Privacy policy

Effective 27 October 2026

This policy covers the Carp Mate app for iPhone and Android. It says what the app keeps, where it goes, how long it is kept, and how you can export or delete it. It was written from what the app actually does.

Who we are

Carp Mate is made by Carp Mate App, run by Joseph Vose (“we”, “us”), based in Bulgaria. We are responsible for your data (the data controller) under the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Contact: support@carpmateapp.com.

Your account

To use Carp Mate you create an account with an email address and a password. Accounts are run by our provider Supabase. Your password is stored only in scrambled (hashed) form, so nobody, including us, can read it back. Supabase sends the email that confirms your address and, if you ask for one, the password-reset email. While you are signed in, a sign-in token is kept on your phone so you stay signed in.

Your fishing records and photos

What you record in the app is kept in your account, so a new phone or a reinstall brings it back:

• Sessions: when they started and ended, where you were (the place in use when you started, including your phone’s position if that place came from your phone’s location), species, catch count, best weight, method, notes, and the weather and conditions at the time.
• Catches: species, weight, time, bait, rig, rod, notes, the spot, and a photo if you add one.
• Waters and spots: their names and positions, and for spots the distance, depth, bottom, notes, colour, a photo and any marks you draw on it.
• Photos: the photos you add to catches and spots.

Photos taken or chosen on an Android phone keep the details the camera stored in the photo file, which can include where and when it was taken. On iPhone those details are removed when the photo is added.

Everything is stored with Supabase in its EU region (Ireland). Every record and photo is tied to your account and the database refuses anyone else: only you can read or change them. A copy is also kept on your phone so the app works without signal.

Your location

Carp Mate asks for permission to use your location while you are using the app. It takes a single reading the first time Today opens after the app starts, and again whenever you tap Use my location. It never tracks you in the background, and if you refuse, you can choose a place by name instead. Your phone’s position is sent to:

• Open-Meteo, for the weather and forecast there. Weather for any place you choose is fetched the same way.
• Your phone’s own place-name service (usually Google on Android; Apple on iPhone), to turn the position into a place name such as a town.
• Google Maps, when you open the Waters map, which starts on the area around you (see below).

It is stored in your account only when you start a session (as described above) or save a water or spot there.

Maps and place searches

• The Waters map uses Google Maps. Google receives the area of the map you are looking at so it can send the map images.
• Searching for a water sends what you type and the area of the map on screen to Google Places. Dropping a pin sends the pin’s position to Google Places to find the nearest water’s name.
• Choosing a place by name (the location search at the top of Today) sends what you type to Open-Meteo’s place search.

Google’s use of this is covered by the Google Privacy Policy.

Speaking instead of typing

The notes fields have a microphone button. It uses your phone’s own speech recognition (usually Google on Android; Apple on iPhone), which may send your voice to that company to turn it into text. To help it recognise fishing words, the app also passes it words from your own log, such as your baits and rigs. Carp Mate does not record or keep the audio. The microphone is only used while the button is on, and only with your permission.

Your backup file

Export my data makes a single file containing all your records and photos. You choose where it goes using your phone’s share options, and it is yours: we never receive it. Anyone you send it to, or any service you keep it in, can read it. Restore from backup reads a file you choose back into the app and your account.

What we don’t do

• No adverts.
• No analytics, tracking or crash-reporting tools: the app contains none.
• We don’t sell your data or share it with anyone beyond the services named here, and only for what is described here.
• We don’t use your data to train AI models, and don’t let others do so.
• We don’t look through your records. The only reason we would access an account is if you ask us to help with it.

Who else handles your data

Like any internet service, each of these also sees your phone’s internet (IP) address when the app contacts it, and keeps its own records of that under its own policy. Google, Apple and Open-Meteo may handle data outside the EU and the UK; they do so under their own safeguards for international transfers.

Why we use it (the legal basis under the GDPR)

• Your account, records and photos, and the services that run the app: to provide the app you have signed up for (contract).
• Your location and microphone: with your consent, which you give and can withdraw in your phone’s settings at any time.

How long it is kept

Your account and everything in it are kept until you delete the account. Delete account, in Settings, removes your photos, every record and the account itself from Supabase straight away, and empties the app on your phone. Our Supabase plan does not include database backups, and photos are never part of Supabase’s backups, so no copy is kept after you delete. If that changes, this policy will say how long backups are kept. Signing out also empties the app on the phone, except your theme and unit settings; your account keeps everything for when you sign in again.

Your rights

• A copy of your data: Settings → Export my data, at any time.
• Correcting it: edit any record in the app.
• Deleting it: Settings → Delete account. It cannot be undone, so export first if you want a copy.
• Anything else, including objecting to or restricting how your data is used: email support@carpmateapp.com.

If you are unhappy with how your data is handled, you can complain to the Commission for Personal Data Protection (CPDP), Bulgaria’s data protection authority, at cpdp.bg, or to the authority where you live in the EU.

If you are in the UK, you have the same rights under the UK GDPR, and can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk.

Children

Carp Mate is not meant for anyone under 16, and we don’t knowingly keep data about anyone under 16. If you think a child has made an account, email us and we will delete it.

Keeping it safe

Everything the app sends and receives is encrypted in transit. Your records and photos can be reached only with your sign-in, and the database checks every request against your account.

Changes to this policy

If what the app does with your data changes, this page will change first, with a new effective date at the top.

This policy was written from what the app does, and reviewed and approved by its owner, Joseph Vose. It is not legal advice.