Privacy policy
An app that knows where your boat is should be plain about what it does with that. Here's what happens with your data.
The short version
- We don't use third-party tracking, advertising SDKs or advertising IDs.
- Trips are private. Posts are public as soon as you post them.
- Photos have their location data removed, and only the cropped copy is uploaded.
- Fleet messages can be read on our server. They aren't end-to-end encrypted.
- You can export your data or delete your account from inside the app.
01Who we are
Breaking Wind is made by PC3 Media Group LLC ("we", "us"). This policy covers the Breaking Wind app for iPhone and iPad and breakingwind.app.
For anything about your data, write to privacy@breakingwind.app.
02What we collect
You need an account to use the app. When you create one and use it, we hold the following.
Things you give us
- Account: how you sign in (Apple or Google) and your email address. If you use Sign in with Apple and hide your email, we only see Apple's relay address.
- Profile: your handle and name and, if you add them, your boat, boat type, home waters, bio and profile photo.
- Minimum depth: the depth you set for your own alerts. Only you can see it.
- Posts: place, location, date, text, photos and the conditions captured at that moment, plus your likes and comments.
- Trips: name, start and end times, distance and the points along your route.
- Routes: the name and points of the routes you save, and the fleets you've sent them to.
- Fleets: the fleets you belong to, your sharing setting for each, the messages you send and the position, speed, direction and depth you share.
- Social and safety: who you follow, who you block and the reports you send us.
Things the app sends automatically
- Notifications: a push token from Apple, so we can send the notifications you've turned on. Notification text never reveals a location. A fleet message notification shows the words of that message, unless you've hidden previews on your device.
- Crash reports: if you've chosen to share analytics with app developers in your device's Settings, Apple gives us anonymous crash reports. They don't include your position or message text.
- Subscription status: from Apple, so the app knows whether you've subscribed.
Things that stay on your device
Your boat details for anchor math, your cruising speed, your planned leaving times and your progress along a route. We don't receive these.
Things we don't collect
Your payment card details (Apple handles payment), your contacts or your advertising ID. The app never asks for permission to track you across other apps.
03Your location
Breaking Wind uses your precise location, because a boating map is little use without it. It uses it in these ways.
- On the map and in the heads-up panel: to show where you are and to calculate speed and direction.
- While you record a trip: to save your route, including with the screen off. Your device shows that your location is in use while this happens. Trips sync to your account, and only you can see them.
- For underway alerts, if you leave them on: to compare your position and direction with charted data.
- When you post a mark: the location is saved with your post, and it becomes public when the post does.
- While you follow a route: to work out your progress and arrival time. That happens on your device, and your progress isn't sent to us.
- In a fleet, while you're sharing: your position, speed, direction and depth go to that fleet through our server.
- To load conditions: the app sends the coordinates of the area you're viewing, the spot you tapped or the area around a route you're planning to our service on Cloudflare and to public data services such as NOAA, the National Weather Service and Environment and Climate Change Canada. These requests carry coordinates, not your name or account. We don't keep a log of them. An answer may sit in our cache for a while, so the next person asking about that spot gets it faster.
Nothing shows where you are right now unless you choose that. You can turn off location permission in your device's Settings at any time; the map still works, but it won't know where you are.
04Public posts and photos
Public posts can be read by anyone using the app. That includes the location, the photos, the text, your handle and the conditions captured at the time.
Every post is public as soon as you post it, and shows where you dropped it.
Photos are center-cropped to a square, resized and stripped of location data on your device. Only that copy is uploaded, and it's stored with Supabase. Stored photos can be opened by anyone who has their link, and the links use random names that can't be guessed. The original never leaves your device.
05Fleets
Fleet messages and positions go through our server. They are not end-to-end encrypted, which means they can be read on the server. Don't use fleet chat for anything you wouldn't want stored there.
- Who sees them: members of the fleet see messages sent to the whole fleet. A message to one vessel goes to that vessel. Nobody outside a fleet can read it through the app.
