VISDEX Privacy Policy

1. Who are we?

VISDEX ("we", "us", "VISDEX") is established in the Netherlands and registered with the Netherlands Chamber of Commerce (Kamer van Koophandel) under number 86629409. We are the controller of the personal data processed through the VISDEX app.

For privacy questions or to exercise your rights, you can contact us at info@visdex.nl.

2. What data do we process?

We only process the data you enter yourself or that is needed to make the app work:

We do not ask for and do not process special categories of personal data (such as health, religion or political opinions).

3. How do we use your data?

• Making the app work – logging your catches, showing your collection and the map, chatting and sharing with fishing buddies.
• Sharing on your privacy terms – you decide per catch, spot or fishing buddy what is visible. Locations are never shared automatically.
• Keeping the community safe – we process reports and blocks to prevent abuse.
• Improving – we use feedback you send us and anonymised error reports to make the app better.

4. Public leaderboard, Discover feed and communication

5. Public catches and improving the app

We use catches that you have made public yourself, combined and without your name, to improve the app. For example, we look at how well our estimates of species, length and weight match what anglers actually enter, so that those estimates get better.

If you don't want that, set a catch to private, or turn off the Discover toggle on that catch. We never use private catches for this.

6. Email and consent to marketing

We send three kinds of email, and they are separate from each other:

• Email that belongs to your account – for example resetting your password or confirming your email address. You always receive these; without these messages your account doesn't work.
• The monthly statistics email – a look back at your own fishing month, with its own separate switch in the app. This is not marketing and is separate from the consent below.
• Marketing email – only if you have given your consent.

What you consent to is stated word for word next to the question: giveaways, exclusive offers from tackle shops and partners, and fishing weather tips. We don't tick anything for you, and the choice is never a condition for using the app. How often we send such email is not fixed.

To be able to show that your consent was genuinely given, we record when you consented, on which screen, and which text you saw at the time. If that text changes in substance, that counts as a new consent and we ask you again.

You can withdraw your consent at any time, via the unsubscribe link at the bottom of every marketing email or via Settings in the app. From that moment on, we no longer send you marketing email.

To send it, we work with an external email marketing service. Two things you should know about this:

• Your email address is held by that service even if you did not give consent. It is then held as an administrative contact, so that we know who already has an account and don't approach those people as potential users. No email at all is sent to such a contact.
• If you do give consent, we also share a limited amount of data with that service to personalise the email: your display name, how many catches you have logged, how many different species, your most-caught species, how many achievements you have earned and your invite link. We do not share catch locations, spots, photos, chat messages or notes.

If you delete your account, your contact at that service is deleted too.

7. AI features

VISDEX has a number of features that use an external AI service. There are two kinds of processing: a suggestion for the fish species and length from your photo, and advice and overviews based on the data in your fish logbook. They sit behind a single switch, which is off by default: Settings > AI features. The legal basis is your consent, and you can withdraw it there at any time, without consequences for the rest of the app.

a. Species and length from your photo

The app can suggest the fish species and length from the photo of your catch. If the switch is on, the photo of that particular catch is processed once, and only at your request, by an external image recognition service. Before the photo leaves your device, it is reduced in size and the hidden data is removed, including the GPS location your camera writes into the file.

If you ask for a length estimate, we also send which species you chose and what is lying in the photo as a reference, for example the VISDEX reference ball. Nothing else is sent: no name, no location, no other catch data.

We do not keep the photo, but we do keep what the app suggested and what you finally made of it, linked to that catch. That way we can see where the estimate is off and improve it.

b. Advice and overviews based on your catch data

If you ask for a species hunt plan, your fishing patterns or session advice, or when the app creates your weekly review, data from your own fish logbook goes to an external AI service, which turns it into text. What is sent differs per feature, but it comes down to: the date and time of a catch, the fish species, the length and weight, the bait and technique, the name of the water, and the weather data belonging to that catch. For your fishing patterns and your weekly review, no individual catches are sent, only totals, for example how many catches per month and which bait works for you most often.

In addition, figures about the community as a whole are sent, such as how much of a species is caught on a water. No names are attached, and only catches by anglers who are on the public leaderboard themselves are counted.

What is never sent: your name, your email address, your photos, your notes, your chat messages, and your coordinates or spots. Waters are only sent by name, never as a place on the map.

We keep your hunt plan and your fishing patterns so that you can open them again without a new request. We don't keep the session advice and the weekly review. For each use we do record that you used the feature and when, to prevent abuse and unnecessary costs.

For both

Your data and your photos are not used to train AI models. If you turn the switch off, nothing leaves your device for these features any more and they stop working. As long as you haven't turned it on yourself, nothing happens at all.

8. Advertising measurement

We advertise to reach new anglers, and we want to know whether that works. To do this, the app sends a small number of technical events to the advertising platform we advertise on, such as "app installed" and "app opened", together with general device data.

