Privacy Policy

1. Our privacy commitment

Your catches, notes, photos, and marked spots stay private unless you choose to share them. Thalweg Fishing does not post your private fishing records to a public catch feed or map.

Thalweg Fishing does not use your private fishing records for its own fishing research, reports, recommendations, or internal fishing intelligence. We do not combine those records with other anglers’ records for those purposes, including in anonymized or aggregated form. There is no opt-out exception to this commitment.

This does not prevent us from storing, backing up, synchronizing, and processing records to provide the features you request, or from maintaining and securing the service. Your own Journal statistics and the weather, water readings, and tide information attached to your entries are features for you; they are not a company fishing-research dataset.

We do not sell personal data or share it with third parties for their advertising or marketing. Private does not mean local-only: account records can follow you between devices.

2. Information we process

• Account information. Your email address, sign-in details, and profile information you provide. If you use Apple or Google sign-in, the provider supplies the account identifiers and permitted profile information needed to sign you in, such as your email address or name. We do not receive that provider’s password.
• Purchases and subscriptions. Subscriptions are sold through the App Store and Google Play, and by us on the web with Stripe as our payment processor. RevenueCat processes subscription status for Thalweg Fishing. We store only your subscription’s store and expiry date on your account, never a card number or billing address. The App Store, Google Play, and Stripe handle payment data under their own privacy policies. On the web, the checkout receives your account email address. Deleting your account detaches its billing record, which also ends a web subscription. It does not cancel an App Store or Google Play subscription; cancel that where you bought it.
• Fishing records. Journal entries, catches, observations, notes, photos, recorded conditions, marked spots, the places you follow, checklists, and preferences you save.
• Trip Sharing. Trip titles, planned-return and actual end times, current check-ins, recorded locations, sharing choices, and the email addresses or app accounts you select to receive access to a Trip.
• Fishalong. Outing details, membership, meeting points, regroup requests, catches and observations you share with the outing, and the latest location or phone number you choose to share with members.
• Groups. If you use Groups, the group names, memberships and roles, invites you send (including an email address you enter for an email invite), messages, photos, catches and trips you share into a group, message requests, the reports and blocks you submit, and a record of when you accepted the Terms for Groups and which version.
• Location and environmental context. Coordinates you provide or permit for maps, Journal entries, private track recording, or location sharing. We use relevant time and place information to attach environmental context to your records.
• Support and email requests. Messages you send us, and your email address when you request launch updates, feature news, or special offers.
• Service information. Request, browser, device, and error information used to operate, protect, and troubleshoot the service.

Thalweg Fishing does not import your device address book. When you provide someone else’s contact information, make sure they agree to its use for the trip you are sharing. Optional biometric app unlock is handled by your device; we do not receive your fingerprint or facial-recognition templates.

3. How we use information

• Provide account access and synchronize your records.
• Display your Journal, personal statistics, maps, checklists, conditions, and preferences.
• Generate environmental context and Catch Cards from the records and details you select.
• Carry out the Trip Sharing, Fishalong, and Groups actions you request, including permitted disclosures, message delivery, and notifications.
• Send account verification, security, support, and other necessary service messages.
• Send requested launch updates, feature news, and special offers.
• Maintain backups, diagnose faults, prevent abuse, and protect account and service security.

Operating or improving the service does not authorize us to use private fishing records for company fishing research or pooled fishing intelligence. The commitment in section 1 applies to all of these activities.

4. What you choose to share

Catch Cards

A Catch Card is an image you review and choose to share or download. You select the visible catch, condition, and trip details. Catch location and time start hidden; exact coordinates require a separate confirmation for the card. Location choices can include a broader place name instead of coordinates.

Exported cards remove embedded GPS and EXIF metadata. This does not remove location clues visible in the photo or details you include. Background blur and replacement on supported phones are best effort. Sharing a card does not grant access to your underlying Journal, and it does not remove the original record from your account. A recipient can keep or forward the image.

Trip Sharing

A Trip Sharing link gives read-only access to the permitted details of one Trip. Anyone with the link can open it without an account, including someone it is forwarded to. The view can include Trip status, planned return, shared locations and trail, and Trip entries if you enable them. An entry’s precise catch coordinates are excluded from the shared entry view; the Trip’s shared trail is a separate location disclosure.

You choose which location details each link shows and whether it includes check-ins and update times. Sharing starts when you grant access unless you deliberately include an earlier part of your recorded trip. Recordings you keep private stay private.

Pausing location sharing stops new location updates for contacts; it does not erase what they have already seen or revoke their link. Ending a Trip stops new updates, but its link remains readable until you revoke the share. Revocation ends future access through that link and cannot recall copies someone has already saved.

Fishalong

Catches and observations you share in Fishalong are visible to members of that outing. You choose whether to share your latest location and an optional phone number. Your private Journal is not automatically disclosed to an outing. Information another member has already viewed or copied cannot be recalled.

Groups

Groups are private and invite-only. What you post in a group is visible to its members, including people who join later. Photos and messages you shared into a group remain with that group after you leave or are removed. Deleting your account removes the messages and photos you posted in groups. You can edit or delete your own messages while you are a member. Members can save photos shared in a group to their devices, and we cannot recall copies they have kept. When a Catch Card is posted into a group where an owner or admin has set an exact-location default, that default applies without a separate confirmation for the card; whoever set the default confirmed it once at that time, and the person sharing can still change the location detail before posting.

