Let's Go Bird Privacy Policy

Let's Go Bird Privacy Policy This Privacy Policy describes how Let's Go Bird LLC ("Let's Go Bird," "we," "our," or "us") collects, uses, and protects information when you use the Let's Go Bird mobile application and the letsgobird.com website (together, the "Services"). By using the Services, you agree to the practices described in this policy. If you do not agree, please do not use the Services. 1. Information We Collect Account Information If you create an account, we collect identifiers such as your username, email address, and (if you sign in with Apple) the relay email Apple provides on your behalf. Audio Recordings When you use audio identification features, the audio captured during recording sessions is uploaded to our servers. This includes audio from confirmed identifications and from sessions where no bird was identified. Recordings are retained on our servers indefinitely for the purposes described in Section 2. Recordings may incidentally capture human voices, conversations, or other ambient sounds. We work to minimize retention of non-bird audio when preparing recordings for use in model training. We do not analyze incidentally-captured human speech for any purpose other than identifying and removing it from training datasets. See Section 6 for your options to limit or exclude this collection. Photographs When you use photo identification features, the images you submit are uploaded to our servers for inference and may be retained for the purposes described in Section 2. Location Data When you submit a sighting or capture for identification, the app may collect location data including approximate GPS coordinates. We use this data for the purposes described in Section 3. Device Information We collect basic device and operating-system information, such as device type, OS version, and app version, to diagnose issues and improve compatibility. Usage Analytics We collect aggregated usage analytics — such as which features are used and how often — to improve the Services. This data is not linked to your personal identity. Crash and Error Reports We use Sentry (a third-party error-tracking service) to collect crash reports and error diagnostics. These reports may include device information, app state at the time of the crash, and limited contextual data. Sentry processes this data on our behalf under their privacy terms (https://sentry.io/privacy/). Website Analytics The letsgobird.com website uses Cloudflare Web Analytics, a privacy-respecting analytics service that does not use cookies or fingerprinting. Cloudflare's privacy practices are described at https://www.cloudflare.com/privacypolicy/. 2. How We Use Information We use collected information to: • Operate and improve the Let's Go Bird Services • Provide species identification features • Train, validate, and improve our species-identification machine-learning models • Support biodiversity research and conservation initiatives • Enable gamification features such as collections, badges, and leaderboards • Maintain security and prevent abuse Audio recordings, photographs, and associated location data may be used to expand the species coverage of our identification models over time, including adding new species to active model rosters as training data matures. 3. Location Data When you submit a sighting or capture, the app may collect approximate GPS coordinates. Location data may be used for: • Improving identification accuracy through regional plausibility filtering • Species distribution mapping and conservation research • App features such as location-based challenges or local rarity tiers For sensitive species (e.g., species at risk of poaching or harassment), Let's Go Bird may obscure or aggregate location data before sharing with third parties. 4. Data Sharing Let's Go Bird may share aggregated, anonymized, or appropriately approved datasets with: • Academic researchers • Conservation organizations • Government wildlife agencies We do not sell your personal information. Personal identifying information is not shared with advertisers or third-party data brokers. We use the following third-party service providers, each of which processes data on our behalf: • DigitalOcean — hosting and storage infrastructure • Sentry — error and crash reporting • Cloudflare — website hosting and privacy-respecting analytics • Apple — Sign in with Apple authentication, when used These providers are bound by their own privacy practices and contractual obligations to handle data appropriately. 5. Data Security We take reasonable administrative, technical, and physical measures to protect user data, including encrypted storage, access controls, and secure transmission. However, no method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security. 6. Your Rights and Choices Regardless of where you live, you have the following rights with respect to your data: Access You may request a copy of the personal information we hold about you by emailing admin@letsgobird.com. Deletion You may request deletion of your account and associated personal data at any time. Once we have built in-app account deletion, you will be able to do this directly in the app. Until then, you may request deletion by emailing admin@letsgobird.com. Within 90 days of a confirmed request, we will delete your account, remove the personal identifiers we hold about you (such as username and email), and sever the link between you and the content you submitted, so that your past submissions can no longer be associated with you. Audio recordings and photographs that have already been de-identified and incorporated into a training dataset or a trained model cannot be individually retrieved or removed and will persist in de-identified form, where they are no longer linked to your identity. See "Controlling Use of Your Content for Training" below and Section 9. Controlling Use of Your Content for Training You can limit how your content is used to train our models: • You may ask us to stop using your submissions for future model training at any time — by emailing admin@letsgobird.com, or by deleting your account. This prevents your content from being added to training datasets going forward. • We cannot remove content that has already been de-identified and incorporated into a training dataset or trained model. The license you grant in the EULA is irrevocable as to content already used, and trained models and de-identified datasets cannot be reverse-engineered to extract or delete one person's contribution. Stopping future use does not un-train existing models. Correction You may request correction of inaccurate personal data by emailing admin@letsgobird.com. For California residents (CCPA) and EU/UK residents (GDPR), you have additional rights including the right to non-discrimination for exercising privacy rights, and the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. 7. App Permissions The Let's Go Bird app requests the following permissions, used only for the stated purposes: • Microphone — to record audio for bird-call identification • Camera — to capture video and still images for visual identification • Photo Library — to select existing photos for identification (only when you choose this feature) • Location — to associate sightings with geographic context and to apply regional plausibility filtering during identification You may revoke any of these permissions at any time through your device's system settings. Some app features will not function without their associated permissions. 8. Children's Privacy The Let's Go Bird Services are not directed to children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 without verifiable parental consent. If you believe we have collected information from a child under 13 without consent, please contact us at admin@letsgobird.com and we will promptly delete it. 9. Data Retention • Audio recordings and photographs are retained for model training and quality improvement. When you delete your account or request deletion, we remove the personal identifiers linking these recordings to you; the de-identified recordings and images themselves may be retained indefinitely, including within training datasets and trained models, where they can no longer be associated with your identity. • Location data associated with sightings is retained alongside the sighting record, indefinitely or until account deletion. • Account information is retained while your account is active, and deleted within 90 days of account deletion or upon your request. • Crash reports and analytics are retained per the policies of our service providers (typically 30-90 days). 10. International Data Transfers Let's Go Bird is operated from the United States. If you access the Services from outside the United States, your data will be transferred to and processed in the United States. We rely on appropriate safeguards (such as standard contractual clauses) when required by applicable law. 11. Changes to This Policy We may update this Privacy Policy periodically. When we make material changes, we will update the Effective Date and Version at the top of this document and, where appropriate, provide notice through the app or website. Continued use of the Services after the Effective Date constitutes acceptance of the updated policy. 12. Contact Us If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or wish to exercise any of your rights, please contact us: Let's Go Bird LLC Mount Vernon, Maine, USA admin@letsgobird.com