Privacy Policy

Chester (“Chester,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) is a platform operated by Chester Pet Inc., based in Ontario, Canada. Chester is an online marketplace that helps independent pet-service businesses (dog walkers, sitters, trainers, and groomers) — each a Provider — run their businesses, and helps their Clients (pet owners) book and stay connected with those Providers. Chester is available on the web and as a mobile app.

This Privacy Policy explains what personal information we collect, why, who we share it with, and the choices and rights you have. We’ve written it in plain language. If anything is unclear, contact us at privacy@chester.pet.

Who this policy covers

Chester has two kinds of users:

• Providers — the pet-service businesses and their team members who use Chester to run their operations.
• Clients — the pet owners who are invited by a Provider to book services, message, and view updates about their pets.

Because Chester is a tool that Providers use to serve their own Clients, a Provider is the party that decides what Client and pet information to enter into Chester. For that information, the Provider acts as the controller of the data and Chester acts as a service provider (processor) handling it on the Provider’s behalf. For account-level information (such as your login), Chester is the controller.

You own the records you enter. As between you and Chester, you own and retain all rights in the business, Client, and pet records you enter into Chester. We do not claim ownership of them; we only host and process them to provide the Service to you. If you leave, you can export your records, and we delete or anonymize them as described in “How long we keep your information.”

Information we collect

Account and profile information

When you create an account, we collect your name, email address, and (optionally) phone number. Providers also provide business details such as business name, business address, phone, and email. We use email and password for sign-in (authentication is handled through our backend infrastructure provider).

Client and pet information

Providers enter information about their Clients and the pets they care for. This can include:

• Client contact details (name, email, phone) and saved service addresses.
• Pet profiles: name, species, breed, age, weight, sex, spay/neuter status, color, and a photo.
• Pet health and care information: vaccination records, uploaded documents, veterinarian name/clinic/phone, emergency contacts, medical notes, behavior notes, and grooming or training profiles.

Bookings and scheduling

Service type, dates and times, service location/address, and notes related to a booking.

Messages and attachments

Messages exchanged between a Provider and a Client through Chester, including any photos or files attached to them.

Report cards and media

Updates a Provider sends about a pet, including written observations and photos or other media. A report card may also include the route and distance of a walk — see “Location and route information” below.

Location and route information

On the mobile app, when a Provider starts a walk, Chester uses the Provider’s device location to record the route taken and calculate the distance. This precise location is collected only during a walk that is being tracked, and only from the Provider’s device — never from a Client’s device. Other service types (grooming, training and sitting) never use location. The web app does not collect location at all.

Foreground by default, background by opt-in. By default Chester records a route only while the app is open on screen (“While Using the App” location), and recording pauses if the Provider locks their phone. A Provider can choose to turn on background recording, which keeps the route recording while their phone is locked or in their pocket for the duration of the walk. Turning that on requires granting Chester “Always” location permission on the device; if that permission is not granted, Chester falls back to foreground-only recording. While a walk is recording in the background, the app displays an on-screen indicator saying so. Chester never records location when no walk is in progress, and never in the background outside an active walk.

How a Provider turns route recording off. There are two independent controls. First, an in-app switch — Settings → Services → Route tracking → Record walk routes in the mobile app, or Settings → Scheduling → Route tracking on the web — turns route recording off entirely: Chester then does not ask for location, records no route or distance, and attaches no map to a report card. Background recording is a sub-option of that switch and is off by default. Second, a Provider can decline the device’s location permission when prompted, or revoke it later in their phone’s own settings. In every one of these cases the walk still starts, runs and finishes normally — only the route is missing.

Weather at the start of a session. Separately from route recording, when a session starts and Chester already has location permission, it takes a single location reading and sends those coordinates to our weather provider (based in the United Kingdom) to record the conditions the session took place in on the report card. Only the coordinates are sent — no pet, Client or Provider identity accompanies them. This reading is taken once at the start of the session, not continuously, and it is never taken if location permission has not already been granted.

How the recorded route and distance are used depends on the report card: for a one-on-one walk where the Client receives report cards, the route map and distance are attached to that Client’s report card so they can see where their pet was taken. For a group walk, we attach only the distance walked — not the route map — to each Client’s report card, so that one Client’s route cannot reveal another household’s location. For Clients who have turned off report cards (a “private” preference), no report card is sent and neither the route nor the distance is stored for that pet.

Signed agreements

When you sign a service agreement in Chester, we record the signature image, the date signed, and the IP address used to sign, so the signature can be verified later.

Payment information

Payments are processed by Stripe. When a Provider sets up payouts, Stripe collects and verifies their identity and banking details directly. When a Client saves a payment method, Stripe stores the card; Chester stores only a reference to the payment method and the card’s brand and last four digits — we never store your full card number.

