Privacy Policy

Who this covers

This policy explains how Flukesend collects, uses, shares and protects information in the Flukesend platform: the Flukesend photo delivery service, the Flukelogs boat app, and their websites and widgets. The platform is used by whale watching and wildlife tour operators and their crews to log trips, record sightings, and deliver photos and trip reports to their guests.

Who is responsible for what. For guest information, the tour operator you travelled with decides what is collected and why, and we process it on their behalf. For operator and crew accounts, and for how the platform itself works, we are responsible.

Information we collect

Account information. When an operator, captain or crew member signs in, we collect an email address and either an encrypted password or, with Continue with Google, the email address and name that Google returns. We never receive a Google password.

Guest contact information. Guests give an email address, and optionally a first name, so the operator can send them their trip photos. Where an operator connects a booking provider (FareHarbor), we receive booking details such as name, email, phone number, party size, amounts paid, survey responses and trip time, so crew can match guests to the trip.

Photos. Photos an operator sends to guests, and wildlife photos crew take for identification.

Trip and sighting data. Wildlife sightings (species, counts, behavior, times, notes), audio recordings, environmental conditions such as water temperature and sea state, and passenger counts.

Crew details.A crew member's name as it appears on the operator's roster, any tip link they add, which trips they started, and a callback phone number if they type one into an animal emergency report.

Usage information. How the service is used, such as a guest opening a gallery, saving photos, or tapping through to leave a review, so operators can see how their own guests engage.

Technical data. IP address, device and browser type, and request logs, collected automatically to run and secure the service. Our public websites use anonymous, cookieless page view analytics.

Location data

The Flukelogs boat app collects precise location, including in the background while the phone is locked, only while a trip is active: between the moment a crew member taps Start Trip and the moment they tap End Trip. We use it to draw the vessel's route and measure distance. If a trip is left running, recording continues until it is ended.

For crew.The location recorded is your phone's location, since the app runs on your phone while you work aboard. Before first use the app asks you to read a disclosure and accept location recording, and we keep a record of that acceptance. You can turn off location access in your phone's settings at any time, though the app then cannot record an accurate route.

Public positions.Where an operator publishes a sightings page or widget, boat positions on it are delayed and rounded to about a kilometre, so a live vessel's precise position is never displayed. Whether that page exists, and whether it shows a map, is the operator's choice.

Shared boats.An operator can choose to share boats with another operator on the platform. While that link is on, each operator's crew see the other's live boat positions and the species being watched, only during an active trip, along with the sightings logged during that trip and the messages the two crews send each other. Nothing else is shared: no route history, no past logbook, no guest information. It is mutual, and either operator can pause or end it at any time.

Region rooms.An operator can also choose to join the room for its region, a group thread with the other operators who have joined it. Members see each other's sightings as they are logged, including where the animals were, and each other's messages. A room never shows a boat's position. Messages in a room or a shared boats thread are deleted after a week, and a photo sent in one is deleted after 24 hours.

We do not use location data for advertising and we do not sell it.

How we use information

• To deliver photos and trip reports to guests, and to send the operator's review request and its reminders.
• To let crew log trips, record sightings and draw routes.
• To show operators their own trip records, guest engagement and reviews.
• To identify species and individual animals from photos, and to produce summaries and facts, using the identification and AI features described below.
• To deliver animal emergency reports to responders.
• For science and conservation, as described below.
• To operate, secure, support and improve the service, and to contact account holders about their accounts.

We do not sell personal information. We do not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising, and we do not use it to advertise to guests.

Science and conservation

Tour boats are on the water every day, and their sightings are valuable to whale research and protection. Operators own their trip records, and under our agreement with them we may:

• Share trip, sighting and vessel track records with research, conservation, wildlife management and marine mammal response organizations, under a written agreement that limits their use to those purposes and forbids re-identification and resale. Guest information is never included. Crew names are always removed. The operator's name is included only if the operator has chosen to be named.
• Use these records in combined, de-identified form that cannot identify an operator, crew member or guest, including in regional wildlife reports.
• Keep records after an account closes, with the operator's and crew members' identities removed, so the long-term scientific record stays whole.

Where precise locations could harm wildlife, we generalize or withhold them. Whale identification photos may also be contributed to Happywhale's public catalogue, but only by a crew member who chooses to, under their own Happywhale account.

Identification and AI features

Some features send photos or trip data to service providers that run automated models, to suggest species, match individual whales, grade fluke patterns, and write summaries and facts. Photos sent this way are wildlife photos, and guest contact details are never sent to these providers. Anthropic, which runs the AI features, does not use data sent through its commercial API to train its models. Photos sent to Happywhale for matching are handled under Happywhale's terms.

Who we share it with

Service providers that process data on our behalf, only as needed to run the service:

• Supabase, for database, sign in and file storage, in the United States.
• Vercel, for application and website hosting, in the United States.
• Resend, for delivering galleries, reports and account email.
• Stripe, for subscription billing. Card details go to Stripe and are never stored by us.
• Twilio, for delivering animal emergency text alerts.
• Anthropic, for the AI features, including species and fluke identification from wildlife photos. Guest contact details are never sent.
• Happywhale, for matching whale photos to known individuals, and for crew members' own contributions.
• FareHarbor, where an operator has connected it, as the source of booking information.
• Google, where an operator has connected their Business Profile, as the source of their own reviews. We read; we never post or reply. Google also provides maps.

