Birdly ("we," "our," or "us") is committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, and safeguard information when you use the Birdly mobile application ("App") and our website.
Information you provide
When you use Birdly, you may interact with optional features such as saving bird sightings, recording sounds, and browsing your identification history. Audio recordings are created when you choose to start a recording session.
Device permissions
Birdly requests access to your device's microphone solely to record bird sounds for identification. Camera and photo library access is requested only if you choose to identify a bird from a photo.
Location
Birdly may request location access to show bird species common to your area. You can deny location access and still use the App — you'll simply browse by country manually.
Subscription information
If you purchase Birdly Premium, payment processing is handled by Apple (App Store) or Google (Google Play). We do not receive or store your full payment card details.
Website preferences
On our website, we may store basic preference information in your browser so the site can remember your settings.
If you choose to upload or capture photos for bird identification, we use those images solely to provide the identification feature. We do not perform facial recognition, create biometric identifiers, or retain your photos after identification is complete.
Your bird sound recordings, identification history, and saved sightings are stored locally on your device. We are designed so that your personal data stays with you. We do not upload your recordings or identification data to our servers by default.
App preferences (such as theme choice, language selection, and onboarding settings) are stored on your device.
Sound recognition runs entirely on your device, which means the model has to be on your device. Birdly downloads it once — roughly 72 MB — shortly after installation, usually while you are reading the introduction. This is a plain file transfer from our public release page: it sends no personal data and is not tied to you or your device in any way. Where possible it waits for Wi-Fi, and it asks before using mobile data. You can check its status, or download it again, in Settings.
Photo recognition uses a smaller model that ships inside the App and needs no download.
We use information to:
We do not sell your personal information.
You may choose to share identification results with others using your device's native sharing features. That sharing is initiated by you and governed by the platform you use (Messages, email, or social media).
We may work with service providers to support delivery and operation of the App and website, but only in ways consistent with this Privacy Policy.
The free version of Birdly displays advertising supplied by Google AdMob. Premium subscribers see no advertising on any plan.
To serve and measure those ads, the Google Mobile Ads SDK collects and shares the following with Google and, where applicable, other entities that display ads:
This data is transmitted over an encrypted connection and is used for advertising, analytics, and fraud prevention. Its handling by Google is governed by the Google Privacy Policy. We do not receive or store this data ourselves.
Your choices. On iOS, Birdly asks for your permission before the advertising identifier is used for tracking; declining still shows ads, but they are not personalised. You can change this at any time in Settings → Privacy & Security → Tracking. On Android, you can reset or delete your advertising ID under Settings → Google → Ads. Subscribing to Premium removes advertising entirely.
Sections 1 to 6 describe the Birdly app. This section describes the website you are reading, which is a separate thing and collects nothing about you: no account, no analytics, no cookies, and no advertising.
The Bird Encyclopedia page is the one exception worth naming. The page at /birds has no bird data of its own. When you search, open a bird, or simply load the page, your browser requests species information and recordings directly from iNaturalist, and photographs directly from Wikimedia Commons. Those requests come from your device rather than through us, which means iNaturalist receives your IP address and your browser's user agent, exactly as it would if you visited their site yourself. Their handling of that is covered by the iNaturalist privacy policy and the Wikimedia privacy policy. We never see it.
Sharing a bird produces a link containing only that species' public identifier — for example /birds?t=12727. It says nothing about you, and anyone who opens it sees the same page you did. When such a link is posted somewhere like Telegram, that service fetches the page to build its preview card; we ask iNaturalist for the species name and photograph so the card can show them, and nothing about the person who shared it or the people who see it is involved.
Photographs load from Wikimedia's servers and recordings from iNaturalist's, so opening the encyclopedia tells both your IP address. Only openly licensed media is shown, and each item is credited to its author.
Depending on your location, you may have rights to access, correct, or delete certain personal data. If you would like to exercise those rights, contact us at ivansuhpm@gmail.com.
Because your content is stored on your device, you can delete recordings and identification history at any time within the App. Uninstalling the App will remove locally stored data from your device.
We take reasonable precautions to protect information from unauthorized access, loss, or misuse. Since identification and recording happens entirely on-device, your audio data never traverses our servers. Please help protect your device by enabling a passcode or biometric lock.
Birdly is intended for users of all ages who enjoy birdwatching, but the App is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children.
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will post the revised policy on this page and update the "Last updated" date. Continued use of the App after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.
Questions about this Privacy Policy? Email us at ivansuhpm@gmail.com.