Privacy Policy

BiteGrid is a fishing forecast, chart and catch log app for Florida, made by Upswing Projects LLC ("we"). This policy explains what the app collects, why, who can see it and how to have it deleted.

The short version

• The forecast, chart and catch log need no account, and what you do in them stays on your device.
• We only receive personal data if you use Tournament Mode, which is optional: your name, team name and the catches you enter (photo, time and GPS position).
• No analytics, no advertising, no advertising identifiers, no tracking across apps or websites. We don't sell or share personal data.

Forecast, chart and catch log

These work without an account and send nothing about you to us. Your settings, saved spots and pins, your catch log (including its photos), offline map areas and recently loaded forecasts are stored only on your device.

Tournament Mode (optional)

If you create or join a tournament, the app sends the following to our tournament server:

• Your name and team name, as you type them, and for organizers the tournament's name, organizer name, fishing area, dates, rules and species.
• Catch entries: the photo, the time it was taken, the GPS position where it was taken (with its accuracy), the species and length you enter, and your device's clock offset (so the judges can see a wrong clock).
• A random key created on your device for each tournament you join. It lets the server recognize your device in that tournament; we store only a one-way hash of it, not the key itself, and it isn't linked to any other app or account.
• Your IP address when you enter a join code, only to limit repeated guesses. It is deleted after 24 hours.

Who sees what:

• The exact position of a catch is visible only to the angler who caught it.
• Judges and the organizer see the photo, angler and team names, species, length, time, how accurate the GPS fix was and whether the catch was inside the fishing area (or how far outside), but not its exact position. The organizer also sees the tournament's member list and activity log.
• Other anglers in the tournament see accepted fish (photo, angler, team, species, length and time) and the leaderboard, without positions.
• Public tournaments: if an organizer makes a tournament public, its name, organizer name, fishing area, dates, details and the angler join code are listed for all BiteGrid users until it starts.
• Removed members: an organizer can remove an angler or a judge from their tournament. The removed member's catches then leave the leaderboard and the judges' queue and stop counting; the organizer still sees them, marked as removed, together with the record in the activity log, until the tournament's data is deleted on the normal schedule below. The removed member's device is told it was removed and stops getting that tournament's updates. Joining that tournament again under the same name is refused, using only the name already stored: nothing new is collected for this.

Hiding and blocking: tournaments you hide and organizers you block in Upcoming Tournaments are saved only on your device. We don't receive them, and the organizer isn't told.

Location

If you allow it, BiteGrid uses your device's location on your device to center the chart, pick the nearest forecast spot and warn you when you are leaving a tournament's fishing area. Your location is not sent to us while you use the app. The only position we receive is the one attached to a catch you enter in a tournament. You can use the app without location access; a tournament catch sent without a GPS position is marked that way for the judges.

Camera and photos

The camera and photo library are used only when you add a catch. Catch log photos stay on your device; the app may read a photo's time and location on your device to place the catch on the chart. Tournament catch photos are uploaded to our server as described above. Share cards you create are redrawn without GPS data.

Notifications

Tournament reminders are scheduled on your device. While the app is open it fetches your tournament's notes (for example "catch accepted" or "1 hour left") from our server using your tournament key. We don't use push notifications or a push token at this time.

Services the app uses

Our servers run on Cloudflare: the map tile host (tiles.bitegrid.online) and the tournament server (api.bitegrid.online, including tournament photos). The website and app files are hosted by Vercel. Like any web server, these may keep standard request logs (such as IP address and time) for security and reliability. For tournaments, our server also asks the National Weather Service for alerts at the middle of the fishing area.

To draw forecasts and maps, the app requests public data directly from your device. These requests include the area you are looking at, not who you are:

• NOAA Tides & Currents: the tide station ID.
• Open-Meteo: the coordinates of the forecast spot (weather and marine forecasts).
• National Weather Service: the coordinates of the spot (marine alerts).
• USGS: a water-data station ID; USGS National Map and Esri: map tile coordinates for base maps and imagery.
• NOAA chart, lidar and depth services and FWC (boat ramps): the map area on screen.

Each service handles requests under its own privacy policy and may log standard request data such as IP address.

Keeping and deleting data

• Tournament data (names, team names, photos, entries, notifications and the activity log) is deleted automatically 12 months after the tournament ends (counted from the close of its window for late catches).
• After that, catches are kept only in anonymized form: species, lengths, status, time and position, with no link to a name, tournament, member key or photo. We use them to improve BiteGrid's fishing spot predictions.
• IP addresses from join attempts are deleted after 24 hours.
• To have your tournament data deleted sooner, email hello@upswingprojects.com with the tournament name and the name you used.
• Data on your device is yours to remove: deleting a catch or pin removes it, and deleting the app removes everything stored on the device, including tournament keys.

Children

BiteGrid is not directed to children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect personal information from them. If you believe a child has entered a tournament with personal information, contact us and we will delete it.

Changes

If this policy changes, we will update this page and its effective date before the change takes effect.

Contact

Upswing Projects LLC · hello@upswingprojects.com. To report a tournament, use the Report link on its screen (it opens an email to us).