MINOU PRIVACY POLICY ==================== Last updated: October 16, 2026 Minou is published by Klemstudio, in Quebec, Canada. Contact: cevrard.ca@gmail.com This policy is written to be read, not to protect ourselves. If any point seems unclear to you, write to us. WHAT MINOU COLLECTS ------------------- Your account: an email address, a password (encrypted, never readable by us) and a username you choose. Your observations: the photos of cats you take, and the place and time you took them. The place is recorded exactly; what other members see of it is explained further down, in "How locations are protected". With each photo, Minou also keeps the cat's colour you tap, if you tap one. It's used to suggest cats that look alike, and says nothing about you. Your approximate area, only if you turn on alerts: a single point per registered phone, rounded to about a hundred metres, and replaced with each update. It's used for one thing only: knowing whether you're inside the circle of an alert launched near you. Minou keeps **no history of your movements** and never tracks you in the background. Your phone number, only if you enter it yourself when reporting a cat missing. During the alert, it's visible to every member who opens the cat's card, so people can reach you. It's deleted as soon as the alert ends. You can also share it with the one person who found your cat, or who thinks a cat you found is theirs: it's then shown to them for 48 hours only (see "When a cat is found"). Your neighbourhood, only if you declare it yourself. It's a neighbourhood, never an address. It's used to know how many people are watching in the same area, which decides whether an alert has a chance of succeeding. This neighbourhood **can't be read by any other member**: what comes out of Minou is always a number, never a list of people, and that number is withheld below five people so that no one is singled out. Your cat's microchip number, if you enter it. It's never shown in full: others only see the last four digits, enough for a clinic to confirm a match without the number circulating. Minou doesn't query any registry: none of them publishes owners' identities, and that's a good thing. Your cat's description, if you fill it in: their coat colour, fur, eyes, build, sex, weight, whether they're spayed or neutered, whether they have an ear tip, their collar, their distinguishing marks and how they behave with a stranger. Everything is optional, everything can be changed and everything can be cleared at any time. This information is visible to other members, and that's its only reason to exist: it's what lets a neighbour recognise your cat in the street. It says nothing about you, and only a cat's owner can write it. Whether your cat goes outside or not, if you say so. This information is used for one thing only: if you say they never go out and a neighbour photographs them outside, you're notified right away. It's visible on the card, and it's cleared if the cat changes owner. If you say a cat is no longer around, because they died or moved away, Minou keeps that information and its date; only you see the reason, others just read "no longer around". Their card leaves the map, search and the games, and stays in people's Dex. A neighbour who comes across them can still add a photo to it: you're then told, without any location. You can undo this at any time, and the mention goes away if the cat is no longer in your name. A photo from your gallery, only for your own cat's card, and only if you choose it yourself. Minou never browses your gallery: your phone lets you pick one image and sends only that one. No location is read from this photo; the place recorded is where your phone is when you add the cat, or the centre of your area if you're not at home. Everywhere else, the gallery stays closed: an observation has to come from the camera, otherwise the neighbourhood map no longer means anything. If the phone doesn't recognise a cat in that photo, a moderator looks at it before anyone else can see it, and alerts wait for that check; a clearer photo goes through right away. If you start reporting a lost cat without finishing, their photo and name stay on your phone only until you finish; they're erased if you sign out. Your bug reports, if you send one from the app. Attached, and it's written on screen before sending: the app version, your operating system and your phone model. Nothing is sent until you tap, including after a crash. A report can only be read by you and by the team: it often tells where you were. Your notifications, meaning what the app needs to tell you about: a message under your card, your cat being spotted, a dispute, a missing cat near you, a found cat that might be yours. Their content **never includes a location or a phone number**, because it's shown on a lock screen: the text of a message left under a card isn't copied into it, it's read in the app. To receive them on your phone, Minou stores a device token provided by your phone: it can only be used to send a notification, nothing else. The token and this phone's area are deleted when you tap **Turn off alerts** in Profile (since version 1.0.5), when you sign out on this phone, and along with your account. If the phone has no network when you sign out, the removal doesn't happen and this phone may still receive alerts: tap Turn off alerts first, with a network connection. The language chosen in the app (French or English) is saved with your account and your phone, so notifications and emails reach you in that language. Nobody else sees it. It's erased with the phone (when you turn off alerts) and with the account. The days you open Minou. Each time you open it, the app reports it, and Minou keeps one line per