Fishtype Privacy Policy
Fishtype ("the app") is provided by MTP Works ("we", "us"). Fishtype turns a photo of your catch into a card with the fish name set in type. We collect as little as we can: there are no accounts, no location, and no analytics.
1. What stays on your device
The following are kept only on your device and are never sent to us or anyone else:
- Your photos and the finished images you make (the app keeps up to 30 recent finished images in its own storage)
- Your settings (name style, language) and whether you agreed to AI identification
- The names the AI suggested for each photo you identified, stored with a fingerprint (SHA-256) of the photo file so the same photo is not identified twice. The photo itself is not stored
- Your Fishtype Pro status and the number of free identifications left
Sharing or saving a finished image happens only when you tap Share or Save.
2. Fish identification (AI)
- When: only after you agree in the app, and only for the photo you are working on. If you choose "Not now", nothing is sent
- What is sent: a copy of your photo, redrawn as a JPEG of up to 1024 pixels on the long side. The app redraws the photo, so the copy carries no metadata (no date, place or camera data), and our server also rejects photos that still carry camera (Exif) data. If your device region is Japan, a hint that the fish was caught in Japan is added. Your device's location is never used
- Where it goes: to our server (Supabase, Tokyo region), which forwards the photo to Anthropic, PBC (USA) for identification. Only if Anthropic is busy or fails do we send it to OpenAI, L.L.C. (USA) instead. The AI companies receive the photo and our instructions only, not your device ID
- Storage: our server does not store your photo. Anthropic and OpenAI do not use API data to train their models by default, and delete it within 30 days (they may keep it longer if it is flagged for a policy violation). See Anthropic's data retention and OpenAI's API data controls
- Results: the AI's suggested fish names are returned to the app and shown to you. AI results can be wrong
3. What our server keeps
To count free identifications and check purchases, the app creates a random device ID (32 hexadecimal characters) on your device. It is not linked to your name, email address or phone number. On iOS it is kept in the device keychain so that reinstalling the app does not reset your free identifications.
Our server keeps, for each device ID:
- Free identifications used (including those added by watching ads). Kept so that the free trial cannot be reset, until you ask us to delete it
- Fishtype Pro identifications per day (up to 30 a day). Deleted automatically after 30 days
- Purchase status: a purchase key (Apple's transaction ID, or a SHA-256 hash of the Google Play purchase token), the product, the expiry date, whether it was a test purchase, and when we last checked it. Deleted automatically 90 days after the purchase expires
- Purchase check attempts (to prevent abuse). Deleted after 1 day
- Rewarded ad confirmations: AdMob's transaction ID, a one-time code made for each ad, and the ad unit. Deleted after 90 days
Our application logs record only the first 8 characters of the device ID and technical details such as the result, the plan, the product, the AI used and the time taken. Photos, AI answers, purchase tokens and keys are never logged. Our hosting provider (Supabase) also keeps standard request logs, which can include the request address (for the ad confirmation from AdMob, this includes the device ID) and the IP address, for a limited period set by the provider.
4. Purchases (Fishtype Pro)
Payments are handled by Apple (App Store) or Google (Google Play). We never receive your card or payment details. To confirm a purchase, the app sends the store's transaction information to our server, which checks it with Apple's or Google's servers and keeps the purchase status described in section 3.
5. Ads (Google AdMob)
- Free users can choose to watch a short video ad to get one more identification. Ads appear only when you tap "Watch an ad for 1 more photo". There are no banner or interstitial ads, and no ads while you have Fishtype Pro
- Ads are provided by Google AdMob (Google LLC). The AdMob SDK collects information such as an advertising identifier, device information, IP address and ad interactions for ad delivery, measurement and fraud prevention. See how Google uses information from apps that use its services
- Advertising identifier: on iOS, the app asks once whether you allow tracking. If you do not, the advertising identifier (IDFA) is not used and ads are not personalized based on tracking. On Android, the advertising ID is used; you can reset it or opt out of personalized ads in your device settings
- Europe, UK and Switzerland: Google's consent form is shown first. You can change your choice at any time in Settings > Ad privacy choices
- Reward confirmation: to make sure the reward is real, the app gives AdMob your device ID and a one-time code for each ad. AdMob sends them back to our server when you finish the ad. Advertisers do not receive them
6. Permissions
- Camera: to take a photo of your catch
- Photos: to open the photo you choose, and to save your finished image (on Android 10 and earlier, a storage permission is used for saving)
- Tracking (iOS): asked once for ads, as described in section 5
- Internet: for fish identification, purchase checks and ads
On Android, the libraries for purchases and ads also add the permissions they need to work: billing, the advertising ID and Android's ad services, network state, keeping the device awake briefly, and running a short background task.
Fishtype does not use location, contacts, the microphone or any other permission.
7. Sharing with others
We do not sell your data. We share it only with the service providers named in this policy (Supabase, Anthropic, OpenAI, Apple, Google, and Cloudflare for email forwarding), and only to provide the features described. We may disclose information if required by law.
8. Children
Fishtype is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect information from them.
9. Your choices and deleting your data
- You can use Fishtype without AI identification (choose "Not now" and type the fish name yourself)
- You can delete everything on your device by deleting the app (on iOS, the device ID stays in the keychain)
- To delete the data on our server, email us at info@fishtype.app with the Support ID shown in Settings (Settings > Contact adds it to the email for you). We will delete the data linked to that device ID within 14 days. Deleting it also resets your free identification count and purchase status on our server; restore your purchase in the app to use Fishtype Pro again
10. When you contact us
If you email us (including from Settings > Contact), we receive your email address, your message and anything you include, such as the Support ID, app version and OS that the app adds to the email. Email to info@fishtype.app is forwarded to our mailbox through Cloudflare and Google (Gmail). We use it only to answer you and handle your request, and keep it only as long as needed for that.
11. Changes
We will post any changes to this policy on this page. If a change is significant, we will also let you know in the app.
12. Contact
- Operator: MTP Works
- Email: info@fishtype.app
- Japanese version: プライバシーポリシー（日本語）