Privacy Policy

Birder AI (“Birder AI,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) builds an AI-powered bird identification, journaling, and community app. We take privacy seriously because we have to: birding involves location data, sensitive species, and personal photos. This policy explains what we collect, why, how long we keep it, who we share it with, and the rights you have over it.

If you have questions, email us at info@jhobbie.com.

1. Quick summary

• We collect only what we need to make the app work.
• We do not sell your personal data, ever.
• We do not use your photos or recordings to train third-party AI models.
• Your exact home location is never shown to other users.
• You can export or delete your account at any time, from inside the app.

2. Data we collect

2.1 Account data

When you sign in with Apple, we receive an opaque user identifier and (if you choose to share it) your email address. We use Apple’s “Hide My Email” relay if you select it. You also create a username, a display name, and optional bio, avatar, and home location.

2.2 Sightings, photos, and audio

When you log a sighting, we store the species, the date and time, your latitude and longitude (if you opt in), any photos or audio you upload, and any notes you add. Photos and audio you upload for AI identification are stored temporarily and automatically deleted after 30 days unless they are linked to a saved sighting.

2.3 Identification metadata

For each ID attempt we save the result, the AI model used, your selected species (if you confirmed one), and whether you corrected the model’s top suggestion. This is how we improve accuracy over time. You can view and delete your full identification history from the app.

2.4 Device and app data

We collect your iOS version, app version, device model, language, and approximate region (derived from your IP, never stored long-term) for diagnostics and crash reporting. We generate an anonymous device ID for push notifications.

2.5 Subscription data

Subscriptions are purchased and managed through Apple. We receive a receipt and an opaque identifier from RevenueCat, our subscription middleware, so we know whether you have Premium. We never see your credit-card number or full Apple ID.

2.6 Analytics and error reporting

We use PostHog for product analytics and Sentry for crash reporting. Both are configured to strip personally identifying information from event payloads. You can opt out of analytics from the You → Privacy screen in the app.

3. Location data

Location is one of the most useful and most sensitive things in a birding app. We treat it carefully.

• You opt in. Location is not required to use Birder AI. You can log sightings by typing a location name instead.
• We use “While Using” permission. We never request background location.
• Your home is hidden. The latitude and longitude you set as your home are never shared with other users, ever. We display only the city or region you choose.
• Public sightings are bucketed. When a sighting is shared publicly, we obscure its coordinates to a roughly 5km grid so collectors and bad actors cannot use it to locate vulnerable birds or you.
• Sensitive species are obscured further. Sightings of species flagged as endangered, threatened, or known to be exploited (for example, owls and breeding raptors) are obscured to county or state level.

4. How AI identification works

When you use photo identification, the photo, your latitude and longitude, and the date are sent to OpenAI’s Chat Completions API for processing by a multimodal vision model. OpenAI processes the request to return a list of candidate species and does not retain the image or use it to train its models, per its Data Processing Addendum.

Sound identification is performed by BirdNET, an open-source classifier developed by the K. Lisa Yang Center for Conservation Bioacoustics at the Cornell Lab and the Chemnitz University of Technology. We send the audio to a BirdNET service we operate (or a BirdWeather-hosted equivalent) for processing.

We never share your photos, audio, or location with advertisers, data brokers, or any party outside the limited list of subprocessors below.

5. Subprocessors

We rely on a small number of trusted vendors to operate Birder AI:

6. How long we keep data

• Account, sightings, life list. Retained until you delete your account.
• Identification photos and audio. Deleted after 30 days unless linked to a saved sighting.
• Logs and crash reports. 90 days, then deleted.
• Subscription receipts. Retained for the period required by Apple and applicable tax law (typically seven years).

7. Children’s privacy

Birder AI is not directed to children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has provided us information, contact info@jhobbie.com and we will delete it promptly.

8. Your rights

Wherever you live, you can:

• Access and download a copy of your data (You → Privacy → Export Data).
• Correct or update profile information.
• Delete your account and all associated data (You → Privacy → Delete Account).
• Opt out of analytics.
• Mark any individual sighting as private.

If you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, California, Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, or Utah, you also have the right to object to processing and to lodge a complaint with your local data-protection authority. We act as a data controller for the data you submit and a data processor for content visible to other users.

9. International transfers

Birder AI is operated from the United States. If you use the app from outside the US, your data will be transferred to and processed in the US, where data-protection laws may differ from those in your country. By using the app, you consent to that transfer.

10. Security

We use encryption in transit (TLS 1.2+) and at rest. Authentication is handled by Apple and Supabase. Database access is gated by row-level security policies. We never store plain-text passwords. No system is perfectly secure, and we will notify you and the relevant authorities promptly if a breach affects your data.

11. Changes to this policy

If we make material changes to this policy, we will notify you in the app and update the “Effective date” above. Continued use after the effective date constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

12. Contact

Birder AI
Indianapolis, IN, USA
Email: info@jhobbie.com