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BirdEcho — Privacy Policy

Effective date: 1 July 2026

Summary

BirdEcho is a companion app that displays bird detections from a bird-detection station you own or have access to — BirdNET-Pi, BirdNET-Go, or BirdWeather. BirdEcho does not collect personal information, has no developer-operated servers, contains no advertising, and does not access your microphone. Everything you configure stays on your device.

Information stored on your device

  • Station connection details — the address (URL) of your BirdNET-Pi / BirdNET-Go station, and, for BirdWeather, your BirdWeather API token. These are stored locally on your device; the BirdWeather token is held in the Android Keystore (secure storage). They are never sent to the developer.
  • App preferences and a short offline cache of recent detections, stored locally so the app works without a connection.

Information sent to third parties

Data is only sent to provide the features you choose to use:

  • Your own station — the app communicates directly with your BirdNET-Pi or BirdNET-Go station over your local network. No account or token is required.
  • BirdWeather — if you connect a BirdWeather station, the app sends your BirdWeather API token to the BirdWeather API to retrieve your detections, governed by BirdWeather's privacy policy.
  • Google Maps— the map screen uses Google Maps to display station locations, subject to Google's privacy policy.

Analytics, ads, and crash reporting

BirdEcho includes no analytics or tracking SDKs and shows no ads. Optional crash reporting (Sentry) is disabled by default and is not enabled in the released build.

Permissions

  • Notifications — to alert you about new or rare detections (optional).
  • Internet / local network access — to reach your station.
  • Install packages (Google Play / GitHub build only) — used by the optional in-app updater.

Children

BirdEcho is a general-audience utility and is not directed to children under 13. It does not knowingly collect personal information from anyone.

Data retention & deletion

All data is stored on your device. You can remove it at any time by deleting your stations in Settings or uninstalling the app. There is no server-side data to delete.

Changes

This policy may be updated; changes will be posted on this page with a new effective date.

Contact

For any privacy-related questions, contact us at arunrajiah@gmail.com.