Privacy Policy

Last updated: 13 August 2026

This policy explains what personal data BeakBrain collects, why, and the rights you have over it. It is written to meet the UK and EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). We collect as little as possible, and you can use the whole app as a guest with no personal data collected at all.

Who we are

BeakBrain is operated by Dr Cat Black (the data controller). For any privacy question or request, contact hello@beakbrain.com.

The short version

• Use BeakBrain as a guest and we collect no personal data. Everything stays on your device.
• Create an account and we store your email and your learning progress, only to sync it across your devices.
• The waitlist is closed. Addresses given before it closed are held only to send the one launch email they were given for, and are deleted afterwards.
• We show no ads, run no tracking, and never sell your data.
• You can access or delete your data at any time.

What we collect, why, and our legal basis

We do not collect your contacts or advertising identifiers, we never sell your data, and we never use it for advertising. We do record how the app is used, in aggregate, along with crash diagnostics, both described under Who processes your data.

Location is used by one feature, Near Me, and only while you have it open. When you open Near Me the app asks your device for your position, rounds it to an area of roughly 35 km, and sends that area to GBIF, the open biodiversity database, to find which birds have been recorded there. Your coordinates are never stored by us, never attached to your account, and never used for anything else. Every other part of the app works without location, and you can refuse or revoke the permission in your device settings at any time.

Guest use

You can use BeakBrain without an account. In that case everything you learn, your progress, streak, saved trips, and collections, stays on your device and is never uploaded, and we hold no account or contact details for you at all. The usage and crash reporting described below still runs, so we can tell that a round was played and see any error it hit. It is not tied to a name or an email address.

If you create an account

If you sign up, we store your email address and sync your learning progress, saved trips, and collections so they follow you across your devices. Apart from the usage and crash diagnostics described below, that is the only personal data we hold, and we use it solely to operate the app.

Who processes your data

We use a small number of processors, each acting only on our instructions under a data processing agreement:

• GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facility) answers the Near Me lookup. It receives an approximate area, never your exact position and never anything identifying you, and it is a public research infrastructure rather than a commercial service. It is only contacted while you have Near Me open.
• Supabase hosts the database and handles sign-in. Row-level security means only you can read your own account data.
• PostHog provides privacy-friendly product analytics, so we can see how the app is used in aggregate and improve it. We do not use it for advertising, and we do not sell your data.
• Sentry provides crash and error reporting, so we can find and fix bugs. Reports contain technical diagnostic information rather than your learning content.
• Cloudflare hosts and serves this website and the app. Like any web host it processes the IP address and request details of every visit in order to deliver the page and to keep the service secure.

Where your data is stored

Your account data and diagnostics are held within the European Economic Area: Supabase in its EU region (Ireland), and PostHog and Sentry in their EU regions. Cloudflare serves the site from a global network, so a request is answered by whichever location is nearest you, and its request logs are handled under Cloudflare's own data protection terms. Any transfer outside the EEA is protected by appropriate safeguards, such as the Standard Contractual Clauses approved by the European Commission.

How long we keep it

• Account data: kept until you delete your account, then removed from our servers.
• Waitlist email: kept until the app launches or until you ask to be removed, then deleted.
• Guest data: never leaves your device, and is cleared when you delete the app.

Your rights

Under the GDPR you have the right to:

• access the personal data we hold about you;
• correct data that is wrong or incomplete;
• have your data erased;
• restrict or object to how we use it;
• receive your data in a portable format;
• withdraw consent at any time, where we rely on consent.

You can delete your account and all associated data yourself at any time from Account, then Delete account inside the app. This removes your data from your device and from our servers immediately. For any other request, email hello@beakbrain.com and we will respond within one month.

Your right to complain

If you believe we have handled your data unlawfully, you can lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority. In the UK this is the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk. In the EU it is the supervisory authority in your country. We would appreciate the chance to resolve your concern first, so please do contact us.

Cookies and local storage

We set no cookies at all, no advertising cookies, and nothing that follows you to other sites. The product analytics described above are configured to keep nothing on your device: no identifier is stored, so nothing persists after you close the app, and there is no tag that could be used to recognise you later or anywhere else. If you sign in, your events are associated with your account for as long as you have one, which is how we can tell whether people keep coming back.

Security

Data in your account is protected by row-level security, so each account can only ever read and write its own records. Traffic is encrypted in transit. Only the publishable key ships in the app, never any secret key.

Children

BeakBrain is suitable for all ages, and children are welcome to learn with it. This section is a legal note about data, not about content. BeakBrain is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 13. This keeps us clear of children's data-protection rules such as COPPA. A child can use guest mode, which needs no account and holds no name, email address, or contact details.

Media and data credits

Bird photos and recordings are used under open licences (CC0, CC BY, CC BY-SA) from Wikimedia Commons, iNaturalist, and the Xeno-canto community. Taxonomy comes from AviList, and distribution and seasonality from GBIF. Each item shows its photographer or recordist and its licence in the app.

External links

The app links out to third-party sites, such as birding tours, bird-club directories, Wikipedia, Xeno-canto, and BirdLife. Those sites have their own privacy policies, and we are not responsible for them.

Changes to this policy

If we change this policy, we will update the date at the top and, for material changes, tell you in the app or by email.

Contact

Questions, requests, or deletion: hello@beakbrain.com