Privacy Policy

• Sign in with Apple identifier: When you sign in with your Apple ID, Apple provides us with a unique identifier tied to your Apple account. This identifier is anonymized by Apple and cannot be used to identify you outside our platform.
• Email address (optional): If you choose to share your email during Sign in with Apple, we store it. Apple offers you the option to share your real email address or a private relay address (that forwards to your real address). You control this at sign-in.
• Display name and username: You choose these when you create your account. They appear on your public profile and on sightings you post.
• Home ZIP code: You provide this at signup. It helps us understand geographic distribution of our users and is not shown publicly.

• Sightings: Each report includes the animal type, severity, count, notes, timestamps, and the ZIP code and coordinates of the sighting location.
• Photos: You may include a photo with any sighting. We remove all metadata — including GPS location — from photos before they leave your device. Photos are re-encoded on-device, so the original file and its embedded location data are never uploaded or stored. The only location associated with your sighting is the pin you place on the map.

• Activity data: Timestamps of your activity in the App, which we use to power features like your reporting streak.
• Achievement records: XP points, rank, badges earned, and verification status of your sightings — all computed from your reporting activity.

• Device identifiers of any kind (no Advertising Identifier, no Vendor Identifier, no device fingerprinting)
• Your IP address
• Third-party analytics or crash reporting data
• Push notification tokens (this may change if we add notification features in the future — we will update this policy accordingly)
• Any tracking data that follows you across other apps or websites

We use the information we collect for the following purposes:

• Display sightings on our community map so users can see reports in their neighborhood
• Compute your rank, badges, and other achievements based on your reporting activity
• Verify sightings when multiple community members report similar patterns
• Show your own reports in your Profile so you can manage them
• Enable you to sign in and access your account

• Aggregate sighting data by neighborhood, time period, and species to identify patterns that may inform public health, property management, and community awareness
• Share aggregated, anonymized sighting data with commercial and government partners for analysis and reporting (see Section 3 below)

• Respond to your support requests when you contact support@crittergram.app
• Notify you of significant changes to this Privacy Policy or our Terms of Service

• Feature photos and content from the community in Crittergram’s own marketing materials, social media accounts, and press coverage (see Section 4 below for details)

• Sell your personal information to third parties
• Use your information for advertising or targeted marketing beyond our own platform
• Share your individual sightings, photos, or account details with third parties in identifiable form
• Track your activity outside the Crittergram App
• Use your data to train AI or machine learning systems for any purpose beyond operating our own service (verification pattern matching, etc.)

We share your information only in the limited circumstances described below.

We use the following third-party services to run Crittergram. These providers have access only to the information they need to perform their services and are contractually obligated to protect your data.

• Apple, Inc. — We use Sign in with Apple for authentication. Apple processes your Apple ID credentials and provides us with a unique identifier and, optionally, your email address (which may be a private relay address you control). Apple’s privacy practices are governed by Apple’s Privacy Policy.
• Cloudflare, Inc. — We use Cloudflare R2 to store the photos you upload. Photos are stored without identifying metadata (see Section 1). Cloudflare’s privacy practices are governed by Cloudflare’s Privacy Policy.
• Railway Corp. — We use Railway to host our backend servers and database. Railway processes data on our behalf according to our instructions. Railway’s privacy practices are governed by Railway’s Privacy Policy.

Crittergram may share aggregated, anonymized sighting data with commercial and government partners for analysis and reporting purposes. Examples include:

• Sighting patterns by ZIP code or time period
• Species distribution and frequency trends
• Neighborhood-level activity summaries

Sightings you submit appear on our public community map and feed. Other users can see:

• The animal type, severity, count, and notes you provided
• The approximate location (we fuzz locations by approximately 100 meters on the public feed to protect your privacy)
• The photo you included (if any)
• Your display name and rank

Users viewing sightings anonymously (without signing in) see a further-limited view with additional privacy protections.

We may share your information if required by law, subpoena, court order, or other legal process, or if we believe disclosure is necessary to:

• Comply with applicable law or regulation
• Protect our rights, property, or safety, or that of our users or the public
• Investigate potential violations of our Terms of Service
• Respond to claims that content violates the rights of others

If Crittergram is acquired, merged, or reorganized, your information may be transferred as part of that transaction. If this happens, we will notify you and give you the opportunity to delete your account before the transfer takes effect.

When you upload a photo with a sighting, you keep ownership of that photo. But you also grant us permission to use it in a limited, specific way.

You own the photos you upload. We do not claim ownership of your content.

By uploading a photo to Crittergram, you grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to:

• Display your photo within the Crittergram App and on our public community feed
• Feature your photo in Crittergram’s own marketing and editorial materials, including our social media accounts (such as Instagram, TikTok, and similar platforms), press coverage, podcasts, promotional videos, and related communications
• Store, reproduce, and reformat your photo as needed to operate the App

• We do not sell your photos to third parties
• We do not license your photos to other companies for their commercial use
• We do not use your photos to train third-party AI or machine learning systems
• We do not use your photos in ways that would embarrass or harm you

When we feature your photo in Crittergram’s marketing materials, our practice is to credit you by your display name (for example, “Photo by @The_Founder”). Attribution is a courtesy we offer to recognize contributors — it is not a legal condition of the license you grant us, and there may be circumstances where attribution is impractical (such as short-form video content).

By uploading a photo, you represent that you have the right to share it and that any identifiable people appearing in the photo have consented to its use, including its potential use in Crittergram’s marketing materials as described above.

If you delete a sighting, we remove the associated photo from our active servers. If you delete your account, we remove all your photos from our active servers, including from Cloudflare R2.

