This policy explains what information the WildObserve™ software and the WildObserve™ pages of our website handle, and what happens to it. WildObserve™ is made by Quantitative Science Consulting, LLC ("QSC", "we", "us"). Questions: info@qsc.earth.
What stays on your computer
WildObserve™ processes everything on the computer it's installed on. All of the following stay there, and none of it is sent to us. Nor is it sent to anyone else, apart from the few details in email alerts, if you opt in to them:
- your images, and the thumbnails WildObserve™ makes of them;
- their metadata: capture times, GPS coordinates and other locations, camera details, and file names and folder paths;
- your projects, deployments, and settings;
- your annotations: boxes, species names, reviews and their history, and the AI's detections and suggestions;
- the species models WildObserve™ trains on your computer from your labels;
- the accounts of the people who use WildObserve™ on that computer: their names, email addresses, and passwords (stored only as secure hashes);
- your email alert settings, the record of alerts sent, and the details of the mail server alerts go through, with its password (on a Mac, in the Keychain).
WildObserve™ contains no analytics, telemetry, or tracking. Exports you make are files on your computer; where they go next is up to you.
When the app goes online
WildObserve™ connects to the internet only for these four things, and each sends only what it needs. The first three send nothing from your projects, and each of their requests also says which WildObserve™ version, operating system, and type of processor you have. Email alerts are the only feature that sends anything from a project, and only if you opt in.
- Checking for updates. When it opens, and at most once a day after that, WildObserve™ downloads a small file describing the newest version from GitHub, where we publish releases.
- Activating a license. When you enter a license key, WildObserve™ downloads your license from GitHub. The download's name is derived from your key, but the key itself isn't sent. Near the end of a license's term, WildObserve™ looks for its renewal the same way, at most once a day.
- Signing in with Google, if you choose to. Google's sign-in page opens in your web browser. Google then tells WildObserve™ on your computer your basic profile (such as your name), your email address, and whether Google has verified it. WildObserve™ uses the email address only to find your WildObserve™ account on that computer, and doesn't keep anything else from Google. To confirm the sign-in, WildObserve™ sends Google the one-time code Google gave it, a one-time check value, and WildObserve™'s own identifiers.
- Sending email alerts, if you opt in. WildObserve™ hands each alert to your own mail server, which delivers it. What alerts contain, and how you opt in, is described below.
Like any internet request, these reveal your computer's IP address to the service that answers them: GitHub for updates and licenses, Google for sign-in, and your mail server for alerts. GitHub's and Google's privacy policies apply to what they collect: GitHub's and Google's. We don't receive information from these requests.
An administrator can turn all of this off, email alerts included, in WildObserve™ (About > Updates), and organizations can start it with --offline. Everything else in WildObserve™ works without the internet. Without it, licenses are added from a license file, and people sign in with a password.
Email alerts
Email alerts let people away from the computer know when new images show a species of concern. They come with the Lab and Organization plans, and they're off until you opt in. An administrator opts in for each project separately, in WildObserve™ (Rules… > Alerts by email…), by:
- setting up the mail server alerts go through: your organization's or your email provider's, never one of ours;
- listing the email addresses alerts go to;
- turning on "Send alerts for this project".
From then on, when an image that a watched folder brings in shows a species of concern, WildObserve™ emails the listed addresses, and no others. Each alert says:
- which species was found, how sure the AI model was, and which model it was;
- when the image was taken;
- where: the names you gave the place, deployment, and camera in WildObserve™ (not GPS coordinates);
- the project's name, and how many images its capture event has.
The image is a separate opt-in. It goes with alerts only if an administrator also turns on "Attach the image". It's then a smaller copy, with a box around what was found, and none of the original's metadata: no GPS coordinates, no camera details, and no file name. Alerts never include file names, folder paths, other images, your annotations, or anything from other projects. A test alert, which an administrator can send to check the setup, says only the project's name.
WildObserve™ sends alerts to your mail server encrypted, signing in with the account and password you gave it. From there they're delivered and stored like any other email, under the policies of your mail provider and the recipients' providers. We don't receive alerts, see them, or keep copies of them. WildObserve™ keeps a record of each alert in the project, on your computer, and sends the mail server's password only to that mail server.
Opting out. In the same place, an administrator can turn alerts off for a project, stop attaching images, remove addresses, or remove the mail server at any time. These changes also apply to alerts still waiting to be sent: turning alerts off cancels them, and the rest go to the addresses listed, with or without the image, as set when they're sent. Turning WildObserve™'s online features off, or starting it with --offline, stops all alerts. If you receive alerts and no longer want them, ask the administrator of the project that sends them.
Google user data
WildObserve™ asks Google only for your basic profile and email address. It uses your email address solely to sign you in to the WildObserve™ account an administrator created for that address on the same computer. It doesn't store, transfer, or share information from Google, and it doesn't use Google user data for advertising. WildObserve™'s use and transfer of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. You can remove WildObserve™'s access at any time in your Google Account settings.
Buying a license, and contacting us
When you buy a license or write to us, we receive what you give us: typically your name, organization, email address, and billing details. We use it to issue your license, invoice you, answer you, and provide support. Each license names the organization it's for, and we keep a record of the licenses we issue for as long as we need it for business, tax, and legal purposes.
Our website
- Our website is hosted by GitHub Pages, whose servers log visits, including IP addresses.
- We use Google Analytics to understand how the site is used, such as which pages are visited. It uses cookies. You can block them in your browser, or opt out with Google's opt-out add-on.
- Messages sent with our contact form are delivered to us by Formspree, which processes them on our behalf.
Sharing
We don't sell or rent personal information, and we don't share it except with the service providers described above, when you ask us to, or when the law requires it.
Your choices and rights
Everything WildObserve™ keeps is on your computer, under your control: you can view, export, or delete it there. For information we hold about you, such as license and correspondence records, write to info@qsc.earth to ask for a copy, a correction, or its deletion, subject to records we must keep by law.
Children
WildObserve™ is made for researchers, organizations, and other professionals. It isn't directed at children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect their information.
Changes
If we change this policy, we'll post the new version here with a new effective date. If a change affects what WildObserve™ sends over the internet, the new version of WildObserve™ will describe it too.
See also the WildObserve™ Terms of Service.