Privacy Policy
Bird Brain Solutions LLC · Version 1.0 · 21 August 2026
This describes what BirdWatchAI collects, what it doesn't, and who else can see it. It is written to be specific rather than reassuring — where something does leave your home, it says so.
The short version
- BirdWatchAI never uploads your camera feed. Bird identification runs entirely on your own computer, and we stream no video to ourselves or to anyone else. Your camera is a separate device with its own connection to its manufacturer — Tapo models stop streaming without one — and whatever travels over that link is covered by their privacy policy, not ours. BirdWatchAI does not use it; it reads the camera over RTSP on your own network.
- Community sharing is off until you turn it on. A fresh install shares nothing. Turn it on and your sightings are published publicly — including photographs and video clips, which are on by default once sharing is enabled, so switch them off first if you do not want them shared.
- We run no analytics and set no tracking cookies on this website. There is no Google Analytics, no advertising pixel, no session recording.
- We never see your payment details. Purchases go through Gumroad, who are the merchant of record.
- We don't sell personal information to anyone, and never have.
The software on your own computer
BirdWatchAI Server runs on hardware you control. Everything it produces — the detection history, snapshots, video clips, settings — is stored on that machine, in a folder you can inspect, back up or delete. We have no access to it and no way to reach it.
Even with sharing switched off, the software makes a small number of outbound requests:
| Request | When | What is sent |
|---|---|---|
| Weather lookup | Periodically, if you set a location | Your coordinates, to the US National Weather Service (or Open-Meteo, if you choose it). Rounded to four decimal places. |
| Location lookup | Once, only when you press it during setup | Your postal code or address, to Zippopotam.us or OpenStreetMap Nominatim, to convert it into coordinates. |
| Update check | Every 30 minutes | Nothing about you. A request to GitHub asking what the latest release is. GitHub sees the request, as any web server would. |
Weather can be turned off entirely (Settings → Feeder location & weather → Don't record temperature). The location lookup only runs when you press the button.
The community feed, if you enable it
Community sharing is off by default. Nothing leaves your installation until you switch it on in Settings → Community. Everything in this section applies only once you have.
What gets published, and where
Shared sightings appear publicly on the community feed at birdwatchai.com. Anyone can see them without an account. Each shared sighting includes the species we identified, our confidence, the time, the rarity, and the temperature if recorded.
Photographs and clips have their own switches — but on the server edition both are already switched on, so turning on community sharing publishes them too unless you turn them off first:
- Photographs — the snapshot of the bird. These are pictures taken in your garden, so consider what else is in frame.
- Video clips — the recorded clip around the sighting, with the same consideration.
On the desktop edition the equivalent control is a single Share Level from 0 to 4, where photographs arrive at level 3 and clips at level 4.
Your feeder's identity is a random key, not you
A shared feeder is identified by a random device key generated on your machine. It is not linked to your name, your email address or your purchase. Publicly, your feeder shows only the display name you chose — so if you call it "Kitchen Window", that is what the world sees.
Location
Read this before enabling sharing. If you have set a location for weather, that location is shared with your feeder when community sharing is on, and is used to plot your feeder on the public map. On the server edition there is no setting that shares sightings while withholding a location you have set; on the desktop edition, location is shared from Share Level 2 upwards.
How precise it is depends on how you set it. A postal-code lookup gives a coarse, area-level position. Entering a street address gives coordinates close to the building. If you would rather share only an approximate area, set your location by postal code, or clear the coordinates before enabling sharing.
Heartbeat
While sharing is on, your installation sends a periodic heartbeat — its device key, whether it is currently monitoring, and its version — so the site can show your feeder as online.
What we may do with what you share
You keep ownership of everything you share. By sharing it, you give us permission to store it, display it in the community feed, and use it to promote BirdWatchAI — for example a photograph appearing on this website or on social media. If you would rather that did not happen, leave photograph and clip sharing switched off; the rest of the feature works without them.
Ask us at support@birdwatchai.com and we will remove your shared content. Copies other people have already downloaded, and material already used in published promotion, are outside our control.
