Orma
← Back to home

Privacy Policy

Last updated: September 2026.

Orma ("we") respects your privacy. This policy explains what data we collect, why, and what your rights are, under Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (GDPR).

1. Data controller

The data controller is Nicholas Iacoviello (an individual who runs Orma, Italy). For any request: info@orma.pet (certified digital address, PEC: info@pec.orma.pet).

2. Data we collect

  • Account: display name, email and (optional) phone number; the country and year of birth you declare when you register (see MINORS); the app language, so that we can write to you in your language.
  • Location: see LOCATION: APPROXIMATE OR EXACT.
  • Content: reports, photos, sightings, messages and adoption listings. In adoption listings, also the microchip number (required for dogs, cats and ferrets offered for adoption by private individuals) and your statement about the veterinary health certificate: the number is visible only to whoever published the listing, the other members of their organisation and the administrators; everyone else only sees “Microchip number provided”.
  • Dangers and confirmations: the danger reports you make (type, photos, exact location, description) and your answers to “Still there?” (yes, no or not sure, with the date and time).
  • Pets and health record: your pets' profiles, the health record entries (vaccinations, treatments, visits, documents) and the reminders. For the vaccination plan, also how the animal lives (whether it travels, goes to boarding or day care, goes outdoors, whether you live in an area with a vaccination requirement) and the diseases you marked “Not for us”. The vet's number you enter in “Did they eat something?” stays only on your phone.
  • People who manage a pet with you: if you invite someone to manage one of your pets, they can see and edit its profile, health record and reminders, and they receive the reminders too.
  • Invite code: if someone signs up with your code (from a link, a message or the QR code on an Orma sign), we link their account to yours to count the invitation.
  • App usage: when you open Orma with your account we record that you used it that day. Only your identifier and the date: not the time, not the screens, not the device or the location. We use it to count how many people use Orma and how many come back; to understand which features are useful we compare this data, only as totals, with the use of the health record and reminders. It stays on our servers in the European Union and we do not share it with anyone. You can object: see YOUR RIGHTS.
  • The morning walk, personal links and the stories you propose, if you use them: see the dedicated sections.
  • Private mistreatment reports made with the in-app form: text, photos, place and contact details (see DANGER REPORTS AND THIRD-PARTY DATA).
  • Technical and usage data: IP address, device model, operating system and error logs (via Firebase Crashlytics), used only to diagnose technical problems, ensure security and prevent abuse; device identifier for push notifications.

3. Location: approximate or exact

For lost, seen, found or abandoned animals, the location shown on the public map is APPROXIMATE (blurred by about 150 metres) to protect your privacy. For DANGERS (suspicious baits, snares or traps, glass or nails, processionary caterpillars and the other types) the location is instead shown EXACTLY: this is so that others can avoid the spot. Reports of suspected MISTREATMENT are PRIVATE: only you and the moderators can see them, never other users and never on the map.

  • Area alerts: while “Alert me about nearby lost pets” is on (it is on by default), we save your phone's last location on your profile, so that we know whom to alert when an animal goes missing nearby. It stays there until it is updated or you delete your account.
  • Morning walk: your walk area is rounded to about 1 km, never your home address. We store it on our servers only if you turn on the notification (see THE MORNING WALK AND THE WEATHER).
  • “Still there?”: so that you can answer, the app sends your walk area or your phone's location rounded to about 1 km, only to check that you are within 2 km of the danger. We do not store this point. If your profile holds the location saved for area alerts, we also use that.
  • Photos: before uploading photos of reports, sightings, pets and chats, the app removes the hidden data in the file, such as the GPS location and the phone model. Photos uploaded with earlier versions may still contain it: write to info@orma.pet and we will clean them.

4. Danger reports and third-party data

Photos may unintentionally show people, faces, number plates or homes. Danger reports, private mistreatment reports and the file for the authorities exist ONLY to protect animals and must NOT contain images or text that make people, vehicles (number plates) or private property identifiable. For the file and for stories the app has you crop every photo, to leave out faces and number plates.

