Legal
Privacy Policy
Effective 23 July 2026 · Applies to the Critterdex iOS app and critterdex.madpine.com
The short version
- No accounts. You never sign up, so we never hold your name, email or password.
- Your collection lives on your phone. Cards, photos and progress are stored on your device, not on our servers — we don't have servers for them.
- Photos are sent out once, for one job: when you snap an animal, that photo is sent to an AI service to identify the species, then the answer comes back. That's the only data that ever leaves your device.
- Location is optional and stays local. It only tags your own cards.
- No ads, no analytics, no trackers, no selling data.
What the app collects, and why
Photos you capture
Critterdex works by pointing your camera at an animal. When you take a capture, the photo is processed to identify the species. Photos are stored on your device as part of your collection. To identify the animal, the photo is transmitted securely to our AI identification provider (see “Third parties” below). Only the image itself is sent — no name, no location, no device identifiers attached by us.
Location (optional)
If you grant the “while using the app” location permission, Critterdex tags each capture with where you caught it, so your own cards can show the place. This data is stored only on your device and is never transmitted to us or anyone else. The app works fully without it — decline the permission and nothing breaks.
Identification corrections
If you correct a wrong identification, the correction (which species was guessed, which you chose) is written to a file on your device to help us improve the app in future versions. Nothing is uploaded.
What we don't collect
- No account or contact details — there is nothing to sign up for.
- No advertising identifiers, no cross-app tracking, no analytics SDKs.
- No contacts, no photo-library scanning — Critterdex only sees the photos you capture inside the app.
Third parties
Critterdex uses one third-party service to do its core job:
- OpenRouter (openrouter.ai, OpenRouter Inc.) receives the capture photo and returns the species identification, acting as a processor for this single purpose. Transmission is encrypted. OpenRouter's handling of this data is governed by its privacy policy, which provides protections consistent with this policy; we do not permit our providers to use your photos for advertising or to build profiles about you.
We do not share any data with advertising networks, data brokers, or analytics companies. We do not sell data — there's nothing to sell.
Retention and deletion
Because your collection is stored on your device, you are in control:
- Delete one card: long-press it on the board — its photos are removed from your device.
- Reset your collection: available in the app's settings — removes every capture and photo.
- Delete the app: removes everything Critterdex stored, permanently.
Photos sent for identification are processed transiently to produce the answer; we keep no server-side copy (we operate no storage servers). Any short-term retention by the identification provider is limited to what its privacy policy allows for operating the service.
Your choices and consent
- Camera and location permissions can be revoked at any time in iOS Settings → Critterdex. The camera is required to capture animals; location is entirely optional.
- Identification consent: sending a photo for identification happens only when you take a capture — don't snap, and nothing is ever sent.
- Data deletion: see above — you can delete any or all data yourself, instantly, without asking us.
Children
Critterdex is made for everyone, including families. It has no ads, no social features, no chat, no third-party analytics, and collects no personal information beyond what is described above — which is the same minimal handling for every user, of any age.
The website
critterdex.madpine.com is a static page hosted on Cloudflare Pages. Cloudflare may process standard technical request data (such as IP addresses) to serve and secure the site. The site loads fonts from Google Fonts, which receives a standard web request from your browser. The website sets no cookies and runs no analytics.
Changes
If Critterdex ever changes how it handles data — for example, if optional online features like backups or leaderboards are added — this policy will be updated first, the “effective” date above will change, and anything new will be opt-in and explained in plain language inside the app.
Contact
Questions or requests about privacy: critterdex@madpine.com.