Privacy Policy

From Businesses: business name, address, service area, staff names and roles, pricing configuration, and account/billing details processed by our payment provider (Stripe).

From and about Clients, entered by a Business or submitted directly: name, phone number, email address, home address, pet details (name, breed, medical/behavioral notes), appointment history, photos of pets taken before/during/after a grooming visit, and payment records.

Messaging content: the content of messages exchanged between a Business and its Clients through any channel Kip supports — SMS, email, WhatsApp, Instagram Direct, Facebook Messenger, and web chat — including message text, timestamps, delivery status, and any media attached to a message.

Location data: approximate or precise location of a Business's staff and vehicles while actively en route to or performing an appointment, used to power live arrival tracking, drive-time estimates, and distance logging. The Kip Field app reads location only while it is open on screen (see Section 10).

Usage and device data: log data, device identifiers, and diagnostic information collected automatically when the Kip web app or mobile field app is used. The Kip Field app collects the additional information described in Section 10.

We use the information above to: operate the scheduling, payments, and messaging features a Business has configured; send appointment confirmations, reminders, arrival notifications, receipts, and other transactional messages a Client has consented to receive; enable a Business's staff to communicate with Clients across the channels described above; process payments; and improve and secure the Kip product.

We do not sell personal information. We do not use Client data collected on behalf of a Business for our own advertising purposes.

AI-assisted features. Where a Business enables an AI drafting or assistant feature, the content of a conversation and relevant Client/pet context may be sent to our AI service provider (currently OpenAI) to generate a suggested reply. Suggested replies are reviewed by Business staff before being sent to a Client unless the Business has explicitly enabled autonomous sending for a defined, narrow set of message types. AI providers process this data under their own data-use terms, which restrict use of submitted content to providing the service and prohibit using it to train their general-purpose models unless a Business separately opts in.

Kip enables a Business to message its Clients over SMS, email, WhatsApp, Instagram Direct, and Facebook Messenger. Each channel has its own consent, opt-out, and data-handling rules imposed by the channel provider (e.g., Meta Platforms, Inc. for WhatsApp/Instagram/Messenger), which Kip enforces on the Business's behalf:

• A Client's consent to receive messages on a given channel and category (transactional vs. marketing) is recorded per channel and can be withdrawn at any time by the Client.
• Message content sent or received via WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger is processed in accordance with Meta's Platform Terms and Developer Policies, in addition to this Policy.
• A Client may opt out of a channel at any time (e.g., replying STOP to SMS, or blocking/muting the Business on WhatsApp/Instagram/Messenger).

We share information with service providers who process it on our behalf, solely to provide the Kip service: payment processing (Stripe); messaging delivery (our SMS/email providers, and Meta Platforms, Inc. for WhatsApp Business Platform, Instagram Messaging, and Messenger Platform); AI-assisted reply drafting (OpenAI); and cloud hosting and infrastructure providers. Each provider is bound by contract to use the data only to provide services to us.

Depending on your jurisdiction, you may have the right to access, correct, export, or request deletion of your personal information. A Client should first contact the Business they interact with through Kip, as the Business controls its own client records. A Business may contact us directly at privacy@kip.co.

Kip Field is the Android and iOS app that a Business's staff use while out on their rounds. It is used by staff who have a Kip account, not by Clients. This section says exactly what the app collects from the person using it, and why.

• Precise location, only while the app is open. After a staff member allows location, the app reads their position while Kip Field is open on screen. It uses it to work out the drive time to the next appointment, to notice arrival, and to add up the distance driven for mileage. When the staff member taps “on my way”, their latest position is sent to Kip about every 15 seconds so the Client's tracking link can show the van moving. Kip keeps only the latest point for that visit (each new point replaces the last), and the link stops updating when the visit starts or the link expires. The total distance driven each day is kept in the Business's mileage records; the individual points of the route are not stored. The app does not read location when it is closed or in the background. Staff can turn location off in the app's Settings or the phone's settings at any time.
• Camera and photos. The app opens the camera when a staff member chooses to take before and after photos of a pet. Photos are uploaded to that pet's record in the Business's Kip account and can be sent to the Client in a report card. The app does not read the phone's photo library.
• Microphone for voice-to-text. If a staff member taps the microphone button when replying to a Client, the phone's speech recognition service turns what they say into text. On Android that service is provided by Google, and on iPhone by Apple, under their own privacy terms. Kip does not receive or keep the audio. Only the text the staff member chooses to send reaches Kip.
• Notifications and device information. If notifications are allowed, Kip stores a push token for the device, its type (for example “android”) and the device name, so it can alert the staff member to a new booking or Client message. Signing out removes the token. The app also keeps a sign-in token on the device, in its secure storage.
• Account and work content. The staff member's name, email address and role, and the appointments, notes, messages and payments they work on, are processed as part of the Business's Kip account.

Who sees it. The Business that employs the staff member (its owners and managers) can see the work data and mileage. A Client sees the estimated arrival time, the live position on their tracking link while the van is on the way, and any report card or photos the staff member sends them. Kip uses the service providers listed in Section 4 to run the app. We do not sell this data and we do not use it for advertising or tracking across other apps.

How long we keep it. App data is kept while the staff member's account is active. Push tokens are removed when the person signs out or deletes their account. Photos and messages follow the Business's own retention (Section 5).

Deleting your account. In the app, open Settings and choose “Delete my account”. You can also use our account deletion page. Access is removed straight away, and your name, email address and password are removed from Kip within 30 days. If you are the only owner of a Business, deleting your account deletes the whole Business after 30 days.

Questions about the app? Email privacy@kip.co.