Privacy Policy

Last updated: October 9, 2026

1. Who this policy covers

This Privacy Policy explains how Bluebelly LLC (“Bluebelly,” “we,” “us”) collects, uses, and shares information when you use the Bluebelly app, bluebelly.app, and related services (the “Service”). It applies to everyone who uses the Service, including visitors to the waitlist landing page.

2. Information we collect

You give us directly:

• Account info — username, email address, password (stored as a secure hash, never in plain text).
• Profile info — bio, home spot, avatar photo (all optional).
• Catch posts — photos, species, weight, caption, spot name, and GPS location of each catch you post.
• Social activity — comments, emoji reactions, group memberships and posts, who you follow and who follows you.
• Purchases — which Virtual Items (emojis, avatar skins, etc.) you’ve unlocked. We do not collect or store your payment card details — those are handled entirely by the Apple App Store or Google Play Store.
• Anything you send us directly — support emails, badge-claim submissions, group approval requests.

We collect automatically:

• Device location, if you grant permission, to center the map and show nearby conditions/catches. You can decline this and manually search or browse instead.
• Basic device/app diagnostics — app version, device type, crash logs — to keep the Service running and fix bugs.

We do not currently use third-party advertising or analytics SDKs that track you across other apps. If that changes, we’ll update this policy before it happens.

3. How we use your information

• To operate the Service: show you conditions data, your feed, your profile, and other users’ public profiles and catches.
• To let you post catches, react, comment, join groups, and follow/be followed by other users.
• To award badges and run leaderboards.
• To process your Virtual Item purchases (via the app stores) and reflect your unlocked items.
• To communicate with you — account notices, security alerts, and (if you opt in) product updates.
• To moderate content, investigate abuse reports, and enforce our Terms of Service.
• To improve the Service and fix bugs.

4. What’s public vs. private

Some information you provide is public by default to other Bluebelly users, because the app is a social product:

• Your username, avatar, bio, home spot, badges, catch count, and follower/following counts.
• Catches you post — including the photo, species, weight, caption, and location — appear in the public feed and on your profile, and may appear as a map marker.
• Comments and group posts you make.

Your email address is never shown to other users. It’s used only for login, account recovery, and (if you opt in) product communications.

If you’d rather not share a catch’s precise location publicly, don’t post it with that catch — we don’t currently offer a way to post a catch without a location, since the map is core to how the Service works, but a general “spot name” rather than exact GPS is often used in practice.

5. Who we share information with

We don’t sell your personal information. We share it only with:

• Other Bluebelly users — for the public information described in Section 4.
• Service providers who help us run Bluebelly, under contracts that limit their use of your data to providing the service to us: cloud hosting and database (Railway, PostgreSQL/PostGIS); photo storage (Cloudflare R2); transactional email (Resend) for signup confirmations and account notices; and the Apple App Store / Google Play Store for processing Virtual Item purchases — they collect your payment information directly, and we only receive confirmation that a purchase was completed.
• Public weather/ocean-data providers (NOAA, CDIP, RainViewer) — we query these services for conditions data; we don’t send them your personal information.
• Law enforcement or legal process, if required to comply with a subpoena, court order, or similar legal obligation, or to protect the rights, safety, or property of Bluebelly or our users.
• A successor, if Bluebelly is acquired, merged, or sells its assets — your information would transfer as part of that deal, subject to this policy (or a policy you’re notified of).

6. Children’s privacy

The Service is not directed at children under 13, and you must be at least 13 to create an account (see our Terms of Service). We don’t knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 13. If we learn that we’ve collected information from a child under 13, we’ll delete it and terminate the associated account. If you believe a child under 13 has created an account, contact us at privacy@bluebelly.app.

7. Your choices and rights

• Access/update/delete — you can view and edit most of your profile information in the app. You can delete your account at any time, which removes your profile and (subject to Section 8) your posted content from public view.
• Location permission — you can grant or revoke location access in your device settings at any time; the map/conditions features will still work with manually entered or default locations, just less conveniently.
• Marketing emails — if we ever send non-essential emails, you can opt out; we’ll still send essential account/security emails.
• California residents (CCPA/CPRA) — you have the right to know what personal information we’ve collected about you, request deletion, and not be discriminated against for exercising these rights. We don’t sell personal information. To make a request, contact us at privacy@bluebelly.app; we’ll verify your identity before fulfilling it.
• Other states/countries — if you’re in a jurisdiction with its own privacy law (for example, other U.S. states with comprehensive privacy statutes, or Mexico’s LFPDPPP given our Baja California user base), you may have similar rights. Contact us and we’ll do our best to honor applicable rights even where this policy doesn’t spell them out yet.

8. Data retention

We keep your account and content for as long as your account is active. If you delete your account, we remove your profile and content from public view and delete your personal information within a reasonable period, except where we’re required to retain it (for example, to comply with law, resolve disputes, or enforce our agreements) or where it exists in backups that age out on their own schedule.

9. Security

We use industry-standard measures to protect your information — passwords are hashed (never stored in plain text), connections to the Service are encrypted, and photo storage is access-controlled. No system is perfectly secure, though, and we can’t guarantee absolute security.

10. International/cross-border use

Bluebelly’s launch region spans the U.S./Mexico border (Oceanside to Ensenada). If you’re located outside the United States, your information will be transferred to and processed in the United States, where our servers and service providers are located.

11. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. If we make material changes, we’ll notify you through the app or by email before they take effect.

12. Contact us

Questions about this policy or your data: privacy@bluebelly.app

Bluebelly LLC (Wyoming)