Privacy
Last updated 23 September 2026.
This describes what the app actually does. It is deliberately not written to reserve every right we might one day want — if that changes, this page changes with it and the date above moves.
The short version. Heel has no user accounts and no analytics. Everything you log lives in a database on your phone. Two things can leave your device, both only when you choose them: still frames from a clip you submit for review, and a purchase receipt. Video files never leave your phone at all.
What stays on your device
All of it, by default. Your dog's name and details, every training session, every repetition you tap, your daily counts, your household's cue list, your notes and your answers to the safety screener are stored in a SQLite database on the phone itself.
There is no sign-up, no email address, no password and no profile on a server. The "Save your plan" step at the end of setup writes to your phone, not to us. Delete the app and that data is gone; we have no copy to delete for you and no way to restore it.
What can leave your device, and when
Still frames, if you submit a clip for review
If you film a session and ask for feedback, the app extracts a small number of still images on your phone and uploads only those. The video file itself is never uploaded, never stored by us, and never seen by anyone.
Those stills are sent to our review endpoint, which passes them to Anthropic's API to analyse your timing and mechanics. Anthropic processes them on our behalf as a service provider. If you spend a credit on human review, the same stills are also shown to a contracted trainer so they can write you a note.
Submitted stills are deleted after 7 days, or when the review completes — whichever comes first. The window is absolute: it does not wait for a reviewer to get round to it.
A purchase receipt, if you subscribe
Purchases are handled by Apple or Google and verified through RevenueCat, which tells the app whether you have paid. RevenueCat receives an anonymous identifier and the store's receipt. It does not receive your dog's data, your sessions or your name. We never see your card details — the app has no field to type them into.
What we do not collect
- No analytics, of any kind. Not a self-hosted one, not a privacy-preserving one — there is no analytics library in the app.
- No advertising identifiers and no ad networks.
- No location. When you pick "the park", that is a label on a list, not a GPS reading.
- No contacts, no microphone, no health data.
- No push tokens. Reminders are scheduled locally by your phone. Nothing is sent from a server, so nothing needs to know how to reach you.
- No crash or performance reporting that would send us your data. If the app breaks, we find out because you tell us.
Permissions, and why
| Permission | Asked for when | Used for |
|---|---|---|
| Camera | Only if you choose to film a session | Recording a clip. Stays on the phone unless you submit it. |
| Notifications | Only if you turn reminders on | Local reminders, scheduled on the device. Two a day is the hard cap. |
Decline either one and the rest of the app works. Nothing is gated behind a permission.
Children
Heel is for adults training a dog. We do not knowingly collect anything from children under 13, and since the app collects nothing about its user at all, there is nothing of a child's for us to hold.
The printable card for children in the Household section is generated on your phone from what you typed. It is not sent anywhere.
Your rights
Access, correction, deletion and portability all point at the same place: your phone. Your data is on the device, so you hold it directly. The vet report and the household cards are export features — you can take your data out at any time without asking us.
For submitted review stills, the only personal data we ever hold, the retention window deletes them automatically. If you want a submission removed sooner, write to us and we will remove it.
One thing worth saying plainly. Your answers to the safety screener — including whether your dog has ever bitten someone — never leave your phone. They change which programme the app gives you and nothing else. They are not reported to anyone, not shared with insurers or authorities, and not visible to us.
Changes
If this policy changes in a way that affects what leaves your device, the app will say so before the change applies to you. Quietly widening a privacy policy and relying on a version number is not something we are willing to do.