Bird App Privacy Policy

Bird App is operated by Boundary Object LLC in the United States. It uses account information and the content you choose to save to provide bird logging, sharing, synchronization and related features.

Information used by the app

• Account and invitations: Sign in with Apple provides an account identifier and may provide your name and email address, including an Apple relay address if you choose Hide My Email. Bird App stores your chosen display name, username, profile visibility and optional profile photo. Apple sign-in happens before invite redemption, so an account identity can exist even if you do not finish joining. The service stores invite code hashes, admission records and administrative invite labels.
• Bird records and social activity: Saved observations, dates, place names, notes, sketches, attached images and imported history are stored to provide your records. Friends, requests, likes, favorites, comments, blocks and reports support the social features. Reports are available to the service operator and are not shown to the reported post's author.
• Notifications: If you enable push notifications in a build that supports them, the service stores a device notification token, an installation identifier and delivery information, and uses Apple's push service to send alerts. Notification previews may appear on your lock screen according to your device settings.
• Service requests: Connecting to online services reveals network information such as your IP address to the receiving service. Hosting and platform providers may process operational records when they handle those requests.

Microphone, location and photos

Bird-call recognition runs on your device. Bird App does not upload microphone audio for recognition. Listening uses microphone permission and can continue in the background during an active session. Stop listening when you are finished; microphone access can also be changed in device Settings.

Nearby bird predictions run on your device. When you request a place name, Apple Maps receives your location to look up that place. Bird App sends the place name saved with a post to its backend, rather than the raw GPS coordinates. You can edit that name or enter a place manually.

A profile photo you select is uploaded to the app's storage and cached on devices that display it. Notes, sketches and other supported attachments upload when their records synchronize. Bird App uses its own friendship graph; it does not request access to your device address book.

Who can see your information

During profile setup, you choose Private or Public before continuing. Choosing Private limits shared posts to friends. Choosing Public allows other signed-in members to see shared posts in Everyone, including notes, sketches and comments, and the profile information made available with them.

Your display name, username and profile photo help people find you and are not limited to friends by the Private setting. Blocking restricts access between the affected accounts. Private imported history is excluded from shared posts and other members’ bird summaries. It still contributes to your own records and life list.

Changing visibility, blocking or deleting content affects access through the service. It cannot instantly remove copies already downloaded to an offline device or copies another person saved independently.

Storage and service providers

Drafts, saved records and cached content are stored on your device. Saved posts, media and social activity synchronize with the Supabase backend when connected. Offline changes may remain queued until a connection is available. The operator can access hosted information when administering the service and handling reports.

When available, the app also backs up your own sessions and sketches to your private iCloud account. This app backup excludes friends' likes and comments. iCloud copies and local copies are separate from the social backend.

Apple provides sign-in, location lookup, iCloud and push services. Supabase provides authentication, database, media storage and backend hosting. Reference pages, pictures and calls are fetched from Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons and cached locally; those requests include the species or resource being retrieved, not your private notes or sketches. These providers handle requests under their own terms and privacy policies.

The current app has no advertising or third-party analytics SDK and does not use your content for advertising tracking. Bird-call recognition does not require sending your recordings to an external AI service.

Your choices and retained copies

You can edit your profile, change visibility, remove a profile photo, manage friendships, block accounts and delete your own posts. Server changes require synchronization. Replacing or deleting information does not guarantee immediate removal of every cached, backed-up or previously downloaded copy.

Signing out or removing the app does not delete your server account or private iCloud backup. You can request account deletion in the app. Before confirming, choose whether to keep your saved local history and private iCloud backup. Server deletion and iCloud cleanup are separate steps; if iCloud is unavailable, the app preserves your cleanup choice and offers a retry. Signing out or uninstalling alone does not complete those steps.

Saved records and account information are kept to provide the service. The current beta does not automatically expire all account, invitation, report or delivery records after a fixed period. Local caches and iCloud copies have separate lifecycles. Deletion recovery records are designed to survive account deletion so interrupted cleanup can be completed and confirmed.

You can change microphone, location and notification permissions in device Settings. Withholding those permissions does not prevent manually recording a bird.

Age eligibility

This closed beta is intended for people 18 or older in the United States. If you believe someone under 18 has created an account, contact the operator so the account can be reviewed.

Contact

For support, privacy requests, or reports of abuse, contact support@boundary-object.com. Boundary Object LLC operates Bird App and handles these requests.