Trust
Two strangers, risking nothing
PetMatch brings together people who do not know each other around their animals. Everything below exists so that first meeting is as safe as meeting a neighbour, and so that anyone trying to use the app for something else has a hard time.
Fuzzy location
The map draws a circle, not a point. The real coordinate is stored encrypted and never leaves the server: what travels is “about 3 km away”.
When you publish your pet's profile we store your position, but encrypted and only on the server. What is computed for others is a point shifted by 500 to 1,500 metres — always the same shift for your pet, so it cannot be deduced by comparison — and what travels to any screen is a rounded distance: “about 3 km away”. Neither the app nor the web ever receives a coordinate. A test checks every public API response for it.Photos without a trace
Every photo is re-encoded on upload, so the GPS your phone embeds in a picture of the yard is left behind.
A photo of the yard carries the phone's GPS position inside it. Every image you upload is re-encoded on the server and that metadata is lost along the way: only the picture is served. A classifier also reviews the content, and a person reviews whatever the classifier is unsure about.Three levels of verification
Confirmed email before messaging anyone; identity reviewed by a person, with a badge on the profile; and the documents are deleted once it is resolved.
Nobody can message you without having confirmed their email. On top of that, anyone can verify their identity: a person compares the document with a selfie and, approved or rejected, the files are deleted when it is resolved. We do not archive identity documents. The pets of anyone who has verified carry a badge, so you know who you are talking to. A third level, verification by a partner clinic, is planned.Verified place
A meet-up can only be set at a public place from the directory that someone checked on a map. There is no option to type an address.
A meet-up can only be set at a public place from the directory — a park, a vet — that a moderator has checked on a map before publishing. There is no field for typing an address: a first meeting between two strangers cannot be a house call, and an open directory would be the obvious way to sneak one in.Safe check-in
Before a meet-up you can send someone you trust a link with the place and time. It expires on its own and reveals nothing else.
Before a meet-up you can generate a link for someone you trust. It opens a page with the place, the time and your display name, with no account or download. It does not show your live location, your phone or the chat; it expires on its own and the link is stored hashed. The page says what it does not do, so nobody thinks they are watching someone in real time.
What PetMatch does not do
The three things shelters and clinics ask most before recommending us.
- We do not sell animals or charge for a mating. We do not handle the money of a live animal.
- We do not put a shelter's animals on a public list: adoption filters the home before showing a profile, so nobody falls for an animal they cannot adopt.
- We do not charge twice. There is one subscription: it removes the messaging limit and raises the others. No credits or “contacts” are sold.
Frequently asked questions
What if someone asks me for a deposit up front?
It is the most common puppy scam pattern. Payments inside the chat are prohibited, the system detects the usual phrases (deposit, transfer to a personal account) and reporting is two taps away from any profile. A confirmed report suspends the account.
Can I block someone?
Yes, from the chat or the profile, and in both directions: neither of you sees the other again, in the feed or in the community.
What of my data do others see?
Your display name, your pet and an approximate distance. Never your address, email or phone. A lost-pet poster is the only page with your phone number, you publish it on purpose, and it empties as soon as you mark the pet found.
Can I delete my account and take my data?
From the account screen, without writing to anyone: export everything as a file and delete the account whenever you want.