# Privacy Policy for Whale Friend Washington

Last updated: August 20, 2026

Whale Friend Washington ("we," "our," or "us") respects your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how information is handled when you use the Whale Friend Washington iOS application (the "App").

## 1. Information Collection and Use

### Personal Data
Whale Friend Washington does not require user registration or account creation. We do not collect, store, or solicit personal identification information such as your name, email address, or phone number.

### Location Data
If you grant the App permission to access your device's location, that location data is used strictly locally on your device to display your current position relative to marine mammal sightings on the interactive map. Your location data is never recorded, transmitted to external servers, or sold.

### Public Sightings Data
The App fetches publicly available marine mammal sighting data from the Acartia open data network. Browsing or refreshing this data does not transmit personal identification metrics to Acartia.

## 2. Third-Party Services & Advertising

The App may use third-party service providers to support app operations and monetization:

* **Google AdMob**: If advertisements are displayed within the App, Google AdMob may collect device identifiers (such as the Identifier for Advertisers - IDFA) and non-personal usage data to deliver contextual or personalized ads. You can manage or disable ad tracking through your iOS device settings (**Settings > Privacy & Security > Tracking**).
* **Apple MapKit**: Map rendering relies on Apple's standard MapKit framework, which processes map interaction requests subject to Apple's Privacy Policy.

## 3. Data Storage & Security
Since we do not collect or store personal data on remote servers, we do not retain or transmit sensitive user records.

## 4. Children's Privacy
The App does not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 13.

## 5. Contact Us
If you have any questions or suggestions regarding this Privacy Policy, please contact us at:

https://github.com/hegglinmichael/hegglinmichael.github.io/issues