Privacy Policy

Last updated: July 23, 2026

Policy version: 2026-07-23.5

1. Who we are

The controller responsible for personal data processed through this website operates BichoVets in Portugal and Spain. The controller’s applicable identity and publication details are available through the Contact page and the website’s publication fields. This policy does not invent or substitute a legal name, address, or Data Protection Officer.

Use the Contact page for privacy enquiries or to exercise your rights; no email address is published in this policy.

2. What data we collect

• Visitors: technical logs (IP address, browser type, pages viewed), language preference, cookies and similar technologies (see our Cookie Policy).
• Account holders: email, password (stored hashed), name, phone, profile description and picture if provided, preferred language, email verification status, session data, and account status history where applicable.
• Business users: business and listing information you submit (name, address, phone, email, services, hours, photos, team members, social links, licence, coordinates, Google place identifier where used), ownership-claim messages and verification documents.
• Contact form: name, email (optional), subject, message, selected reason.
• Invitations: email addresses and roles for store or platform team invites.
• Location: approximate or precise location when you use map, search, or “nearby” features—from browser permission, search input, coordinates you provide, or a local server-side IP geolocation lookup (see section 6).
• Analytics (with consent): pages and listings viewed, listing impressions, searches (including search text), filters applied, listing clicks, contact actions (call, email, website), social link clicks, store map interactions, session identifiers, device type, browser language, referring page, country and city derived from IP address, and—if you are logged in—your account identifier linked to events. Engagement signals such as periodic heartbeat events on store pages may also be collected. Self-hosted page-view and interaction signals may also be collected on public pages and in the management dashboard when analytics is enabled and consented.
• Consent records: when you set your cookie preferences, we keep an append-only audit record containing the categories you accepted or rejected, timestamp, source, interface language, a unique idempotent event UUID, and the random bv_consent_id identifier for anonymous decisions. If you are authenticated, the record may also be linked to your logged-in account while that account exists; hard deletion of the account removes that link. We do not store your IP address in this record.

3. Purposes and lawful bases (GDPR Art. 6)

4. Recipients and processors

• Hosting and infrastructure (servers, database, backups, caching and queues), including self-hosted analytics storage on our infrastructure.
• Machine-translation provider — translation of user-facing content (text is sent only for translation).
• Google (Google Ireland Ltd. / Google LLC) — Maps JavaScript API, Geocoding API, Places API, and related map resources when you consent to Google Maps; Google may also receive technical data when fonts are loaded from Google servers.
• Email delivery — transactional messages are sent through our configured SMTP or mail service provider.

Approximate location from an IP address is resolved through an in-memory or local database lookup on our servers. No named external geolocation product or vendor receives the IP address for this purpose, and the resulting server-side location is not persistently stored.

For Google Maps, Google acts as an independent data controller for technical data, including your IP address and browser information, received when Google resources load. Our use of Google Maps is governed by applicable contractual data protection terms, including a data processing agreement where Google acts as a processor. See the Google Privacy Policy, Google cookie information, and Google Maps terms.

We do not sell personal data or share analytics data with advertising networks.

5. International transfers

Where data is transferred outside the EEA by a service provider, we rely on adequacy decisions, Standard Contractual Clauses, or other lawful mechanisms as applicable.

6. Location on Explore and the homepage

When you use map-based features, we may process location data to center the map and show nearby services.

• Precise location (browser GPS) — processed with your consent under GDPR Art. 6(1)(a), only after you grant the browser-native geolocation permission. You can revoke that permission in your browser settings and clear the tab’s session storage. Coordinates are used locally in your browser to center maps and sort nearby results.
• Approximate location (IP-based) — when precise location is unavailable, our server may derive an approximate city and coordinates from your IP address through an in-memory or local database lookup. This is based on our legitimate interest under GDPR Art. 6(1)(f) in providing useful nearby results with limited data. No persistent server-side location record is created.
• Browser storage — the location object is stored in sessionStorage under bv_user_location and contains lat, lng, method, city, and timestamp. GPS entries expire after 15 minutes and approximate entries after 1 hour, and all entries are confined to the current tab and removed when that tab closes.
• Precedence — if both sources are available, precise GPS location takes precedence over approximate IP-based location.
• Google Maps — interactive maps and address autocomplete load only after you consent to Google Maps in cookie preferences. Without consent, the interactive map is unavailable but the rest of the site remains accessible; this is not a cookie wall.