- Reports: if someone reports a chat, we may read what was reported in order to act on it.
- Sharing: Share my numbers is set per fleet. Turn it off and your boat leaves everyone's map.
- How long messages are kept: as long as the fleet exists. Your messages are deleted when you delete your account.
- How long positions are kept: we keep only your latest position in each fleet, with no history. It's removed when you turn off sharing or leave the fleet.
Fleet messaging isn't for emergencies. See the terms.
06Who can see what
| What | Who |
|---|---|
| Handle, name, boat, home waters, bio, avatar, counts | Anyone signed in who views your profile, or finds it by searching for your name, handle or boat |
| Fleet invites | Whoever sent the invite and whoever received it. Senders aren't told if an invite was declined |
| Followers and following | Anyone who views the lists on your profile |
| Public posts, likes and comments | Anyone using the app |
| Saved routes | Only you, until you send one to a fleet. Then that fleet can see your latest version |
| Trips | Only you |
| Minimum depth | Only you |
| Fleet messages and shared numbers | The fleet, or the one vessel you sent to |
We can technically access data held on our servers. We limit that to running the service, handling reports and meeting legal obligations.
07How we use it
- To run Breaking Wind: sync your account, show your posts to the people they're meant for, deliver fleet messages and send the notifications you've turned on.
- To keep people safe: filter objectionable words, review reports and act on them. Text is filtered automatically. Photos aren't screened automatically, so we rely on reports. See the community guidelines.
- To fix problems, using crash reports.
- To answer you when you write to us.
- To meet legal obligations.
We don't use your data for advertising. There are no ads and no sponsored content in the app.
09How long we keep it
We keep your data while your account is open, apart from the fleet data described in section 5.
When you delete your account, it's deleted right away, with no grace period, and it can't be undone. That includes your profile, posts, photos, comments, likes, trips, routes and fleet messages. Our backups roll over on their own schedule, and deleted data in them isn't restored or used. See how to delete your account.
Reports are kept while the thing reported still exists, and are deleted along with it, or with the account of the person who sent the report.
10Your choices and rights
- Delete your account in the app, in Settings.
- Export your data in the app, in Settings. This keeps working if you cancel a subscription.
- Turn off sharing for any fleet, or leave it.
- Report or block a person. Blocking applies everywhere.
- Switch each kind of notification on or off.
- Edit your profile at any time.
- Turn off location permission in your device's Settings.
You can also write to privacy@breakingwind.app to ask for a copy of your data, a correction or deletion. We answer within 30 days, and we give these rights to everyone, wherever you live. If you're in a place with its own privacy law, such as California, Canada or the EU, you can also complain to your local regulator.
11Subscriptions
Subscriptions are bought through Apple, which handles payment and billing. We see your subscription status, and we don't see your card details. Apple's own privacy policy covers what it does with that information.
12Age requirement
Breaking Wind is for people 16 and older. If we learn that someone under 16 has an account, we'll delete it. If you think that's happened, let us know.
13Security
Sign-in tokens are kept in your device's keychain. Row-level access rules on every table in our database limit who can read each record. We don't log positions or message text.
No system is perfect. Remember that fleet messages aren't end-to-end encrypted.
14Where data is processed
We're based in the United States, and our providers may process data in the United States and other countries. If you use Breaking Wind from outside the United States, your data will be processed there, where privacy laws may differ from those at home.
15This website
Early access list. If you join it, we store your email, what you chose to tell us about where you boat and what you run, the date, and which ad or link brought you. We use it to email you about the beta and launch, and to learn which ads work. We don't sell it or share it with ad platforms. Email privacy@breakingwind.app to be removed.
breakingwind.app has no cookies and no analytics, and its only script is that signup form. Cloudflare, our host, processes your IP address in order to deliver pages and block attacks.
16Changes to this policy
If we make a change that matters, we'll tell you in the app before it takes effect. The date at the top shows when this policy last changed.
17Contact
PC3 Media Group LLC · privacy@breakingwind.app