Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

Lost.ca is a community-driven Canadian pet lost and found. This policy explains what personal information we collect, how we use it, who we share it with, and your rights. We collect only what we need to help reunite lost pets with their families.

2. Information We Collect

Information you give us:

• Account details: email, password (stored only as a hash), and optional display name.
• Phone number and contact email when you add them to a lost-pet listing. Contact info you put on a listing is publicly visible on that listing.
• Pet listing details: photos, descriptions, last-seen locations, microchip numbers, reward offers.
• Found-pet sighting reports: photos, descriptions, location, optional contact information.
• Community sighting tips you post on other owners' listings.
• Reports, messages, and support requests you send us.

Information collected automatically:

• Approximate location (city, region, country) derived from request headers set by our hosting provider. Used to show local content. Not precise geolocation.
• Browser type, device type, operating system, and IP address.
• Pages visited, referrer, and session timing for analytics.
• Cookies used for sign-in sessions and anti-abuse (login throttling).

3. How We Use Your Information

• To run the service: display your listings and sightings, notify you of matches, let finders contact you.
• To prevent abuse: rate limits, CAPTCHA verification, login lockout after repeated failures.
• To improve the service: aggregated analytics about usage patterns.
• To communicate with you: account emails, password resets, service announcements.
• To comply with applicable laws.
• To develop, test, operate, market, monetize, and commercialize Lost.ca and any related, successor, or future products and services we may offer.
• To create de-identified, anonymized, aggregated, or statistical data, which we may use, license, share, sell, or commercialize without restriction and for any purpose, including research, analytics, marketing, advertising, and data products.
• For any other purpose that we describe to you at the time of collection or to which you otherwise consent.

4. Sharing Your Information

We share data with service providers as needed to operate Lost.ca, which may include providers responsible for hosting, databases, authentication, analytics, email delivery, and bot protection. Specific providers may change over time.

Information you place on a public listing (phone number, email, contact name, pet photos, last-seen location) is publicly visible by design. Do not include anything you do not want to be public.

We may also license, transfer, or otherwise make available de-identified, anonymized, aggregated, or statistical data derived from listings, sightings, platform usage, or other information we collect to third parties for any purpose, including research, analytics, marketing, advertising, partnerships, and commercial data products.

We may share information with partner organizations including shelters, SPCAs, humane societies, rescues, microchip registries, veterinary networks, pet-services providers, analytics providers, and other organizations where we consider it useful for reuniting pets, improving the service, or operating, supporting, or growing Lost.ca, on terms we determine in our sole discretion.

We may also share or disclose information when we believe in good faith it is appropriate, including: to comply with applicable laws, regulations, court orders, subpoenas, or lawful requests from government authorities; to enforce these terms; to detect, prevent, or address fraud, security, or technical issues; to protect the rights, property, or safety of Lost.ca, our users, or others; and in connection with any actual or potential corporate or strategic transaction, including a merger, acquisition, investment, financing, restructuring, reorganization, spin-off, joint venture, partnership, licensing arrangement, change of control, bankruptcy, receivership, asset sale, or sale of all or part of our business, in which case your information may be transferred to, shared with, or used by the successor, acquirer, investor, partner, counterparty, or their advisors.

5. Cookies and Tracking

Lost.ca uses cookies for sign-in sessions and analytics. Most browsers let you control cookies through their settings. Disabling cookies may prevent you from signing in.

6. Access and Correction

Subject to applicable law, you may request access to or correction of personal information we hold about you, or the closure of your account. Requests should be sent to our Privacy Officer (see section 12). We aim to acknowledge requests within a reasonable time and respond as required by applicable law. Requests may be subject to verification, and we may decline or limit a request where permitted by law (for example, to protect the rights of others, for legal-hold reasons, or where the information is necessary for fraud prevention or service operation).

You can edit or remove most of your own content directly from your dashboard at any time. Closing your account is the most effective way to stop the collection of new information about you.

Quebec residents may have additional rights under An Act respecting the protection of personal information in the private sector (Loi 25), including in relation to data portability and automated decision-making. To exercise any such right, contact our Privacy Officer (section 12).

7. Data Retention

We retain personal information for as long as necessary to provide the service, comply with our legal and contractual obligations, resolve disputes, enforce our agreements, prevent fraud and abuse, and otherwise as permitted by applicable law. Removed or closed-account information may continue to exist in routine backups, security logs, and aggregated analytics for a limited additional period. Specific retention periods may change as our infrastructure evolves.

We may retain de-identified, anonymized, aggregated, or statistical data indefinitely.

8. Security

We use industry-standard protections:

• All traffic is encrypted in transit with HTTPS.
• Passwords are never stored as plain text; they are hashed (managed by Supabase Auth).
• Authentication attempts are rate-limited to prevent brute-force attacks.
• Uploaded photos are restricted to common image formats and a maximum file size.

No method of storage or transmission is completely secure. We cannot guarantee absolute security.

9. International Data Transfers

Lost.ca relies on cloud and other service providers, partners, and counterparties that may operate in any jurisdiction worldwide, including but not limited to the United States, the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, India, and other countries. By using Lost.ca, you acknowledge and consent to your information being transferred to, stored in, and processed in any of those jurisdictions, which may have different data protection standards than your own. We rely on industry-standard contractual and technical safeguards in our provider relationships.

10. Children's Privacy

Lost.ca is not directed at children under 13. If we learn we have collected personal information from a child under 13, we will delete it.

11. Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The "Last updated" date at the top will change when we do. Your continued use of Lost.ca after any change constitutes acceptance of the revised policy.

12. Privacy Officer

Lost.ca has designated a person responsible for the protection of personal information. Privacy questions, access requests, and other inquiries about this policy should be directed to:

Privacy Officer, Lost.ca
Email: support@lost.ca (please include "Privacy" in the subject line)

13. Contact

General questions or support? Email support@lost.ca. For privacy requests, use the same address with "Privacy" in the subject line.