account per day: the date and your account, with no time, no location and nothing about your phone. Opening Minou ten times on the same day makes only one line. This record is used for one thing only: counting how many people use Minou and how many come back from one week to the next. These figures are totals, viewed by the team only, and they name no one. The record is deleted with your account. Minou also counts how many times the Sort screen is opened each day, as a single number, with no account or time. Your answers in Sort: whether a photo really shows a cat, whether two cards show the same cat, what colour they are, which nickname you prefer. Minou keeps them so it doesn't ask you the same question twice and to count your weekly challenges. Nobody sees your answers one by one: only the result is shown (an approved photo, a colour "according to the neighbourhood", the nickname shown, and how many votes each suggested nickname has). A photo the phone didn't recognise appears neither on the map nor in search until the neighbourhood or a moderator has approved it: only the person who took it, the sorting screen and moderation see it. Your challenges and your level are worked out from what you've already done in Minou: your photos, your answers in Sort. For the "different areas" challenge, Minou counts squares of about 200 m from your photos; only the number is shown, never a place. Your daily photo limit grows with your level. Your hearts, your "has a family" marks and your suggested nicknames on a card. Minou remembers that you added them, so you can take them back. The count is visible on the card; who added them isn't, except for the heart, whose cat's owner is notified with your username. A suggested nickname can become the name shown on the map, without your name. The decency filter runs on your phone, before anything is sent: a sexual photo is refused on the spot and is never sent. No image is sent to a third-party service for this check. Before sending, the phone may also spot a photo that looks blurry and offer to take another one. The one you keep counts like any other. WHAT YOU CAN TAKE DOWN ---------------------- Your photos. On the cat's card, tap your photo to enlarge it, then "Take my photo down": it's removed immediately, unconditionally and without asking anyone. The date and place stay in the cat's history, which belongs to the neighbourhood, but the image disappears. A card you created, with "Delete my card" at the bottom of the card, as long as no one else has added a photo to it and outside of an alert. Beyond that, it no longer belongs to you alone; your own photos, though, can always be taken down. Your declared neighbourhood, at any time, even if you've used up your three changes for the year. Your whole account, from Profile, under Settings. Your profile, your username, your messages, your alerts and your avatar are deleted. Your observations remain, without your username: they document cats that belong to the street, and deleting them would leave holes in the neighbourhood's history. What still links them to your former account is explained further down, in "Deleting your account". Photos that nothing refers to anymore are deleted after seven days, including those from cards removed by moderation. WHAT MINOU MODERATES, AND HOW ----------------------------- Moderation is done by the publisher and by volunteer members they appoint. Moderators see reported cards and photos, and photos waiting to be checked. In the moderation screens, they see neither your email address nor the username of whoever made a card or took a photo: only how many other reported cards come from the same author, and whether the account is less than seven days old. Removals and approvals are dated. Only the publisher can see which moderator removed or approved a card or a photo. When moderation takes down one of your cards or photos, you can read the reason in Profile, when the moderator gave one, without the username of whoever decided. You can block someone, on your own and immediately, without reporting or accusing anyone: you no longer see their messages, and that person can no longer write under your cards. Their cat photos, however, stay on the map: they document animals that belong to the street. Minou remembers who you've blocked, no one else sees it, and you can undo it from Profile, under Settings. A photo that shows a recognisable person is removed as soon as a single person reports it, or, when that report isn't enough on its own, shown first to moderation. The threshold is deliberately lower than for everything else: a card hidden by mistake can be restored, a photo that circulates can't be taken back. It doesn't count against its author: framing too wide is a slip, not malice. Names and messages go through a vocabulary filter, and other removals require the agreement of several neighbours. A person who is reported several times has their cards go through the neighbourhood's approval for a few days; they're informed of it, and it lifts on its own. No one is excluded. WHAT MINOU DOESN'T COLLECT -------------------------- No advertising, no ad trackers, no selling of data, no sharing with data brokers. Your photos aren't used to train any model. The recognition that checks there really is a cat in the photo, the one that refuses a photo where a face appears, and the decency filter run on your phone, offline. The image isn't sent anywhere for these checks, and a refused photo never leaves the device. HOW LOCATIONS ARE PROTECTED --------------------------- A real-time map of cats is also a map of the habits of the people who live there. Three protections apply, on the server side and not in the app: 1. Rounded location. Each cat is shown to within about a hundred metres: the published location is that of a square of about 100 metres, slightly offset, never the real place. Reloading the map or cross-checking several photos doesn't make it possible to find the exact location. 