Team and staff records

Where a Provider runs a team, Chester stores the records that Provider keeps about the people who work for them. This can include documents they upload about a team member (for example a contract or a handbook, and — visible only to the people who manage the team — records such as a performance review or an incident report), a private note about that team member, and time-off requests and their approval status.

As with Client and pet records, the Provider decides what to store here and is the party responsible for it; Chester holds it on their behalf. Documents are kept in private storage and are not publicly accessible. If you are a team member and want to know what your employer holds about you in Chester, ask them first — they control these records. You can also contact us at privacy@chester.pet.

Crash and error reporting

Separately from analytics, when something goes wrong in Chester we send a diagnostic report to an error-monitoring service so we can find and fix it. A report describes the failure itself — the error, the page or screen it happened on, and basic device and browser details. We do not enable the setting that would attach your account details to these reports, and they are never used to understand how you use Chester, to build a profile, or for marketing.

This runs whatever you choose about analytics, because it is part of keeping the Service working and secure — a crash we never hear about is a crash we cannot fix. It is treated as strictly necessary rather than optional for that reason.

Device and notification information

On the mobile app, if you enable push notifications, we store a device push token so we can deliver notifications through our mobile push-notification provider. We also keep records of notifications we’ve sent (type, channel, and delivery/read status).

Technical information

Like most online services, we store authentication tokens in your browser or device to keep you signed in, and our infrastructure logs standard technical data needed to operate and secure the service.

Usage and analytics information

We use product-analytics tools to understand how Chester is used so we can improve it. These tools collect information such as the pages you visit, actions you take in the app, device and browser type, and approximate location (derived from IP address), and they store small identifiers (cookies or similar) on your device. For signed-in users, this usage data may be associated with your account. These tools process this data on infrastructure located in the United States. We use this only to operate and improve Chester. We do not use third-party advertising networks or cross-site tracking cookies, and we do not sell this information.

How we use your information

We use personal information to:

• Provide, operate, and maintain Chester (create accounts, schedule bookings, deliver messages and report cards, process payments and payouts).
• Send transactional and service communications — booking confirmations, payment receipts, agreement requests, and (on mobile) push notifications, in line with your notification preferences.
• Provide pet-care insights and summaries to Providers based on the records they enter.
• Keep Chester secure, prevent fraud and abuse, and troubleshoot problems.
• Comply with legal obligations and enforce our Terms of Service.

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not use it for third-party advertising.

We do not use your data to train AI. We do not use your personal information to train artificial-intelligence or machine-learning models. When we use an AI provider to read and extract information from documents you upload (see “AI document processing” under “Who we share information with”), that processing happens solely to provide that feature to you — not to build or improve AI models.

Honoring your preferences

Where you have made an explicit choice — for example, opting out of push notifications, or a Client choosing that report cards stay private — we honor that choice across the product. Preferences you set are treated as binding.

Who we share information with

We share information only with the service providers we rely on to run Chester, and only as needed to provide the Service. These include providers of:

• Hosting and infrastructure — storing Chester’s data and running our website and apps.
• Payment processing — billing, subscriptions, and Provider payouts. Card payments are handled by Stripe; Stripe’s handling of payment data is governed by Stripe’s own privacy policy.
• Email and notifications — transactional email and mobile push notifications.
• Product analytics — understanding how Chester is used so we can improve it.
• Crash and error monitoring — receiving diagnostic reports when something in Chester fails, so we can fix it.
• Maps and weather — rendering the map of a walk route on a report card, and recording the conditions a session took place in. Before a route map is rendered we trim the start and end of the route (about 120 metres each) so the map does not pin the walk’s exact start or end location. Only coordinates are sent to these providers — no name, pet, Client or account identifier accompanies them.
• AI document processing — when a Provider uploads a Client intake card or a veterinary or vaccination document, the image is sent to an AI service that reads it and extracts the relevant fields, so the Provider does not have to re-type them.

Some of these providers process data in the United States or the United Kingdom. We require each of them to handle information only as needed to provide their service to us. A current list of the service providers we use is available on request at privacy@chester.pet.

We may also disclose information if required by law, to respond to lawful requests, to protect the rights and safety of our users or the public, or in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets (in which case we’ll notify you).

Beyond these, Providers can export certain data (for example, a CSV of their own Client list) for their legitimate business use; such exports are logged.

Calendar sync (iCal feed)

If you are a Provider, Chester lets you subscribe your Chester schedule to an outside calendar app — such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, or Outlook — using a private calendar-feed link. When you set this up, your booking details, including the service, the date and time, the Client’s name, the pet’s name, the booking’s status, and the service address, are sent to the calendar provider you choose, which then handles that information under its own privacy policy rather than ours. The link is secured by a secret token that only you control; you can turn the feed off or generate a new link at any time from your calendar settings in Chester. Because enabling calendar sync shares Client and pet details with an outside service, only turn it on with a calendar account you trust.