Orma is not a judicial authority. If a public report contains third parties' personal data or direct accusations, it is removed and the data deleted. Private mistreatment reports made with the in-app form describe facts that may concern other people: only the moderators read them, we never publish them and, where needed, we forward them to the competent authority. In the app you can see their status: received, under review, forwarded, closed. The file for the authorities, on the other hand, never reaches us: see THE FILE FOR THE AUTHORITIES.

To report a crime, contact the police. You may ask us to remove a photo at any time.

5. Purposes and legal bases

We process your data only where we have a legal basis (Art. 6 GDPR):

  • Performance of the contract (Art. 6(1)(b)): creating your account; using the map; publishing reports, dangers and adoption listings (outside Italy, the microchip is an Orma rule); answering “Still there?”; exchanging messages; managing pets, health record, vaccination plan and reminders, including with the people who manage them with you; the morning walk card; counting invitations; creating your personal link when you share a report.
  • Consent (Art. 6(1)(a)), which you can withdraw at any time without losing the rest of the app: access to your device's GPS location (in your phone settings); sending push notifications; the morning walk notification (you turn it off in the walk settings, and the area and time saved for the notification are deleted immediately); publishing a story you propose to us (you withdraw it, or ask us to take it down, from the report's page).
  • Legitimate interest (Art. 6(1)(f)): app security; preventing fraud, spam and abuse, including in points; diagnosing malfunctions through technical data; defending a legal claim; reviewing private mistreatment reports and, where needed, forwarding them to the competent authority; understanding whether Orma is useful, with the minimum of data: the usage counter (only the day), the morning walk log and the number of times personal links are opened; keeping proof of the consent to a published story. You can object: see YOUR RIGHTS.
  • Legal obligation (Art. 6(1)(c)): responding to binding requests from authorities; in Italy, keeping available to the authorities the microchip number in listings that give away an animal (Legislative Decree 135/2022, Art. 11).

6. Retention

We keep account data for as long as the account is active. For everything else:

  • Public reports: lost and found animals expire after 90 days. Dangers expire after a time that depends on the type, from 3 days (wild boar) to 45 (processionary caterpillars); confirmations from passers-by extend them up to a maximum, also depending on the type, from 7 to 90 days, and two “No, not anymore” answers from different people, or the person who reported it, remove them earlier. Once expired or closed, they leave the map and are archived.
  • Days of app use and answers to “Still there?”: 13 months.
  • Morning walk: area, time, country and options for as long as the notification is on (turning it off deletes them immediately); the notification log for 13 months, including after you turn it off; walk notifications disappear from the notification list after 2 days.
  • Personal links: 90 days after the report is closed or expires; by the following day at the latest if the report or your account is deleted.
  • Proposed stories: the photos while the proposal is open, then they are deleted within 7 days (if the story is chosen, after we have copied them into the story); the text 30 days after the decision; the name you chose 30 days after the decision or, if the story is published, for as long as it is; the proof of consent for as long as the story is published, then 90 days. A proposal with no answer after 90 days is closed.
  • Published morning stories: for as long as we keep them, or until the people who told them ask us to take them down.
  • Private mistreatment reports: until the account is deleted.
  • File for the authorities: only on your phone, until you delete it.

You can delete your account at any time from Profile → Delete account: your profile and your content (reports, sightings, messages, photos, the pets you own with their health record, device tokens) are permanently deleted, and with them your days of app use, your answers to “Still there?”, your morning walk subscription and log, your personal links and the stories that came from your proposals. We keep only the minimum that the law may require.

How to delete your account, and what is deleted: see the Account and data deletion page.

7. Sharing and transfers

We do not sell your data.

What others can see: your display name; the content of your public reports, including on the orma.pet page that opens from a report's link; how many people have confirmed a danger, never who; on the Leaderboard, your display name and your points. People who manage a pet with you see its profile, health record and reminders. Morning stories are public: in the app, on orma.pet and in the “Send a good morning” image, which anyone can forward.

