Privacy Policy

SnakeSpot respects your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, and protect your information when you use our community safety app.

1. Data We Collect

We only collect data necessary to provide the sighting alert service. • Geospatial Location Data (GPS): - Foreground Location: We capture your exact GPS coordinates when you submit a sighting report. - Background Location: If you enable proximity alerts, we continuously monitor your location in the background to send push notifications when you enter the radius (e.g., 1km) of a high-danger snake sighting. • Photos: We collect the photos you upload of snakes. • Report Summary: We collect the short text description you provide about the sighting. • Push Notification Tokens: A generic ID used to send alerts to your device. • Language Preference: Basic setting to display the app in one of 14 supported languages.

2. How We Use Your Data

We process your data to operate the SnakeSpot platform. • Map Display: We display sighting locations and descriptions publicly on the community map. • Proximity Alerts: We use background location to trigger proximity-based notifications for high-danger sightings nearby. • AI Identification: Sighting photos are analyzed by third-party AI models (e.g., Google Gemini) to provide species identification. • Service Improvement: We use aggregated, anonymized data (e.g., general locations, typical species found) to improve accuracy and app coverage.

3. Data Sharing and Anonymity

• PUBLIC MAP DATA: When you submit a sighting, the geographical point of the sighting, the time, and the photo become public. Other users on the map can see where a snake was reported. • ANONYMITY: Your identity is never explicitly attached to sighting reports. We do not require, nor do we store, user names or personal profile pictures. Reports are submitted anonymously. • THIRD-PARTY AI PROVIDERS: When you upload a photo for identification, it is sent to Google Gemini API (or equivalent multimodal AI services) for analysis. Google's data use is subject to their Gemini privacy terms. • DATA SELLING: We do NOT sell your personal data or location history to third parties for marketing purposes. • SPONSORSHIPS AND ADVERTISING: To keep SnakeSpot free for the community, we may display sponsorships or advertisements from brand partners. We may share aggregated, anonymized usage data (e.g., "10,000 active users in Bali this month") with these partners to demonstrate community reach. Because we do not collect personal identifying information (like your name, email, or phone number), we do not — and cannot — share personal data with any advertisers or sponsors.

4. Data Retention

• Sighting Reports: Sighting reports (time, GPS point, summary, photo URL) are stored permanently as historical records on our secure PostgreSQL database to map snake populations and safety trends. • Location History: We do not store your background location history; we only use your current point to check against sightings and then immediately discard the exact point data. • Push Tokens: Tokens are deleted when you uninstall the app or device is unregistered.

5. User Rights (Access and Deletion)

You may have rights regarding your data under applicable privacy laws in your jurisdiction. If you have submitted a sighting report and wish for it to be removed from the public map, please contact us through our support chat. While we detach links to personal identity, we may keep aggregate or historical sighting data points (GPS coordinates/species) for the integrity of the community safety record.

6. Contact Us

For questions about your data, this policy, or to request a report correction, please use the support chat on our website or submit a contact form. © 2026 SnakeSpot.io — All rights reserved.