Caudalby Phalanx Fishing

Legal

Caudal — Privacy Policy

Effective date: July 8, 2026
Last updated: July 8, 2026
Version: 1.0

Caudal (the “App”) is a fish-measurement app published by Phalanx Fishing(“we”, “us”, “our”). This policy explains what information the App and our services collect, how we use it, who we share it with, and the choices you have about your data. Contact: support@phalanxfishing.com

The short version

Caudal is built so that fish photos and calibration photos stay on your phone. The only things we send to the cloud are small text records — your hand calibration measurements and your catch log — and we use that data only to give you the app’s features. (The one exception is an optional, invitation-only Training Mode you can choose to join to help improve the app; if you enable it, the catch photos you contribute are uploaded — see “Photos and photo metadata” below.) We don’t run analytics, don’t show ads, don’t sell data, and don’t share data with anyone except the narrow set of service providers listed below who are required to operate the app.

1. Who we are

Caudal (the “App”) is a fish-measurement app published by Phalanx Fishing (“we”, “us”, “our”). This policy explains what information the App and our services collect, how we use it, who we share it with, and the choices you have about your data.

Phalanx Fishing is the data controller for the personal information described in this policy. Contact us at support@phalanxfishing.com with any privacy questions or requests.

2. What we collect

Account information you provide

  • Email address— used solely for sign-in (we send you a one-tap “magic link” instead of using a password). Required.
  • Display name, first/last name, and unit-system preference— optional fields you can set in Profile.
  • Guide or business credit fields(business name, Instagram handle, website) — optional. When set, these appear on Caudal Cards you share.

Information generated by your use of the App

  • Hand calibration measurements— distances (in millimeters) between named joints on your hand, derived on-device from your calibration photo. The photo itself is never stored or transmitted (see Section 4).
  • Catch records— for each fish you save: species, length, weight (estimated and optional measured), body depth, the date and time the photo was taken, and optional fields you may add (lure or fly used, body of water, notes).
  • Optional location data— latitude and longitude of where the photo was taken, plus reverse-geocoded place name. Only collected if you have granted Location Services permission to Caudal in iOS Settings. Off by default.
  • Optional environment data— weather conditions, moon phase, and tide for the date/time/location of the catch. Looked up automatically when you log a catch with location enabled (see Section 5 for the third-party services involved).
  • Other Anglers— names and hand calibration measurements you save for additional people whose catches you measure. These records stay only on your device (see Section 3).

Information we do NOT collect

We do not collect device identifiers (IDFA, advertising ID), do not run analytics SDKs, do not track which screens you visit or which buttons you tap, do not collect crash reports, and do not collect any information that would let us build a behavioral profile of you.

3. What stays only on your device

The following data is processed entirely on your iPhone and is never transmitted to our servers or any third party:

  • Fish photos and calibration photos (see Section 4)
  • On-device species identification (the bundled Fishial.AI classifier model runs entirely on your iPhone’s Neural Engine — your fish photos are never sent anywhere for species recognition)
  • Hand-pose detection (Apple’s on-device Vision framework)
  • Fish keypoint detection (a bundled CoreML model running on your iPhone)
  • Other Anglers’ calibration records
  • Guide / captain / lodge credit fields prior to first sync (subject to Section 5)
  • Test-mode data (used for in-app calibration experimentation)

Reinstalling the App from the App Store wipes all of the above. Your hand calibration and catch log will restore from the cloud once you sign back in; Other Anglers and other device-only data will not.

4. Photos and photo metadata

Photos stay on your phone

Fish photos and calibration photos are processed entirely on your device. Except through the optional Training Mode described below, they are never uploaded to our servers and never sent to any third-party AI, analytics, or storage service. The photos live in this App’s local storage and, if you have enabled the “Save original photos” toggle in Profile, in your iOS Photos library.

Optional Training Mode (invitation only, off by default)

Training Mode is an optional program that lets invited users contribute catch photos and measurements to help improve Caudal’s measurement models. It is available only to users we specifically invite, and it is off by default even then. If we invite you and you choose to turn it on, the App uploads the photos and associated measurements for catches you save while it is enabled to our secure cloud storage (Supabase), stored privately under your account. You can turn Training Mode off at any time; while it is off — its default state — no photos are uploaded. Unless you have been invited into Training Mode and have turned it on, no photo ever leaves your device.