We rely on providers that process data on our behalf: Supabase (database and storage, EU servers in Stockholm), Firebase/Google (push notifications and crash reports), sign-in with a Google, Apple or Facebook account (they receive your email and name during sign-in) and Aruba (sending confirmation and invitation emails).

The app also queries some public services, directly from your phone. They receive only what they need to answer, plus your phone's IP address like any online service, and no data from your account; they process it under their own rules:

  • OpenStreetMap and OpenFreeMap (maps) and Overpass (nearby vets and shelters): the area you are looking at or searching in;
  • Nominatim (OpenStreetMap): the place you search for by name; your walk area, already rounded to about 1 km, to show you its name; the location of the file for the authorities, only if you tap “Look up the address from the location”; the public location of a report, when you create its flyer;
  • Open-Meteo (the walk weather): your walk area rounded to about 10 km.

Some providers (e.g. Google/Firebase) may transfer data outside the European Economic Area (e.g. to the United States): where this happens, the transfer is covered by adherence to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework or by Standard Contractual Clauses approved by the European Commission. We may disclose data to authorities where the law requires it, and forward a private mistreatment report to the competent authority.

8. Your rights

You have the right to access, rectify and erase your data, to restrict or object to processing, and to data portability. You can exercise these rights in the app or by writing to info@orma.pet. In particular:

  • you can object to the usage counter, the morning walk log and the counting of your personal links: write to us, and from then on we stop counting you and delete what we had recorded (for the walk log, also turn off the notification: while it is on, the log is what makes sure you get only one a day);
  • you can withdraw your consents at any time: location and notifications in your phone settings, the walk notification in its settings, a proposed story from the report's page. Withdrawal applies from that moment and does not affect what happened before: for example, good-morning images already forwarded by others.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the supervisory authority of the country where you live or work (Art. 77 GDPR); in Italy this is the Garante per la protezione dei dati personali.

9. Minors

Orma is accessible from the minimum age laid down by the law of the country where you live. When you register we ask for the country and the year of birth, and we do not open an account for anyone who declares a lower age. We keep the country, the year declared and the date of the declaration, and nothing else, for the sole purpose of applying this threshold. We do not use age verification systems that involve collecting identity documents or biometric data. If it comes to our knowledge that an account belongs to a person below that age, we close it and delete the data linked to it.

10. The morning walk and the weather

The morning walk is optional.

  • The “Your walk” card: your walk time and area, rounded to about 1 km, stay on your phone. To show you nearby dangers and lost animals, the app sends the area to our servers, which answer without storing it. To give it a name, the app sends it, already rounded, to Nominatim (OpenStreetMap). For the walk weather it sends it, rounded to about 10 km, to Open-Meteo, which also sees your phone's IP address but no data from your account; the forecast is downloaded at most once an hour and kept on your phone. Seasonal tips are chosen according to the species of your pets and, for some tips, your phone's country.
  • The morning notification, only if you answer “Yes, notify me”: we store your area rounded to about 1 km, your walk time, the difference between your phone's time zone and Italian time, your phone's country, your choices (“Only when there's something new”, the pause) and your consent, with the version of the text and the date. If you turn the notification off, this data is deleted immediately.
  • The notification log: for each day we keep which notification was sent (or that nothing was sent), how many new items there were and three yes-or-no answers: whether you saw the card that day, whether you opened the notification, whether you read it. Never the time. We keep it for 13 months, including after you turn the notification off, to send only one notification a day and to understand whether it is useful. When someone turns the notification off we only count that it happened, not who did it.
  • Legal bases: for the notification, your consent, which you withdraw by turning it off; for the card, the performance of the contract (Art. 6(1)(b)), because it is a feature you choose to use; for the log, our legitimate interest (Art. 6(1)(f)), to which you can object (see YOUR RIGHTS).

