Mobile App Privacy Policy

Yarran Dheran Nature Reserve app

Last updated: 3 November 2026

This privacy policy explains how the Yarran Dheran Nature Reserve app (“the app”), developed and operated by Adam Howell on behalf of the Yarran Dheran Advisory Committee (“we”, “us”), handles your information. As the Yarran Dheran Advisory Committee is a volunteer community group and not an incorporated body, this policy is issued in Adam Howell’s name as the app’s developer and legal operator of record. We have built the app to collect as little information as possible. There is no account, no sign-up, and no advertising.

What both apps have in common

• No account, no advertising, no tracking. We do not track you across other apps or websites, and we do not sell or rent any information.
• Your location stays on your phone. It is never sent to us or to anyone else.
• Our server. Reserve news, events, wildlife sightings and fire-danger ratings come from our own server (app.yarrandheran.org, hosted by Netlify). The server gathers them on a schedule from the reserve’s website, the iNaturalist API and Victorian emergency services data, and the app only reads what it has gathered. These requests carry nothing about you. As with any website, the server sees your connection’s IP address when it answers; we do not record it.
• Photos for events, news and sightings are loaded from where they are published (the reserve’s website and iNaturalist). We do not submit any of your data to iNaturalist.
• Anonymous usage analytics (Umami). To understand how the app is used, so we can improve it, we count which screens and features are used and for roughly how long: for example, which walks are started and finished, which species, events and news are opened, and whether quests are completed. Each record includes the screen or action, the time, your device’s language and screen size, and its operating system and app version. Umami works out an approximate location (country, region and city) from your internet connection and keeps that, not your IP address. On mobile data this is usually your carrier’s city, not where you are standing. Umami sets no cookies, and the app keeps no identifier for you. To group one visit’s records, Umami makes a code from your connection that changes every month, so it cannot follow you over time. Umami never receives your location from your device, anything you type, or the content of any notification.
• Push notifications (OneSignal). Each app’s section below says when notifications start. When they do, our notification provider, OneSignal, generates an anonymous notification identifier for your device and stores your device’s push token along with basic technical details (device type, operating system version, app version, language and time zone). This lets us send you alerts such as upcoming events, reserve news and sightings. Everyone receives the same alerts; we do not target individuals. You can turn notifications off at any time in your device settings.
• Fonts and the reserve map are part of the app and are not requested from anyone, except as noted for the earlier app.

The current app (version 6 and later)

What is sent from your device

• Anonymous usage analytics (Umami, described above) start when you first open the app. If you have no signal (on a walk, for example), these records wait on your device and are sent, with the time they happened, once you have a connection.
• Push notifications (OneSignal, described above). Nothing is sent to OneSignal until notifications are allowed for the app: when you tap Turn on and agree, or if you have already allowed them in your device settings. On Android 12 and earlier, Android allows notifications for every app when it is installed, so on those phones notifications are on from the start. You can turn them off in your device settings.

What stays on your device, or in your own Apple or Google account

• Location. If you allow location access, your position is used on your device only: to show where you are on the map and, during an audio walk, to tell when you reach the next stop. While a walk is running, the app keeps using your location when your phone is in your pocket, so it can let you know you have arrived. iPhone shows a location indicator and Android shows a notification while this is happening. It stops when you end the walk.
• Walk progress, settings and quest badges are stored on your device. On iPhone, if you are signed in to iCloud, your quest badges are also kept in your own iCloud account (Apple’s iCloud key-value storage), so they come back on a new iPhone. On Android, if you use Android’s backup, your quest badges and walk progress are included in your device’s backup to your own Google account and when you move to a new phone. These copies are between you and Apple or Google; we cannot see them.
• Weather is requested for the reserve’s fixed location, never yours: on iPhone from Apple Weather (WeatherKit), on Android from Open-Meteo.

Widgets and Live Activities

Home Screen widgets (recent sightings and upcoming events) fetch these, with their photos, from our server themselves, so they stay up to date. On Android this happens about once an hour while a widget is on your Home Screen. As with the app, these requests carry nothing about you. On iPhone, a walk’s Live Activity shows information the app already has on your device.

The earlier app (version 5 and before)

The earlier app is being retired and will stop working on 1 February 2027. Everything under “What both apps have in common” applies to it too, with these differences:

• Quest progress is saved to our server. If you take part in the in-app quests, a record of which quests you have completed, and when, is saved to our hosting provider (Netlify), so your progress can be restored if you reinstall the app. It is saved under an identifier for the app that your phone provides (on iPhone, Apple’s identifier for vendor). It is not linked to your name, email address, or any account, and is not shared with any third party. The app reads it back when it opens. These records will be deleted on 1 February 2027, when the earlier app is retired.
• Push notifications start when you agree on the app’s welcome screens or on the events card.
• Anonymous usage analytics are sent as you use the app; they are not saved for later.
• Maps. The app loads the Leaflet mapping library from a content-delivery network (unpkg) to show the reserve map. When it loads, your device’s IP address is visible to that provider, as it is with any website.
• Weather comes from Open-Meteo, through our server, for the reserve’s fixed location.
• Walk progress, settings and quest badges are also stored on your device.

Third-party services

• Netlify hosts our server (and, for the earlier app, saved quest progress).
• OneSignal processes notification data on our behalf. See OneSignal’s privacy policy at onesignal.com/privacy_policy.
• Umami processes anonymous usage data on our behalf. See Umami’s privacy policy at umami.is/privacy.
• Apple provides weather and iCloud storage in the current app on iPhone. See Apple’s privacy policy at apple.com/legal/privacy.
• Google provides Android’s backup (if you use it) and the location service on Android. See Google’s privacy policy at policies.google.com/privacy.
• Open-Meteo provides weather for the reserve on Android and in the earlier app; it is only ever asked about the reserve’s location.

How we use information

The notification data described above is used solely to deliver the push notifications you have allowed. The earlier app’s saved quest record is used solely to restore your progress through the in-app quests. Anonymous usage data is used solely to understand how the app is used, so we can improve it. We do not use any of it for any other purpose.

Data retention

Notification data is retained by OneSignal for as long as your device remains subscribed. If you disable notifications or uninstall the app, that subscription becomes inactive and the associated record is removed in the ordinary course. Quest progress saved with Netlify by the earlier app will be deleted on 1 February 2027, when the earlier app is retired; you may ask us to delete it sooner (see below). Copies in your own iCloud or Google account stay under your control and can be removed through your Apple or Google account settings. Anonymous usage data collected by Umami is aggregated and is not linked to you, so it cannot be traced back to identify you.

Where your information is stored

Some of the providers described above are based outside Australia. Our notification provider (OneSignal) and our hosting provider (Netlify) operate in the United States, and our analytics provider (Umami) stores anonymous usage data in the European Union. The limited information these providers handle on our behalf may be stored or processed overseas. We take reasonable steps to ensure it continues to be handled consistently with this policy.

Children

The app is intended for a general audience and does not knowingly collect personal information from children.

Your privacy rights

We handle personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles. You may contact us to ask what information (if any) we hold about you, to request a correction, or to ask that your notification subscription or stored quest progress be removed. If you are not satisfied with our response, you may lodge a complaint with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) at oaic.gov.au.

Security

We take reasonable steps to protect the limited information involved. Everything the app sends or receives over the internet uses encrypted (HTTPS) connections.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The “last updated” date above reflects the most recent change.