Calibration photos are discarded after processing

The hand-calibration photo you take during setup is processed on this device to derive per-finger millimeter measurements. The photo is then discarded — only the derived numeric distances (e.g., “wrist to index knuckle = 95 mm”) are stored. We never send a photo of your hand anywhere, and the photo is not saved to your iOS Photos library unless you have enabled the “Save original photos” toggle.

Limited metadata extraction

The App extracts the following metadata from your photos, entirely on this device, so that measurement and logging work correctly:

  • EXIF orientation— so the on-device computer-vision models analyze the photo right-side-up
  • EXIF capture date (DateTimeOriginal)— so the catch is logged with the date the photo was actually taken (this is what makes “use an old photo” accurate)

We do not extract or transmit any other EXIF fields (camera model, exposure settings, etc.). Photo GPS data is not read from EXIF — when location is logged with a catch, it comes from iOS’s current Location Services, not from the photo’s metadata.

5. Third-party services we use

Caudal uses a small set of third-party service providers to operate the App. We share only the minimum data each provider needs to deliver its service. None of them receive your fish photos or your calibration photos.

Supabase (cloud database and authentication)

  • What we share: email address (for sign-in), display name, hand calibration measurements, catch records (the text and numeric fields described in Section 2).
  • Why: stores your account data so it survives a reinstall and syncs across multiple iOS devices signed in to the same account.
  • What they don’t receive: photos (with the sole exception of catch photos you contribute through the optional, invitation-only Training Mode described in Section 4), Other Angler data, test-mode data.
  • More info: supabase.com/privacy

Open-Meteo (weather)

  • What we share:the latitude, longitude, and timestamp of a catch — only when you have enabled Location Services and saved a catch.
  • Why: looks up the weather conditions for that date, time, and place so they can be saved on the catch record.
  • What they don’t receive: your identity, your email, your account, any other catch data, or any photo. Open-Meteo is a public, no-account, no-API-key service.
  • More info: open-meteo.com/en/terms

WorldTides (tide data)

  • What we share:the latitude, longitude, and timestamp of a catch — only when you have enabled Location Services and saved a catch.
  • Why: looks up the tide height, trend, and nearest tide station for that date, time, and place so they can be saved on the catch record.
  • What they don’t receive: your identity, your email, your account, any other catch data, or any photo.
  • More info: worldtides.info/privacy

Apple frameworks (on-device only)

The App uses Apple’s Vision, CoreML, AVFoundation, CoreLocation, SwiftData, and CloudKit-adjacent frameworks for camera capture, on-device computer vision, location services, and local data storage. These frameworks run entirely on your iPhone under Apple’s standard SDK terms; nothing is transmitted to Apple as a result of Caudal using them, beyond what Apple itself documents.

Moon phase

Moon phase for a catch’s date and location is computed entirely on your device with no network call.

6. How we use your information

We use the information described above only to deliver the App’s features:

  • Sign you in via the magic-link email
  • Compute and display fish measurements
  • Save and sync your catch log across your devices
  • Estimate weight from length using published species coefficients
  • Look up environment data (weather, moon, tide) for catches with location
  • Render shareable Caudal Cards that you choose to export
  • Respond to your support requests when you email us

We do not use your information for advertising, profiling, behavioral analytics, or sale to any third party.

7. What we don't do

For transparency, here is a non-exhaustive list of practices Caudal explicitly does not engage in:

  • We do not upload fish photos or calibration photos to any server, except the catch photos you choose to contribute through the optional, invitation-only Training Mode described in Section 4 (off by default; available only to users we invite).
  • We do not use any third-party analytics SDK (no Mixpanel, no PostHog, no Google Analytics, no Firebase Analytics, no Amplitude, no Segment, etc.).
  • We do not show ads or use any advertising framework.
  • We do not track you across other apps or websites.
  • We do not collect or transmit device identifiers (IDFA, advertising ID).
  • We do not collect crash reports automatically.
  • We do not sell or rent your personal information.
  • We do not share your personal information with third parties for their own marketing or analytics purposes.

