Privacy Policy

Last Updated: October 1, 2026

This Privacy Policy describes how Mushroom Tracker ("we," "our," or "us") handles your information when you use our mobile application. In short: your mushroom locations, photos and notes are stored on your device by default. They are sent to our servers only when you use a feature that needs it — cloud backup and sync (a Premium feature), AI identification, the marketplace, or the community — and each of those is described below.

1. Information Storage and Collection

1.1 Data Stored Locally on Your Device

By default, the following is stored only on your device. You can use the map, the species guide and the seasonal calendar without an account, and none of it leaves your phone unless you turn on one of the features in section 1.2:

• Location Data: GPS coordinates for the mushroom pins you create
• Personal Notes: Text notes and observations you add to your pins
• Photos: Images you take and associate with a location
• Favorites: Your collection of favorite mushroom species
• App Preferences: Your settings and preferences

You can browse the species guide, save pins and use the map without creating an account at all ("Browse without an account"). In that mode we hold no account record for you.

1.2 Data Stored on Our Servers When You Use Certain Features

• Account: If you create an account, we store your email address and sign-in details (or the identifier provided by Apple or Google if you sign in with them). An account is optional for the core app.
• Season-alert emails from our website: If you type your email address into the season-alert form on one of our mushroomtracker.ca foraging-season pages, we store that address together with the species and region you picked, so we can email you when conditions line up. No account is created. Every one of these emails has a one-click unsubscribe link, and we use the address for nothing else.
• Cloud backup and sync (Premium): For Premium subscribers, the app backs up your pins — including their GPS coordinates and notes — your pin photos and your favorites to your account on our servers, so they survive a lost phone and follow you to a new one. Access rules on our database mean only your own account can read them. We do not sell them, share them, or use them for anything other than providing the features you have turned on.
• Season alerts (Premium): If you turn on season alerts, we use the approximate area of your backed-up pins (a grid cell roughly 5 km across, not the exact coordinates) to request weather data from a weather provider, and send you a notification when conditions change.
• AI identification: Photos you submit for identification are sent to our server and to an AI service provider to produce the result. We keep a history of your identifications (the result, and the photo and location if you provided them) so you can see them in your collection.
• Marketplace and community: Listings, messages, profile details, first-find announcements, foray groups and identification-review posts are stored on our servers and shown to other users as the feature describes. First-find announcements show a species and a general region, never your pin.
• Push notifications: If you allow notifications, we store a device token so we can deliver them.

1.3 Limited Information Processed by Third Parties

• Subscription Information: Payment and subscription status processed through RevenueCat and Apple/Google app stores (we do not store payment details)
• App Analytics and Crash Reports: Usage statistics and crash reports (Google Firebase) to improve app performance. These are tied to an app identifier, not to your name or email, and never include your pins, photos or notes.

2. How We Use Your Information

Your Personal Data (Photos, Locations, Notes): Stored locally on your device by default; saving and viewing your pins works without a connection. If you are a Premium subscriber, cloud backup and sync copies your pins, pin photos and favorites to your account on our servers, protected so only your account can read them — we do not use them for anything else.

Other data is used only for:

• Processing subscriptions through RevenueCat and the app stores
• Understanding how the app is used and fixing crashes, through Firebase Analytics and Crashlytics
• Measuring the effectiveness of our advertising, using hashed identifiers only
• Operating the marketplace and community features you choose to take part in
• Providing customer support when you contact us directly

2.1 Email Communications

We send three kinds of email:

• Account and transactional emails — such as email verification and password resets. These are sent to anyone who creates an account and are necessary to run it.
• Product updates and seasonal announcements — if you created an account, we may use your account email address to tell you about new features or the start of foraging season. We send these occasionally, and during the fall foraging season they may arrive as often as weekly. By creating an account you agree to the Terms of Service and this Privacy Policy, which include these emails.
• Season alerts you asked for — emails to an address you entered in the season-alert form on our website (see section 1.2), sent only about the species and region you chose.

