Privacy Policy

Fin's Fish Guide ("we") offers a website (finsfishguide.com) and an app (available for iOS, Android and web) that let you identify fish and look up information about fish species. This privacy policy explains what data we process and why. We deliberately keep things simple: we collect as little as possible and never sell your data to third parties.

What data we process

• Photos and descriptions you submit. When you upload a photo or describe a fish in the app to have it identified, that information is sent to our servers and processed there, including by AI services that perform the identification. We use this data only to carry out and improve the identification, and we do not keep it longer than needed for that purpose.
• Usage and device data. We use analytics services (see below) that collect information such as your IP address, device and browser type, pages or screens visited, and click and scroll behaviour. We use this data in aggregate form to understand how the website and app are used and to improve them.
• Data you send us yourself. For example your email address and the content of your message when you contact us.
• Messages you leave through Fin. If you ask a question or give feedback in Fin's chat window, we keep that message so we can look at it and improve the app. If you add your name, email address or phone number yourself, we keep those along with it.
• Your logbook, if you sign in. If you sign in with Google or Apple, we keep a backup of your observations, lists and profile details, so you can find them again on another device. If you do not sign in, everything stays on your own device only.
• Your own photos, if you add them. A photo you add to an observation is re-encoded on your own device before it is uploaded, which removes the metadata: the date, time and GPS position that a camera stores in a file never leave your phone. The app may read that metadata to suggest a date and a place in the form, but only what you confirm is saved.
• Your buddy profile and interactions, if you create one. If you set up a Buddies profile you choose a handle, a display name and optionally a short bio, a photo and your year of birth. From then on we also process who you follow, which observations you share, the fins you give and receive, and any reports you submit. Without a profile none of this exists and you can keep logging as before.

What other people can see

Your logbook is private. An observation only becomes visible to someone else when you share it yourself, per observation, and you can withdraw it at any time.

• Your exact fishing spot is never shared. The precise coordinates stay in your own record and are not part of anything another person can request. When you share an observation, a coarser label is derived from it: the name of the water, the region, or nothing at all. There is no option — paid or otherwise — to share an exact position. For species on the IUCN red list (CR, EN, VU) the database itself never allows anything more precise than the region.
• "Everyone" also means outside the app. An observation you share with everyone, and your profile, can be opened by anyone with the link at finsfishguide.com. Profile pages may appear in search engines; individual observations are excluded from search engines. What you share with "Buddies" is never visible outside the app.
• Photos are checked. Photos are scanned automatically before they become visible to others, and every photo, comment and profile can be reported. We assess a report within 24 hours and inform both the reporter and the author of the decision.

What we use your data for

• Providing the service: identifying fish and showing species information.
• Improving the website, the app and the identification.
• Analysing usage and finding and fixing errors.
• Answering your questions when you contact us.

We do not send newsletters or marketing and we do not use your data for personalised advertising.

Analytics and cookies

On the website and in the app we use:

• Google Analytics 4 — for statistics about visits and usage. See Google's privacy policy.
• Hotjar — on the website, for insight into how pages are used (for example through anonymised heatmaps and session recordings). See Hotjar's privacy policy.
• UXCam — in the Android and iOS app, for insight into how the app is used (screen views, tap behaviour and session recordings; screens with personal data are masked). See UXCam's privacy policy.

These services place cookies or similar technologies. You can refuse or delete cookies via your browser or device settings.

Where your data is held

Our own servers run in Frankfurt, Germany. To store the messages from Fin's chat window we use Google Sheets. For users in the European Economic Area, Google services are provided by Google Ireland Limited. Where a service processes data outside the EEA, it does so on the basis of appropriate safeguards. See below.

Sharing with third parties

We never sell your data. We only share data with parties that help us provide the service: hosting providers, analytics services (Google, Hotjar, UXCam), Google Sheets for storing your messages, and AI services for image recognition. We have agreements with these parties on protecting your data. Some of these parties process data outside the European Economic Area; where that is the case, it happens on the basis of appropriate safeguards, such as the European Commission's standard contractual clauses.

Retention

We do not keep data longer than needed for the purposes above, or as long as the law requires. Analytics data is retained according to the standard retention periods of the service concerned.

Your rights

Under the GDPR you have the right to access your data, have it corrected or deleted, restrict processing, object to processing, and receive a copy of your data. To exercise these rights, email us at the address below. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority (in the Netherlands: the Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens).

Children

Our service is not aimed at children under 16 and we do not knowingly collect data from them. A Buddies profile — the only part of the app where other people can see something of yours — requires you to be 16 or older; we ask for your year of birth when you create one.

Changes

We may update this privacy policy from time to time. The current version is always available on this page, with the date of the latest change at the top.

Contact

Questions about this privacy policy? Email info@finsfishguide.com.

To report content, or for authorities under the Digital Services Act, use fin@finsfishguide.com. That address is our point of contact for reports about content other users have shared.