Privacy & POPIA notice

1. Who this notice covers

This notice applies to anyone who uses the BaitLine app or website, including registered anglers, guest anglers added to a catch, and visitors to this marketing site.

BaitLine is the responsible party for your personal information. You can reach us, and our Information Officer, at info@baitline.co.za (see section 12).

2. Information we collect

• Account details: name, email address, and password (stored securely, never in plain text) - or, if you sign in with Google, the name, email address, and profile photo Google shares with us instead.
• Your mobile number, if you choose to add one - used only so friends can find and add you.
• Profile information you choose to add, such as a display name, bio, or profile photo.
• Catch and gear data you log, including species, weight, venue, rod, and the gear or bait used.
• Location, only when you use a feature that needs it: the province and town you pick for a catch, or your device's GPS position if you tap "use current location". When a competition referee weighs in a catch, the referee's device location at that moment is stored with it, if their device allows it. Fishing conditions use your current location to look up the weather there.
• Photos you attach to a catch or your profile. When a photo is uploaded we read the date it was taken, then strip its embedded metadata - including any GPS location stored in the file.
• Group, friend, and sharing activity - who you've connected with, what you've shared with them, and any comments or reactions you post.
• Guest angler names you add to a catch, on behalf of someone without their own account.
• Payment confirmation details, if you subscribe to BaitLine Premium or BaitLine for Clubs - your full card details go directly to our payment processor, PayFast, and never pass through our own systems.
• If you turn on notifications, a push token for your browser or Android device, so we can deliver them.
• Feedback you send from the app, and any content you report to us.
• Device and usage information, such as app version, crash and error logs, and which features are used (for example "catch logged" or "group joined"). This is recorded in our own systems only - BaitLine doesn't use third-party analytics, advertising trackers, or ad networks.
• On this website: the name, email address, and message you send through the contact form, which is emailed to us.

3. Google user data: Sign in with Google

BaitLine offers "Sign in with Google" as a way to create and access your account. This section specifically describes how BaitLine accesses, uses, stores, and shares Google user data obtained through that feature.

What Google user data we access

• Your name.
• Your email address.
• Your Google account profile photo.

This is the only Google user data BaitLine requests. We do not request or access your Gmail, Google Drive, Google Contacts, Google Calendar, or any other Google product or scope.

How we use Google user data

• To create your BaitLine account.
• To verify your identity each time you log in.
• To pre-fill your BaitLine display name and profile photo.

Google user data is used only to provide and improve BaitLine's own user-facing features - your catch log, gear inventory, and group sharing. We do not use Google user data to serve advertising, and we do not use it to train generalised AI or machine-learning models.

Sharing Google user data

We do not sell, rent, or transfer Google user data to any third party, and we do not share it with advertisers or data brokers. It is shared internally only with the service providers described in section 6 (for example, our hosting provider), strictly to operate BaitLine, and under agreements that require them to protect it.

Protecting Google user data

Google user data is transmitted over encrypted (HTTPS) connections and stored using the same access-controlled infrastructure described in section 8.

Retaining and deleting Google user data

We keep the name, email address, and profile photo obtained from Google for as long as your BaitLine account is active. If you delete your BaitLine account, this Google user data is deleted or anonymised within 30 days, as described in section 7.

Compliance

BaitLine's use and transfer of Google user data received through Google APIs to any other app adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. You can revoke BaitLine's access to your Google account at any time from your Google Account permissions page - doing so doesn't delete your BaitLine account itself; see section 7 for how to do that.

4. Why we collect it

We process your information to provide the core features of BaitLine - your catch log, gear inventory, and group sharing - to let friends find you by mobile number if you've added one, to show fishing conditions for your location, to record competition weigh-ins, to send the notifications you've turned on, to process payment if you subscribe to a paid plan, to keep your account secure, to respond when you contact us, and to improve the app based on how it's actually used.

5. Our legal basis for processing

We process your information because it's necessary to provide the service you've signed up for, because you've given consent (for example, when sharing a catch to a group), or because we have a legitimate interest in keeping the app secure and functioning correctly.