Exactly what is sent differs per platform:

• On iPhone and iPad we do not ask for permission to track, so your advertising identifier (IDFA) is not used. Measurement runs exclusively through Apple's aggregated method (SKAdNetwork), which cannot be traced back to you.
• On Android, from version 1.0.12 onwards we no longer send your advertising identifier (GAID), and the app no longer forwards events automatically. If you use an older version, the GAID may still be sent until you update the app; you can also reset or delete it yourself in the Android settings, under the privacy or ads settings.

What is never sent: your catches, your locations or spots, your photos, your chat messages and your profile data.

9. Who do we share data with?

We never sell your data. We only share data with parties that are needed to make the app work (processors), on the basis of a data processing agreement:

• Supabase – our database and storage service (hosting your data, in the EU region where possible).
• Weather service – for retrieving weather information for a catch and at the start of a session.
• Apple / Google – for delivering the app through their app stores and (if turned on) push notifications.
• Meta (Facebook) – for measuring app install campaigns. The Meta SDK in the app sends technical events (such as "app installed" and "app opened") and general device data to Meta for this purpose. On Android, the advertising identifier (GAID) is no longer sent from version 1.0.12 onwards; with older versions this may still happen until you update the app. On iOS we do not ask for tracking permission, so your advertising identifier (IDFA) is not used; install measurement there runs exclusively through Apple's aggregated SKAdNetwork, which cannot be traced back to you. Catches, locations or profile data are never shared with Meta.
• Image recognition – for the species and length suggestion from a catch photo, only if you have turned that feature on yourself (see 7).
• Subscription management – for handling and keeping track of VISDEX Pro: whether your subscription is running, when it renews and when it ends. You make the purchase itself with Apple or Google; this service keeps track for us of what follows from it.
• AI advice (language model) – for creating your hunt plan, your fishing patterns, your session advice and your weekly review from the data in your fish logbook, only if you have turned on the AI features yourself (see 7).
• Email marketing – for sending our email and managing sign-ups and unsubscribes (see 6).
• Advertising measurement – for measuring whether our ads work (see 8).
• App updates and push messages – for delivering app updates and push messages. This involves processing your IP address and a technical device code.
• Maps – for showing the map in the app. This involves processing your IP address and the map area you are viewing, not your catches.
• Transactional email – for sending email that belongs to your account, such as password resets.

Data outside the European Union. Some of these parties are based in the United States or process data there, for example the providers of advertising measurement, email marketing, subscription management, push messages, app updates, maps and the AI features. We make sure there is a valid legal basis for this: the EU-US Data Privacy Framework where the party participates in it, and otherwise the standard contractual clauses of the European Commission. If you want to know which safeguard applies to which party, email info@visdex.nl.

We name categories here rather than every brand name, because suppliers can change. If you want to know exactly which parties we currently work with, email info@visdex.nl and we will send you the current list.

You also share data with other users yourself when you choose to (fishing buddies, chats, public catches).

10. How long do we keep your data?

We keep your data for as long as you have an account. If you delete your account, your personal data, your catches, your photos, your locations and your messages are deleted immediately and permanently, and your contact at the email service is deleted as well.

Three things remain after that, and it is only fair to say so:

• Competitions you created yourself and that others took part in. We don't delete these, because that would also wipe the results of all the other participants. Your name is removed: you then appear as "Deleted user". If your competition had no other participants, it is deleted completely.
• Proof that the deletion was carried out. We only keep an encrypted code that cannot be reversed, and the time. It contains no name, email address or any other data of yours. This is needed to be able to show that we actually carried out a deletion request.
• Anonymised, aggregated figures that cannot be traced back to you, for example regional catch statistics.

11. Your rights (GDPR)

You have the right to:

• Access – ask which data we hold about you.
• Rectification – have incorrect data corrected (you can edit your profile and catches yourself in the app).
• Erasure – delete your account and all your data. You can do this directly in the app via Settings → Delete account.
• Data portability – request an export of your data (partly available in the app via data export).
• Objection / withdrawing consent – turn sharing off again or object.

You can withdraw both consents you give in the app at any time, without giving a reason and without consequences for the rest of the app:

• Marketing email – via the unsubscribe link at the bottom of every marketing email, or via Settings in the app. You will then no longer receive marketing email.
• AI features – via Settings > AI features in the app. After that, no photo and no catch data leaves your device for these features any more.

Send your request to info@visdex.nl. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens (the Dutch Data Protection Authority).

12. Security

We protect your data with appropriate technical measures, including encrypted connections and access rules at database level (row-level security), so that only you, and the people you choose to share with, can access your data. Sensitive data such as exact locations is stored separately and with stricter protection, and is only visible to others if you choose so yourself (for example with "Pin on map" or by sharing a spot).

13. Children

VISDEX can be used from the age of 13. Extra protections apply to users under 16 and under 18: they receive no marketing email and no commercial offers, cannot turn on the AI features (under 16), cannot share a catch with a pin on the map and do not take part in prize draws (under 18), and restrictions apply to contact with unknown adults. If you think we are processing data of a child under 13, email info@visdex.nl and we will delete it.

14. Changes

We may update this privacy policy. You will always find the most recent version on this page, with the date at the top.