Map tiles, charts and fonts are loaded from third-party servers (such as Esri, NOAA and Google Fonts), which see the IP address of the device loading them.

Other operators, only when an operator chooses it, as described under Shared boats and Region rooms.

Research and conservation organizations, as described under Science and conservation.

Emergency responders, when a crew files an animal in distress report for their area.

We may also disclose information if required by law, or to protect the rights, safety and security of our users, the public, wildlife or the service. If the business changes hands, information may transfer to a successor, which will be bound by this policy.

Google Business Profile, when an operator connects it

An operator can connect the Google account that manages their Google Business Profile, so Flukesend can show them how many reviews their galleries actually produced. Connecting is optional, done by the operator themselves, and the service works fully without it.

When it is connected we read the operator's own Business Profile listings and the reviews left on them: the star rating, the review text, the reviewer name as Google publishes it, and the time it was posted. We use it for one purpose, which is to report to that operator how many reviews followed the galleries they sent, and to match a review to a guest where the name makes that possible.

This access is read only. Flukesend never posts, replies to, edits, or deletes a review, and never changes anything on a Business Profile. We do not use Google review data for advertising, we do not sell it, and we do not share it with other operators or any third party. An operator's reviews are visible only to that operator's own account.

Google user data obtained through this connection is used and transferred in accordance with the Google API Services User Data Policy, including its Limited Use requirements. An operator can disconnect at any time in Settings, or revoke access directly from their Google account, and we delete the stored connection and the reviews we hold for them.

Text message alerts

Who receives them. Flukesend sends text messages for one purpose: to raise a marine animal emergency reported by a boat crew, such as an entangled or vessel-struck animal. The recipients are marine mammal stranding responders, and nobody else. There is no public sign-up, we never text a boat crew or a member of the public, and we never send marketing or promotional texts.

How consent is given. A number is added by hand, and only after we have telephoned a named person at that organisation and they have agreed on the call to receive these alerts at that number. We keep a record of that agreement, and the full workflow is set out in the messaging terms. A crew member's own number is collected only if they type it into the emergency report form themselves, and is used only so a responder can call them back about that report. We never send it a message.

We do not share mobile numbers. Mobile numbers and consent to receive text messages are never sold, rented, or shared with third parties or affiliates for their own marketing or promotional purposes. Numbers are disclosed only to our messaging provider (Twilio) for the sole purpose of delivering these alerts, and to the responder handling a specific report.

Message frequency. Messages are sent only when a crew files an animal emergency report for the water a responder covers. Frequency varies and is low, typically a few messages per year.

Message and data rates may apply. Reply STOP to any message to stop receiving them, or HELP for help. You can also ask us to remove a number at any time by emailing slater@flukesend.com. Carriers are not liable for delayed or undelivered messages.

How long we keep it

• Delivered guest photo galleries: the operator's retention window, between 3 and 90 days, after which the photo files are removed.
• Guest contact and booking details: while the operator's account is active, and deleted within 30 days after it closes, or sooner on request.
• Fleet chat: messages after 7 days, photos in them after 24 hours.
• Operator and crew account details: while the account is active, and deleted after it closes.
• Trip, sighting and track records: while the account is active, and afterwards kept with operator and crew identities removed, as described under Science and conservation.
• Backups: overwritten on the normal backup cycle, within 90 days.

We keep anything longer only where the law requires it.

Security

Data is stored on managed cloud infrastructure in the United States, with database access controls that keep each operator's records separate. Passwords are stored encrypted. Flukesend accesses data across the platform only to run, support and fix it. No system is perfectly secure; if a breach affects your personal information, we will notify you as the law requires.

Your choices and rights

• Guests can ask us to remove their email address and their gallery at any time, and can unsubscribe from review requests with the link in each one.
• Crew can turn off location access in their phone's settings; the boat app records location only between Start Trip and End Trip.
• Anyone can ask what personal information we hold about them, and ask us to correct or delete it. We will not treat you differently for asking.
• You can ask someone else to make a request for you; we may need to verify both of you.

Write to slater@flukesend.comand we will action it. If you are a guest, telling us which operator and roughly which date helps us find you faster. Some requests about guest information are the operator's to decide, and we may pass them to the operator.

California residents. We do not sell or share personal information as those terms are defined in California law, and we do not use sensitive personal information to infer characteristics about you. We do not disclose personal information to third parties for their own direct marketing (California Civil Code section 1798.83).

Do Not Track. Our websites do not track visitors across other sites, so they respond the same way whether or not a browser sends a Do Not Track signal.

Outside the United States. The service is run from the United States and information is stored there. If you travelled with an operator in another country, such as Australia, your information is transferred to and stored in the United States.

Children

The service is built for tour operators and their crew and is not directed to children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. Trip photos may show children in a party; they are delivered only to the email address the guest gave the operator.

Changes to this policy

When we update this policy we change the date above. If a change is material, we tell operators and crew by email or in the app before it takes effect, and the boat app asks crew to read and accept it again.

Contact

Questions, or a privacy request: slater@flukesend.com.