Knurrix Privacy Policy

Last updated: 24 September 2026

In brief: Your training data — tracks, GPS points, dogs, photos and notes — is created on your device and remains available there without an account. A Knurrix account is optional. If you connect an account, we additionally back up your app data on our server in Germany. We do not sell data. Some features require external providers — for example, the AI features send content to Google (Gemini). Which service receives what and when is set out below under “Recipients and external services” and “AI features”.

Controller

Knurrix account and backup

An account is optional. Without an account, laying and working tracks, the map, dogs and analysis work on that phone and all data stays there; chats, sharing, live, AI features and the backup require an account. You can sign in with Google or Apple (and, during testing, through the test-server login). We process the identifier issued by your chosen provider and, where provided, your email address and display name. Apple may provide a private relay address.

Once an account is connected, we mirror all your app data to our server in Germany (Hetzner, Falkenstein): your profile, dogs including their health file, tracks with exact GPS traces, track work, photos, voice notes, settings, and chats and groups if you use them. During a recording, the intermediate state is backed up roughly once a minute so that nothing is lost if the app crashes. Your tracks are visible there only to you unless you explicitly share an individual track.

We do not sell your data. Which service providers receive data — for example Google for the AI features — is set out below under “Recipients and external services”. If you delete your account in the app, we remove all associated data from our server; everything on your phone remains there. Legal basis for the account and backup: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR (provision of the app).

Read-only web view

At konto.knurrix.com, you can sign in with the same Google or Apple account and view profile, dog, health, training and track data that has already been mirrored. The web view is deliberately read-only: recordings, maintenance and changes are made only in the offline-capable app on your device.

For sign-in, Google or Apple verifies your identity and sends us a provider-specific identifier and, where shared, your email address and display name. We then use a technically necessary signed session cookie. It is not used for advertising or usage analytics and contains no password. The session ends when you sign out or automatically after seven days.

For large track maps, the web view loads Google Maps. For technical reasons, this transmits your IP address and the displayed map sections to Google. For the small preview maps, your browser also sends the lines of the track and the track work (coordinates) to Google so that Google can draw the map image.

Location data

We collect your location to record and work your tracks and to display maps. Background location is collected only while a recording is active, and a recording can be started and ended only by you. Without an account, this data remains on the device; with a connected account, it is backed up as described above.

Location transmission every minute

Only if you expressly consented when connecting your account does the app transmit your exact position to our server approximately once a minute while the app is OPEN. The purpose is internal improvement of the app. Without your consent, this does not take place, and it never takes place in the background or while the app is closed. Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR (consent).

You can withdraw your consent by disconnecting your Knurrix account in the settings. This takes effect immediately: no further ping is created, and any positions not yet sent are discarded. Positions already transmitted are stored permanently. They carry their own random identifier, which is unrelated to the usage-statistics identifier.

If you use the app without an account, the same applies only if you accepted the notice “By starting, you accept our Privacy Policy” when first launching the app. While the app is open, it then transmits your position about once a minute with a random device identifier — without a name, email address or account. These positions are never linked to an account, even if you sign in at a later date. Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR (consent).

Photos

The camera or photo library opens only when you initiate it. Your photos — dogs, profile, terrain and articles of a track, equipment, dog papers, vaccination record pages and vet documents — are stored on your device and, with a connected account, additionally backed up on our server in Germany so that you get them back on a new device. We reduce the size of large images in the process. Images you send in a chat or attach to feedback are also stored on our server.

Nobody but you sees your photos — with three exceptions: your profile picture (for contacts, group members and in the name search, depending on your visibility settings), your dog pictures (only for confirmed contacts while the “My dogs” switch under “What others see” is on) and images you send to a chat yourself.

Photos are sent to Google only when you trigger an AI feature: the track analysis (photos of that track), the vaccination record photo recognition (the one selected page) and when you send an image to the Knurrix chat — see “AI features”. Legal basis for the backup: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR.

Recipients and external services

We do not sell data and do not disclose it for other parties’ advertising purposes. However, we need service providers for certain features. The following list names every service, what it receives, for what purpose and when. For services called directly from your phone, the provider also sees your IP address for technical reasons.

