Wildmiler privacy policy

Who we are

Wildmiler is made and run by one independent developer in the United States, under the name shown on the App Store and Google Play listings. "We" in this policy means that developer, who is responsible for the data described here. Write to [email protected] with any question or request.

What stays on your phone

Your walk routes (GPS), distance, steps, pace and laps; your photos and clips, including any sound recorded with a clip; where each snap was taken; your Field Guide, XP, trophies and settings, including the weight and maximum heart rate you enter; and heart-rate readings. These are stored in Wildmiler's private storage on your phone and are not sent to us. They stay until you delete them or uninstall the app.

If "Save snaps to Photos" is on (under Me), your photos, clips and share cards are also saved to your camera roll, where your phone's other apps can see them if you've given them photo access.

What leaves your phone, and why

Identifying an animal. When you snap a photo or clip, a downsized copy (or three still frames from a clip, never its sound) goes to our identification server over HTTPS, together with your location rounded to about 1 km and the month, which help tell look-alike species apart. The server passes these to Anthropic, the maker of Claude, to identify the animal, and returns the answer. Our server does not keep your photos or your location. Anthropic processes them under its commercial API terms (anthropic.com/legal), which do not allow it to train its models on them; it may keep them for a limited time to check for misuse of its service.

Your anonymous account. The first time you identify a snap, the app gets a random account id from our server so it can give each phone its own daily allowance of identifications. It isn't linked to your name, email or phone number, and we have no way to tell who it belongs to. The server keeps the id, when it was created, your phone's platform (iPhone or Android), your tier, and how many identifications you've used each day. To limit how many accounts one network can create, it also keeps a daily count per network, stored as a one-way hash of your IP address, never the address itself. Daily counts are deleted after about a week. The account itself stays until you delete it (see Your choices).

Server logs. Our server runs on Google Cloud in the United States, which logs each request (including its IP address). Our own log lines record your account id, the species identified, and how long the identification took, to spot errors and abuse. Logs are kept for up to 30 days.

Species information. Species names are looked up on iNaturalist and Wikipedia to show names, photos, rarity and descriptions. For "nearby wildlife", the app asks iNaturalist what's been seen within 15 km of your location rounded to about 1 km. These requests carry no account id, but, like any web request, the services see your IP address and handle it under their own privacy policies.

Maps. Walk maps are drawn by Apple Maps on iPhone and Google Maps on Android, which receive the map area being shown, under Apple's and Google's own privacy policies.

Heart rate and health data

If you turn on Heart rate, Wildmiler reads the heart-rate readings your watch or earbuds save to Apple Health (iPhone) or Health Connect (Android), and only for the time of each walk you start. It reads nothing else from them and never writes to them.

Heart rate is used only to show your heart rate, zones, averages, maximum and per-lap figures for your walks. It is stored on your phone with the walk and is never sent to our server, Anthropic or anyone else. It isn't used for advertising, sold, or shared with data brokers, insurers, employers or lenders.

Wildmiler's use of information received from Health Connect adheres to the Health Connect Permissions policy, including the Limited Use requirements. Data from Apple Health is used under the same limits.

Heart rate in Wildmiler is for fitness only. Wildmiler is not a medical device and its figures are not for diagnosis or treatment.

Backups

Me → Your data → Back up makes one file with your walks (including heart rate), snaps and Field Guide, and saves it wherever you choose, such as Files, iCloud Drive or Google Drive. We never see it. Your phone's own backup (iCloud or Google) may also include Wildmiler's data, depending on your phone's settings.

Sharing

Nothing is shared unless you share it. When you share a snap card, you choose where it goes. Cards show the photo, the species and its rarity, your score and the date; never your location or heart rate.

Security

Everything sent to our server travels over HTTPS. Your account token is kept in your phone's keychain (Keystore on Android), and our server stores only a one-way hash of it, so a copy of our database couldn't be used to act as you. No method is perfect, and no app can promise complete security.

Your choices

Turn Heart rate off under Me → Walking, or remove Wildmiler's access in Apple Health or Health Connect settings. Deleting a walk deletes its route and heart rate; deleting a snap deletes its photo and location. Me → Your data → Reset all data deletes everything on your phone and your anonymous account on our server. Uninstalling the app deletes its data from the phone, except that on iPhone the random account id stays in the keychain, so a reinstall keeps the same daily allowance.

Location, camera, microphone, motion and photo access can be changed at any time in your phone's settings. Without location, walks can't be tracked and snaps are identified without a location hint.

Your rights

Because your data lives on your phone, you can see, change, export (Back up) and delete it yourself at any time. The only thing we hold about you is the anonymous account described above, which you can delete with Reset all data. If you'd rather we delete it, email us the account id shown under Me → Developer; we can't look it up any other way, because it isn't linked to you.

Depending on where you live (for example the EU, UK or California), you may have legal rights to access, correct, delete or receive a copy of your personal data, to object to or restrict how it's used, and to complain to your data-protection authority. We won't treat you differently for using them. Where European data-protection law applies, we use your data to provide the service you asked for (identifying snaps and running your daily allowance) and for our legitimate interest in keeping the service working and free of abuse (logs and signup counts); heart rate and location are read only with the permission you give your phone.

We don't sell your personal information and don't share it for cross-context behavioral advertising.

Where your data goes

Our server and Anthropic are in the United States, so if you use Wildmiler elsewhere, the photo, rounded location and account data described above are sent to and handled in the United States, where privacy law may differ from your country's.

Children

Wildmiler is not directed at children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect personal information from them. If you believe a child under 13 has used Wildmiler to send us anything, write to [email protected] and we'll delete it.

Changes and contact

If this policy changes, the new version will be posted at https://wildmiler.com/privacy with a new date, and the app will show it. Questions or requests: [email protected].