Privacy policy

Last updated: 27 October 2026

Whatling is made by Andrej Gazi in the United Kingdom. Contact: thetopproj@gmail.com

The short version

You don't need to sign up. Whatling makes an anonymous account on your first scan, with no name or email.
Photos you scan are sent to be identified and are never stored by us.
Location is off unless you turn it on, and then only your rough area is used.
Whatling never identifies people.
We don't sell your data, show ads, or track you across other apps.
Usage stats are off unless you turn them on.

What we collect and why

Photos you scan, and any hint or guess you type. Used to identify what's in the photo. Processed by Anthropic (Claude) and, for plants, Pl@ntNet, on our behalf. We never store the photo. We keep the answer and a fingerprint (hash) of the photo for 30 days, so "Help it" and guesses work on the same scan.
An anonymous account ID. Used to count your free scans and check Premium. Kept until you delete your finds and data in Settings.
Your country and the month. Used to make answers local ("common in the UK in October"). Sent with each scan.
Your rough area, only if you turn Location on. Your phone turns its location into a grid point of at least 3 km² (about 2 km across in the UK) plus your town, county and region names. This goes with the scan to our server and Anthropic. The grid point goes to GBIF (gbif.org), with nothing that identifies you, to count nature records nearby. Your street is worked out on your phone and never sent to us. Photos from your library never get a location. We don't store your area.
Purchase history, via Google Play and RevenueCat. Used to unlock Premium and restore purchases. Kept as long as needed for billing and tax.
Crash and performance data, via Sentry. Used to find and fix bugs. It contains no photos or personal details. Kept for 90 days.
Usage stats, via PostHog (EU servers), only if you turn them on. Used to see which features help people. Anonymous, with no photos or text. Kept for 12 months.

Stays on your phone, never sent: your finds list, pets and allergies you set, Gentle mode, the street where a photo of a place was taken, and what QR codes contain.

Who processes data for us

Supabase (hosting, London), Anthropic (identifying photos, United States), Pl@ntNet (plant photos), GBIF and Wikipedia (name checks, with no personal data), RevenueCat (subscriptions), Sentry (crash reports), PostHog (opt-in usage stats) and Expo (app updates). They process data only to provide their service to us. Transfers outside the UK are covered by standard contractual safeguards. We may disclose data if the law requires it.

Your rights

Under UK and EU data protection law you can ask to see, correct, export or delete your data, or object to how it's used. Settings > Delete all finds deletes your finds and scan records from our servers. For anything else, email thetopproj@gmail.com. You can also complain to the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk).

Our legal bases: providing the app you asked for (scans, purchases), your consent (photo processing, Location, usage stats), and our legitimate interest in keeping the app working (crash reports). You can withdraw consent at any time in Settings.

Children

Whatling isn't directed at children under 13.

Subscriptions

Deleting the app or your data doesn't cancel a Premium subscription. Cancel it in Google Play > Payments & subscriptions.

Changes

If this policy changes in a way that matters, we'll tell you in the app first.