Privacy policy

Effective November 5, 2026 Beta version

Featherguild is built to keep what you hear and where you go on your own phone. Sharing with friends is optional, and when you share, the app sends only what is described here. This policy explains what the app handles, where it goes, how long it stays, and the choices you have.

On your device only

• Sound. Audio from your glasses or your phone's microphone is analysed on your phone to identify birds. It is not recorded, saved or sent anywhere.
• Your journal. Your sightings, notes, patches and the photos taken through your glasses are stored on your phone. Nothing leaves it unless you sign in and share, as described below.
• Location. With your permission, your location is used to list the birds that live where you are and to record where each bird was found. Exact locations stay on your phone. They are never sent to our server or to your friends.
• Captions. A sighting's one-line caption is written on your phone by Apple's on-device model.

When the app uses the network without an account

• Place names. To label a sighting with a place, such as a city, the app asks Apple's location service, which receives the coordinates. Apple's privacy policy applies.
• Field-guide downloads. Each set's bird photos, sounds and text download from GitHub. GitHub sees your IP address, as for any download.
• Your glasses. Featherguild connects to Meta glasses through Meta's Wearables toolkit and the Meta AI app. Meta's terms and privacy policy apply to that connection. The audio arrives over the glasses' camera stream; video frames are shown in the viewfinder and only kept when you take a photo. Featherguild does not use the glasses' voice features.

An optional account

You can use Featherguild without an account. An account lets you join Guilds of friends. If you sign in with Apple or Google, we receive an identifier for your account and, if you allow it, your name and email address. We keep the identifier, the display name you choose and when you joined. Your name and email address stay with the sign-in service (Amazon Cognito) and are not shown to anyone.

Our server runs on Amazon Web Services in the United States (Amazon Cognito for sign-in, a database, file storage and email for reports).

Guilds and finds

A Guild is a small, invite-only group of up to 20 people. Members see each other's display names and finds. An invitation is a link that works for seven days for anyone who has it.

Finds. When you are signed in and "Share my finds automatically" is on (Settings → Account), each bird you add is sent to the Guilds you are in as a find. A find carries only:

• the species, whether you heard or saw it, its rarity, and whether it sewed a new patch and in which edition;
• the city it was found in, or "a secret spot" for a threatened species, never coordinates;
• the date and time to the minute;
• its art: the set's patch of the species.

Never your notes, your exact location or your photos. Turning the setting off keeps later sightings private. Removing a sighting removes its find from every Guild.

Shared patches. You can also share a patch by hand to the Guilds you choose, with the extras you pick: your note, the caption, the city or no place at all, and the original photo. A shared photo has faces blurred and all metadata (location, time, device) removed on your phone before it is sent. It is kept only while a shared patch shows it.

Reactions, goals and comparisons. Members can react to each other's finds with a fixed set of reactions (no comments); the counts are shown to the Guild, and who reacted is told only to the find's owner. Goals count the distinct species a Guild finds. "Compare birds" shows a friend the species you have both shared to Guilds you share; the rest of your collection is compared on your own phone and never sent.

Notifications. If you allow notifications, we store your phone's push token to tell you about your friends' notable finds, a digest of the others, reactions to your finds and goals reached. Notifications go through Apple's Push Notification service. You can mute a Guild or a friend, and signing out removes the token.

Safety: moderation, reports and blocks

• Moderation. Photos shared to Guilds may be checked for objectionable content by Amazon Rekognition before anyone else sees them. A flagged picture is deleted and never shown. Rekognition analyses the picture where it is stored, under Amazon Web Services' terms.
• Reports. You can report a find or a member. The report, with what was reported (the find as your Guild saw it, with any note, caption or photo) and who reported it, is stored and emailed to us so we can act on it.
• Blocks. You can block a member. Their finds, reactions and notifications are then hidden from you. They are not told.

Deleting your account

You can delete your account in the app: Settings → Account → Delete account. This deletes, from our server: your account and display name, your memberships and the invitations you made, your finds with their reactions, shared patches and photos, the reactions you gave, your push tokens, mutes and blocks, and reports you filed or that name you. A Guild you started passes to its longest-standing member, or is deleted if nobody else is in it. A custom goal you set stays with its Guild without your name. Your sign-in account is deleted, and for Sign in with Apple the app asks Apple once more so that we can revoke Featherguild's access to your Apple ID. Your journal on your phone stays until you delete the app.

Tips

Tips are handled entirely by Apple through the App Store. We receive no payment details, and the app keeps no record of who has tipped.

What we don't do

• No advertising, and no ad or tracking SDKs.
• No analytics or crash-reporting services.
• No selling or renting of your information, and no sharing beyond the services named here.

Your choices

• Use the app without an account, or sign in and keep "Share my finds automatically" off.
• Leave a Guild, mute a Guild or a friend, or block a member at any time.
• Turn off location, microphone or notifications at any time in iOS Settings.
• Delete your account in the app, as above. Deleting the app deletes your journal from your phone.
• To ask what we hold about you, email us at the address below.

Children

Featherguild is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them.

Changes

We will post any changes here and update the effective date. If a change affects what is shared, the app will tell you first.