Privacy Policy

Shelter Focus ("we", "us", "the app") is a volunteer management platform built for animal shelters. Each shelter operates its own private instance of the app. This policy explains what data we collect, how we use it, and the choices you have.

When you use Shelter Focus, we collect:

• Account information — name, email address, phone number (optional), password (stored as a bcrypt hash — never in plain text).
• Volunteer activity — shifts you sign up for, check-in / check-out times, hours logged, dogs walked, cats handled, and completion notes.
• Issue reports — description, severity, animal referenced, and any photo you attach.
• Communication — messages posted to your shelter's bulletin board.
• Technical data — login timestamps, IP address for failed-login lockout, and standard server logs.

We do not collect location tracking, contact lists, device identifiers for advertising, or any biometric data.

• To operate the app — schedule shifts, count hours, deliver bulletins, route issue reports to shelter staff.
• To keep your account secure — password hashing, brute-force lockout, and session tokens stored in secure HttpOnly cookies.
• To send transactional email — welcome / launch emails, password reset links, and issue-report notifications to admins. Delivered via Resend.
• To sync with third-party tools your shelter has connected — Galaxy Digital (volunteer roster and lifetime hours) and ShelterLuv (currently-available animals). No data is sent to these services beyond what's needed to look up records.

We never sell your data, never share it with advertisers, and never use it to train external AI models.

Your data is visible only inside your shelter's Shelter Focus instance. Admins at your shelter can see your name, email, phone (if provided), hours, shifts, and any issue reports you file. Other volunteers can see limited public info (name, hours, dogs walked) via the bulletin board and shelter roster views.

We use these processors to deliver the service: Resend (transactional email), Emergent Object Storage (photo hosting for issue reports), and MongoDB Atlas (data storage). Each is bound by industry-standard data-processing agreements.

We keep your account and activity records as long as you have an active volunteer account with your shelter. If a shelter admin removes you from the roster, your signups and dog-walk records are deleted immediately. You may request full deletion of your account by emailing us or asking your shelter's admin to remove you.

• Access — view your data in the Profile tab of the app.
• Correction — update your name, email, or phone through the app or by asking your admin.
• Deletion — ask your admin, or email us directly, and we will remove your record and associated activity.
• Portability — your shelter can export your volunteer hours as a Galaxy Digital-compatible CSV at any time.

Shelter Focus is intended for volunteers age 13 and older. If your shelter allows younger volunteers, a parent or guardian must create and manage the account. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13.

Passwords are hashed with bcrypt. Session tokens are stored in HttpOnly, Secure, SameSite cookies — never in browser storage. All traffic runs over HTTPS. Photos uploaded to issue reports are stored in access-controlled object storage; only signed-in admins can view them.

If we make material changes, we'll update this page and notify volunteers via bulletin or email. Continued use of the app after a change means you accept the updated policy.

Questions or requests? Email hello@shelterfocus.app.