• Hosting — Hetzner Online GmbH, Germany (Falkenstein): our server with database, photos, audio recordings and backups. Hetzner processes the data on our behalf and only in Germany.
• Email — united-domains AG, Germany: our mailbox support@knurrix.com. If you write to us (or we reply to you, for example about support requests or the beta), these emails are stored there.
• AI — Google (Gemini): only for the features listed in the “AI features” section; processing outside the EU is possible. Details there.
• Sign-in — Google or Apple: when you sign in with Google or Apple. The provider learns that and when you sign in to Knurrix and sends us an identifier and, where shared, your email address and name. The providers are partly based in the USA.
• Maps — Mapbox (Mapbox, Inc., USA): the app loads map tiles directly from Mapbox; Mapbox sees which map sections you view, and the map module may send technical usage data to Mapbox. For the share image of a track, the app sends the lines of the track and the track work (simplified coordinates) to Mapbox when you tap, in order to create the map image. Offline maps are downloaded once in advance.
• Address search — Google Places (Google): when you search for an address for a contact (for example a vet). Your search text is sent to Google via our server; no position is included.
• Place names and place search — OpenStreetMap/Nominatim: coordinates are sent for reverse geocoding only when a track is completed or when you tap the relevant control, or your search term when you search for a place.
• Weather — Open-Meteo (Switzerland): the app requests local weather using the coordinates of your location.
• Error reports — Sentry (Functional Software, Inc.; storage location EU, Frankfurt): if the app crashes or an error occurs, the error message, technical device and version details, the screen open at the time, whether a recording was running, the last app steps (short codes without content) and your account identifier (a random string) are sent to Sentry. Your name, email address, GPS coordinates and content are not transmitted; storage of IP addresses is switched off. Access from the USA cannot be ruled out. Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in an error-free app).
• Notifications — Expo Push (650 Industries, USA) and Google Firebase Cloud Messaging or Apple Push Notification Service: for notifications on your phone, a device token and the notification text are sent to these services — for chat messages, this means the sender and a preview of the message.
• App updates — Expo/EAS (650 Industries, USA): technical device information and the app version, in order to deliver updates.
• Subscriptions — RevenueCat (RevenueCat, Inc., USA), Apple App Store, Google Play: once subscriptions can be purchased in the app. Payment is handled by Apple or Google; we receive no payment data. RevenueCat receives your account identifier and the purchase receipts in order to determine your subscription status.

Legal basis, unless stated otherwise above: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR (provision of the feature you use) and Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in a functional app). Where data may reach the USA or other third countries, the transfer is based on the EU-US Data Privacy Framework or on the EU standard contractual clauses of the respective providers.

AI features using Google Gemini

Some features use a language model from Google (“Gemini”). For these, our server sends the content required to Google and receives a text in return. The app itself never communicates with Google. We do not send your email address or your account identifier.

• Track analysis (“Knurrix takes a look”): only when you request and confirm it. We transmit the calculated key figures of the track and the track work (for example length, corners, articles, times, ground, weather), your note, the transcripts of your voice notes for this track and up to six photos of this track (terrain and articles). GPS coordinates are not included.
• Weekly report in the diary: only when you tap the button. We transmit the figures of your training week with one dog, any registered trial and your diary notes and voice-note transcripts from that week.
• “Ask Knurrix” and subject questions in the Knurrix chat: only when you ask a question. We transmit your question and relevant sections of our knowledge library.
• Messages to the Knurrix chat: what you write to the Knurrix bot (text, the transcript of a voice message or an image, for example a screenshot) is categorised by Google and, for images, described so that we understand your request and can reply. Messages in chats with other people are not sent to Google.
• Personal weather greeting on the home screen: this greeting is created without a separate tap when you open the home screen with an account. We transmit your first name, the names of your dogs, the current weather (temperature, humidity, wind), time of day and day of the week, and brief training information (for example when you last trained, weekly goal, training streak). We do not send your location to Google. You can switch the greeting off at any time in the app under Settings → “Artificial intelligence”.
• Vaccination record photo recognition: see the separate paragraph below.

We transcribe voice notes and voice messages on our own server (Whisper, running with us in Germany) — the audio recording itself is not sent to Google.

Vaccination record photo recognition

You can get help entering vaccinations: you select one photographed page of your vaccination record and start the scan explicitly yourself. That one page is then already on our server; from there we send it once to Google Gemini so that the vaccination entries (for example vaccine, date, batch, validity) are transcribed. The dog’s name, dog identifier, GPS data and other pages are not included.

The result is only a suggestion: nothing is saved automatically. You check each line, correct it if necessary and confirm it yourself. The recognition is a transcription aid, not a veterinary assessment — it says nothing about whether a vaccination is necessary, effective or still valid. We do not store Google’s suggestion — it is held only briefly in memory so that a double tap does not trigger a second scan. The page itself remains backed up in your account like any other photo (see “Photos”).

A vaccination record page may also contain information about you, such as your name and address in the owner section. It is therefore best to select only the page with the vaccination entries. Without a scan, you can enter all vaccinations manually as before — the vaccination record and health file work fully without the recognition feature.

AI features: what Google promises — and what it does not

For paid use of the Gemini interface (“Paid Services”), Google undertakes not to use prompts and responses to train its models. However, Google may log prompts and responses for a limited period in order to detect abuse. We therefore cannot promise you “zero-second” storage.

Google may process the data outside the EU, including in the USA. This is based on Google’s contractual and data protection terms, including the safeguards they provide for transfers to third countries (EU standard contractual clauses or the EU-US Data Privacy Framework).

