WATERFOWLER iPhone App: Privacy Policy

Effective date: October 31, 2026

WATERFOWLER is an iPhone app for waterfowl hunters. It is made by Casey Keener, an individual developer. In this policy, "we" and "us" mean Casey Keener, the developer of WATERFOWLER.

The short version

• You don't need an account. The app has no sign-in.
• There are no ads in the app.
• There are no analytics, tracking tools or crash-reporting tools in the app.
• We don't sell your data. We don't share it with advertisers or data brokers.
• Almost everything you make in the app stays on your phone.
• Data only reaches our team server if you join a Hunting Team. Then it stores your team’s name, the name you enter, the pins you share, your boat trails (including trails already on your phone when you join), the team hunts you save, and your live location while you share it. Trails you set to private are stored too, but only you can see them. Saved trails stay until you delete them, you leave the team, or the team is deleted.

What stays on your phone

These are saved on your iPhone and are not sent to us, except where noted below:

• Your saved spots, favorites and home state.
• Your pins and waypoints, including blinds, pits and decoy spreads, unless you share them with a Hunting Team. On a team, a new pin is shared unless you switch that off for the pin. Waypoints you import start unshared.
• Boat trails you record, until you join a Hunting Team. On a team, every trail you record (and the ones already on your phone) is sent to our team server, including ones you set to private, which only you can see.
• Your hunt log and bag counts (unless you save a team hunt, below).
• Hunt photos. The app saves its own copy of each photo you add.
• Field notes, including typed text, voice recordings, photos, videos, and the time and place you saved each note.
• Your checklist, alert settings and other settings.
• Offline map areas you download.
• Waypoint files you import (GPX or KML). The app reads the file on your phone and does not upload it.

Deleting an item in the app deletes it from your phone. Deleting the app deletes all of it. Your iPhone backup (iCloud or computer) may include app data, under Apple's backup settings.

Location

The app asks for your location. It uses it on your phone to:

• Show where you are on the map.
• Work out legal shooting hours for where you are.
• Point you back to your saved pins.
• Record a boat trail when you start one.
• Tag a field note with where you saved it.

You can say no. The rest of the app still works.

Starting a boat trail asks for "Always" location each time. If you say no, the app uses your location only while it is open. "Always" location is also used while you share your location with your team with the phone locked. iOS shows its location indicator while this runs.

Apart from the map area in the data requests and the shared pin links described below, your location is sent to us only if you are on a Hunting Team. Then our team server gets your live location while you turn on location sharing; the route of each boat trail you record, sent about once a minute while you record, even with location sharing off; and the map point of each pin you share and each team hunt you save (see Hunting Teams).

Camera, photos and microphone

The app asks for these only when you use a feature that needs them:

• Camera and photo library: to add photos to your hunt log, or photos and videos to field notes. The app keeps a copy on your phone. It never uploads them.
• Save to Photos: only when you choose to save an image to your Photos library.
• Microphone and speech recognition: to speak a field note, or to record sound in a video. Voice typing uses Apple's speech recognition. Your iPhone does this on the phone when it can, but your speech may be sent to Apple to turn it into text, under Apple's privacy policy. Your voice and notes are never sent to us.

What leaves your phone

1. Public data the app downloads

To show weather, water, maps and rules, the app asks outside services for public data. These requests include the map area or spot you're looking at. Like any internet request, the service also sees your IP address. Each service follows its own privacy policy. We do not send your name or any ID with these requests.

• Apple Maps: the map itself, place search and nearby town names. What you type in map search goes to Apple to find the place.
• National Weather Service and NOAA (api.weather.gov, water.noaa.gov, NOAA map services, NCEI): forecasts, wind, river levels, weather maps and past weather.
• U.S. Geological Survey: river gauges and aerial photos.
• U.S. Army Corps of Engineers: some river gauge records.
• ACIS (Regional Climate Centers): past weather records.
• Environment and Climate Change Canada: Canadian weather layers.
• Google Cloud Storage: public water-history map images.
• Our own servers (midsouthwaterfowl.com and related addresses, hosted by Cloudflare): hunting rules, deadlines, land and water layers, aerial photos, duck counts and river gauge readings. Cloudflare sees basic technical data, such as your IP address, to deliver the files and block abuse. We don't build profiles from it.

2. Things you choose to share

• Export and share. When you export your hunt log or field notes, or share a photo, the iPhone share sheet opens. You choose where it goes.
• Shared pin links. When you share a pin, the link holds the spot, the pin name, the pin type and a blind's facing. It holds no IDs, notes, photos or times. Anyone you send it to can open it. If they open it in a web browser, our website receives the link.

