Policy last updated 23 November 2022
The Badger Watch team (“we”, “us”, “our”), which is a partnership between the University of Exeter, Badger Trust, and Badger Dynamics (“the developer”), respects the privacy of our users (“user”, “users”, “you”, “your”). This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose and safeguard your information when you install or use our mobile application (the “app”) on your smartphone or other device such as a tablet (your “device”). If you do not agree with the terms of this Privacy Policy, please do not use the app, and remove it from your device. The app is intended for users in England and Wales only.
This Privacy Policy does not apply to any third-party online store, mobile store, app store or software distribution platform from which you install the app (an “app store”), which may also collect and use data about you. We are not responsible for any of the data collected by any such third party.
The app is intended to assist users in the generation of crime and incident reports and other observations and records for submission to Badger Trust. Privacy of data submitted to Badger Trust as part of reports generated by the app is governed by Badger Trust’s policies, specifically the section titled “Reporting Centre Privacy Notice” on Badger Trust’s Reporting Centre page.
The app itself does not submit reports to Badger Trust, but prepares them for you to send by email. Unless and until you send a report generated by the app to Badger Trust, no data from the app will be transmitted to Badger Trust.
Except for those opted into testing on specific lists (see “Personal data collected from testers” below), we do not receive or hold your personal data such as your name or email address when you install or use the app. The app does not operate a system of user accounts, nor does it identify installations of the app to a backend server, since we do not operate such a server nor commission anyone else to do so on our behalf.
The app includes no advertising integration features, and your data is not passed to advertisers, nor does the app access any advertising servers using your personal data or any other data. We are not responsible for data about the use of your device that may be passed to advertisers by third parties such as its manufacturer or the app store or operating system provider your device uses.
We do not access or collect any financial information, nor does the app facilitate or collect payments. The app is offered free of charge.
We do not access or collect any information relating to your social media accounts or your use of social media, nor does the app have any social media integration features.
The app includes a preferences feature to save your name, email address and phone number. This is intended for your convenience, so you don’t have to enter these details every time you use the app to make a report. These are stored in your device’s internal memory and are not backed up or transmitted anywhere, unless and until you manually submit a report to Badger Trust that includes such details, or back up your device with a third party. You can delete this information on the “Settings” screen. It is also removed if you uninstall the app.
The app includes features for saving draft and completed incident reports, and locations you wish to refer back to. Reports include your name, email address and phone number, where you have provided these, and any further personal data you choose to provide in narrative sections of the report. Unless and until you manually submit a report to Badger Trust, all your reports and saved locations are saved on your own device, and are not backed up, stored in the cloud, or transmitted anywhere by the app. You can delete these records by selecting the “My Reports” and “My Locations” options within the app and deleting individual reports, drafts or locations. All such records are removed if you uninstall the app.
The app may request permission to access location-based information from your device to provide location-based services. These services are as follows:
Your location data is never transmitted by the app to us or to anywhere outside of your device, unless and until you submit an incident report that includes such data. Upon doing this, your location data is processed by Badger Trust in accordance with their privacy policy as linked to above.
Locations may be stored in the memory or storage of your device when saved locations and draft reports are generated by your use of the app, either automatically or manually. You can delete these records by selecting the “My Locations” and “My Reports” options within the app and deleting individual reports, drafts or locations. All such records are removed if you uninstall the app.
Conversion of locations between latitude and longitude and OS grid references is performed within the app, without transmission of location data outside your device.
Conversion of locations to a what3words address necessarily involves sending the location being converted to what3words, which operates a proprietary system for naming locations that is under its control and not open to a third-party app developer to implement offline in the way that conversion to OS grid references is. When the app sends a location to what3words for this purpose it provides no additional data to specify whether the location is derived from your device’s location services (i.e. reflects where you are phyiscally located) or is the result of you placing a pin on a map or typing in a grid reference.
The app displays map image tiles downloaded from Thunderforest, which hosts and serves mapping data created by the open-source community project OpenStreetMap. When the app requests tiles for this purpose it provides no additional data to specify whether the location is derived from your device’s location services (i.e. reflects where you are phyiscally located) or is the result of you simply loading or scrolling across the map.
Both Thunderforest and what3words operate quotas for the services they provide, so when a request for map tiles or coordinate conversion is sent from Badger Watch it is sent with a key specific to this app, but not to your individual copy of it or to your device or anything else that includes your personal data.
If you wish to change the app’s permissions to access to your device’s location or other features, you may do so in your device’s settings.
If you install the app via its public listing in an app store this section does not apply to you.
This includes personally identifiable information such as your name and email address if you voluntarily give these to us when opting into testing of the app. We store this information only for the purpose of allowing you to install preview versions of the app, and contacting you about updates to or issues with the app. We share your email address with Apple or Google, depending on your platform, to allow them to enable installing these preview versions on your device. We do not pass your personal data to any other third parties without your consent.
This only applies to those who have opted into app testing by being added to a specific list of testers. If you install the app by following the public links on the how to install page, we do not receive your name, email address, or other personal data.
Dummy reports created using the app for testing purposes rather than to report actual badger-related incidents may include your location. As with any use of the app, this will only be transmitted to us with your knowledge or consent, when you submit an incident report that includes location data. This data will only be used to assist in the development of the app, and will not be passed to any third party without your consent.
Location information that may be sensitive, e.g. reflects your home location rather than somewhere arbitrarily chosen, will be deleted or redacted from any testing logs retained by the developer, within 90 days of full public release of the app.
If you install the app via a testing platform, certain additional information helpful to developing the app may be collected both by us and by the provider of the testing platform.
For the iOS version of the app installed using Apple’s TestFlight this information includes:
We use this information to develop and improve the app, and it is not shared with any third party other than the provider of the testing platform. TestFlight does not provide us with any information related to any other app on your device or anything else about how you use your device.
Further details about TestFlight’s permissions and privacy policy can be viewed within the TestFlight app.
For the Android version of the app, Google does not provide us with any personal information, only aggregate statistics.
The app has no features that require the creation or use of an account, other than any account you hold with your app store provider that allows the app to be installed, such as a Google account or Apple ID.
Upon its full public release the app will be published as free and open-source software. You or anyone else may therefore freely inspect the source code of the app to verify statements made in this Privacy Policy about how the app operates.
This provision does not become operable until the end of the testing phase and the app’s full public release and public listing in app stores.
If you have provided us with your email address and you no longer wish to receive correspondence, emails or other communications from us, you may opt out by emailing us.
We reserve the right to make changes to this Privacy Policy at any time and for any reason. We will alert you about any changes by updating the “last updated” date of this Privacy Policy. You are encouraged to periodically review this Privacy Policy to stay informed of updates. You will be deemed to have been made aware of, will be subject to, and will be deemed to have accepted the changes in any revised Privacy Policy by your continued use of the app after the date such revised Privacy Policy is posted.
New releases of the app may make use of features of your device not accessed by the version of the app you currently have installed. These will be notified to you either by a new request for permission when you use or update the app, or in the app’s app store listings, in accordance with the requirements of the app store or operating system provider.
If you have questions or comments about this Privacy Policy, or if you wish to obtain any of your data we hold, or have it deleted, please contact us by email.