Privacy Policy
ABOUT THIS POLICY
This Privacy Policy explains what information Gambusa collects when you use the site, how it's used, who it's shared with, and the choices you have. "Gambusa," "we," "us," and "our" refer to the site and whoever operates it. "You" refers to anyone who visits or creates an account.
INFORMATION WE COLLECT
Account information: your username, email address, and password. Your password is stored as a one-way hash — we cannot see or recover your actual password, only verify it.
Profile information you choose to add: a bio, an avatar photo, and a cover photo. All optional.
Content you post: catches you log (species, location, size, weight, date, notes, photos), comments, likes, group posts, group memberships, direct messages you send, and any correction you suggest on a species page.
Location data: if you attach a location to a catch, you control whether it's shown publicly or kept private using the location-privacy toggle on the catch form. Even when marked private, the coordinates are still stored so the catch remains part of your own records — "private" means hidden from other users, not deleted from our database.
Automatically collected data: like most websites, our server logs basic technical information with every request — your IP address, browser type, and the pages you request — for security and troubleshooting. We also use a session cookie to keep you logged in and to protect forms against cross-site request forgery; this cookie is not used for advertising or cross-site tracking, and we do not currently run any third-party analytics or ad-tracking scripts on the site.
HOW WE USE YOUR INFORMATION
To operate the core features of the site: your feed, your life list, species reference pages, groups, direct messages, notifications, and search.
To communicate with you: account verification emails, password reset emails, and in-app notifications about comments, likes, and group activity.
To keep the community safe: reviewing user reports, checking new submissions against a moderator-maintained list of blocked terms before they're posted, and taking action on content or accounts that violate our Terms of Service or Community Guidelines.
To improve the site: understanding what's used and what isn't, based on aggregate patterns rather than tracking any one person's behavior.
HOW WE SHARE YOUR INFORMATION
Public by default: your username, profile info, the catches you log (except private-flagged coordinates), your comments, and your group posts are visible to other users and, in most cases, to the public internet and search engines — this is a public community site, not a private journal. Direct messages are private between the people in the conversation.
We do not sell your personal data, and we do not share it with advertisers for targeted advertising, because we don't currently run advertising on the site. If that changes — for example through the sponsorships described on our Advertise page — this policy will be updated first, and any ad partner's own data practices will be disclosed here.
Service providers: we use a hosting provider to run the site and store the database, and an email service to send verification and password-reset messages. The site's moon-and-tide feature makes a request to NOAA's public tide-prediction API using a station identifier and date range only — no personal or account information is sent to NOAA.
Legal requests: we may disclose information if required by law, or if we believe in good faith it's necessary to protect the safety of our users or the public.
YOUR RIGHTS AND CHOICES
Location privacy: toggle any catch's location between public and private at any time by editing the catch.
Edit or remove your content: you can edit or delete your own catches, and request removal of other content by contacting us.
Account deletion: you can delete your account at any time from Account Settings. This immediately signs you out, blocks future login, and replaces your username and email with an anonymous placeholder. Your past catches, comments, and group posts remain on the site under that anonymous placeholder rather than being erased outright — this keeps shared community data (species records, discussion threads) intact for everyone else, similar to how deleted accounts work on sites like Reddit. If you need guaranteed full erasure of your data — for example, for a formal legal request — contact us directly; that level of removal isn't something the self-service deletion flow performs on its own.
Access and correction: contact us to request a copy of your data or to correct inaccurate account information.
DATA RETENTION
We keep your account and content for as long as your account is active. After you delete your account, your content remains under an anonymized placeholder as described above, unless you request full erasure directly.
CHILDREN'S PRIVACY
Gambusa is not directed at children, and you must be at least 13 years old to create an account. If we learn that someone under 13 has provided us personal information, we will delete it.
SECURITY
We take reasonable precautions to protect your information, including hashing passwords and serving the site over HTTPS. No online service can guarantee perfect security, so we encourage using a strong, unique password.
CHANGES TO THIS POLICY
We may update this policy as the site changes. Meaningful changes will be reflected here with an updated date at the top.
