Privacy policy

Effective date: September 24, 2026 · Last updated: September 24, 2026

1. Who we are

Tightline is a fishing app for New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. It is run by Daniel's Tech Shop LLC, 971 US Highway 202N, Ste N, Branchburg, NJ 08876, USA ("Tightline", "we", "us"). This policy covers the Tightline Android app, its online community features and this website.

2. What stays on your phone

Most of Tightline works without an account and without sending anything about you to us. The following is stored only on your device:

• Your catch log: species, length, weight, kept or released, time, place, water body, bait, rig, notes, the conditions at the time, and the exact GPS position if you logged one.
• Catch photos. When you add a photo, the app re-encodes it as a new JPEG and shrinks it. This removes the photo's hidden metadata (EXIF), including any GPS coordinates the camera stored.
• Settings and progress: your chosen place, salt/fresh and shore/boat defaults, target species, finished lessons and checklists, badges, streaks and your Fishdex.
• Cached forecasts, so the app works offline. You can clear them in Settings → Data.

We can't see or recover this data. If you uninstall the app or clear its storage, it is gone. Deleting your online account does not delete this on-device data; delete catches in the app or uninstall it to remove them.

3. Location

If you allow it, Tightline uses your phone's location only while you're using the app (Android "while using the app" permission). It never tracks you in the background. You can say no and pick a place on the map or from a list instead.

Your location is used on your phone to choose the right regulations, nearby spots, shops and monitoring stations. To show forecasts and other live information, the app has to send a location to the services below. These requests are made directly from your phone and, like any internet request, include your IP address. Requests to the outside services are not linked to your Tightline account.

These providers may keep ordinary server logs (including IP addresses) under their own policies. We don't send them your name, email or account ID.

If you tap Directions, the spot's coordinates are handed to your phone's maps app, which follows its own privacy policy.

4. Your account (optional)

You need an account only for community features: sharing catches, friends, Fish together, leaderboards, likes and comments. To create one we collect:

• Your email address. We send a one-time sign-in code to it; there's no password. It is used only to sign you in and, if needed, to contact you about your account. We don't send marketing email.
• Your angler name (handle), which is public. Pick something that isn't your real name if you prefer.
• Sign-in records kept by our authentication service, such as when you signed in and the IP address used, for security.

5. Sharing catches and privacy levels

Every catch starts as Only me. You choose a level per catch:

• Only me: stays on your phone. Nothing is uploaded.
• Friends only: your accepted friends see the fish, the water's name and a rough area.
• Community, rough area: everyone sees the fish and a rough area.
• Community, area and water name: as above, plus the lake, river or bay name.

A shared catch uploads: species, length, kept or released, date and time caught, salt or fresh water, the privacy level, the rough area, the water name (if the level includes it), bait, rig, notes, the photo (if any) and whether the app flagged a kept fish as over the rules.

The rough area is a grid square of about 2.2 km × 2.1 km (0.02° latitude × 0.025° longitude). Only the square and its center point are uploaded, and our database rejects anything more precise. Notes are uploaded as you typed them, so don't put your exact spot in the notes if you don't want to share it.

Exact spot for friends (opt-in). If you switch on "Let friends see the exact spot" for a shared catch (it's off by default), that catch's GPS coordinates are uploaded to a separate table that only you and your accepted friends can read. They're never shown to the community, on leaderboards or in hotspots. Turning the switch off, making the catch private, or unfriending someone stops access. Precise location is sensitive data under some state laws; this switch is how you give your consent, and you can withdraw it at any time.

Photos are uploaded only with a shared catch, after the metadata has been removed on your phone (see section 2). Photos are kept in private storage. The app shows them through short-lived links (valid for about two hours) that are only issued to people allowed to see that catch — the community for community catches, your accepted friends for friends-only catches, and never to anglers you've blocked.

Hotspots are built from community-level catches only (never friends-only or exact spots). A grid square shows up for a species only when it has at least 5 catches from at least 3 different anglers, counting catches that are more than 72 hours and less than 60 days old. Hotspots never show who caught what.

If you set a shared catch back to Only me, the app removes it, its photo and its exact spot from our servers.

6. Friends, Fish together, leaderboards and comments

• Friends: we store friend requests and who accepted them. Others can find you by searching for your angler name.
• Fish together: we store the session name, who was invited and joined, and what members post (species, length, kept or released, whether there was a photo, and short notes). Sessions never carry locations.
• Leaderboards: friends boards use catches you've shared. Local boards are off by default; if you turn on "Show me on local leaderboards", your angler name and counts from community-shared catches appear on the board for your ~50 km region. When you open leaderboards, the app also uploads the number of Fishing 101 lessons you've finished, for the friends lessons board.
• Likes, comments and reports: we store what you liked, what you wrote and what you reported, with the reason. Content with several reports is hidden automatically until someone reviews it.
• Blocking: we store who you've blocked. You and the blocked angler stop seeing each other's catches and comments, and any friendship between you ends.
• Moderation: our moderators can see reported content and the reports about it. We keep a log of moderation actions (such as hiding, restoring or deleting content, or banning an account) and the reason, so decisions can be reviewed.

7. Install ID, state votes and problem reports

The first time you vote for a "coming soon" state or send a problem report, the app creates a random install ID. It isn't derived from your phone's hardware or advertising ID, and it's reset if you reinstall. It is used only to count one vote per install per state and to limit problem reports to 10 per install per day.

• State votes store the state, the install ID, the time, and your account ID if you're signed in.
• Problem reports store what kind of problem it is, your message, what you were looking at (for example the rule, spot, shop or screen ID), the app version, the install ID, your account ID if you're signed in, and an email address only if you choose to add one so we can reply. Reports never include your location or your catches.

8. Crash diagnostics

We use Sentry to receive crash reports. A crash report contains technical details only: the error and where in the code it happened, the app version, device model, operating system version and similar device and app information. We will configure it not to send your email, angler name, location, catches or photos.

9. Purchases

We plan to offer an optional "Tightline Pro" subscription. It isn't available yet. When it is, purchases will be handled by Google Play. We never see your card or payment details; we only receive confirmation of what you bought and whether your subscription is active, so the app can unlock the features.

10. Who can see what

11. Service providers and when data leaves the app

We don't sell your personal data, share it for targeted advertising, or use third-party analytics or ad trackers. We use these providers to run Tightline, and they may process data only to provide their service to us:

• Supabase: database, sign-in and photo storage for community features.
• Postmark: delivers the sign-in code emails.
• Sentry: crash diagnostics.
• Google Play: app distribution and, once available, subscriptions.
• Cloudflare: hosts this website.

The weather, tide and map services in section 3 receive the location information described there so they can answer the app's requests.

We may disclose information if the law requires it, to protect people's safety, or to enforce our terms. If Tightline is ever sold or merged, this policy will continue to apply to data collected under it, and we'll tell you before it is used in a different way.

12. Where your data is stored

Community data is stored with Supabase in the United States (US East, Ohio). Everything else stays on your phone.

13. How long we keep it

• On-device data: until you delete it or uninstall the app.
• Account, angler name, shared catches, photos, exact spots, friends, sessions, likes, comments, reports and leaderboard settings: until you remove them or delete your account.
• Problem reports and state votes: kept to improve the app for up to 2 years. If you delete your account, the link to your account is removed; the report text, install ID and any email you typed are kept unless you ask us to delete them.
• Backups and logs: deleted data may remain in our providers' backups and security logs for a short time before it is overwritten (up to 7 days).

14. Your choices and rights

• Location: allow or deny it in Android settings at any time; the app still works with a place you pick.
• Sharing: change any catch's privacy level, or set it back to Only me to remove it from our servers.
• Exact spots: off by default; turn it off per catch, or change the default in Settings → Sharing.
• Local leaderboards: off by default; Settings → Account.
• Delete your account: in the app under Settings → Account → Delete account, or on our delete account page. This deletes your profile, shared catches, exact spots, photos, friendships, Fish together sessions and posts, likes, comments, reports and your sign-in account.
• Access, correct or get a copy: most of your data is visible in the app. To get a copy of what our servers hold about you, or to correct or delete something else (such as a problem report you sent with your email), email DanielsTechShop@protonmail.com. We'll respond within 45 days, and we'll need to confirm the request comes from you, usually by a code sent to your account's email.
• Appeal: if we decline your request, you can appeal by replying to our answer; we'll explain the result within 60 days. If you're not satisfied, you can contact your state attorney general.

We won't treat you differently for using any of these rights.

15. Notes for New Jersey and other U.S. states

Several states, including New Jersey (New Jersey Data Privacy Act), New York, California, Connecticut, Colorado, Virginia and others, give residents rights over their personal data. We offer the rights in section 14 to everyone, wherever you live.

• No sale, no targeted advertising, no profiling. We don't sell personal data, use it for targeted advertising, or use it for automated decisions with legal or similarly significant effects. There's nothing to opt out of, but you can still write to us.
• Sensitive data. Precise geolocation is "sensitive data" under the New Jersey law and others. Tightline's rough area is about 2 km across, which is coarser than the legal definition of precise location. Your exact catch position is uploaded only when you switch on "Let friends see the exact spot" for that catch; that is your consent, and you can withdraw it by switching it off. Location sent to weather services (section 3) is used only to answer that request.
• Categories: identifiers (email, angler name, account ID, install ID), user content (catches, photos, comments, session posts, reports), approximate location (grid squares, regions), precise location only with your opt-in, and technical information (app version, and crash data once added).

16. Children

Tightline is a general-audience app and is not directed at children under 13. We don't knowingly collect personal data from children under 13. Kids are welcome to use the app's guides and on-device features with a parent, but community accounts are for anglers 13 and older. If you believe a child under 13 has created an account, email us and we'll delete it.

17. Security

All connections between the app and our servers use HTTPS encryption. Database access rules ensure people can only read what this policy says they can (for example, exact spots are readable only by the owner and accepted friends), and those rules are covered by automated tests. No system is perfectly secure, so please keep your email account secure, since sign-in codes go there. If we learn of a breach affecting your data, we'll notify you as the law requires.

18. Changes to this policy

If we change this policy, we'll update the date at the top. If a change affects how we use data you've already given us, we'll tell you in the app before it takes effect and, where required, ask for your consent.

19. Contact us

Email DanielsTechShop@protonmail.com.