8. How long we keep your data

  • Account data and catch log: kept until you delete your account or request deletion. You can keep using the App indefinitely without us ever purging your data.
  • Hand calibration measurements: kept until you delete them in-app or delete your account.
  • Email logs from support requests: retained for up to 24 months for support-quality and reference purposes.
  • Backups: our cloud provider (Supabase) maintains rolling backups per its standard retention. Deleted data is removed from active systems within 30 days of your request and from backups within 90 days.
  • Training Mode contributions: if you are invited into Training Mode and choose to contribute catch photos and measurements, those contributions may be retained on a de-identified basis to develop and improve our measurement models, as described in the Terms of Service, even after you delete your account.

9. Security

We protect your data in transit and at rest:

  • All network traffic between the App and our cloud services is encrypted in transit via TLS 1.2 or higher.
  • Cloud-stored data is encrypted at rest by Supabase using AES-256.
  • Database access is governed by Row-Level Security policies that restrict every record to its owning user — no user can access another user’s data.
  • Authentication uses Supabase’s magic-link flow; we never see or store your password (you don’t have one).
  • Photos remain on your device and are protected by iOS’s standard app-sandbox protections, plus the data-protection class iOS applies when your device is locked.

No system is perfectly secure. If you believe your Caudal account has been compromised, email support@phalanxfishing.com immediately.

10. Your choices and controls

Inside the App

  • Sign out:Profile → Sign out. This signs you out on this device. Your cloud-stored data is unaffected; signing back in restores it.
  • Location:iOS Settings → Privacy → Location Services → Caudal. Turn off to stop including location with new catches.
  • Save original photos: Profile toggle. Off by default; when on, Caudal saves your fish photos to your iOS Photos library in addition to its own local storage.
  • Edit a catch’s metadata: tap any catch in the Log and use the Edit button. You can correct the capture date, location, species, or any other field at any time.
  • Delete a catch:long-press a catch in the Log → Delete. The catch is removed from both your device and your cloud account.
  • Delete your account:Profile → Delete account. This permanently and immediately removes your account and all synced data (hand calibration, catch log, and account record) from both your device and our cloud.

Account deletion and data export

You can delete your account and all associated cloud data at any time directly in the App: Profile → Delete account. This permanently removes your account, hand calibration, and catch log from both your device and our cloud. You may also request deletion, or a copy of your data in a portable format (JSON or CSV), by emailing support@phalanxfishing.com from the address associated with your account. We respond within 7 business days and complete deletions within 30 days.

11. California residents (CCPA / CPRA)

If you are a California resident, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) give you additional rights:

  • Right to know what personal information we collect, use, and share about you (this policy is our written disclosure).
  • Right to delete personal information we hold about you, subject to a small number of legal exceptions.
  • Right to correct inaccurate personal information.
  • Right to opt-out of “sale” or “sharing” of personal information. We do not sell or share personal information as those terms are defined under the CCPA, so there is nothing to opt out of — but we acknowledge your right.
  • Right to non-discrimination for exercising any of the above rights.

To exercise any of these rights, email support@phalanxfishing.com with “California Privacy Request” in the subject line. We may need to verify your identity (typically by asking you to send the request from the email associated with your account).

12. EU, UK, and EEA residents (GDPR / UK GDPR)

If you are located in the European Union, United Kingdom, or European Economic Area, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and UK GDPR give you the following rights:

  • Right of access to your personal data
  • Right to rectification of inaccurate or incomplete personal data
  • Right to erasure (“right to be forgotten”)
  • Right to restriction of processing
  • Right to data portability
  • Right to object to processing
  • Right to lodge a complaint with your local supervisory authority

Our legal basis for processing your personal data is your consent (for optional features such as location and environment lookups) and our contract with you (for delivering the App’s core features after you create an account). To exercise any of these rights, email support@phalanxfishing.com with “Data Subject Request” in the subject line.

13. Children's privacy

Caudal is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If we learn that we have collected personal information from a child under 13, we will delete that information promptly. Parents and guardians who believe a child has provided personal information to Caudal may contact support@phalanxfishing.com.

14. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. When we do, we will revise the “Last updated” date at the top of this page. For material changes — for example, adding a new category of personal information collected or a new third-party processor — we will provide additional notice via the in-app privacy summary (Help → Privacy & data) and, where required by law, by email.

We encourage you to review this policy periodically. Your continued use of the App after a change is published constitutes your acceptance of the updated policy.

15. How to contact us

For privacy questions, data requests, or anything else covered by this policy:

We aim to respond within 7 business days.

© 2026 Phalanx Fishing. Caudal and the Caudal logo are trademarks of Phalanx Fishing.

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