2. Delayed publication. An observation only appears to others after 45 minutes. Outside of an alert, it's therefore impossible to follow a cat, or the person photographing them, live. During an alert, this delay is lifted: photos of the missing cat appear right away, at their exact location if they're taken after the alert started. 3. Exact location reserved for emergencies. It only appears when an owner reports their cat missing, and only during the alert. It's then visible to all members, and only for observations made after the alert started: what was seen before stays rounded, for everyone, owner included. When the alert ends, everything goes back to rounded. One exception you should know about. If the cat was added by their owner with Add my cat (the card created from home, with a photo from their gallery), and that person is still the owner, **the cat's whole history becomes exact during the alert, for all members**: the place the card was created from, often the owner's home, and the photos neighbours had taken before the alert. If you photographed such a cat, for example from your balcony, the exact place of your photo may therefore become visible during their alert. Photos that arrived in the cat's card through a merge of duplicates stay rounded. When the alert ends, everything goes back to rounded, but what was seen during the alert may have been noted. If you report your cat missing when you're not at home, their card starts from the centre of your area, never from where you are. Once home, you can move it once to where you are: that spot then becomes their exact location, visible to everyone during the alert. Declaring yourself a cat's owner is immediate. It's announced publicly under the card, with your username, and can be disputed by someone who has photographed this cat themselves, provided they have an account at least seven days old and some experience in Minou. A dispute notifies the declared owner right away and takes effect 24 hours later. So declaring yourself the owner of a neighbour's cat never gives access to where that cat, and that neighbour, live. WHEN AN ALERT IS LAUNCHED ------------------------- The owner who reports their cat missing can attach a message and their phone number to the alert. During the alert, this message and this number are visible to every member who opens the cat's card. The number is deleted as soon as the alert ends. An alert stays open as long as its owner is still looking: Minou asks them after five days. If the owner doesn't confirm and doesn't open the app for seven days, it closes on its own. Everything is rounded again and the phone number is erased. Neighbours are notified. Each member who has turned on alerts, and whose registered area is inside the alert's circle, receives a notification, up to 300 people per alert, closest first. The circle is drawn around the cat's rounded location, never the exact place. The notification only says "A cat went missing in your area": not the cat's name, not their location, not the number, not the owner's username. Tapping it opens the cat's card, where the rules on this page apply. Except in a few cases, to avoid false alerts. Neighbours aren't notified if the account launching the alert is less than seven days old, except for a cat this person added with Add my cat; nor if the card is hidden or awaiting the neighbourhood's confirmation; nor if this account is temporarily muted after reports. The alert is still launched: the card turns red and the rules above apply. The owner never sees who was notified. Minou keeps, on the server side only, who was notified of which alert, so as not to disturb anyone twice: a person isn't notified more than once for the same cat in seven days, nor more than twice a day and four times a week, across all alerts. WHEN A CAT IS FOUND ------------------- If you let the owner of a cat you found know (or, for a cat with no owner, the person who added their card). Minou keeps the photo, the date and which account was notified, with no location at all, for 30 days, then deletes them; the photo is then removed like any photo nothing refers to any more. The person notified gets a notification that gives neither where the cat is, nor your username, nor any number. In the app, they see your username, the photo and its date, and where it applies, that your account is less than seven days old or that the photo is identical to one already posted of this cat. If the owner confirms it's their cat and choose to share their phone number with you, that number is shown to you alone, for 48 hours, then deleted; it's deleted immediately if the owner blocks you. Unlike the number on an alert, no one else can see it. If you publish the card of a cat you found. If you took them in at home, the card starts from the centre of the area you declared, never from your home; found outside, their location is rounded and published with the usual delay, like any photo. The colour and the short note you add ("shy, blue collar") are visible to everyone on the card. The search for their family stops by itself after 30 days: the card then stays like any neighbourhood cat's. It's taken down if you say they found their family or went to a shelter, and two days after you confirm "That's them" to the person claiming them. If you think you recognise your cat. "It's my cat" sends your photo of the cat to the person who found them, with your phone number if you choose to give it. That number is shown to them alone, for 48 hours, then deleted, and