Privacy Policy

Summary

AnimalEar is a recorder and analysis app for animal audio. We collect the information needed to record, upload, analyze, save, and sync your recordings. We do not sell personal information.

AI results are candidate evidence only. They may be wrong and should not be treated as confirmed field records without human review.

Data we collect

Account data

The app may create an anonymous Firebase account so recordings can be saved before you create a permanent account. If you choose to link an email/password account, we store the account identifiers needed for sign-in and sync.

Billing data

If you purchase a paid plan, Apple’s App Store or Google Play processes the payment. AnimalEar may receive a store product identifier, signed transaction or purchase token, subscription status, renewal or expiration information, and the account identifiers needed to verify and provide the plan. AnimalEar does not receive or store your full payment-card number.

Recordings and uploads

When you record or upload audio, video, or reference images, we store the files and related metadata needed to process and display them. This can include recording duration, file type, timestamps, selected animal type, clip selections, and analysis status.

Analysis data

The app stores AI analysis outputs such as candidate labels, confidence scores, acoustic features, spectrogram-derived evidence, source or event metadata, and generated display data for saved recordings.

Device and field-session data

During live recording, the app may process microphone input locally in the browser or native app. Paired field sessions may store device labels, platform, microphone route, channel count, level telemetry, and last-seen timestamps so multiple devices can participate in one field session.

Location and regional context

If you grant location access, AnimalEar may use latitude and longitude rounded to three decimal places, the recording date, and a selected region to assess whether a candidate is plausible. Live detection can process this context on your device. When you choose cloud analysis or sync a recording, the location context saved with that recording may be sent to AnimalEar services. You can instead choose a broad region or use the app without location.

How we use data

• To record, upload, analyze, save, and play back AnimalEar.
• To show live acoustic views and candidate detections.
• To sync your library across devices when you sign in.
• To improve reliability, troubleshoot problems, and protect the service from abuse.
• To support optional public contributions only when you choose to submit them.

Sharing and service providers

AnimalEar uses Firebase, Google Cloud, Cloud Run workers, and related infrastructure to host the app, authenticate users, store files, and run analysis jobs. Apple and Google handle app distribution and in-app subscription payments when paid features are offered.

We may share information when required by law, to protect the service, or to operate the app through service providers. We do not sell personal information.

Your controls

• You can choose whether to record, upload, save, or contribute recordings.
• You can deny microphone, camera, photo, or location permissions at the operating-system level.
• You can permanently delete your account and account-linked cloud data from Settings. The data deletion page provides a fallback if you cannot access the app.

Some backups, logs, and records needed for security or legal compliance may persist for a limited period after deletion.

Children

AnimalEar is not directed to children under 13. If you believe a child has provided personal information without appropriate consent, contact us through the support page.

Contact

For privacy requests, data deletion, and beta support, use the instructions on the support page or the developer contact listed in the App Store or Google Play listing.