Privacy Policy — Cat Logger

Cat Logger is a citizen science app for cataloguing neighbourhood cats. Hudson asked us to be straightforward about data. So here it is.

When you use Cat Logger, we collect:

— Location data (where you are when you log a sighting)
— Photos you take of cats
— Timestamps of your sightings
— Cat names, notes, and other information you enter in the app
— Your email address and account information used to sign in

Sighting data — photos, locations, timestamps, cat names, and notes — is visible to other logged-in users who have spotted the same cats or are in a similar area. This is the point of the app. Think of it as a shared field notebook.

Your username is visible to other users alongside sightings you contribute. Your email address and full name are never shown to other users.

We may share sighting data — including photos, locations, timestamps, and cat observations — with third parties for conservation, environmental, public health, animal welfare, and general scientific research purposes, at our discretion, in aggregated or anonymised form where practicable.

By default, any data shared for research is anonymised. Your username and account are not included unless you have explicitly opted in to attributed data sharing in the app settings. You can opt in or withdraw this consent at any time.

We reserve the right to access and use any data submitted to Cat Logger — including sightings, photos, locations, and notes — for internal quality assurance, moderation, and research purposes.

Sign-in and account management are handled by our own self-hosted authentication service. Your email address and a securely hashed version of your password are stored on our infrastructure, solely for authentication purposes. We do not use your email address for any other purpose.

We use third-party vendors to operate Cat Logger — including hosting providers, database services, and logging and analytics tools. Your data, including app data, analytics, and system logs, may be stored or processed by these vendors on our behalf.

These vendors are permitted to process your data only to provide services to us. They are not permitted to share, sell, or use your data for their own purposes.

— We do not sell your data
— We do not serve advertisements in the app
— We do not share your email address or full name with any third party
— We do not use third-party analytics or advertising SDKs in the app

This privacy policy covers the Cat Logger mobile app. Our website (catlogger.app) may use standard web analytics tools. We reserve the right to track usage of the website.

Cat Logger is not directed at children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child under 13 has provided us with personal information, please contact us and we will delete it.

Questions about this policy can be sent to the research team. Hudson will probably not respond personally, but someone will.