Community storage currently keeps shared media for a limited period and then removes it. We may change that, introduce paid storage tiers, or discontinue the feed. Your own installation keeps its full history locally either way.
Accounts on the community site
You can browse the community feed without an account. Creating one lets you keep a life list, follow feeders and comment.
- Signing in uses a magic link — you give an email address and we email you a link. There is no password to remember or for us to lose.
- We store your email address, the display name and bio you choose, your life list, the feeders you follow, and any comments you post.
- Comments and display names are public. Your email address is not shown to other users.
- If you invite someone to a community group, we store the email address you gave us in order to send the invitation.
Ask us to delete your account and we will remove your profile, life list, follows and comments.
Buying, and the newsletter
Purchases
Purchases are handled by Gumroad, who are the merchant of record. They collect and hold your payment details; we never see your card number. Their privacy policy governs what they do with it.
What we receive from Gumroad and keep is your email address, your name if you gave one, and a record of the licence key we issued you. We keep this so we can reissue a key you have lost and prove a licence is genuine. Where hardware is being shipped, Gumroad collects a delivery address and we use it to send the package.
The weekly digest
If you sign up for the weekly digest, we store your email address and a private unsubscribe token, and nothing else. Every digest carries an unsubscribe link that works immediately and needs no account. Signing up for the digest does not sign you up for anything else, and we do not use the address for marketing.
This website
We run no analytics, no advertising trackers, and no tracking cookies. The only thing stored in your browser by us is your light/dark theme preference, and — if you sign in — your session token so you stay signed in.
The site is static and hosted on GitHub Pages. Some pages load resources from other companies, and loading a resource reveals your IP address to whoever serves it. For completeness:
| Who | What for | Where |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub | Hosting the site itself | All pages |
| Google Fonts | The two typefaces | Most pages |
| Supabase | Loading community sightings | Home page, community feed |
| unpkg | The Leaflet map library | Pages with a map |
| OpenStreetMap | Map tiles | Pages with a map |
Who else handles your data
We use a small number of services to run BirdWatchAI. None of them may use your data for their own purposes.
| Service | What they do for us |
|---|---|
| Supabase | Hosts the community database, shared photographs and clips, and account sign-in |
| Resend | Sends our email — licence keys, sign-in links, the weekly digest |
| Gumroad | Takes payment and, for hardware, collects a delivery address |
| GitHub | Hosts this website and our release downloads |
We are based in the United States and these services store data there. If you are using BirdWatchAI from elsewhere, your information is transferred to and held in the US.
How long we keep things
- Shared sightings and media — kept for the community retention period then removed, or until you ask us to remove them.
- Licence records — kept for as long as the licence is valid, since a perpetual licence needs a permanent record to be honoured.
- Digest subscriptions — until you unsubscribe, which deletes the record.
- Community accounts — until you ask us to delete the account.
Your choices
- Share nothing — leave community sharing off. This is the default.
- Share sightings but no imagery — enable sharing, leave photographs and clips off.
- Share no location — clear your coordinates, or set your location by postal code only, before enabling sharing.
- Record no weather — set the weather source to Don't record temperature.
- Have your data removed — email us and we will do it.
Whatever your local law entitles you to — a copy of your data, correction, deletion, or objecting to how it is used — email support@birdwatchai.com and we will honour it. We will not charge you for it and we will not make it difficult.
Children
BirdWatchAI is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect their personal information. Where a school or group uses BirdWatchAI with pupils, the account belongs to the adult running it. If you believe a child has given us information, email us and we will delete it.
Security
Data we hold is encrypted in transit and stored with access controls limiting who can reach it. No system is perfect, and we won't claim otherwise. What limits the damage most is the design: your recordings live on your own machine and your feeder is identified by a random key rather than your identity, so there is little about you in our systems to begin with.
Changes
We will update this policy when what we do changes. The version and date are at the top. If a change materially affects what we do with information you have already shared, we will say so on this website rather than quietly editing the page.
Contact
Bird Brain Solutions LLC
support@birdwatchai.com
www.birdwatchai.com
Your licence terms are separate from this policy and are set out in the end-user licence agreement supplied with your copy of the software.