Where your information is stored — international transfers

Chester is operated from Canada, and our infrastructure may store and process data in Canada, the United States, or other countries where our service providers operate. If you use Chester from the United States or elsewhere, your information may be transferred to and stored in Canada and other jurisdictions. We rely on our service providers’ safeguards and contractual protections for these transfers. By using Chester, you understand that your information may be processed in countries other than the one you live in, which may have different data-protection laws than your own.

To be specific about where your data is stored: our primary database is hosted in the United States (US East region), and several of our service providers — including our analytics, map-rendering, and AI document-processing providers — also process data in the United States. Our weather provider is based in the United Kingdom. Regardless of where you live, your Chester data is stored primarily in the United States and Canada.

For Canadian users, we handle personal information in accordance with the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA). For users in the United States, we honor applicable state privacy laws regarding access and deletion of personal information.

How long we keep your information

We keep your information for as long as your account is active and for a reasonable period afterward, as needed to provide the service, meet legal and accounting obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements.

When you request deletion of your account, we disable your login immediately and begin a 14-day recovery window. During that window you can restore your account using a link we email you. After 14 days, your personal information is permanently and irreversibly removed or anonymized, except for the limited records we are required to keep for legal, tax, or accounting purposes. Some information that does not identify you may be retained in anonymized form.

If you are a Client, note that much of your information was entered by your Provider, who keeps their own business records; deleting your Chester account does not necessarily erase the records your Provider maintains.

Account deletion

You can delete your account at any time from Settings → Security → Delete account on the mobile app or the website, or by emailing privacy@chester.pet. When you request deletion, your login is disabled immediately and your account enters a 14-day recovery window; we email you a link to restore it during that time. After the window closes, your personal information (name, email, phone, address, photos, and message contents) is permanently and irreversibly removed.

One exception applies to group services: a photo taken on a group walk also belongs to the other Clients who were there, so it stays on their records. It is no longer linked to you or your pet's profile.

Where a pet-service Provider has a lawful basis to retain financial records — for tax, accounting, and audit obligations — we keep an anonymized record of past bookings and invoices. These retained records no longer identify you: they contain no name, email, phone, or address, and are shown to the Provider as a “Deleted Client.” This retention is limited to what those legal obligations require.

Your Provider also keeps a stripped-down record of each visit they carried out — the date, the service, and how long it took — as evidence of the work behind those invoices. The notes, photos, and route from the visit are removed.

If you worked for a Provider as a team member. Deleting your Chester account removes your own profile — your name, email, phone, photo and bio. It does not remove the records your employer created about you: any documents they uploaded to your staff file, any private note they wrote about you, and your time-off history all stay with that business. Those are the employer’s employment records rather than your Chester profile, and they are kept for the same reason a former employer keeps a personnel file. If you want them removed, ask the business directly — they control them, and they can delete them from within Chester.

Your rights and choices

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to:

• Access the personal information we hold about you.
• Correct information that is inaccurate or incomplete (you can edit much of your profile directly in the app).
• Delete your account and associated personal information, subject to legal retention requirements.
• Withdraw consent to optional processing, such as turning off push notifications.

To make a request, contact us at privacy@chester.pet. We’ll respond within the timeframe required by applicable law. If you are a Client and your request concerns records your Provider entered, we may direct you to your Provider, who controls that information, and we will assist them in responding.

Cookies and local storage

Chester stores small amounts of data on your device or browser for two purposes: (1) essential authentication tokens and settings that keep you signed in and let the service function, and (2) product-analytics identifiers set by our analytics providers, which help us understand and improve how Chester is used (see “Usage and analytics information” above). We do not use advertising or cross-site tracking cookies.

Your choice. Essential cookies cannot be turned off — without them you could not stay signed in. Analytics is different: you can turn it off at any time using the Cookie preferences link in the footer of any page, or from the notice shown on your first visit. Turning analytics off actually stops the collection — we do not load the analytics tools at all, and if a session had already started we stop it and clear the identifier it had set. Your choice is remembered on that browser.

What this choice does not cover. Crash and error reporting (described above) is separate and keeps running, because it is how we find out the Service is broken. It sets no advertising or tracking cookie and is not used to understand how you use Chester.

We do not currently use any advertising or cross-site tracking technology. If that ever changes, it will be off unless you explicitly turn it on.

Children’s privacy

Chester is a tool for pet-care businesses and pet owners. It is not directed to children and is not intended for use by anyone under 18 (or the age of majority in your jurisdiction, if higher). We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has provided us information, contact us at privacy@chester.pet and we will delete it.

Security

We take reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect your information, including access controls, row-level security in our database, encryption in transit, and keeping payment-card data with Stripe rather than on our own systems. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security.

Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we make material changes, we’ll update the effective date above and notify you through the app or by email before the changes take effect. Your continued use of Chester after an update means you accept the revised policy.

Contact us

Questions, concerns, or privacy requests:

Chester Pet Inc.
Ontario, Canada
privacy@chester.pet
Attn: Privacy Lead