The license you grant us to feature your photos in marketing materials applies to any photo you have shared with us. Once we have created marketing content — such as a social media post, video, or press image — using a photo, that content may continue to exist and be viewed after you delete your account or that photo.

This is because marketing materials, once published, become part of independent records and third-party platforms that we cannot control or fully retract. For example, a social media post featuring your photo remains on the social platform, in the accounts of users who saved or shared it, and in third-party archives, regardless of whether the original photo has been removed from our servers.

If you have specific concerns about a photo we have featured, contact us at support@crittergram.app. While we cannot guarantee retraction from external platforms, we will take reasonable steps to remove content we control, such as our own social media accounts.

You have the following rights regarding your information:

You can view your account information, sightings, achievements, and activity history at any time within the App by navigating to your Profile.

You can update your display name within the App at any time. If you need to correct other information, contact us at support@crittergram.app.

• Delete a sighting: You can permanently delete any sighting you have submitted from within the App. Tap the sighting to open it, scroll to the bottom of the detail view, and tap “Delete sighting.” This removes the sighting, its photo (if any), and any associated data from our servers.
• Delete your account: You can permanently delete your entire account from within the App. Go to your Profile, scroll to the bottom, and tap “Delete Account.” This action requires you to type “DELETE” to confirm, and it removes your account, all your sightings, photos, badges, and activity history from our servers.

You can request a copy of the personal information we hold about you by emailing support@crittergram.app with your request. We will provide your data within a reasonable timeframe (typically within 30 days) in a machine-readable format.

If you no longer want to use Crittergram, deleting your account terminates our permission to use your information for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy, going forward. The license you granted for photos we have already featured in marketing materials continues as described in Section 4.

For any questions, concerns, or requests regarding your data, contact us at support@crittergram.app. We aim to respond within a reasonable timeframe.

Crittergram operates in the United States. If you are located in a jurisdiction with specific privacy rights (such as the European Union’s GDPR or California’s CCPA), you may have additional rights, including rights to access, portability, correction, and erasure. To exercise these rights, contact us at support@crittergram.app. We will respond in accordance with applicable law.

Crittergram is not directed at children under 18, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 18. If you believe we have collected information from a child, please contact us at support@crittergram.app so we can investigate and delete the information as appropriate.

We keep your information only as long as we need it to provide the App and for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy.

We retain your account information (Sign in with Apple identifier, display name, username, home ZIP code, and email if you shared one) for as long as your account is active.

We retain your sightings and associated photos for as long as your account is active. Sightings contribute to our community map, our verification patterns, and our aggregated data insights. Photos remain in our storage until you delete the sighting or your account.

We retain your XP, badges, verification records, and activity timestamps for as long as your account is active. This information powers your Profile display and our community features.

The sighting, its photo (if any), and its metadata are permanently removed from our servers.

All your account information, sightings, photos, achievements, and activity records are permanently removed from our servers. Please note that:

• Photos and content already used in Crittergram’s marketing materials (see Section 4) are governed by the terms in that section.
• Aggregated, anonymized data derived from your sightings before deletion may remain in our analytical records, but this data cannot be traced back to you.
• Server logs and backups may retain limited technical information (such as timestamps of requests) for a short period as part of standard infrastructure operations. This information does not include your personal details and is routinely overwritten.

We may retain limited information longer if required by law, subpoena, court order, or to enforce our Terms of Service, resolve disputes, or protect our legal rights.

We take reasonable measures to protect your information from unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction. Our security practices include:

• We use Sign in with Apple for authentication, which provides you with Apple’s privacy protections and does not require you to create or manage a password with us.
• Your authentication token is stored securely in the iOS Keychain on your device, using system-level encryption.

• All communication between the App and our servers is encrypted using HTTPS/TLS.

• Photos are stored on Cloudflare R2. We remove all metadata from photos before uploading them (see Section 1).
• Photo URLs are not publicly guessable and require our servers to authorize access.

• Our backend is hosted on Railway, which provides infrastructure-level security measures including physical data center security, network isolation, and access controls.
• Our database is protected by strong access controls and is not directly accessible from the public internet.

We minimize the security surface by not collecting information we do not need. Specifically:

• We do not use third-party analytics or tracking services
• We do not collect device identifiers or advertising identifiers
• We do not collect your IP address
• We do not collect crash reports or diagnostic data through third-party services

No system is completely secure. While we take reasonable steps to protect your information, we cannot guarantee absolute security. If you become aware of a security concern with the App or your account, contact us at support@crittergram.app.

If we experience a data breach that affects your personal information, we will notify you within a reasonable timeframe as required by applicable law.

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, our services, or applicable law.

• We will update the “Last Updated” date at the top of this policy
• We will post the revised policy in the App and on our website
• For material changes that affect how we collect, use, or share your information, we will notify you within the App, by email (if you have shared one with us), or through another reasonable method before the changes take effect

• Changes to what information we collect
• Changes to how we use or share your information
• Changes to your rights or how you can exercise them
• Changes to how long we retain your information

Your continued use of Crittergram after the effective date of an updated Privacy Policy indicates your acceptance of the changes. If you do not agree with the changes, you can delete your account at any time (see Section 5).

If you would like to review a prior version of this Privacy Policy, contact us at support@crittergram.app.

If you have questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or our handling of your information, please contact us at support@crittergram.app.

We aim to respond to all inquiries within a reasonable timeframe. For requests to access, correct, or delete your information, or to exercise other rights described in this policy, please include:

• Your display name or username
• The specific request you are making
• Any additional information that will help us respond

For legal notices, service of process, or other formal communications, contact us at support@crittergram.app.