AI texts may contain errors. We store the result (for example the analysis or the weekly report) in your account so that you can find it again on a new device.

AI features: legal basis, withdrawal and alternatives

Track analysis, weekly report, questions to Knurrix, messages to the Knurrix chat and the vaccination record photo recognition run only when you trigger them yourself. The legal basis is your consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR), which you give by triggering the feature. You can withdraw it at any time with effect for the future simply by no longer using the feature; all other features of the app remain unaffected. We cannot retrieve content that has already been sent to Google.

For the automatic weather greeting, we rely on our legitimate interest in a personalised home screen (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR). You can object at any time — most easily with the switch “Weather greeting (uses Google Gemini)” in the settings under “Artificial intelligence”; the app then no longer requests a greeting from Google. An email to support@knurrix.com is also sufficient. Without an account, no personal greeting is created; the home screen then shows a fixed standard text.

Permissions at a glance

• Location: To record your tracks.
• Camera and photos: For profile, dog, terrain and vaccination record photos and for scanning QR codes.
• Microphone: For voice notes and voice messages — only while you are recording.
• Notifications: For reminders (for example of the ageing time) and chat notifications.
• Bluetooth: To connect to the Knurrix tracker on the collar.
• Vibration: For alerts while working a track.

Beta request through the website

You can register your interest in the beta phase at knurrix.com. You provide us with your name, WhatsApp telephone number, the invitation address of your Google or Apple account and, if you choose to provide them, your sport and a message. We store this information on our server in Germany (Hetzner, Falkenstein) and use it solely to select beta participants and contact you.

The legal basis is the consent you give when submitting the form (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR); we record the time of that consent. You may withdraw it informally at any time by emailing support@knurrix.com. We will then delete your request.

A beta request does not constitute consent to advertising. We will send you only messages relating to the beta.

For the Android field test, we need the Gmail address you use in the Google Play Store. If it is missing, we will ask you for it by email. Your reply is associated with your beta request in our internal support system. We store the Gmail address and the times at which it was recorded, manually added to the Play tester list and sent the test link.

If you separately consent to contact via WhatsApp, we use your number to coordinate the field test with you personally. In doing so, your telephone number, communications and technical metadata are processed by WhatsApp Ireland Limited and/or affiliated Meta companies. The form data itself remains on our infrastructure. You can withdraw your WhatsApp consent at any time with effect for the future.

We transmit the invitation address to Google Play or Apple TestFlight only if you are actually invited. It is not used for advertising.

To prevent abuse of the form, we briefly count how many requests come from the same IP address. We discard that address after a short period; it is not stored with your request.

We delete your request no later than the end of the beta phase unless it has resulted in a Knurrix account.

Optional website analytics

On the public website knurrix.com, we only use our self-hosted reach analytics with your explicit consent. We process the pages you visit, the time and duration of your visit, scroll depth, buttons clicked, broad device and browser categories, language, referring page and any voluntary UTM campaign parameters.

Once you have consented, we create a random visitor identifier and a separate random identifier for each browser session. These are not linked to a Knurrix account, name, email address, dog, health, training or GPS data. To provide a broad indication of origin, your IP address is used on our server only during the request to determine a region. We store only the country, region and a coarsely rounded regional centre point, never the IP address or a precise location.

The data is processed exclusively on our own infrastructure in Germany and is not transferred to Google Analytics or any other analytics service. We delete raw events after no more than 90 days. Aggregated daily figures that can no longer be associated with individual sessions may be retained for longer.

The legal basis is your consent under Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR. No website analytics takes place without your consent. Your choice is stored in your browser as a technically necessary setting. You can withdraw your consent at any time with effect for the future via “Analytics settings” in the website footer. This also deletes the random analytics identifiers from your browser.

Storage periods and deletion

Data remains on your device until you delete it in the app or uninstall the app; uninstalling removes all local data. We store data on our server for as long as your account exists — tracking work is long-term work. “Delete account” in the app removes all server data; everything on the phone remains there. What Google logs for a limited period in connection with the AI features is governed by Google’s terms (see “AI features”).

Anonymous usage statistics

To understand whether the app is reliable and when it is used, it sends us anonymous usage events: app opened and closed (including duration), a heartbeat every minute while it is open, and “a track was laid” or “a track was worked” — in each case only with the time, app version and device type. This includes a randomly generated device identifier so that we can count devices; it contains no name, email address or advertising identifier.

The usage statistics do not contain locations, tracks, photos, notes or dog data. Location transmission (see above) uses a separate random identifier; the two datasets cannot be linked. Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in a functional, continuously improved app).

No advertising and no sale of data

We use no advertising trackers, do not disclose analytics data and do not sell data. Optional website analytics is operated exclusively by us.

Your rights

You have the right of access, rectification, erasure, restriction, objection and data portability in relation to your data. To exercise these rights, contact support@knurrix.com.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority. For Berlin, this is the Berlin Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information.