Privacy Policy — Terra Fauna

1. Overview and scope

This Privacy Policy applies to the Terra Fauna website at terrafauna.app, the Terra Fauna iOS application, and the related accounts and services, together called the “Service.” “Terra Fauna,” “we,” “us,” and “our” refer to the operator of the Service.

This policy describes the data practices in effect for the Service. If a new or changed feature handles information differently, we will provide appropriate notice and update this policy before that change takes effect.

The short version: animal identification happens on the iPhone; original capture videos stay on that device; exact capture location is kept private and used for eligibility and duplicate checks; we do not sell personal information or use it for targeted advertising.

2. Information we handle

Account information: A Sign in with Apple account identifier, session information, and—only when Apple provides it and you authorize it—your name or relay email address. We may also store a private display name, account creation date, and permanent or deferred team selection.
Location information: A fresh, precise foreground location sample when you begin and submit a reward-eligible capture. We also create an approximate place label for ordinary display. We do not request background or always-on location.
Capture and gameplay data: Species guess and result, capture time, species and catalog identifiers, model and policy versions, video-quality band, approximate place, animal level and stats, XP, food rewards, team bonuses, progression, inventory, and duplicate-eligibility history.
Integrity data: One-time capture-session identifiers, an encrypted or cryptographic hash of the local video, App Attest or similar integrity signals, timestamps, idempotency keys, and security events needed to prevent modified clients, replayed submissions, and reward abuse.
Original video: The original short video is stored only on your device in protected app storage and is excluded from device backup. Terra Fauna does not upload the original video or sampled frames.
Diagnostics and support: Crash, performance, and operational diagnostics provided through Apple or our service infrastructure, plus information you choose to include when contacting support. Server requests may temporarily expose network information such as an IP address to infrastructure providers.
Website information: This static website does not use advertising trackers, analytics scripts, accounts, or cookies set by Terra Fauna. GitHub Pages may process standard request logs under GitHub’s own privacy terms.

3. How we use information

We use information only as reasonably necessary to:

create and secure your account, restore sessions, and provide the Service;
confirm that a capture was created live in Terra Fauna;
check location accuracy, restricted captive-animal facilities, and prior captures of the same species nearby;
create a capture record, calculate stats and rewards, maintain your collection, and synchronize progression;
show an approximate capture place without exposing exact coordinates in ordinary interfaces;
detect abuse, investigate technical failures, protect users, and maintain service reliability;
respond to support, privacy, and account-deletion requests; and
comply with law and enforce our Terms of Service.

Legal bases outside the United States

Where a legal basis is required, we process account and gameplay data to perform our agreement with you; process security and limited diagnostic data for our legitimate interests in operating a safe and reliable service; use permission-controlled device data with your consent where required; and process information to comply with legal obligations. You may withdraw device permission through iOS Settings, although capture features that need that permission will stop working.

4. Special rules for location and video

Location

Location is part of the core capture transaction. With your permission, Terra Fauna obtains a recent precise sample while the app is in use. Exact coordinates are transmitted to our backend so it can enforce the half-mile same-species rule, check reviewed zoo and captive-animal exclusion areas, score encounter context, and protect the integrity of rewards.

Exact coordinates are not shown in ordinary interfaces, social features, product analytics, or public capture records. They are kept in a private data boundary linked to your account. A restricted-location preflight that does not create a capture is not intentionally persisted. The Service does not provide a friend feed, global feed, public profile, or public map of animal observations.

Video and classification

Terra Fauna records video without microphone audio. Selected frames are analyzed on your device by a bundled Core ML model. The server receives the classification result and verification metadata, not the original video or frames. Your local video may become unavailable if you delete it, delete the app, reinstall the app, change devices, or lose the device. Capture records can remain in your account even when the corresponding local video is gone.

Changes to these practices

If we later introduce cloud video backup, hosted image verification, sharing, social feeds, or background location, we will provide appropriate notice, update this policy and App Store disclosures, and request permission where required before using those features.

5. When information is shared

We do not sell personal information. We do not share personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising, and the Service contains no advertising SDK.

We may disclose limited information to:

Apple, for Sign in with Apple, App Attest, distribution, crash reporting, and platform services you choose to use;
Supabase and its infrastructure providers, for authentication, database hosting, server functions, and account-related service delivery;
GitHub, which hosts this static website through GitHub Pages;
professional advisers and authorities, when reasonably necessary to comply with law, protect rights or safety, or respond to valid legal process; and
a successor operator, if Terra Fauna is involved in a merger, financing, acquisition, reorganization, or transfer of the Service, subject to appropriate confidentiality and notice.

Service providers may process information only to perform services for Terra Fauna and under their applicable contractual and legal obligations. Their own services may also be governed by their privacy policies.

6. Retention and deletion

Account and gameplay records are retained while your account is active and deleted or de-identified after a valid account-deletion request, except where limited retention is required for security, disputes, legal compliance, or backup rotation.
Exact accepted-capture locations are retained with the capture because future duplicate checks depend on them. They are deleted with the account, subject to the limited exceptions above.
Original videos remain on your device until you delete them or local app storage is removed. Signing out does not automatically delete local videos; account deletion gives you a separate local-video choice where technically available.
Expired sessions and security logs are kept only as long as reasonably needed for service integrity, troubleshooting, abuse prevention, and legal obligations.
Support messages are retained while needed to resolve the request and maintain an appropriate record of the resolution.

Deletion from active systems may not be immediate in encrypted backups. Backup copies are isolated from normal use and expire through routine retention cycles.

7. Your choices and privacy rights

Depending on where you live, you may have rights to request access, correction, deletion, portability, restriction, objection, or an appeal of a privacy decision. You may also have the right to know the categories and sources of personal information we use and the categories of recipients to whom it is disclosed.

You can exercise many choices directly:

control Camera and Location permissions in iOS Settings;
delete individual local videos without deleting the server capture record;
sign out without deleting your account;
request full account deletion from Settings; or
email support@terrafauna.app for access, correction, deletion, or another privacy request.

We may need to verify your identity before fulfilling a request. Authorized agents may submit requests where permitted by law, subject to proof of authority and identity verification. We will not discriminate against you for exercising applicable privacy rights.

Because Terra Fauna does not sell personal information or share it for cross-context behavioral advertising, there is no sale or targeted-advertising opt-out required for our present practices. If that changes, we will provide the legally required controls before the change takes effect.

8. Children’s privacy

The account-based Service is not intended for children under 13, and children under 13 may not create an account or submit personal information. If the minimum digital-consent age in a user’s country is higher, the higher age applies unless a legally compliant parental-consent experience is offered.

If you believe a child provided personal information contrary to this section, contact us. We will investigate and delete the information where required. If Terra Fauna later offers a child-directed or verified-parent experience, we will publish the required parental notice and consent practices before collecting children’s personal information.

9. Security and international processing

We use administrative, technical, and organizational safeguards designed for the sensitivity of the information, including encrypted network transport, row-level database authorization, private storage boundaries for exact location, protected on-device storage, limited access, and integrity checks. No security measure can guarantee absolute protection.

Terra Fauna and its providers may process information in the United States and other countries. Those countries may have different data-protection laws from your home country. Where required, we use legally recognized safeguards for international transfers.

10. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as the Service evolves or legal requirements change. We will post the revised policy here and update the effective date. If a change materially affects how existing account information is used, we will provide additional notice through the app or another appropriate channel before the change takes effect.

11. Contact

Terra Fauna is the controller and operator responsible for the personal information described in this policy. Questions, privacy requests, and account concerns may be sent to support@terrafauna.app.