3. Hunting Teams (optional)

Teams are off unless you create or join one. If you do:

• Your phone gets a random member ID and key from our team server (run on Cloudflare). We don't ask for your email, phone number or Apple ID.
• The server stores the team name, the first name or nickname you enter, your team color, the pins, hazards and notes your team adds, boat trails you record, including ones still on your phone from before you joined (a trail you set to private is stored too, but only you can see it), team hunts you save, and when you last synced. Pins you drop are shared with your team unless you switch that off for the pin. Waypoints you import start unshared.
• Live location is off unless you turn it on. While it's on, your phone sends its latest position each time you move about 50 feet (with the phone locked, about every 80 feet and at most about once a minute). We keep only your latest point, not a history. Sharing stops on its own at the time you choose. The longest you can pick is 48 hours, the default is 6 hours, and there is also an "until midnight" choice. While you share, the app keeps renewing that end time, and our server never keeps a point more than 24 hours after its last update. Your point is deleted when sharing ends or when you stop sharing.
• Team hunts. A hunt in your log stays on your phone unless you pick teammates under "Hunters with you." Then the spot name and map point, state, date and time, bird counts, number of hunters, which teammates were there, and any names you type for hunters not on the app are stored so those teammates see it. Notes, photos, weather and water level stay on your phone. Please only add other people's first names or nicknames, and only with their OK.
• While you record a boat trail, it is sent to your team about once a minute and again when you stop, even if location sharing is off, and teammates can see it unless you set it to private. Boat trails still on your phone when you join a team (saved ones, and unsaved ones not yet erased) are sent to the team the first time your phone syncs after you join; any you had set to private stay private. Only members of your team see your name, location, pins and trails. Invite codes are long, random and expire after 30 days.
• Reports and blocking. If you report a pin, team hunt or teammate, we keep the report (your member ID, your team and its name, the reason, your note and a copy of what you reported) for up to 180 days so we can review it. Blocking hides someone on your phone. The server is told a block happened (this files a report about that person, with their name) so we can review it. The person you block isn't told.
• Abuse protection. The server keeps a scrambled (hashed) copy of IP addresses to limit repeated join, create and report attempts. It isn't linked to your team data and is cleared after about a day.

Notifications

Shooting-time, deadline and water-level alerts are set up on your phone. We don't send push messages and don't collect a push token.

Widgets

The home screen and lock screen widgets read from the app on your phone. They show shooting hours and your starred spot's water level. They don't send anything to us.

What we don't do

• No ads.
• No selling or renting your data.
• No tracking across other apps or websites.
• No analytics or crash-reporting services.
• No reading your contacts, calendar, health data or device advertising ID.

How long we keep data, and how to delete it

• On your phone: until you delete it or delete the app.
• Team live location: only your latest point, deleted when sharing stops or ends.
• Unsaved boat trails: the route, name and river level are erased from our server at the first midnight (your phone’s time) after the run ends, and never more than 36 hours after your phone last sent the trail. Saved trails have no time limit: they stay until the person who recorded them deletes them, leaves the team, or the team is deleted.
• Team pins, trails and hunts: until they are deleted, you leave the team, or the team is deleted. After a delete, the server keeps a small marker so other phones know to remove their copy. It has no names, notes, routes, spot names or bird counts. It does keep the random member ID of the person who added the item and its dates, and also: for a pin, its type, color and icon, for a hazard its hazard type and the river level and gauge name saved with it, and for a pin you delete yourself, its map point; for a trail, its distance and whether it was saved or private; for a team hunt, its state, number of hunters and which teammates were on it. Markers are kept for at least 30 days. After that, trail markers are removed the next time anyone on the team syncs, pin markers the next time anyone on the team adds, changes or deletes a pin, and team hunt markers the next time anyone saves, changes or deletes a team hunt.
• Leaving a team: "Leave team and delete my data" removes your name, location, pins, trails and the team hunts you recorded from the server right away (apart from the small delete markers above). Your random member ID, but not your name, stays in the list of hunters on team hunts other members recorded with you. Reports already made about you or something you added are kept as described under Reports, and they can include your name. If the team owner (whoever started the team, or the longest-standing member if that person leaves) removes you, the same happens. When the last member leaves, the whole team is deleted.
• Reports: up to 180 days.
• Hashed IP addresses: about one day.

You can also email us to ask for deletion (see Contact).

Children

The app is made for a general audience of hunters. It is not directed to children under 13. We don't knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you think a child has shared information through a Hunting Team, contact us and we'll delete it.

Security

Data moves over secure (HTTPS) connections. The team server stores only what's listed above.

Contact

Questions or deletion requests: [email protected]

Casey Keener