Privacy Policy

WildPins (“we”, “us”) is a social naturalist application that helps users identify wildlife from photos and audio recordings, save observations, and optionally share discoveries with the community. This policy explains the information we collect, how we use it, and the choices available to you.

1. Information We Collect

• Account and age information — email address, display name, and year of birth when you create an account. Year of birth is used to enforce the minimum age requirement. Guest sessions may use a randomly generated account identifier and do not require a personal email address.
• Photos and audio recordings — wildlife media you submit for identification. Submitted media is transmitted securely to our configured identification providers. Identification results and associated media may be stored in your private My Finds catalog when saved by the app.
• Location information — location attached to saved finds, approximate location used for nearby danger alerts, and location shared through optional public or group-sharing features. Public location sharing is opt-in and approximate coordinates are used where the feature is designed to protect precise location.
• Website park-search location — if you use the public “Parks Near You” page, the ZIP code or browser location you provide is used only to run that nearby-park search. WildPins does not save that search location to your account. Search coordinates are sent through the WildPins backend to Google Places to return park results; OpenStreetMap/public geocoding services may be used as a backup.
• Community activity — public finds, saved pins, group messages, likes, follows, reports, blocks, and moderation records created when you use social or safety features.
• Community Gallery — on the website, signed-in users may explicitly submit a wildlife photo from My Finds or upload a new photo for the public Community Gallery. Gallery records include the photo, animal/species information, optional caption, photographer display name, votes, and moderation status. Gallery records do not store map coordinates. Gallery images are re-encoded before storage to remove EXIF/GPS metadata. Selecting an existing My Finds photo does not copy its location into the gallery.
• Device and advertising information — push-notification tokens, device/platform information, advertising identifiers where permitted, and ad-consent choices used by Google AdMob.
• Usage and diagnostics — app events, error logs, and crash reports collected through Firebase Analytics and Firebase Crashlytics to operate, secure, and improve the service.

2. How We Use Information

• Provide wildlife photo and audio identification.
• Save and organize your observations.
• Display public finds, approximate shared locations, group content, and community safety alerts when you choose to use those features.
• Operate the website Community Gallery, prevent duplicate voting, select monthly feature photos, and moderate submitted gallery content.
• Deliver push notifications and nearby danger alerts.
• Display interstitial advertisements through Google AdMob.
• Detect abuse, enforce community rules, process reports, and protect users and the service.
• Diagnose crashes, measure app performance, and improve WildPins.

3. Third-Party Services

• AI identification providers, including OpenAI — process submitted wildlife photos or related identification requests. (policy)
• Google Firebase — Analytics, Crashlytics, Cloud Messaging, and related app infrastructure. (policy)
• Google AdMob — advertising and consent management. (policy)
• Google Places — provides park names, addresses, map links, and locations for the optional website park finder. Search coordinates are sent only as needed to return park results.
• OpenStreetMap and public geocoding services — provide ZIP/location lookup and backup community-maintained park information when needed.

4. Advertising and Consent

WildPins is currently free and supported by interstitial ads shown through Google AdMob. Where required, Google’s User Messaging Platform is used to request or manage advertising consent. Ad requests may be limited to non-personalized advertising depending on your consent choices, device settings, platform permissions, and applicable law. You may review or reset ad-consent choices from Settings → Privacy where that option is available.

5. Sharing and Visibility

We do not sell your personal information. We share information with service providers only as needed to operate WildPins or as required by law. Finds are private unless you choose to make them public or share them with a group. Public features may display a species card, profile information, and an approximate observation location. Your original uploaded observation media remains private unless a feature clearly tells you otherwise before you share it.

The Community Gallery is a separate, explicit public-photo feature. Adding a photo to the gallery does not create a map pin and does not publish or inherit the coordinates of a saved find. Gallery photos, photographer display names, species information, captions, and vote totals may be visible publicly on the WildPins website and a winning photo may be displayed as the Community Feature Photo of the Month.

6. Your Choices and Data Deletion

• Control sharing — change public, private, group, and location-sharing settings within the app.
• Manage permissions — camera, microphone, photos, notifications, tracking, and location permissions can be changed in your device settings.
• Delete your account — use Settings → Account → Delete Account. Deletion removes your account and primary user content, including your identifications, pins, trails, group memberships, group messages, Community Gallery photos, and gallery votes.
• Request assistance or data access — contact admin@wildpins.app.

Limited records may be retained when reasonably necessary for security, fraud prevention, abuse and moderation history, legal obligations, dispute resolution, or service integrity. Data may also remain in encrypted backups for a limited period before normal deletion cycles complete. You may also request deletion through our web deletion page or by emailing us from your registered address.

7. Children

WildPins is intended for users age 13 and older and is not directed to children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child under 13 has provided personal information, contact us so we can investigate and delete it where required.

8. Security and Retention

Network traffic is protected with HTTPS/TLS, and account passwords are stored using one-way password hashing. We retain information only for as long as needed to provide the service, maintain security and moderation records, comply with legal obligations, or resolve disputes.

9. Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy as WildPins changes. We will post the revised policy on this page and update the effective date above.

10. Contact

Email: admin@wildpins.app