Privacy Policy
Effective date: 2026-11-01 This Privacy Policy explains how The Animal Traders (“we”, “us”) collects, uses, and shares information when you use our app and related services (the “Service”).Summary
- We collect account and profile information so you can sign in and use the Service.
- We collect and display listing content (including photos/videos and seller-selected fields) so a marketplace can function.
- We store exact pickup locations privately for sellers and organizations, and may show only city/state and an approximate map pin to help buyers browse.
- If you boost a listing, we use its content and its approximate location to run it as an ad on Facebook and Instagram, and we keep the ad’s results so you can see them.
- We use third-party providers for core functionality: Clerk (authentication), Supabase (database, storage, edge functions), Google Places/Geocoding (location search), Uploadcare (media upload/CDN), AWS Rekognition (media moderation), PostHog (product analytics), Sentry (error monitoring), Vercel Speed Insights (web performance telemetry), Meta (advertising measurement on our website, and the ads for listings you boost), OpenAI (AI features such as the listing score), and MailerLite (email communications).
- PostHog and Sentry are configured for privacy: we link activity to your Clerk user id only in production, do not send name/email/chat/payment details through those tools, and do not store client IP addresses in PostHog.
Information we collect
Account and authentication
When you sign up or sign in, we process account data through Clerk, such as:- Email address and verification status
- Name and profile image (if you provide them)
- Organization membership and role (if you create/join an organization)
Listings and marketplace activity
If you browse, create, or interact with listings, we process information such as:- Listing details you provide (title, description, category/species/breed, inventory quantities/prices)
- Listing media (photos/videos) you upload
- Listing documents you upload (for example, vaccination records or registration papers), and the visibility level you choose
- Promotion choices you make for a listing, such as a boost (its area and length) and browse featured spotlight
- Results of a boost: how many people saw the ad, how often it was shown, clicks, listing views from the ad, and new buyer conversations started while it ran
- Favorites (saved listings)
- Reviews/ratings you submit (where applicable)
Location information
We process location in a few different ways:- Device location (optional): If you choose “Use My Location” while browsing, the app may request your device’s location permission to sort listings by distance and show nearby results.
- Pickup/meetup location (sellers and organizations): If you set a pickup location, we store the exact address and coordinates in a private table restricted by row-level security. For browsing and map display, we publish city/state and an approximate coordinate (rounded, not exact) as a public projection.
- Location search: When you search for a place (for example, setting your pickup area or picking a browse location), we send your query and, if available, a coarse location “bias” to our server-side proxy which calls Google Places/Geocoding.
Verification documents (nonprofits)
If an organization submits documentation for nonprofit verification, we store:- The uploaded PDF document in a private storage bucket
- A verification request record (status, timestamps, document name/path, reviewer info)
Pre-launch signup and marketing communications
If you submit an early-access signup form on our marketing site (for example, the seller waitlist), we collect:- First and last name
- Email address
- State
- Animal categories you selected
- Species you selected (optional)
- Optional comments or questions
Usage and diagnostics
We collect limited usage and diagnostic data to operate, secure, and improve the Service.In our database
- Listing view counts (used to rank “popular” listings)
Web performance (Vercel Speed Insights)
On the web version, we collect basic performance telemetry (for example, page load timing) via Vercel Speed Insights. This does not include your name, email, or payment information.Product analytics (PostHog)
We use PostHog to understand how the Service is used. In production builds we may collect:- Screen navigation using redacted route names (for example, document-share tokens and chat channel identifiers are not sent)
- App context such as platform (iOS, Android, or web) and app version
- Selected product events, such as listing activation, listing extend/renew, messages sent, and completed purchases — including non-content identifiers like listing id, order id, or channel id where needed for analytics
- Do not store client IP addresses with events
- Do not populate person profiles with name, email, or similar fields
- Keep session replay turned off
- Retain analytics data for 30 days
Error monitoring (Sentry)
We use Sentry to detect crashes and performance problems. In production we may collect:- Error reports (exception type, stack trace, device/OS context needed to debug)
- Performance traces on a sampled basis
- Masked session replays when an error occurs — text, images, and vectors are masked so replay is intended for debugging, not reading your content
Advertising measurement (Meta Pixel and Conversions API)
We advertise on Facebook and Instagram. To measure whether those ads work, and to show them to people who are likely to be interested, our website uses the Meta Pixel and sends the same events to Meta from our servers through the Meta Conversions API. Our iOS and Android apps do not use either. On the website we may send Meta:- Pages viewed, listings viewed, and taps on links to the App Store or Google Play
- On our feature demo pages: that you viewed the demo, and whether you started, got halfway through, or finished its video
- Account sign-up completed, first message to a seller about a listing, checkout started, and purchase completed (for example a listing fee or an animal purchase), including the listing id and amount
- Browser and device signals: your IP address, browser user agent, and the page address (without private tokens or query parameters other than advertising campaign tags)
- Meta cookies: the Pixel sets first-party cookies named
_fbpand_fbcon our domain._fbcrecords that you arrived from a Facebook or Instagram ad click. - When you are signed in: your email address, phone number, name, and account id, each hashed (SHA-256) before it is sent, so Meta can match the event to a Meta account without receiving the plain values
AI features (OpenAI)
Some features send content to OpenAI for processing:- Listing score: when a seller or listing editor opens Step 5 or the Manage listing page, we send the listing’s photos (as preview images), one frame from each video, the title and description, and the category and species names. OpenAI returns ratings (for example, whether a photo is dark or blurry). We store those ratings with the listing so the review is not repeated until the listing changes, and we show them only to people who can edit the listing. We do not send listing documents, prices, pickup locations, or account details.
