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. Optional Private iCloud sync stores your data in your private Apple CloudKit database so it can remain available across your devices.

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.

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.

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 optional and depends on your Apple account settings. You may use AnimAtlas locally without making encounters public.

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].