Legal
Last updated: July 13, 2026
This app and service ("Shooal", "we", "us") is operated by Shooal, based in Nijmegen, The Netherlands. We are the data controller responsible for your personal data under the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
For any privacy question or request, contact us at jiddewiegertjes@gmail.com.
We only collect what the app needs to work and to improve.
| Data | What it is |
|---|---|
| Account | Your email address (for a one-time sign-in code) or your Apple sign-in identifier if you use Sign in with Apple. |
| Profile | The username you choose, shown on the leaderboard. |
| Your content | The species you log, your favourites/wishlist, your planned trips ("journeys"), and any species requests you submit. |
| Sighting photos | Photos you choose to add to a sighting. They are stored securely in our cloud storage so they sync across your devices. Only you can access your photos — they are never shown to other users. |
| Shooal ID scans | When you use the Shooal ID feature, the photo you submit is sent to our AI provider to identify the species. The scan photo itself is not stored by us; we only keep a usage counter (date and account) to enforce fair-use limits. If you choose to save the photo to your sighting, it is stored as a sighting photo (see above). |
| Purchases | Your subscription or purchase status (e.g. whether you have Shooal Pro), managed through Apple and our subscription provider. We never see your payment details — Apple handles all payments. |
| Onboarding survey | Optional answers to how you heard about Shooal, your age range, and your gender. You may skip all of these. |
| Usage analytics | Anonymous, aggregated product events (e.g. "logged a species", "opened the leaderboard") and basic device/app information, used to understand how Shooal is used and to improve it. |
We do not collect your precise location, your contacts, or any advertising identifier (IDFA). Photos are only processed when you actively choose to scan or add them — we never access your photo library in the background. We do not track you across other companies' apps or websites.
We aim to keep personal data within the European Union where possible. Your account, content, and sighting photos are stored in our database and file storage hosted in the European Union (Ireland), and our analytics provider (PostHog) is hosted in the European Union. Some providers — such as our AI provider (Anthropic), our subscription provider (RevenueCat), our email-delivery service, and Sign in with Apple — may process limited data in the United States or elsewhere outside the EU; where that happens, it is protected by appropriate safeguards such as the EU Standard Contractual Clauses.
We keep your account and content for as long as your account exists. Photos you submit to Shooal ID are processed to generate the identification and are not retained by us afterwards; only a scan-usage counter (date and account) is kept for fair-use limits. When you delete your account, your account and all associated data (profile, sightings, sighting photos, favourites, journeys, species requests, scan-usage records, and survey answers) are permanently removed from our database and file storage. Analytics events are retained in aggregate and are not used to re-identify you after deletion.
Under the GDPR you have the right to access, correct, delete, restrict, or object to the processing of your personal data, and the right to data portability. Specifically with Shooal:
Shooal is not directed to children under 16. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children under that age. If you believe a child has provided us with personal data, contact us and we will delete it.
Access to your data is protected by authentication and database-level security rules, so each account can only read and write its own data — including your photos, which are stored in a private folder only your account can access. No method of transmission or storage is ever completely secure, but we take reasonable measures to protect your information.
We may update this policy from time to time. When we make material changes, we'll update the "last updated" date above and, where appropriate, notify you in the app.
Questions or requests? Email jiddewiegertjes@gmail.com.
If you are in the EU and believe we have not handled your data properly, you have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority. In the Netherlands this is the Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens.