Privacy

What we collect

• From Google when you sign in: your name, email address, and profile picture.
• Catch photos you upload.
• Location: the GPS position stored in your photo, or your phone’s location if the photo has none and you allow it. We use it to name the place and look up the weather.
• Catch details: species, size, date and time, weather, gear, and any notes you write.

Who sees what

• Exact coordinates and notes: only you and the admin. The app never shows them to other members, not even on a map.
• Other members see the species, size, date, your photos, your name, and a place name such as a lake, river, or town. Street addresses are removed.
• The public sees only the catches you choose to share. Everything else in the log stays members-only.

What is public

Nothing is public until you press Share on a catch, and you can stop sharing it at any time. A shared catch shows only:

• the species and size (sizes the app estimated from the photo are labelled as estimates);
• the month and year it was caught, not the day or time;
• the US state, never the lake, town, or GPS position;
• copies of your photos with the hidden data removed (the originals are never made public);
• the nickname you pick, never your Google name, email, or picture.

Your notes, weather, gear, and exact spot are never shared. When you stop sharing, the photo copies are deleted.

Young anglers: the admin marks accounts that belong to minors. Each catch a minor shares is checked and approved by the admin first, and it only appears publicly once it is more than 14 days old, counted from the catch date or the day it was logged, whichever is later.

Photos

Your phone hides details in every photo, including where it was taken. Before a photo is uploaded, your browser re-encodes it, which drops that hidden data (EXIF). If a photo can’t be re-encoded, it isn’t uploaded. When other members save or share one of your photos from the app, they get a copy with the hidden data removed.

Services we use

To run the log we send the minimum each service needs: Google for sign-in, place names, and recent weather; Open-Meteo for older weather; Cloudinary to store photos; Anthropic (Claude) to suggest the species and size from a photo; and Refresh to send email. We don’t sell your data or use it for advertising.

Emails we send

• A note confirming we received your request to join.
• A welcome email when the admin approves your account.
• For minors' accounts: a note when the admin approves or declines a shared catch.

The admin also gets an email when someone requests access and when a minor shares a catch. There is no newsletter.

Cookies

We use only the cookies sign-in needs to keep you signed in. No tracking or advertising cookies.

Deleting your account

Email the admin at security@willowcreekcreeper.com from the address you sign in with and ask for your account to be deleted. We’ll delete your account and your catches, including their photos.