Privacy Policy
Last updated 3 August 2026 · Effective 3 August 2026
Pebble is a field-guide app for iPhone. This policy explains exactly what leaves your phone, what doesn't, and who else is involved. It is written to be read, not to be survived.
The short version. Your scan photo is sent to an identification service and is not kept afterwards. Where you were when you scanned it stays on your phone and is never sent with the photo. Your entries, notes and gallery are stored on your device unless you turn on backup.
Who this applies to
The account holder must be 13 or older. Pebble is designed to be used by families, and a younger child may of course use a parent's device — but the account, and the responsibility for it, belongs to an adult or older teenager. We do not knowingly create accounts for children under 13. If you believe a child under 13 has an account, contact us and we will delete it.
What we collect, and why
| What | Why | Where it goes |
|---|---|---|
| Email address | To create and recover your account | Our authentication provider |
| Display name (optional) | To greet you, and to credit finds in a shared dex | Stays on device unless you share a dex |
| Scan photographs | To identify what you photographed | Sent to our identification provider; not retained by them for training |
| Location of a scan | To record where you found something, and to award XP for finding it somewhere new | Stays on your device. Never sent with the photo |
| Approximate location | Only if you open "Near you", to find nearby landmarks | Sent to OpenStreetMap's public query service |
| Your notes and entries | They are your record | On your device, unless you enable backup |
| Subscription status | To unlock paid features | Handled by Apple; we never see your payment details |
What we do not collect
- No advertising identifiers, and no ad networks.
- No third-party analytics or behavioural tracking SDKs.
- No contacts, no calendar, no microphone, no health data.
- No continuous or background location. Location is read only at the moment you scan.
Turning things off
In You → Scanning you can switch off "Save where I scan". New finds then record no location at all. The app keeps working; rescans simply earn the nearby XP rate, because there is no location to compare against. You can also revoke location and camera access entirely in iOS Settings.
Who else is involved
- Anthropic — identifies the subject of your photo. Photos sent through the API are not used to train their models.
- Supabase — accounts, and cloud backup if you enable it.
- OpenStreetMap — nearby landmarks, queried with a coarse coordinate.
- Wikipedia, Wikidata and iNaturalist — reference photos and descriptions. These are ordinary web requests for public pages; we send no personal data with them.
- Apple — subscriptions and payment.
We do not sell your data, and we do not share it with anyone except the providers above, each doing a specific job described here.
Sharing a dex
If you join a shared dex, the members of that group can see the finds you contribute to it — the photo, the name, the place, the date, and your display name. They cannot see anything else in your account. Leaving a group stops any further sharing.
How long it is kept
Data on your device stays until you delete an entry, use Erase everything, or delete the app. If you have enabled backup, deleting your account removes the cloud copy too. Scan photos are not retained by the identification provider after the request completes.
Your rights
You can see everything Pebble holds about you inside the app — it is the app. You can delete any entry, erase everything at once, or ask us to delete your account and any cloud copy. Depending on where you live you may also have rights to access, correct, or export your data; write to us and we will do it.
Changes
If this policy changes in a way that affects what leaves your device, we will say so in the app rather than quietly updating this page.