This location processing for map centering is functional (not analytics) and does not require analytics cookie consent. It is not used for advertising.

7. Analytics processing details

When you consent through cookie_consent, we collect first-party usage data as described in section 2. The analytics service is self-hosted on our infrastructure; analytics data is not transferred to a third-party analytics provider. You may withdraw consent at any time via Cookie preferences or by deleting the cookie_consent cookie and bv_analytics_session entry in your browser storage.

IP addresses submitted with analytics events are used only to derive country and city during processing. They may be held briefly in an in-memory processing queue and are not stored in analytics database records.

Retention: raw analytics events and self-hosted measurement data are retained for a maximum of 30 days and then deleted automatically.

Management area: when you use the management dashboard as an authenticated user and analytics is enabled, we may collect page views and interaction data (such as form submission outcomes and page load times) on our own infrastructure to identify usability issues and improve the service. This processing follows your analytics preference where the preference panel is available. No additional third-party analytics cookies are set for this purpose.

7.1 Consent audit processing details

Your consent choice applies immediately in your browser. If the server cannot confirm the audit record, the pending confirmation is temporarily queued in necessary first-party localStorage and retried; this queue does not enable an optional category.

Each decision uses a unique event UUID so a retry can be processed idempotently without creating a duplicate record. We retain the exact policy documents and consent-interface copy presented for the applicable version, together with SHA-256 integrity hashes, as evidence of what was shown.

Consent-audit data is not sent to our analytics system or third-party monitoring. Monitoring uses aggregate operational signals about the audit service without consent identifiers or user identifiers.

8. Retention

• Account data: while the account is active. After account deletion we remove the account record; contact submissions and consent decisions may remain with the account link removed, and analytics events expire under the 30-day retention window.
• Contact messages: as long as needed to handle the request and for legitimate record-keeping.
• Ownership-claim documents: while the claim is pending and as needed after resolution for legal or dispute purposes.
• Server logs: limited period for security and troubleshooting.
• Listings: while published and as needed after removal for legal or dispute purposes.
• Analytics events and self-hosted measurement data: up to 30 days (see section 7).
• Geocoding and place caches: short fixed periods (typically up to 30 days for geocodes and 3 days for place details).
• Consent decision records: retained for 730 days (approximately 24 months) from each decision and then purged. The applicable immutable policy and consent-interface snapshots and their SHA-256 integrity hashes are retained as evidence for the decisions they support.

9. Your rights

Under GDPR you may request access, rectification, erasure, restriction, portability, and object to processing based on legitimate interests. Where processing is based on consent, you may withdraw consent at any time without affecting prior lawful processing. Submit requests via the Contact page. We respond within 30 days; where GDPR permits an extension for a complex or numerous request, we will notify you within that initial period.

You may delete your own account from your profile (Danger zone) if you do not own active stores. Account deletion permanently removes the user account; some related records may be retained as described in section 8.

You may lodge a complaint with your local data protection supervisory authority. In Portugal this is the CNPD (https://www.cnpd.pt); in Spain this is the AEPD (https://www.aepd.es).

10. Automated decisions

We do not make decisions based solely on automated processing that produce legal or similarly significant effects. Ranking and search use algorithmic ordering as described in our Terms of Service; paid placement will be disclosed if introduced.

11. Security

We use technical and organisational measures appropriate to the risk (HTTPS, access controls, hashed passwords, input sanitisation). No method of transmission is 100% secure.

12. Children

The service is not directed at children under 16. If you believe we hold a child’s data without appropriate authority, contact us.

13. Changes

We may update this policy. Material changes will be notified with reasonable notice. The latest version is always on this page.

14. Legal review

This policy should be reviewed by qualified legal counsel before publication and after material changes to the service or applicable law.