11. The file for the authorities (mistreatment)

In Italy, for suspected mistreatment, the app helps you prepare a file for the authorities: photos, place, date and time, your answers, the recipient and the details of the person signing it (first name, surname, contact details, town).

  • The file stays on your phone: Orma does not receive it, does not keep it and does not forward it. You send it yourself, from your own email, to the authority you choose, and from then on it is handled by whoever receives it.
  • Photos go into the file without the hidden data in the image file; the app reads the date the photo was taken from the photo itself, on the phone.
  • Only if you tap “Look up the address from the location” is the location sent to Nominatim (OpenStreetMap) to find the address.
  • The reminders at 7 and 21 days are phone notifications: the date never reaches our servers.
  • The file is included in your phone's backup (iCloud, Google), if you have it turned on, just like your photos.
  • You delete it with “Delete from the phone”. Another account on the same phone cannot see it. If you delete your account, it is deleted from the phone you delete the account from.
  • Outside Italy, the usual private form remains: see DANGER REPORTS AND THIRD-PARTY DATA.

12. Stories and shared links

  • Morning stories. Every day we publish a true story about animals, with the permission of the people who lived it and without other people's faces or number plates. Some are proposed by users, with their recorded consent (see below). We note down the permission and never publish it. If a story is about you and you want us to take it down, write to info@orma.pet.
  • Personal links. When you share a lost or abandoned animal, the link contains a code that is yours alone. We store the code, the report and your account, and we count how many times the link is opened, from the web page or from the app. In our database we store nothing about the people who open it: not their IP address, not the time, not the device; and for this count we use no cookies or other data in the browser. As with any request, the database's technical logs, which Supabase keeps on our behalf, hold the IP address and the time for a few days; GitHub and Cloudflare, which serve the website, receive the IP address of whoever opens the page and process it under their own rules. You can see your link's number; whoever published the report can see how many people shared it this way and how many times those links have been opened in total, never who. If the report has a happy ending and your link was opened, we send you a thank-you, if you have turned on “Updates on your reports”.
  • Proposed stories (“Tell us how it ended”). If you tell us how it ended, we keep the text, up to 2 photos (cropped and without the hidden data in the image file), the name you choose to show and your consent, with the version of the text, the language, the date and the time. It stays private, visible only to you and the administrators, until we choose it. If we choose it, we publish it as a morning story, possibly shortened or translated: in the app, on orma.pet and in the “Send a good morning” image, which whoever receives it can forward. You can withdraw it before it comes out and ask us to take it down afterwards: it disappears from the app and the website immediately, and the photos are deleted within 7 days. We cannot recall images already forwarded by others. If you delete your account, we also take down the story that came from your proposal. Legal basis: your consent (Art. 6(1)(a)).

13. The orma.pet website

The orma.pet website is hosted on GitHub Pages and uses no cookies: it only remembers, for the length of your visit, that it has already taken you to your language. To count visits it uses Cloudflare Web Analytics, without cookies and without profiling you: we only see totals. As with any website, GitHub and Cloudflare receive your browser's IP address in order to serve the page and process it under their own rules.

Some pages request data directly from our database (Supabase), which also receives the IP address: a report's page (/pet), a pet's tag (/t), the Map and the morning story (/b). The Map, if you tap the button, uses your device's location to centre itself and sends it to our database only to look for reports within 25 km: we do not store it. Maps are loaded from OpenStreetMap and OpenFreeMap.

If you open a report from a personal link (with “o=” in the address), we count it after the page has been visible for 2 seconds: only the link's code reaches our database. In our database we do not store your IP address, the time or the device, and for this count we use no cookies or browser storage. As with any request, the database's technical logs, which Supabase keeps on our behalf, hold the IP address and the time for a few days.

The Orma app contains no advertising and no ad tracking. We do not sell your data to anyone.

14. Changes

We may update this policy; we will notify you in the app of any significant changes.