Privacy Policy
The short version: SwellMate runs on your phone, with no account, no ads, no analytics and no tracking. Your trips, lists, money and everything else you enter stay on this device. We can't see them. SwellMate never connects to your bank.
1. Who we are
SwellMate is provided by Luke Uglow (ABN 86 215 349 900), Western Australia. You can contact us about privacy at getswingmateapp@gmail.com.
2. What's stored on your device
- Your first name and what you're mostly into (surfing, fishing or both)
- Your trips: names, places, dates, what you're after, notes and the location you set
- Your local spot for swell, tides, sun, moon and weather, if you set one
- Your surf and catch log (breaks, waves, boards, ratings, species, length, weight, location, photos and notes) and your licences (names, numbers, issuers and expiry dates)
- Spots you save on the map, with the conditions you note for them
- The latest swell, tide and weather forecast for the spot you're looking at
- Seasons, calendar events, time off and day notes you add
- Your routine, alarms and reminder settings
- Your pack lists and checklists
- Appearance and day colour choices
- Your contacts settings (the list, group or people you choose, not the contacts themselves)
- Your money info: trip budgets and spending, and savings goals, all typed in by you
- Maps you download or import, and GPX layers
This is kept in SwellMate's private storage on your phone. It may be included in your device or iCloud backups, depending on your own settings. We can't see it.
3. What leaves your device
Nothing you enter is sent to us. SwellMate has no account and no server of its own. The only things that go over the internet are map tiles and place searches (below), the weather, warnings, swell and tide forecasts and fire hotspots (below), and calendar sync if you turn it on, which your phone handles itself.
4. Money
SwellMate doesn't connect to your bank. There's no bank linking, open banking or third-party financial data service, and SwellMate never asks for or stores bank logins, passwords or account numbers. Everything on the Money tab is entered by you and stays on your device. SwellMate can't move money or make payments. Delete it any time from Money or with Delete all my data.
5. Contacts
If you allow access, SwellMate reads your phone's contacts to show the people you choose (a list, group or company). Contacts are read on your phone only. They're never uploaded and never stored by SwellMate, apart from your chosen settings. Opening a contact shows your phone's own contact card. You can turn off access at any time in iOS Settings.
6. Maps and location
GPX files and maps you import are read on your phone and stored only in SwellMate's private storage. Offline map areas are downloaded from Geoscience Australia's public map service; the request only reveals the map tiles being fetched, like any map app. Place search sends what you type to Apple Maps. If you allow location, SwellMate uses it to show your blue dot and distances on the map, to point you back to a saved spot with the compass guide, to save a spot or log entry where you are when you ask it to, and, only when you tap Use my location, to set your time zone. For the time zone, your position is checked once and may be sent to Apple's location service to look up the time zone for that spot; only the time zone you end up with is saved. Your location is never stored or uploaded to us. You can turn off location for SwellMate at any time in iOS Settings.
7. Weather
Wind, weather, swell, sea temperature and the sea level used for tides come from Open-Meteo (open-meteo.com), based in Switzerland. To get a forecast, SwellMate sends Open-Meteo the location of the trip or local spot you're looking at. Nothing else is sent: not your name, trips, log or licences. Open-Meteo handles the request under its own privacy policy. The latest forecasts are saved on your phone so they're there with no signal. Sun, moon and solunar times are worked out on your phone and nothing is sent for them. The BOM warnings link and shark activity links open the official Bureau of Meteorology, state or Surf Life Saving sites in your browser; SwellMate sends them nothing.
8. Your log, licences and spots
Your surf and catch log, photos, licences and saved map spots are stored only in SwellMate's private storage on this phone. They're never uploaded. Photos you add are copied into SwellMate; the originals in your photo library aren't changed. Deleting an entry deletes its photo.
9. Bushfire hotspots
If you turn on the Fires layer in Maps, SwellMate downloads satellite fire hotspots for the area of the map you're looking at from Digital Earth Australia Hotspots (Geoscience Australia). The request includes only that map area; nothing about you is sent. The latest download is saved on your phone. Hotspots are not warnings: always follow your state's official fire warnings.
10. Calendars on your phone
If you turn on Apple Calendar sync, SwellMate asks for access to your phone's calendars. It adds your trips and events to the calendar you pick, keeps them up to date both ways, and shows events from your other calendars in SwellMate. This all happens on your phone. Events from your other calendars are never stored by SwellMate or uploaded to us. Turning sync off removes SwellMate's copies from your calendar. If your calendar is an iCloud, Google or Outlook calendar, that provider syncs it under its own terms.
11. Reminders and alarms
Reminders and alarms are scheduled by your phone itself, with no push server involved. You can turn them off in Me or in iOS Settings.
12. Cookies and tracking
SwellMate is a native app, not a website. It doesn't use cookies, advertising identifiers, analytics or tracking tools, and it doesn't track you across other apps or websites.
13. Children
SwellMate is made for adults and isn't directed at children. You need to be 16 or older to use it. We don't knowingly collect data from anyone younger.
14. Your choices and rights
- See and correct your details any time in Me.
- Delete everything on this device with Me → Privacy & data → Delete all my data, or by deleting the app.
- Ask us about your privacy at getswingmateapp@gmail.com. We don't hold any personal information about you on a server, so there's nothing for us to send you or correct: it's all on your phone, where you can see, change and delete it yourself.
Complaints: email getswingmateapp@gmail.com and tell us what happened. We'll look into it and reply in writing within 30 days. We handle personal information in line with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles. The full policy is also published at getswingmate.com.au/swellmate/privacy.
If you're in Australia and unhappy with how we handle a complaint, you can contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (oaic.gov.au). If you're in the EU or UK, you can also object to how your information is used, withdraw a consent any time, and complain to your local data protection regulator.
15. How long we keep it
- On your phone: until you delete it, use Delete all my data, or delete the app.
- On our side: nothing. SwellMate has no server of its own, so we don't keep anything about you.
- The services SwellMate asks for maps, forecasts and fire hotspots (below) may keep short-term logs of requests, including the IP address your phone connects from, under their own privacy policies.
16. Why we use your information (EU and UK)
If you're in the EU or UK, the law asks us to say why we're allowed to use your information. We use it to provide the features you choose, such as forecasts for the spot you're looking at. We rely on your consent for contacts, calendars and location, and you can withdraw it any time in iOS Settings.
17. Automated decisions
SwellMate doesn't make decisions about you that have legal or similarly significant effects. Modelled tides, solunar times and forecasts are worked out by software only to help you plan.
18. Where data is processed
Weather, swell and tide requests go to Open-Meteo in Switzerland. Place search and the time zone lookup are handled by Apple (United States). Map tiles and fire hotspots come from Geoscience Australia. These providers have their own privacy policies, and we only use ones that protect personal information to a standard similar to the Australian Privacy Principles.
19. Security
On-device data is protected by iOS app sandboxing and, when your phone is locked, by iOS data protection. Map downloads and forecasts use encrypted connections. If a data breach is likely to cause you serious harm, we'll tell you and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, as the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme requires.
20. Changes
If this policy changes in a way that matters, for example if we add an optional account or an AI assistant, SwellMate will show you the update and ask you to agree before you keep using the app.