How we handle your data

If you create an account

We store your email address, and anything you choose to add: your pets' names, species, breed, age, and ZIP code, and the estimates you upload. This information is tied to your account, visible to you in your dashboard, and not part of the shared, de-identified pricing data described below.

Decoding without an account

You can decode one estimate without signing up. When you do, we don't create an account or store your name. Instead, we set a single secure, httpOnly cookie in your browser that acts as a private key — only the browser that uploaded the estimate can view its result. We also record the IP address of the request, used for one thing only: a limit of three anonymous decodes per day, to prevent abuse. It isn't tied to any identity or profile.

If you then create an account from that result, the estimate is attached to your new account and behaves like any estimate you'd uploaded while signed in. If you don't, it stays reachable only from that one browser, through that cookie.

When you upload an estimate

The photo or PDF you upload is sent to Google's Gemini API to read and extract the line items — that's how we turn a scanned estimate into a structured breakdown. We also store the file, the clinic name as you typed or it appears on the document, and the ZIP code you provide, attached to your account.

Your choice: sharing data to improve regional pricing

On the upload screen, you'll see a checkbox, checked by default, with this exact wording:

"Help other pet owners — let FairVet use this estimate (with all personal info removed) to improve fair-price data."

If you leave it checked, a de-identified version of your estimate's line items is added to our regional benchmark dataset — the data behind our typical price ranges (see our Methodology page for how that's calculated). If you uncheck it, that estimate is never added to the shared dataset, and you can still use FairVet's analysis of your own estimate either way.

Before anything from your estimate joins that shared pool, we strip your name, your pet's name, the clinic's name, your exact address, and your account identity entirely. What's left, and all that ever travels into the shared dataset, is: a rough region (roughly the first three digits of your ZIP code, never your full ZIP), the standardized name of the procedure, the dollar amount, and a category describing how typical that line item is. There is no way to trace a benchmark data point back to your account, your estimate, or your clinic.

Our automated de-identification and redaction tools are designed to remove personal identifying information before anything is displayed publicly, but we do not guarantee they are complete or error-free. In rare cases, due to unusual document formats, handwriting, or other factors, residual personal information could remain visible in a publicly displayed benchmark data point, share card, or redacted document. If you believe something publicly displayed on FairVet contains your personal information, contact privacy@fairvethq.com and we will remove or re-redact it promptly.

Matching your bill to a clinic

Separately from that de-identified benchmark pool, we also try to match your estimate to a specific clinic's listing, using the clinic name and region. When there's a confident match, that bill is counted — only ever in aggregate — toward that clinic's public Fair Price Score and its estimate-match rate (how often final bills land near the estimate), and to confirm that a review of the clinic comes from someone who genuinely has a bill from it. We never publish an individual bill, an amount tied to a person, or any link between a reviewer and their estimate — only the combined, clinic-level figures.

Medication pricing data

If your estimate includes a medication we don't already recognize in our price database, and you've left the checkbox above checked, we record just the medication's name as written and the price you were charged, so we can research and add it to our public medication price comparisons. This is governed by the same checkbox as the benchmark data above — if you uncheck it, neither your benchmark data nor any unmatched medication data from that estimate is collected. Either way, it never includes your name, your pet, your clinic, or anything that identifies your account.

Reviews you write

You can review a clinic only after you have a decoded bill matched to it, so every review is tied to a verified visit. Reviews are public: the star rating, the structured chips you pick (wait time, and whether the final cost came in lower, as estimated, or higher), your optional written comment, and any public response the clinic writes back. The underlying bill itself — its line items, the amount, your identity, and the estimate it came from — is never shown publicly.

Payments

If you subscribe to a paid plan, payment is processed by Stripe. FairVet does not receive or store your full card number.

Service providers

A few trusted companies help run FairVet, and we share only what each needs to do its job:

• Stripe — processes payments.
• Google Gemini — reads and extracts the line items from an estimate you upload.
• Resend — sends transactional email, such as account and follow-up messages.
• Supabase — hosts our database and handles account sign-in.
• Vercel — hosts the website.

Cookies

FairVet uses cookies only to make the product work: a session cookie that keeps you signed in when you have an account, and the single anonymous-estimate cookie described above that lets your browser view a result you decoded without signing up. We don't use third-party advertising or ad-tracking cookies.

Other data we collect

A few small, de-identified signals help us run and improve the site — none of them tied to your identity:

• Counts of profile views and "call clinic" clicks on a clinic's public page, so clinics can see interest. These record what happened, never who did it.
• When you follow an outbound affiliate link (for example, an insurer's "Get a quote"), we log that the click happened, with no personal data attached.
• The share card image generated when you share a result contains only aggregate figures — never a clinic name, your pet, or anything identifying you.
• Our hosting provider passes along an approximate region for your request, which we use only to localize the homepage (for example, showing nearby clinics). We don't store it with your account.

We do not sell your personal information

We don't sell your personal information, and we don't share it with advertisers. The aggregate, de-identified pricing data described above is the only data we make broadly available, and by design it can't be traced back to you.

Accessing, correcting, or deleting your data

To ask what data we have about your account, correct it, or request deletion, email us at privacy@fairvethq.com.

We keep the estimates and files you upload until you delete them or close your account.

Changes to this page

If how we handle data changes in a meaningful way, we'll update this page and change the way our upload consent is presented to reflect it.