Every product-update, seasonal and season-alert email includes a one-click unsubscribe link and identifies us as the sender. Unsubscribing stops those emails; it never affects your account or the transactional emails above. You can also reply to any of our emails, or write to shroom.tracker@gmail.com, and we will remove you by hand. We send these emails through Resend, an email delivery provider. Your email address is shared with Resend only to deliver these messages, and is never sold or shared for third-party marketing.

3. Data Storage and Security

3.1 Local Storage

Your data is stored locally on your device using a SQLite database:

• Mushroom pin locations and notes
• Personal photos and observations
• App preferences and settings
• Favorite mushroom species

3.2 Server Storage

Data described in section 1.2 is stored with our database and file-storage provider (Supabase). Database access rules restrict each account to its own backed-up pins, photos and favorites.

3.3 Third-Party Services

We use the following trusted third-party services:

• RevenueCat: For subscription management and payment processing
• Apple App Store / Google Play Store: For app distribution and subscription billing
• Supabase: For accounts, cloud backup and sync, the marketplace and the community
• Resend: For delivering the emails described in section 2.1 (receives your email address and the message content, nothing else)
• Google Firebase: For crash reports, usage analytics and push notification delivery
• AI service providers: For processing photos you submit for identification
• Open-Meteo: For the weather data behind season alerts (receives an approximate grid location, never your identity)
• Meta: For measuring our advertising. Subscription events are sent with hashed identifiers only — never your pins, photos, notes or location
• Vercel: For hosting our website and API endpoints

4. Data Sharing and Disclosure

We do not sell your personal data, and we do not share your mushroom locations, photos or notes with anyone. Unless you use cloud backup and sync or another feature in section 1.2, they never leave your device. When they are backed up, only your account can read them.

The only data shared with others is:

• Content you choose to publish — marketplace listings, messages to other users and community posts
• Data processed by the service providers listed in section 3.3, only to provide the feature concerned
• Subscription information (handled by RevenueCat and app stores)
• Subscription events sent to Meta with hashed identifiers, to measure our advertising
• Crash reports and usage statistics (no pins, photos or notes)
• Legal compliance if required by law

5. Your Rights and Choices

5.1 Location Services

You can control location access through your device settings. Disabling location services will prevent you from creating new mushroom pins but won't affect existing data.

5.2 Data Deletion

You can delete your data at any time:

• Deleting your account — Settings → Delete account, in the app, permanently deletes your account and the data held against it on our servers, including backed-up pins, photos and favorites, your marketplace profile and listings, and your identification history.
• Uninstalling the app removes everything stored on your device. It does not delete an account or anything backed up to it — delete the account first if you want that removed too.
• In-app data export and reset — from the About screen you can export your data and clear local storage without uninstalling.
• Subscription cancellation — manage or cancel an active subscription through your Apple App Store or Google Play Store account settings (Apple/Google handle subscription records, not us).
• Minimal server-side data — we do not require accounts to use the core app, and your pins, photos, and notes stay on your device by default. The features in section 1.2 do store data on our servers so they can work. To remove it, delete your account in the app, delete individual marketplace listings in-app, or email us to request deletion of any server-side copies.

If you have already uninstalled the app and have a remaining question or want written confirmation, email shroom.tracker@gmail.com with the subject line “Data Deletion Request” and we will respond within 30 days.

5.3 Subscription Management

Manage your subscription through your Apple App Store or Google Play Store account settings.

6. Children's Privacy

Our app is not directed to children under 13 years of age. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child has provided us with personal information, please contact us.

7. International Data Transfers

We are based in Canada, and the service providers listed in 3.3 operate in the United States and elsewhere. If you use an account or any of the server-backed features in 1.2, your information may be transferred to and processed in countries other than your own. We rely on the safeguards offered by those providers, including standard contractual clauses where applicable.

8. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page and updating the "Last Updated" date. Continued use of the app after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

9. Contact Information

10. Legal Basis for Processing (EU Users)

If you are located in the European Union, our legal basis for processing your personal information includes:

• Consent: For location access, analytics, and advertising measurement
• Contract: To provide the app's services, including any features you enable, and to process subscriptions
• Legitimate Interest: To improve app functionality, diagnose crashes, and provide customer support

You have the right to withdraw consent, access your data, request corrections, or request deletion under GDPR.