Privacy Policy

01

Website data

This website has no accounts, forms, analytics, advertising, cookies, or tracking pixels. It does not intentionally collect personal information.

Cloudflare processes network requests needed to deliver the site, which may include IP addresses, request details, security signals, and short-lived technical logs under Cloudflare's policies.

02

App data and private storage

AnimAtlas stores encounters local-first on your device. Records can include photos, animal identifications, notes, dates, and locations you choose to grant.

Full-resolution originals stay in private device storage. Exact locations are stored there and excluded from identification and GBIF requests, but Apple Maps may receive coordinates for country resolution and visible-area boundaries derived from encounter pins.

When iCloud is available, private sync starts by default and sends your cards, encounters, badge awards, original photos, subject masks, styled images, and exact encounter coordinates to your private Apple CloudKit database. It does not publish your encounters. Manage AnimAtlas iCloud access in iOS Settings; the app shows status and recovery actions but has no in-app pause switch.

Sharing is your choice. Confirmed animal cards, collection summaries, and earned badges export as new 9:16 Story or 4:5 Post images. They can include visible animal names, card artwork, rarity, collection and encounter counts, achievements, and encounter or award dates. Exact coordinates and full-resolution original files are not attached. Images you save to Photos or send to another app follow that destination’s privacy and storage rules.

03

Identification and external services

For identification-permitted requests, AnimAtlas may send Apple Private Cloud Compute a selected crop, a bounded scene image, the capture month, and a coarse region. Exact coordinates and the full-resolution original are excluded. Locked captures remain in private storage and send nothing to Apple Private Cloud Compute or GBIF.

After a match, eligible rarity and enrichment requests may send taxon names, classification, generated habitat or diet, and a resolved country code or name to Apple Private Cloud Compute. They never include photos, exact coordinates, GBIF counts, or app account identifiers. Apple says PCC uses request data only to fulfill the request and does not retain it after the response; on-device fallback sends nothing off device.

Apple Maps can receive exact encounter coordinates for country resolution. To render My World and Species World, it also receives visible map-area boundaries; My World map boundaries can be derived from exact encounter pins. The maps do not request or display the device's current location. Apple says Maps converts precise locations to less-exact locations within 24 hours, does not collect or retain personal data associated with Maps usage, and may use trusted service providers to process and store sent data.

AnimAtlas sends GBIF taxon, coarse-area and date query fields, plus Species World tile request fields. GBIF's policy does not state how long it retains those query or path values. Separately, GBIF automatically processes IP addresses and policy-defined Technical Data and says it deletes collected Internet-service information after 30 days. No photo, exact location, or app account identifier is sent to GBIF.

AnimAtlas uses Wikimedia to request public taxon, page, and image titles and thumbnails. Wikimedia receives request IP addresses, requested pages, request dates and times, User-Agent, and policy-defined technical data under its privacy and retention policies. No encounter photo, encounter location, advertising identifier, or app account identifier is sent to Wikimedia. AnimAtlas has no ads, tracking, analytics SDK, or third-party AI.

Settings includes a feedback form for bugs, suggestions, and other messages. Drafts stay on your iPhone until you press Send. Sending provides the developer’s Feedback Hub on Cloudflare with your message, category, app version, and basic screen/platform context. An email address is optional and sent only if you request a reply. No collection, photo, or coordinates are automatically attached. If you turn on Include diagnostics, your message also carries a summary of crash, hang and memory reports that iOS gave AnimAtlas on this iPhone over the last 7 days: device model, iOS version, app build, report counts and up to one crash and one hang stack as app code offsets. It never includes your collection, photos or locations. The switch is off by default, you can preview exactly what is sent, and the reports otherwise stay on your iPhone for 7 days. We use submitted messages for support and product planning. Only include information you want the developer to receive.

Cloudflare hosts the feedback service and its D1 database. The developer and authorized product-scoped support tools can read submitted feedback. For abuse prevention, the service stores a keyed hash of the request IP in short-lived rate-limit counters, not the raw IP in its application tables. Counter windows last ten minutes; expired counters are cleared daily. Cloudflare may process request and security logs under its own policies.

04

Retention and deletion

Local encounter data remains until you delete it or remove the app and its data. Data synced through Private iCloud follows your iCloud storage and deletion choices.

You can delete encounters in AnimAtlas and can remove app data through device and iCloud settings. Service providers may retain limited operational or security logs according to their own policies.

Submitted feedback has no automatic expiry in the current service and remains until the developer deletes it. To request deletion, email [email protected] with enough detail to locate your submission. Deleting an encounter or uninstalling the app does not delete feedback already sent. Provider backups and security logs may remain under their own retention rules. Deleting local or iCloud data does not remove exported images or copies held by recipients.

05

Your choices and permissions

Camera, photo-library, and location access require your permission. You can deny or revoke them in iOS Settings; features that depend on a permission may then be unavailable.

Private iCloud sync is on by default when available. Manage AnimAtlas iCloud access in iOS Settings. Local capture remains available when sync is unavailable.

06

Children

AnimAtlas is intended for people aged 13 and older. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 through this website.

07

Policy changes

We may update this policy when AnimAtlas, its services, or legal requirements change. The effective date above will be revised, and material changes will be presented through an appropriate notice.

08

Contact

AnimAtlas is operated by Jonathan Delaire. For privacy questions or requests, email [email protected].