Privacy policy

This policy explains how TickSentry handles information when you use the TickSentry website and iOS application.

1. Our privacy approach

TickSentry is designed to keep routine tick-check activity on your device. Live camera frames are processed in memory for preview, filters, and local visual prompts. They are not automatically captured, saved, uploaded, or queued for upload.

TickSentry is an informational tool. It does not diagnose ticks, disease, or medical conditions and cannot confirm that no tick is present.

2. Information stored on your device

Depending on the features you use, the app may store the following locally:

• a random ID for your installation, and a count of the free uses you have left;
• your app settings;
• guided-check progress, saved history metadata, and completed identification results;
• images that you explicitly save or submit for identification.

Saved and submitted images are re-encoded by the app. Source metadata such as GPS coordinates, original filenames, and embedded comments is not carried into the app’s stored image. You can delete individual history items and their images, or use the app’s delete-all control.

3. Camera and photo access

TickSentry requests camera or photo-library access only when needed for a feature you choose. Live scanning happens on your device. Selecting a photo does not submit it. For an identification request, you must choose or capture an image, review the crop and disclosure, and deliberately select [Analyze] before the prepared image leaves your device.

4. Identification service

When you submit an image for identification, TickSentry sends one image, with source metadata removed, together with limited request information, through TickSentry’s service to a third-party provider that performs the visual analysis and returns a result.

The submitted image is used to produce your result. It is not placed in long-term storage by TickSentry, and the image contents are not written to our logs. Providers are instructed not to use submissions to improve their models where that option is offered. A provider may still retain limited data for a short period for security, abuse prevention, or legal compliance under its own terms.

5. Location and regional context

If you grant location access, TickSentry may use a coarse region to select bundled seasonal context. When you explicitly submit an image for identification, TickSentry sends only a coarse country and administrative-region code, such as AU-QLD, to help rank visually plausible species. If no cached region is available, the app may send the device country instead. It does not send coordinates or a city with the identification request, and exact coordinates are not retained in app history or analytics. Location permission is optional, and a general regional fallback remains available.

6. Purchases and subscriptions

Apple processes App Store purchases and subscription management. TickSentry receives the entitlement and transaction information needed to provide purchased features, restore access, prevent abuse, and comply with legal obligations. Apple handles payment-card details under its own privacy policy.

7. Analytics and diagnostics

TickSentry uses a product-analytics provider hosted in the European Union to capture a centrally defined set of product events. Analytics is tied to a pseudonymous installation identifier, not your name, email, or advertising identifier. TickSentry does not include camera images, notes, exact coordinates, raw identification responses, or health information in analytics events.

8. Website data

This website is a static site delivered through a content-delivery and security provider, which may process technical request data such as IP address, browser details, timestamps, and security signals to deliver and protect the site. This website does not provide accounts, forms, behavioural advertising, or first-party analytics cookies.

9. Disclosure and service providers

We may disclose limited information to providers that help operate TickSentry, including Apple for purchases, our hosting and security providers, our analytics provider, and the identification analysis provider. We may also disclose information if required by law, to protect users or the public, or in connection with a business transfer. We do not sell personal information.

10. Security and retention

We use reasonable technical and organisational safeguards appropriate to the information and the service. No system is completely secure.

On-device records remain until you delete them, uninstall the app, or iOS removes them.

If you use iCloud Backup, your saved history, such as guided-check progress and identification results, is included in your device’s backup and stored under your Apple account, covered by Apple’s privacy policy. Two things are deliberately left out of that backup: the images you save or submit, which are excluded from device backups, and your installation ID, which stays on the one device and is not copied to iCloud or carried across to a new phone. Turning off iCloud Backup in iOS Settings stops the backup copy entirely.

Information sent with an identification request is retained only as long as needed to produce and deliver your result, and for limited security and abuse-prevention purposes.

11. Your choices and rights

You can deny or revoke camera, photo, and location permissions in iOS Settings; delete app history; use the app’s delete-all control; and manage subscriptions through Apple. Depending on where you live, privacy law may give you additional rights to request access, correction, or deletion of personal information we control. Contact us using the details below to make a request.

12. Children

TickSentry is not directed to children and is not designed to knowingly collect personal information from children. A parent or guardian should supervise any use by a minor.

13. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as TickSentry develops or as legal and operational requirements change. The effective date above identifies the latest version. Material changes will be communicated where required.

14. Contact

Questions or privacy requests can be sent to hello@ticksentry.app.