6. Sharing your information

With other BaitLine users. New accounts start with catches and stats visible to other BaitLine users, and included on leaderboards. You can change who sees them - everyone, friends only, or no one - and leave leaderboards, at any time in Settings. Your gear inventory is never shared, apart from items you choose to share with Family. A catch posted to a group, or one you're added to as a guest angler, is visible to the people in that group or connection, and a catch's location (including its GPS pin, if it has one) is visible to anyone who can see the catch.

With service providers. We don't sell personal information. We share only what each of these needs to run BaitLine, under agreements that require them to protect it:

• Our web hosting provider, which runs the app, this website, and the database.
• A cloud file-storage provider, which stores uploaded photos and club logos.
• Mailtrap, which delivers our emails (verification codes, password resets, invites).
• WeatherAPI.com, which receives your approximate location (rounded to about 1 km) to return the weather for fishing conditions.
• OpenStreetMap's Nominatim service, which receives a catch's coordinates (to name the town) or the place you search for, sent from our server. Map tiles are loaded from OpenStreetMap directly by your browser, which shares your IP address and the map area you're viewing with it.
• Google, for Sign in with Google (section 3), Firebase Cloud Messaging for Android notifications, and Google Play Billing for subscriptions bought in the Android app.
• Your browser's own push service (for example Google, Mozilla, or Apple), if you turn on notifications in a web browser.
• PayFast, which processes web payments under its own privacy policy - we receive confirmation that payment succeeded, not your card details.

We may also disclose information where the law requires it.

7. How long we keep it

We keep your information for as long as your account is active. You can delete your own account at any time from Settings in the app. Once you do, we delete or anonymise your personal information - including any Google user data received via Sign in with Google - within 30 days, except where we're required to retain it for legal or accounting purposes (such as payment records). Groups you own are handed over to another member rather than deleted, so the rest of the group keeps its shared catches. Contact-form messages are kept only as long as we need them to deal with your query.

8. Keeping your information secure

We use reasonable technical and organisational measures - including encrypted connections and access controls - to protect your information against loss, unauthorised access, and misuse. No system is completely secure, and we work to identify and fix issues as they're found.

9. Information stored outside South Africa

Some of the service providers in section 6 - including Google, Mailtrap, WeatherAPI.com, OpenStreetMap, and our file-storage provider - process information on servers outside South Africa. We only use providers that are bound by data-protection law or agreements giving your information a level of protection comparable to POPIA, as section 72 of POPIA requires.

10. Children

BaitLine is intended for people aged 18 and over. Anyone younger may only use it with the consent of a parent or guardian. If you believe a child's information was given to us without that consent, contact our Information Officer and we'll delete it.

11. Marketing and automated decisions

We only email you about your account and the app itself - such as verification codes, password resets, and invites. We don't send marketing email, and we don't make automated decisions about you that have legal or similarly significant effects.

12. Your rights

Under POPIA, you have the right to:

• Ask what personal information we hold about you, and request a copy of it.
• Ask us to correct information that's inaccurate or out of date.
• Ask us to delete information we no longer have a valid reason to keep.
• Object to processing carried out on the basis of legitimate interest.
• Withdraw consent you've previously given, where processing relies on it.

Much of this you can do yourself in the app: edit your profile, change your privacy settings, turn off location or notifications, export your catches and gear (with Premium), or delete your whole account from Settings. For anything else, contact our Information Officer using the details below.

13. Complaints

If you're not satisfied with how we've handled your information, you can lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator (South Africa) at inforegulator.org.za.

14. Cookies and device storage

This website sets one cookie, only on the contact page, to protect the form from spam and forged submissions. The app stores your login session, preferences, and any catches waiting to sync offline on your own device, so it can keep you signed in and work without signal. We don't use tracking or advertising cookies.

15. Changes to this notice

We may update this notice from time to time. We'll update the date at the top of the page when we do, and let you know in-app about any material changes.

16. Contact us

For any other privacy questions, reach us via the contact page or at info@baitline.co.za.