Privacy

Updated October 20, 2026

Nature-Spy is currently operated by Donald Brown, doing business as Nature-Spy, in the United States. Nature-Spy LLC is being formed and is not yet the operator. This policy explains how we handle information across the Nature-Spy community, photo sharing and downloads, Wildlife Map, Photo Battles, Marketplace, Nature TV and Geo Game.

For privacy questions or requests, email support@nature-spy.com with the subject “Privacy request.”

1. Information you give us

Accounts and profiles. We collect your email address, username, password information and account settings. You may add a name, biography, country, website or social links, profile and cover images, and favorite equipment details and images. Marketplace may also collect a contact phone number. If you use an available social sign-in option, we receive information such as your provider identifier, name, email and profile image from that provider.

Photos and community activity. We store uploaded images and other permitted files, titles, descriptions, tags, categories, licensing and price selections, comments, replies, likes, follows, friend requests, collections, notifications, downloads, Photo Battle entries and votes. Photos may contain embedded metadata. We read certain camera and capture details, such as camera model, exposure settings and the original capture date, and may display them with the photo.

Marketplace and conversations. We collect listing descriptions, images, prices, category and condition details, selected locations, contact preferences, favorites, buyer and seller conversations, reports and related notifications. Information you send to support, including attachments, is also collected.

Optional verification. If an available Marketplace verification process asks you to submit an identity document or selfie and you choose to use it, we collect those submissions and the review outcome for account verification and abuse prevention. These submissions are not intended as public profile content. Contact support about access or removal; do not send identity documents through ordinary public posts or chat.

Transactions. Where you purchase a photo, service or game item, or request an available seller payout, we maintain the information needed to process and account for it. This can include account and order identifiers, items, amounts, currency, payment or payout status, provider references, billing or payout contact details, delivery and download records, and dispute or refund records. Payment providers handle the payment credentials entered in their checkout. Do not send card details or passwords through chat or support email.

2. Information collected when you visit

Our servers and site tools collect technical information such as IP address, browser and device information, dates and times, pages visited, referring pages, session and visitor identifiers, time spent on pages and outbound link destinations. When signed in, activity may be associated with your account. We also record login, security, moderation, payment and error events. Photo Battle voting and abuse prevention can use account and IP information.

Our own visit analytics use a visitor cookie called ns_vid, configured to last up to two years unless cleared sooner. These records are not necessarily anonymous. We may use an IP lookup service to estimate country or region; this is different from precise device GPS location.

3. Location, camera and Geo Game

Wildlife Map and photo pins. When you choose to add a photo to the Interactive Map, we store the coordinates you submit and show the sighting on the map. A photo pin can identify the place the photo was taken. Leave the map option off when you do not want to publish a location. Avoid sharing your home, someone else’s private location or a sensitive wildlife nesting site.

Marketplace locations. We store the city, region, postal code, coordinates and location description selected for a listing. Location searches and reverse lookups send the search text or coordinates to a mapping provider. Listing locations and any map positions displayed with them are visible to visitors; check the selected location before publishing.

Geo Game. When you submit an animal capture, we collect the submitted images or short video, the identified species, GPS coordinates, accuracy and capture information. The current capture flow records without microphone audio. When AI camera verification is enabled, selected image frames are sent to OpenAI to identify the animal and check live-scene evidence. GPS coordinates and account details are not included in that AI request. Automated identification can make mistakes. OpenAI processes the submitted frames under its applicable API data policies. Accepted GPS updates and validation history may also be stored while location features are in use. A captured animal is placed at its accepted location on the shared game map, which can reveal where you were. Commander profiles, armies, territory, battles, map signs and public chat are visible to other players.

You control camera and location permissions in your browser or device settings. Declining permission still allows ordinary browsing and game map commands, but features that require those permissions may not work. Revoking a permission stops future access through that permission; it does not erase information already submitted. Read the Geo Game camera and location privacy notice for additional detail.

4. What other people can see

Public profiles can show your username, display name, avatar, cover, bio, country, links, favorite equipment and public activity. Published photos, camera details, comments, community activity, Battle entries and results, Marketplace listings and public game content may appear in feeds, search results, shared links or previews. Content visible without signing in may be indexed by search engines. Do not assume that a friends feed makes an otherwise public photo private.

Your account email and password are not ordinary public profile fields. However, a phone number, email address or address you put in a listing, biography, photo, message or public post can be exposed there. Check a listing’s contact display options before publishing.

Private messages are intended for their participants, but they are stored by the service and are not represented as end-to-end encrypted. Authorized operators and service providers may access them when needed for delivery, support, safety, moderation, security or legal obligations. Recipients can retain, copy or share what you send. Deleting a Marketplace conversation from your inbox can hide it for you without deleting the other participant’s copy or the underlying records.

We do not guarantee that every uploaded file has all metadata removed. Review files before uploading and remove sensitive metadata yourself. Other people may retain downloaded, licensed, cached or shared copies after you remove the original.

5. How we use information

We use information to create and secure accounts; publish and deliver the content you choose to share; run feeds, maps, messaging, Photo Battles and Geo Game; process purchases, downloads and payouts; send account verification, password reset, transaction, security and activity notifications; respond to requests; prevent fraud, cheating and abuse; resolve disputes; and understand and improve site performance.

We do not currently sell or rent member lists, upload member lists to advertising platforms to build advertising audiences, or send promotional email campaigns. Advertising and analytics services can still receive browsing information through their integrations, as described below.

6. Who receives information

Other members and visitors receive the public content you publish and messages directed to them. Service providers receive information needed for services such as hosting, storage, backups, email delivery, security, payment processing, mapping, analytics, advertising and media playback. Our support inbox and email providers also process communications you send us.

