Privacy Policy
Summary. WildEcho helps you identify wildlife by describing a sound or taking a photo. To do that, some of what you provide is sent to our processing service. We do not sell your personal data. You can use WildEcho without creating an account. The website itself does not require an account and does not use advertising trackers.
1. Information we process
| Data | Why | Where it goes |
|---|---|---|
| Sound descriptions you type (app) | To identify species | Our proxy, then Anthropic (AI) |
| Photos you choose to identify (app) | To identify species | Our proxy, then Anthropic (AI). Not retained after the result comes back |
| Audio clips you record (app) | To identify species by sound | Uploaded to our Sound ID service for analysis. Also kept on your device. Added to our reference library only if you agree. You are asked once, and can change the answer any time in Profile |
| Location, if allowed (app) | Regional matching, and showing what is commonly found near you | Sent with an identification, and stored on our servers. See section 2 |
| Your identifications, streaks, badges, plan (app) | The app itself | On your device. Also on our servers if you create an account, so your journal survives a lost phone |
| Pets you add (app) | The pet feature | On your device, and on our servers with your account |
| Anonymous usage events (app) | Which species are found where, and whether the app works | Our servers. See section 2 |
| Email you send us | To respond to you | Our email inbox |
| Purchase status | Entitlements | RevenueCat, Apple |
2. Location, and the anonymous usage data
This section is deliberately specific, because it is the part people care about.
What we store. When you identify something, we record the species, the time, and where you were rounded to roughly one kilometre. The rounding happens on your phone before anything is sent, so we never receive your exact position for this purpose. We use it to build regional pictures: which species are common in an area, and in which season.
Two places we do use a precise position, with your permission. A sound recording is sent for analysis with its coordinates, because which species are plausible depends heavily on exactly where you are. And if you create an account, your saved finds are stored with their coordinates so your journal is accurate across devices. Decline location access and identification still works, without any location attached.
Who it is attached to. A random identifier created when you install the app. It is not your Apple ID, not an advertising identifier, and not your device’s identifier. It exists so we can tell one person’s twenty finds from twenty people’s one find. It connects to nothing outside WildEcho, and we cannot use it to work out who you are.
What is never in it. Your name, your email, your photos, your recordings, and anything you typed.
Turning it off. Settings has a switch that stops collection entirely. Separately you can stop the place appearing on cards you share, and you can decline location access altogether.
Cards you share are public. When you share a find, WildEcho uploads the card image and gives you a link. Anyone with that link can open it, so treat it the way you would any photo you send. The link contains twelve random characters, so the set cannot be guessed or listed, and the card is not connected to your account or to any identifier. It carries what is on the card: the species, the picture, and the place if you have left that setting on.
3. How we use it
To produce identification results, show what is commonly found near you, keep your journal, respond to enquiries, process purchases, and keep our services stable and secure.
4. Third parties (sub-processors)
- Anthropic, the AI that generates identifications.
- Vercel, hosts our website and the proxy that forwards requests.
- Google Cloud, hosts our Sound ID service, which analyses recordings.
- Google Fonts, serves the two typefaces this website uses. Loading a page sends your IP address to Google. No cookie is set.
- Google Calendar, the booking page behind “Book a fit call”. If you book, the name and email you enter there go to Google, not to this website.
- Supabase, stores accounts, cloud journals, pets, and the anonymous usage events.
- Upstash, rate-limiting (a brief request counter keyed to a token and coarse IP).
- RevenueCat and Apple, purchase processing.
We do not track you across other apps or websites.
We do not sell personal data and do not use it for third-party advertising.
5. Retention
Your journal lives on your device until you delete the app or use “Reset app”. With an account, deleting your account removes your journal and pets from our servers. Requests forwarded to the AI are processed to return a result and are subject to those processors’ retention policies; we keep no server-side copy of your descriptions or photos. Anonymous usage events carry no account and are kept as an aggregate record of which species are found where.
6. Your rights
- Canada (PIPEDA): access and correct your personal information, and complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.
- EEA/UK (GDPR): access, rectification, erasure, restriction, portability, and objection.
- California (CCPA/CPRA): know, delete, correct, and opt out of “sale”/“sharing” (we do neither).
For requests, contact support@blueharboursolutions.com.
7. Children
Our services are not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect their personal data.
8. Security
Our AI key is held server-side and never shipped in the app. Traffic uses HTTPS. No method is perfectly secure, but we apply reasonable safeguards.
9. This website
Separately from the app, blueharboursolutions.com uses a privacy-focused analytics service provided by Vercel, our hosting provider, to count page views and understand which pages people find useful. It does not set cookies, does not build a profile of you, and does not follow you to other websites. We use it to improve the site, nothing else.
10. Changes
We’ll update this policy as our services evolve and revise the effective date.
11. Contact
Blue Harbour Solutions
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
support@blueharboursolutions.com