Privacy Policy

Last updated: August 20, 2026

SittersBot ("we", "us", "our") is a Telegram Mini App that connects pet owners with pet sitters. This Privacy Policy describes how we collect, use, and protect your information when you use our service.

1. Information We Collect

When you use SittersBot, we collect the following information provided through the Telegram Mini App platform:

Telegram Profile Data: Your Telegram user ID, first name, last name, username, profile photo URL, and language preference — as provided by the Telegram Mini App SDK.
Profile Information: Name, surname, city, country, description, photos, languages spoken, pricing, cancellation policy, social media links, and pet names that you voluntarily provide.
Booking Data: Booking dates, pet descriptions, messages between clients and sitters, and booking status.
Review Data: Ratings, review text, and replies you submit.
Payment Data: We do not store payment card details. Payments are processed through Telegram Stars or third-party payment providers (Stripe, EcommPay). We only store transaction references and subscription status.
Calendar Data: If you choose to connect Google Calendar or Apple Calendar, we access the events in the calendar you select for the sole purpose of creating and updating your pet sitting booking events and detecting scheduling conflicts. We request the narrowest scope needed for this (calendar.events) and no other Google scope. We do not request or access Google Photos, Gmail, Drive, Contacts, or any other Google service.

2. How We Use Your Information

To provide and operate the pet sitting matching service
To display your profile to other users (sitters or clients)
To facilitate bookings and communication between users
To process subscriptions and payments
To sync bookings with external calendars (when connected)
To display reviews and ratings
To send notifications about booking status changes via Telegram bot

3. Data Sharing

We do not sell your personal data. Your information may be shared in the following limited circumstances:

Between Users: Your public profile (name, city, description, photos, rating) is visible to other users of the platform. Your Telegram username may be shared with users you have active bookings with.
Payment Providers: Transaction data is shared with Telegram (for Stars payments) or third-party payment processors as necessary to complete payments.
Calendar Providers: When you connect your calendar, your own SittersBot booking events are written to your own calendar at Google or Apple. Nothing is shared with any other party.
AI Assistant Clients (optional, opt-in): If you choose to connect an AI assistant to your own account via our Model Context Protocol (MCP) endpoint, your own account data is returned to the client you authorized, at your request. Content of your Google Calendar events is never included. See sections 7 and 8.

4. Data Storage and Security

Your data is stored on secure servers. We use encryption in transit (HTTPS/TLS) for all communications. OAuth tokens for calendar integrations are stored encrypted. We retain your data for as long as your account is active.

5. Your Rights

Access & Correction: You can view and edit your profile at any time through the Mini App.
Deletion: You can request deletion of your account and data by contacting us. Deleting your Telegram account will also remove your data from our system.
Calendar Disconnect: You can disconnect your calendar at any time, which revokes our access and removes stored calendar tokens.
Profile Visibility: You can hide your profile from search results using the "Hide me" feature.

6. Third-Party Services

SittersBot operates as a Telegram Mini App and is subject to Telegram's Privacy Policy for Third-Party Apps. We also use:

Google Calendar API — governed by Google's Privacy Policy
Apple CalDAV — credentials are stored encrypted and used only for calendar sync

7. Google User Data

This section describes exactly how SittersBot handles data received from Google APIs. It applies in addition to, and takes precedence over, the general statements above.

What we access. Only the Google Calendar scope calendar.events, and only for the calendar you select, and only after you explicitly connect your calendar. Connecting a calendar is optional; the app is fully usable without it.

What we use it for. Google Calendar data is used exclusively to provide and improve the user-facing calendar features you asked for, namely:

creating, updating, and removing your SittersBot booking events in your calendar;
detecting scheduling conflicts for your bookings;
computing your availability (free and busy time windows) shown in the app.

What we never do with it. We do not use, transfer, or sell Google user data — raw, aggregated, anonymized, or derived — for any purpose other than providing or improving those user-facing features. Specifically, Google user data is never used for:

advertising, marketing, remarketing, or audience building of any kind;
profiling, scoring, credit assessment, or lead generation;
analytics, statistics, or product research;
creating, training, or improving any foundational or generalized machine learning or artificial intelligence model;
sale or transfer to data brokers, information resellers, or any other third party.

Human access. No human reads your Google Calendar data. Access by our staff occurs only with your explicit prior consent for a specific issue you have reported, where necessary for security purposes such as investigating abuse, or where required by applicable law.

Storage, retention, and deletion. We do not copy or retain your Google Calendar events. Events are read on demand to answer the request you made and are not persisted. We store only your OAuth tokens (encrypted) and the identifiers needed to keep your SittersBot booking events in sync. When you disconnect your calendar, or delete your account, or withdraw consent, those tokens and identifiers are deleted and our access ends. You may also revoke access at any time at myaccount.google.com/permissions.

Limited Use. SittersBot's use and transfer of information received from Google APIs to any other app will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

8. AI Assistants

SittersBot does not call, embed, or transmit data to any third-party AI/ML model provider, aggregator, gateway, or model hub, and does not operate any self-hosted or offline model. No Google user data is used to create, train, or improve any AI or machine learning model.

SittersBot offers an optional Model Context Protocol (MCP) endpoint so that you may connect an AI assistant client of your own choosing to your own account. This connection is off by default and requires your explicit authorization. When you enable it:

Only data belonging to your authenticated account is returned, scoped by your own authorization.
Calendar credentials and OAuth tokens are never exposed through this endpoint.
Content of your Google or Apple calendar events — event titles, descriptions, and identifiers — is never exposed through this endpoint. Calendar-derived output is limited to coarse availability information (busy time windows, scheduling conflicts, and free slots) computed on our servers.
We do not store, aggregate, or reuse this output for any modeling, analytics, or training purpose.
The AI assistant client is operated by you and by its own provider; its handling of the data it receives is governed by that provider's terms. You can revoke the connection at any time.

9. Children's Privacy

SittersBot is not intended for use by individuals under the age of 16. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children.

10. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify users of significant changes through the Telegram bot.

11. Contact Us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or wish to exercise your data rights, please contact us through @PetSitterAssistantBot on Telegram.