immediately if they block you. The photo and the date are kept for 30 days, with no location at all. If your cat is on alert and a cat is found nearby. When the card of a found cat is published inside your alert's circle, you're told. The check goes from one rounded point to another, never from an exact spot, and the notice goes out at the earliest 45 minutes after the card is published, never live: so it can't say where someone is right now. The notification contains no location, no number and no username: only your cat's name. To prevent abuse, it only goes out for a photo the phone recognised, published by an account more than seven days old, with a colour that doesn't contradict your cat's, and whose photo isn't a copy of a photo of your cat; and within the same limits as the alert to neighbours: once per card and per cat, at most twice per 24 hours and four times a week. Minou keeps, on the server only, which card you were told about, so as not to disturb you twice. During your alert, you also see the found cats' cards inside your circle, at their rounded location. WHO CAN SEE WHAT ---------------- You need an account to view the map and the cards. Only a photo's file can be opened without an account, by someone who knows its exact address. Other members see your cat photos, your username and your messages. They never see your email address or your alert area. The exact place of your photos only appears to them in the cases described above, during an alert. WHERE THE DATA IS ----------------- With Supabase, on servers located in Canada (region ca-central-1). Notifications go through Expo's service, then through Google's Firebase Cloud Messaging on Android and through Apple's notification service on iPhone. Base maps are provided by Google Maps on Android and by Apple Maps on iPhone. Cat recognition and face detection use ML Kit, a Google library that runs on your phone: no photo is sent to it. Like the Google Maps module on Android, it sends Google technical data about its own operation (information about the device, an identifier specific to the installation, performance metrics and errors), described by Google in its pages on ML Kit and on Google Maps. The emails Minou sends you (confirming your address, a new password) go out through Gmail, from the contact address above. Google keeps a copy as it does for any email sent; they never contain your password. The neighbourhoods offered cover Quebec, the rest of Canada and France. Everywhere, the same rules: never an address, never a list of people, a number withheld below five people. The appminou.com website sets no cookies and uses no audience measurement tools. Its home page shows totals from Minou (the number of cats, photos, towns and neighbourhoods), which don't identify anyone. As with any website, Hostinger, which serves the pages, and Supabase, which provides those totals, receive the visitor's IP address and keep it for a few days in their technical logs. Minou doesn't use it and records nothing linked to that address. HOW LONG -------- Your data stays as long as your account exists, except as stated above: an alert's phone number is deleted when the alert ends, and a phone's token and area when you turn off alerts or sign out with a network connection. Anything about a found cat (photo, date, number) follows the durations in "When a cat is found": 48 hours for a number, 30 days for the rest. DELETING YOUR ACCOUNT --------------------- From the app: Profile, then Settings at the very bottom, then Delete my account. It's immediate and permanent. In older versions of the app, the button is directly at the bottom of Profile. Deleted: your account, your email, your username, your messages, your alerts, your notification tokens, the app's language, your area, your hearts and your votes, what you sent or received about a found cat (attached photos, numbers), and the record of the days you opened the app. Kept, without your username: cat photos and their observations. They become the neighbourhood's memory, and cards show "a former member" instead of your username. A cat you had declared as yours becomes a neighbourhood cat again. What still links them to your former account, stated plainly. The address of each photo file contains your account's internal identifier, a string of numbers and letters that isn't your username. Once the account is deleted, this identifier no longer leads to any username or email address in Minou. But someone who had noted it before the deletion could still group your former photos and their dates together. If you'd like your photos removed, write to us at cevrard.ca@gmail.com and we'll delete them. Also remaining, with no link to your account: the text of the bug reports you sent, and the nicknames you suggested for a cat. Notifications already received by other members, for example a heart with your username, remain in their history. Finally, database backups made before the deletion may still contain your data: they're only used to restore Minou after an outage. YOUR RIGHTS ----------- Quebec's Law 25 gives you the right to access your personal information, to correct it, to have it deleted and to obtain a copy of it. Write to cevrard.ca@gmail.com, we reply within 30 days. Elsewhere in Canada and in France, the personal information protection law that applies where you live gives you similar rights, and they're exercised at the same address. In France, you can also contact the CNIL. MINIMUM AGE ----------- Minou is reserved for people 14 years of age and older. By creating an account, you confirm you're at least 14. If you think a younger person is using Minou, write to us. CHANGES ------- Any significant change will be announced in the app before it takes effect.