find and fix bugs; error reports include technical details such as the page and browser, but not your IP address, cookies or what you typed. These providers process data only on our behalf.

Your choices

Edit or remove profile details, posts, comments and reviews at any time.
Delete a pet medical record or revoke an active record-sharing link at any time.
Download a copy of your data (as a JSON file) from Settings.
Delete your account from Settings. Most account data is permanently deleted from our live systems and backups expire on a rolling schedule. We may retain transaction records, including order contact and delivery details, when required for tax, accounting, fraud prevention, disputes or other legal obligations.

Age requirement

Barki Social is for adults 18 and older. If we learn an account belongs to someone under 18, we'll delete it.

Contact

Privacy questions or requests: support@barkisocial.com.