Direct messages work the same way between two people. A Fishalong outing is separate from a group and keeps its own shorter retention.

5. Access and record protection

Private account records use account-level authorization and protected network connections. Internal access is limited to what is needed to operate, support, and secure the service. Deliberate sharing follows the separate access rules described above. For messages and photos in Groups, we read content only to act on a report, a legal requirement, or a security incident, and we log every such access.

Journal media is delivered through time-limited signed links. A valid signed link can be used to read its image until it expires; it is not a requirement that every image reader sign in. Local copies and downloaded exports also depend on your device’s access controls.

6. Outside services and sources

Hosting, account, storage, content delivery, email, and notification services process information needed to operate the features you use. Signing in through Apple or Google also involves that provider’s service.

Conditions come from sources including USGS, Open-Meteo, NOAA, the National Weather Service, Fish Passage Center, DART, and state or tribal sources. Requests can include the location or station needed to retrieve a reading or forecast. Location searches send the search text to Open-Meteo. Browser requests to outside services also disclose normal connection information to those services. Private Journal notes and catch records are not supplied as source material for public fishing reports or recommendations.

This website loads fonts from Google Fonts. Your browser requests its stylesheets and font files from Google. We do not use cross-site advertising trackers or display advertisements.

7. Cookies and device storage

Essential cookies and device storage support sign-in, preferences, and product features. The web product stores account session tokens in local storage and temporary sign-in state in session storage. A sign-in provider may also use its own cookies.

The phone app can keep Journal entries, photos, Trip changes, and recorded track points locally while they wait to synchronize. Offline support applies to the phone apps, not the website or web product. Queued data has feature-specific expiry and storage limits; it is not an unlimited local archive. Cleanup may need the app to run again.

8. Your choices and account deletion

You can review your records, edit preferences, manage location permissions, and use the account data export. Export formats and included records are described in the export screen. Device permissions can be changed in your operating-system settings.

Account deletion starts with a request in the product. There is a seven-day grace period during which you can cancel. After that period, the deletion processor removes account records and media; processing can take additional time. Once processing has started, the request cannot be cancelled. Completed deletion is permanent.

Deleting your account does not recall images, information, or other copies you deliberately shared and recipients retained. Messages and photos you posted in groups are removed from those groups when your account is deleted; copies members saved to their devices are not recalled. Contact us if you need help with an account or information another user provided about you.

You can stop launch updates, feature news, and special offers by replying to an email or contacting support. Necessary account, security, and service messages are handled separately. Notification preferences and sharing controls are available in the product; turning off notifications does not itself revoke a shared link.

9. Retention

Account records are retained to provide the features you use, subject to deletion and the limits of individual features. Local pending uploads, shared outing information, and temporary export files are kept for limited periods. Group messages and photos are kept until their author deletes them, the author’s account is deleted, or the group is deleted; a group owner’s deletion removes the group after a seven-day grace period.

Limited service and security records may be retained for troubleshooting, abuse prevention, and applicable legal obligations. This does not create an exception for retaining private fishing records as company fishing intelligence.

10. Children’s privacy

Thalweg Fishing is not intended for children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. Contact us if you believe a child under 13 has provided personal information.

11. Privacy requests

Depending on where you live and the law that applies, you may have rights to access, correct, export, or delete personal information, or to object to or restrict certain processing. Contact us with your request so we can identify the relevant information and respond. We may need to verify your identity before providing account information or carrying out a request.

12. International data transfers

Your information may be transferred to, processed, and stored in the United States. If you use the service from another country, that country’s data-protection laws may differ from those in the United States. Outside services operate under their own applicable terms and privacy policies.

International transfers are subject to applicable law, which may require a specific transfer basis or safeguards. Contact us for information about processing locations and transfer protections relevant to your information.

13. California privacy rights

If you are a California resident and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) applies to our processing, you have the following rights, subject to the law’s conditions and exceptions:

• Know what personal information is collected about you and how it is used and disclosed.
• Request deletion of your personal information.
• Request correction of inaccurate personal information.
• Opt out of the sale of personal information or its sharing for cross-context behavioral advertising.
• Limit certain uses and disclosures of sensitive personal information.
• Receive non-discriminatory treatment for exercising these rights.

Thalweg Fishing does not sell personal information or share it for cross-context behavioral advertising. Use the privacy-request process in section 11 to exercise your rights.

14. European privacy rights (GDPR)

If you are in the European Economic Area (EEA) and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) applies to our processing, you have the following rights, subject to the law’s conditions and exceptions:

• Access your personal data.
• Correct inaccurate or incomplete personal data.
• Request erasure of your personal data.
• Request restriction of processing.
• Receive a portable copy of eligible personal data.
• Object to certain processing of your personal data.

Where processing relies on your consent, you can withdraw that consent without affecting the lawfulness of earlier processing. You may also complain to the relevant data-protection authority. Use the privacy-request process in section 11 to contact us about your rights.

These regional rights do not create an exception to our commitment against using or pooling private fishing records for company fishing research, reports, recommendations, or internal fishing intelligence.

15. Changes and contact

We may update this policy as the service changes. Revisions will appear on this page with an updated date. Send questions or privacy requests by email or through the contact page.