Are QR code pet tags safe? What a stranger sees

• Your pet’s name and photo, so they know they have the right animal.
• Anything you’ve written for them: medication, allergies, “nervous with strangers”.
• A clear “reported missing” banner if you’ve turned on lost mode.
• A form to message you, which works even when your number is hidden.
• Your phone number or email only if you’ve chosen to show them.

• Your home address.
• Your account, your other pets or your order history.
• Where your pet is, or where it has been: the tag is 3D-printed plastic, with no battery, chip or GPS inside.
• Your phone number or email, unless you switched those on.

An engraved tag shows everything it says to everyone who gets close enough to read it, and a photo of the tag is enough. That usually means your surname, your house number and your postcode, on a collar your pet wears down the street every day.

In the UK you still need those details on a dog in a public place, so this isn’t a reason to take the engraved tag off. It’s a reason not to add your phone number, your full name and your street to it as well, when a QR tag can carry them privately instead.

No. A QR code is a printed pattern, like a barcode. It can’t report a position, and there’s nothing in it to follow. Somebody has to choose to scan the tag itself, usually with your pet in front of them, and they see only what you’ve chosen to show.

When a tag is scanned, we email you with the rough area it was scanned in, and the finder can share where they are if they want to. That comes from them, not from the tag. If you want live tracking, that’s a GPS collar tracker, which needs charging and usually a monthly fee.

Somebody scanning a tag on a pet they’ve found is exactly what it’s for, and they see only what you chose. If you’d rather a stranger didn’t know your pet’s name, leave the name off and call it “this dog” in the notes: the page still works.

If your pet is stolen rather than lost, turn on lost mode anyway. A thief who scans the tag sees that the pet is reported missing, and anyone they sell it to sees the same thing.

QR code scams (sometimes called “quishing”) are real, so it’s sensible to be careful. The National Cyber Security Centre’s advice is to use the QR scanner that comes with your phone rather than an app from an app store, and to be wary of any page that asks for more information than seems right.

A PetTag code opens a page on pet-tag.app and nothing else, and a phone camera shows the link before opening it (on an iPhone you tap the link that appears), so a finder can check the address first. The page never asks them to log in, pay or install anything: it shows the pet’s details and lets them message the owner. If a tag on a pet you’ve found opens somewhere asking for money or passwords, close it and take the pet to a vet to be scanned instead. Our guide to lost pet scams has more.

• Your first name, not your full name and address.
• A mobile number only if you’re happy for finders to see it; otherwise leave it hidden and let them message you.
• Your vet’s name and the fact your pet is microchipped.
• Medical needs a finder should know within the first ten minutes.
• An emergency contact, in case you can’t answer.

Changed your number, moved house, or going away for a week? Edit the profile from your dashboard and the tag shows the new details the next time it’s scanned. Nothing on the collar has to change, which is the part an engraved tag can’t do.