- Enhance with AI: the listing title and description you ask us to improve.
- AI review summaries: the star ratings and text of written reviews and seller feedback, without reviewer names. See AI review summaries.
How we use information
We use information to:- Provide the Service (sign-in, listings, browsing, documents)
- Enforce seller privacy protections (for example, hiding exact pickup addresses)
- Run optional listing promotion features, including Facebook and Instagram ads for listings you boost, and show you their results
- Run trust/safety and content moderation (including automated checks for uploaded media)
- Prevent abuse, secure the Service, and troubleshoot issues
How we share information
Public and buyer-facing sharing
Some information is visible to others as part of the marketplace experience:- Public browsing: Active listings and certain related data may be visible to visitors who are not signed in.
- Seller pickup area: Buyers may see a seller’s city/state and an approximate map pin. Exact addresses and exact coordinates are not shown publicly.
- Documents: Buyers may see document metadata depending on the visibility you select. File downloads are served using time-limited signed URLs after authorization checks.
Listing boosts
When you boost a listing, we run it as an ad on Facebook and Instagram through our own Meta advertising account, posted as The Animal Traders. To create and run the ad we send Meta:- The listing title, description, and price
- The listing’s photos and videos
- The listing’s city and state, and an approximate point for your pickup location (rounded to about 1 km), used to choose the area where the ad is shown
Service providers
We share information with vendors that help us run the Service:- Clerk for authentication and organization management
- Supabase for database, storage, and edge functions
- Google Places/Geocoding to power place search and reverse geocoding
- Uploadcare to upload, store, and deliver photos/videos via CDN
- AWS Rekognition (via Uploadcare add-ons) for automated media moderation
- PostHog for product analytics (see “Product analytics” above). PostHog processes data on our behalf; analytics events are retained for 30 days in our project configuration.
- Sentry for error monitoring and performance diagnostics (see “Error monitoring” above)
- Vercel Speed Insights for web performance measurement
- Meta (Meta Pixel and Conversions API) for measuring and improving our Facebook and Instagram advertising (see “Advertising measurement” above), and the Meta Marketing API to run listing boosts (see “Listing boosts” above)
- OpenAI for AI features: listing score reviews, Enhance with AI, and review summaries (see “AI features” above)
- MailerLite for email communications to pre-launch signups and marketing subscribers
Your choices
- Location permissions: You can deny location permission. Browsing still works, but distance-based sorting may be unavailable.
- Pickup location: Sellers can update or delete their pickup location. Deleting it removes the public pickup area display.
- Account: You can manage your account via the app’s account settings.
- Marketing emails: If you signed up for early access or launch updates, you can unsubscribe at any time using the link in any email we send, or by contacting us directly.
- Advertising measurement: You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings, which stops the Meta Pixel from recognizing your browser. You can control how Meta uses activity from other websites in your Facebook or Instagram settings under Your activity off Meta technologies and Ad preferences, and opt out of interest-based advertising from participating companies at optout.aboutads.info.
Security
We use a combination of technical and organizational safeguards, including:- Row-level security policies for sensitive tables
- Private storage buckets for documents
- Time-limited signed URLs for file downloads