Privacy Policy

1. What stays on your iPhone

Everything you do in Starring is kept by the app on your iPhone:

• the pets you adopt, and any names you give them;
• their care: meals, water, walks, play and the time you spend together;
• your chats with your pets, and what you say to them in Talk;
• their trips, photos, album and passport stamps;
• your Stardust balance and what you’ve used it for;
• your settings.

We can’t see any of it, and none of it is on our servers. Your iPhone’s own backups, in iCloud or on a computer, include it as they do for most apps, so restoring a backup brings it back. Without a backup it can’t be recovered, because we don’t have a copy.

2. What the app asks to use

iOS asks you before Starring can use any of these, and you can change your answer at any time in the iPhone’s Settings › Starring.

• Microphone and speech recognition, so your pet can hear you in Talk. What you say is turned into words right on your iPhone, and your voice stays on your iPhone.
• Camera, to take a photo of you with your pet. The photo stays on your iPhone.
• Photos, to find the photos you took of your pet this week, and to save the photos you choose to keep. They stay on your iPhone.
• Notifications, described in section 5.

3. What leaves your iPhone

Trips and recordings

A trip downloads the first time you open it, and some recordings download when they’re needed, such as his name read aloud in his letter. They come from our storage at Cloudflare. Like any download, each request carries your iPhone’s IP address and the name of the file it asks for, so a request for a name’s recording includes that name. The files are the same for everyone, and nothing else about you is sent.

Purchases

Stardust is bought through Apple’s In-App Purchase. Apple takes the payment and tells the app on your iPhone what you bought. We never see your card or your Apple Account details. Apple’s own privacy policy covers what Apple collects.

Outside AI services

In this version of Starring, what you write and say to your pet stays on your iPhone, and his reactions are chosen on the phone. Starring also has features that would use outside AI services, through our server, to write or pick a pet’s reactions. Before the first time anything you write or say would go to them, the app tells you and asks for your OK, and nothing goes until you give it. If you do, your words go, never your voice, and a message may also be read to check you’re OK. We’ll update this policy before any of these features is switched on.

4. Who handles it for us

These companies provide services to Starring, under contracts that let them use information only to provide those services:

We don’t sell or share your personal information, and we don’t use it for advertising. We may disclose information if the law requires it, to protect someone’s safety, or as part of a merger or sale of our business, in which case this policy keeps applying to it.

5. Notifications

Starring’s notifications are set up on your iPhone and never sent from a server: a reminder now and then about your pet, at most one a week, and the ones you ask for, such as when an animal you’re waiting for arrives. Turn them off in Starring’s Settings, or in the iPhone’s Settings › Notifications › Starring.

6. No ads, analytics or tracking

The app has no ads, no analytics and no tracking. It doesn’t use your iPhone’s advertising identifier, and it doesn’t follow you across other apps or websites. This website has no cookies, analytics or third-party trackers.

7. Deleting your information

In Starring, open Settings and tap Delete your account. It deletes everything the app kept on this iPhone: your pets, their photos and looks, their care, trips and album, your chats and your Stardust, and the notifications still to come. Deleting the app deletes it too. Because none of it is on our servers, there’s nothing more for us to delete. Deleted Stardust can’t be restored.

8. Children

Starring is made for a general audience and doesn’t ask your age. Because the app keeps what you do on your iPhone and there’s no account on our servers, we don’t collect personal information from children through it. If you think a child has sent us personal information, in an email for example, write to privacy@starring.pet and we’ll delete it.

9. Your privacy rights

Depending on where you live, including California and the European Union, you have the right to know what personal information we hold about you and get a copy, to correct it, to delete it, and to object to or limit how it’s used. Since Starring keeps your information on your iPhone, you can see, change and delete it there yourself. For anything else, write to privacy@starring.pet. We’ll answer within 45 days. We won’t treat you differently for using these rights. We don’t sell or share personal information, so there’s nothing to opt out of.

10. This website

starring.pet is a plain website with no sign-up, cookies, analytics or trackers. Cloudflare, which hosts it, handles your IP address to deliver the pages and to protect the site from attacks. If you email us, we use your message and address only to answer you.

11. Security

Downloads use encrypted connections, and the app checks every file it downloads against the fingerprint it expects before using it. What the app keeps is protected by your iPhone’s own security, such as its passcode.

12. Changes to this policy

When we change this policy, we’ll post the new version here with a new date. If a change affects what leaves your iPhone, the app will tell you before it applies.

13. Contact us

Starring is made by Punch Labs LLC, 3823 Tamiami Trl E #1139, Naples, FL 34112. Privacy questions and requests: privacy@starring.pet. Anything else: support@starring.pet.