Privacy Policy

Overview

TrailBear ("we", "our", "the app") is a wildlife sighting map and trail safety application operated by Lily Haines, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. We are committed to protecting your privacy and being transparent about the data we collect and how we use it.

Data We Collect

Location Data

When you report a wildlife sighting, we collect the GPS coordinates of the sighting location. When you enable proximity alerts, we store your approximate location to send relevant notifications. Location data is only collected when you explicitly grant permission in your device settings. You can revoke location access at any time through your device settings.

Device Identifier

We generate a random, anonymous device identifier (UUID) to manage your alert preferences, custom zones, and rate limiting. This identifier is not linked to your identity, Apple ID, or any personal account. It is stored locally on your device and in our database only to associate your notification preferences with your device.

Account Data

An account is required to report a wildlife sighting or to subscribe to TrailBear Pro. It is not required to browse the map or receive proximity alerts. When you create an account, we collect your name, email address, and a hashed password (or, if you sign in with Google, your name and email from your Google profile). We also ask whether you would like to receive occasional product updates by email; this is opt-in and off by default. Account data is stored via Supabase Auth and is used to identify and, if needed, contact you about a sighting you reported, and to manage your Pro subscription.

Subscription and Purchase Data

If you subscribe to TrailBear Pro, your purchase is processed by Apple through the App Store. We do not receive or store your payment card details. We receive subscription status information (active, expired, cancelled) from RevenueCat, our subscription management provider. This includes your subscription tier, renewal status, and expiry date.

Sighting Reports

When you submit a wildlife sighting, we collect: species type, location, sighting type, animal count, optional behavior notes, and optional photos, along with your device identifier. Because an account is required to report, your sighting is also linked to your account so we can follow up if we have questions about what you saw (for example, requesting a photo or video you mentioned but did not attach). This link is private — it is never shown on the public map or exposed through our API.

Photos

If you attach a photo to a sighting report, we may extract GPS coordinates and date from the photo's EXIF metadata. Photos are used solely to support sighting verification. We do not use photos to identify individuals.

Push Notification Tokens

If you enable push notifications, we store your device push token along with your location and species alert preferences. This is used exclusively to deliver wildlife alerts. We do not use push tokens for marketing.

Wildlife Protection

To protect sensitive wildlife species from harassment or poaching:

• Grizzly bear and cougar sighting locations are offset by up to 500 meters from their true coordinates before display.
• Black bear locations are shown at their exact reported coordinates.
• Precise GPS coordinates for grizzly and cougar sightings are stored securely server-side and never exposed through our API or displayed on the map.
• Our Terms of Service explicitly prohibit using TrailBear to locate wildlife for hunting, poaching, or harassment purposes.

How We Use Your Data

• Display wildlife sighting data on the public map for community safety.
• Send push notifications when wildlife is reported near your location or within your custom alert zones.
• Generate trip briefings and trail risk assessments.
• Manage your TrailBear Pro subscription status and entitlements.
• Prevent abuse through rate limiting on sighting submissions.
• Improve the accuracy and usefulness of the application.

We do not sell, rent, or share your data with third parties for advertising or marketing purposes.

Third-Party Services

• Supabase — Database and authentication hosting (PostgreSQL). Data is stored in secure cloud infrastructure. Privacy policy.
• RevenueCat — Subscription and in-app purchase management. Receives subscription event data from Apple. Privacy policy.
• Apple App Store / StoreKit — Payment processing for Pro subscriptions. We never receive your payment card details. Privacy policy.
• Mapbox — Map rendering and geocoding. Privacy policy.
• Expo / Apple Push Notification Service — Push notification delivery infrastructure.
• Vercel — Web application hosting.
• iNaturalist — Source of publicly available, research-grade wildlife observation data.
• Parks Canada — Source of publicly available historical human-wildlife incident data.

Data Retention

• Wildlife sightings — Retained indefinitely as they serve ongoing public safety purposes.
• Alert preferences and device identifiers — Retained until you disable alerts in the app or uninstall the application.
• Account data — Retained until you delete your account (see below).
• Subscription records — Retained for up to 7 years for financial and legal compliance purposes after account deletion.

Your Rights and Choices

• Location access — Disable at any time through your device settings (Settings → TrailBear → Location).
• Push notifications — Disable at any time through your device settings (Settings → TrailBear → Notifications).
• Alert preferences — View and edit in the app's Settings tab.
• Custom zones — Delete individual zones from the Settings tab at any time.
• Account deletion — You can delete your TrailBear account at any time from Settings → Account → Delete Account. This permanently removes your name, email address, password, and subscription records from our systems. Sighting reports you submitted are retained for public safety purposes, but the link to your account is removed at that point, not before.
• Marketing emails — If you opted in at signup, you can opt out at any time via the unsubscribe link in any marketing email, or by emailing us.
• Data request — To request a copy of your personal data or for any other privacy inquiry, contact us at hello@trailbear.app.

Children's Privacy

TrailBear is not directed at children under 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 at hello@trailbear.app and we will delete it promptly.

Security

We use industry-standard security practices including encrypted data transmission (TLS), hashed passwords, and row-level security on our database. No method of transmission over the internet is 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this privacy policy from time to time. We will notify registered users of significant changes by email. Continued use of the app after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

Contact

Questions about this privacy policy or your personal data?

Email: hello@trailbear.app
TrailBear is operated by Lily Haines
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada