This describes exactly what SeaConnect collects when you plan a route, log a voyage, or ask nearby sailors for help — and what we never do with it. No advertising IDs, no analytics trackers, no data brokers.
When you create a SeaConnect account, we (via Firebase Authentication) collect:
email address and password — password is hashed by Firebase and never visible to usfirst name and last nameThis is the minimum needed to sign you in and identify you to other sailors you interact with in the app.
Your profile and activity in SeaConnect are built from things you choose to enter:
SeaConnect is a marine navigation app, so location is central to how it works. We use your device's GPS in five distinct, separately-triggered ways:
Foreground location only. SeaConnect does not track your position in the background or after you close the app — this matches the "When In Use" permission iOS grants it, and we've made no request for "Always" location access.
To do things a single developer can't build from scratch — mapping, weather, seafloor charts — SeaConnect sends narrow, purpose-specific requests to these providers. None of them receive your name, email, or account identity alongside this data.
| Service | What it receives | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Google Firebase | Account credentials, profile content, chat messages, uploaded photos | Authentication, database, and file storage that power the appcore infrastructure |
| Google Maps Platform | Search text and coordinates you enter when picking a place or marina | Place search and nearby-marina results |
| Mapbox | Map viewport coordinates as you pan and zoom, and the bounds of any Offline Maps area you download | Renders the on-screen chart, always labeled in English regardless of device language, and supplies the map tiles saved for offline use. Offline areas, their cove photos and their saved wind stay on your device |
| Open-Meteo (requested through our own servers) | Your current coordinates during an active voyage, a few points along a route you check in Best Time to Sail, and the position you check with Drop Anchor (and nearby coves it compares) | Live wind speed and air temperature readings, and the wind, wave and weather forecasts used to score departure times |
| OpenStreetMap (Overpass API, requested through our own servers) | Only if our own copy of the OpenStreetMap coastline can't be read: the position you check with Drop Anchor or Perfect Drop (and nearby coves it compares) | The coastline around it, used to work out which directions the spot is open to |
| Wikimedia Commons and Unsplash | Your device's network address when cove photos load or are saved with an offline map area | Host the cove and sea-cave photos |
| OpenTopoData (GEBCO) | Your current coordinates during an active voyage | Charted seafloor depth at your position — survey data, not a live sonar reading |
| Expo push service | A per-device push token and the notification's text, which can include another sailor's name and, for a comment, the comment itself — for example an SOS alert, a message in an SOS conversation, a new follower, a like or comment on your voyage, or an Anchor Watch alert about tonight's wind where you're anchored | Delivers push notifications (e.g. a nearby SOS, a reply to one, someone following you or reacting to your voyage, or a change in tonight's wind where you're anchored) |
SeaConnect is a community app, so some of what you add is visible to other users by design:
We do not sell or rent any of this information to outside parties.
Your data is kept for as long as your account exists. From Profile → Delete Account, you can permanently delete your profile document and your Firebase Authentication account yourself, in-app, at any time — no support request needed. Content you've shared with others (a review, a voyage post, a chat message) may remain visible to the people it was already shared with, attributed to a removed account, in the same way a message doesn't unsend once read. Deleting your account also deletes your voyage logs, your badges, your Drop Anchor session (where you're anchored and the anchor drops you've used), the route ends kept to count your free Best Time to Sail plans, your Voyage Log visibility setting, and any story still up, with its photo. Offline maps, their cove photos and their saved wind are stored only on your device: delete them from Offline Maps, or by removing the app.
SeaConnect is not directed at children and we don't knowingly collect information from anyone under 13. If you believe a child has created an account, contact us using the details below and we'll remove it.
Data is stored with Google Firebase (Cloud Firestore, Storage, and Authentication) and access is enforced by server-side security rules — for example, only signed-in users can read live-position data, and only the two participants in a conversation can read its messages. No system is perfectly secure, but no part of SeaConnect's backend is publicly readable by design.
If this policy changes in a way that affects what we collect or how we share it, we'll update the effective date at the top of this page. Continuing to use SeaConnect after a change means you accept the update.
SeaConnect is developed by an independent developer (Mert Deryaasan). Questions about this policy or your data — including deletion requests you'd rather not do in-app — can go to: