Little Penguin Mobile App – Privacy Policy

Who we are

Little Penguin is the controller for this app. Contact: hello@littlepenguin.co.uk. Address: 27 Main Street, Scothern, Lincoln, LN2 2UJ.

What we collect

Account data: email address, name, user ID, and account settings.

User content: photos you upload, the place they relate to, and timestamps. Your photos may appear in the public gallery.

Reports: messages you submit about places (report type, message, place ID, timestamp, and your user ID).

Usage and analytics: screen views and in-app actions (e.g., searches, filters, uploads). Analytics uses device identifiers/app instance ID and may collect IP address.

Location: if you enable location access, we use it to show nearby places and sort results by distance.

On-device data: visited places are stored locally on your device.

Consent choices: your privacy acceptance date and your analytics/location preferences (stored in your account if you sign in).

How we use data

Provide core app features (accounts, uploads, gallery, reports).

Moderate content and prevent abuse.

Improve the app and understand feature usage (analytics, only if you consent where required).

Legal bases (EEA/UK GDPR)

Contract: to create and manage your account and provide requested features.

Legitimate interests: security, abuse prevention, and service improvement.

Consent: analytics and optional location where required. You can withdraw consent at any time.

Sharing and processors

We use Google Firebase (Authentication, Firestore, Storage, Analytics) to provide the app. Your public gallery photos and related place names are visible to other users.

International transfers

Firebase may process data outside your country. Transfers are protected by appropriate safeguards (e.g., Standard Contractual Clauses).

Retention

Account data: kept while your account is active.

Uploads: kept until you delete them or we remove them for policy reasons.

Reports: kept for up to 14 months.

Analytics: kept for up to 14 months.

On-device data: remains until you clear app data or uninstall.

Your rights

You can access, correct, or delete your data, and object to or restrict processing in some cases. You can withdraw consent for analytics/location. You can request account deletion.