CONTACT US
This Privacy Policy explains what information Gambusa collects when you use the site, how it's used, who it's shared with, and the choices you have. "Gambusa," "we," "us," and "our" refer to the site and whoever operates it. "You" refers to anyone who visits or creates an account.
INFORMATION WE COLLECT
Account information: your username, email address, and password. Your password is stored as a one-way hash — we cannot see or recover your actual password, only verify it.
Profile information you choose to add: a bio, an avatar photo, and a cover photo. All optional.
Content you post: catches you log (species, location, size, weight, date, notes, photos), comments, likes, group posts, group memberships, direct messages you send, and any correction you suggest on a species page.
Location data: if you attach a location to a catch, you control whether it's shown publicly or kept private using the location-privacy toggle on the catch form. Even when marked private, the coordinates are still stored so the catch remains part of your own records — "private" means hidden from other users, not deleted from our database.
Automatically collected data: like most websites, our server logs basic technical information with every request — your IP address, browser type, and the pages you request — for security and troubleshooting. We also use a session cookie to keep you logged in and to protect forms against cross-site request forgery; this cookie is not used for advertising or cross-site tracking, and we do not currently run any third-party analytics or ad-tracking scripts on the site.
HOW WE USE YOUR INFORMATION
To operate the core features of the site: your feed, your life list, species reference pages, groups, direct messages, notifications, and search.
To communicate with you: account verification emails, password reset emails, and in-app notifications about comments, likes, and group activity.
To keep the community safe: reviewing user reports, checking new submissions against a moderator-maintained list of blocked terms before they're posted, and taking action on content or accounts that violate our Terms of Service or Community Guidelines.
To improve the site: understanding what's used and what isn't, based on aggregate patterns rather than tracking any one person's behavior.
HOW WE SHARE YOUR INFORMATION
Public by default: your username, profile info, the catches you log (except private-flagged coordinates), your comments, and your group posts are visible to other users and, in most cases, to the public internet and search engines — this is a public community site, not a private journal. Direct messages are private between the people in the conversation.
We do not sell your personal data, and we do not share it with advertisers for targeted advertising, because we don't currently run advertising on the site. If that changes — for example through the sponsorships described on our Advertise page — this policy will be updated first, and any ad partner's own data practices will be disclosed here.
Service providers: we use a hosting provider to run the site and store the database, and an email service to send verification and password-reset messages. The site's moon-and-tide feature makes a request to NOAA's public tide-prediction API using a station identifier and date range only — no personal or account information is sent to NOAA.
Legal requests: we may disclose information if required by law, or if we believe in good faith it's necessary to protect the safety of our users or the public.
YOUR RIGHTS AND CHOICES
Location privacy: toggle any catch's location between public and private at any time by editing the catch.
Edit or remove your content: you can edit or delete your own catches, and request removal of other content by contacting us.
Account deletion: you can delete your account at any time from Account Settings. This immediately signs you out, blocks future login, and replaces your username and email with an anonymous placeholder. Your past catches, comments, and group posts remain on the site under that anonymous placeholder rather than being erased outright — this keeps shared community data (species records, discussion threads) intact for everyone else, similar to how deleted accounts work on sites like Reddit. If you need guaranteed full erasure of your data — for example, for a formal legal request — contact us directly; that level of removal isn't something the self-service deletion flow performs on its own.
Access and correction: contact us to request a copy of your data or to correct inaccurate account information.
DATA RETENTION
We keep your account and content for as long as your account is active. After you delete your account, your content remains under an anonymized placeholder as described above, unless you request full erasure directly.
CHILDREN'S PRIVACY
Gambusa is not directed at children, and you must be at least 13 years old to create an account. If we learn that someone under 13 has provided us personal information, we will delete it.
SECURITY
We take reasonable precautions to protect your information, including hashing passwords and serving the site over HTTPS. No online service can guarantee perfect security, so we encourage using a strong, unique password.
CHANGES TO THIS POLICY
We may update this policy as the site changes. Meaningful changes will be reflected here with an updated date at the top.
CONTACT US