Signing into Marketplace or Geo Game through Nature-Spy shares the account identifiers and email needed to connect those services; profile or commander details are shared where needed for the feature. These sections maintain some records separately, so deleting a main-site account does not necessarily delete every linked record.

Payment providers receive the details needed to process and verify a transaction. Buyers and sellers receive information needed for their interactions. Information you provide directly to another member, payment provider, social network or linked website is also subject to that recipient’s practices.

We may disclose information where reasonably needed to comply with law or valid legal process, investigate abuse or fraud, protect people and the service, or establish or defend legal claims. If the business or its assets are reorganized or transferred, information may be transferred subject to applicable law and privacy obligations. An operator change, including a future LLC, will be reflected in this policy.

Wildlife capture announcements. Geo Game includes a setting to announce verified animal captures on Nature-Spy’s public Facebook profile. This setting starts enabled and can be turned off in your commander Profile or Player Settings. When the announcement connection is active, your public commander name, captured species and capture date/time, along with an event identifier and game link, are sent to our Grok automation provider and may be published on Facebook. Capture GPS coordinates, camera images/video, contact details and login credentials are not included in these announcements. Turning the setting off cancels announcements still waiting in the game’s delivery queue and stops future ones. Announcements already sent to the automation or published may remain; contact support for help requesting removal. Grok and Facebook also process information under their own privacy policies.

7. Cookies, analytics, ads and embedded services

Cookies and browser storage help keep you signed in, protect forms, remember preferences and support features such as game settings and session progress. Separate site sections may maintain separate session cookies. The visitor cookie described above supports our own analytics.

Pages may also load Google Analytics or Google AdSense where enabled. Google and its partners may use cookies or similar identifiers and receive information such as your IP address, browser, page visits and interactions to measure usage, deliver ads and measure advertising performance. Depending on the provider’s settings and your choices, ads may be personalized. Read how Google uses information from partner sites, manage Google advertising preferences, or review the Google Analytics browser opt-out tool.

Maps and location tools include Google Maps, OpenStreetMap/Nominatim and Esri where used. IP-based country lookup can send an IP address to IP-API. Nature TV and other pages can load YouTube videos, thumbnails or other embedded media. Fonts, script and image delivery networks, available social sign-in or sharing features, anti-bot tools such as reCAPTCHA, and optional push notifications such as OneSignal can also receive technical or feature-specific information. Providers may receive your IP address and the page or map area requested when their content loads, sometimes before you interact with it.

You can restrict or delete cookies and site storage in your browser, revoke device permissions and manage notification permissions. Blocking some cookies or services may affect sign-in or other features. A dismissible cookie notice is not a full preference center and does not, by itself, switch off every analytics, advertising or embedded-service request. We do not currently offer a site-wide automated control for all such services; do not assume a browser “Do Not Track” setting stops them.

8. How long information is kept

Account and content records are generally kept while needed to provide the service. Transaction, licensing, payout, dispute, security and moderation records may need to be retained after content or an account is removed for accounting, fraud prevention, legal obligations and claims.

We do not currently have a single automatic deletion timetable covering all site records. In particular, Geo Game capture evidence and GPS validation history do not have a fixed automatic expiry. You can ask support to review and delete information that is no longer needed. Deletion may require separate work across the main site, Marketplace and Geo Game. Backups, logs, financial records and copies held by other people or providers may persist for different periods; we cannot promise immediate deletion of every copy.

9. Your choices and privacy requests

You can edit available profile fields, manage your photos and listings, adjust available notification settings, and change browser permissions. Where available, the main site’s account deletion page is Account Settings → Delete account. Accounts with financial history or other restrictions may need support review instead of automatic deletion. Deleting a main-site account is not a substitute for requesting removal of separately held Marketplace or Geo Game information.

Email support@nature-spy.com to request access, a copy, correction or deletion of your information, or to ask about privacy choices. Identify your username and the service involved; do not include your password. We may need reasonable information to verify that the account or data is yours and will explain if a request cannot be fulfilled in full.

Depending on where you live and which laws apply, you may have additional rights to portability, restriction, objection, withdrawal of consent, or an opt-out of certain advertising-related disclosures, and a right to appeal a decision or complain to a privacy regulator. We handle applicable requests within the periods required by law and will not unlawfully discriminate against you for exercising those rights. Contact support with “Privacy appeal” if you want us to review our response. These rights and their exceptions depend on applicable law; this policy does not waive them.

10. Children and younger players

Nature-Spy is a general wildlife community and is not directed specifically to children under 13. We do not operate a verified parental-consent program for collecting personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child under 13 has provided personal information, contact support so we can investigate and take appropriate action, including deletion where required.

Geo Game is specifically for ages 13 and older. Players under 18 need parent or guardian permission. This is the game’s age rule, rather than a new site-wide age restriction. An age declaration is not independent age or parental-consent verification. Parents and guardians should review public posts, map locations, camera use, chat and purchases with younger players.

11. Security and international access

We use safeguards such as password hashing, access controls and encrypted connections where supported. No website, message system or storage service is completely secure. Keep your credentials private and report suspected unauthorized access to support.

Nature-Spy is operated from the United States. Hosting and service providers may process information in the United States or other countries with different privacy laws. Where applicable law requires specific protections for international transfers, those requirements still apply; merely using the site does not waive your legal rights.

12. Changes and contact

We will update the effective date when this policy changes and provide additional notice where required, including for significant changes to how information is used. We will obtain consent where the law requires it. A future feature or provider that materially changes our data practices will require a policy review.

Privacy contact: Donald Brown, Nature-Spy
support@nature-spy.com

The general Terms of Service address site rules, and the Geo Game Terms of Play address game rules and purchases. This page explains privacy practices rather than replacing those rules.