Privacy

Last updated 2 November 2026

BridgeView shows ships heading for the Blue Water Bridge and can alert you before one goes under it. It doesn't have accounts, ads or analytics, and it doesn't track you.

Your location

If you turn on Only when I'm near the bridge, the app uses your phone's location services (iOS's on iPhone, Google Play services' geofencing on Android) to notice when you arrive within the distance you chose of the bridge, and when you leave, even when the app is closed. That happens on your phone. Your location is never sent to BridgeView or anyone else; the app only tells our server whether to send you alerts right now.

If you leave the setting off, the app doesn't use your location at all.

What the server keeps for alerts

To send bridge alerts to your phone, our server stores:

The push notification token the app gets from Apple (iPhone) or Google's Firebase Cloud Messaging (Android), and on iPhone the Live Activity token
Your alert settings: whether alerts are on, which kinds of ships, minimum length, which directions, and whether Live Activities (on Android, live countdown notifications) are on
When the device registered and when its settings last changed

These tokens identify the app on your phone to Apple's or Google's push service; they don't tell us who you are. Nothing here is linked to your name, Apple ID, Google account, email or phone number. If you turn notifications off or delete the app, the push service stops accepting the token and the server deletes the record the next time it tries to alert you. On Android, Firebase Cloud Messaging also keeps an installation ID for the app so it can deliver messages; see Firebase's privacy information.

Photos you share

If you share a photo of a ship from the app, our server stores:

The photo, with its location, camera and other details removed (the app redraws it before sending, and the server strips anything left)
The name you asked to be credited as and your note to us, if you gave them
Which ship it's of, when you sent it, and its size in pixels
A fingerprint of the photo (a one-way hash of the file), so the same photo isn't sent twice
A random ID the app makes for itself (it says nothing about your phone or you), and a scrambled, one-way form of your IP address

The ID and scrambled address are used only to stop people who send unsuitable photos from sending more; they're never shown to anyone. Until it's checked, your photo is seen only by BridgeView. Once approved, it and the name you gave are public, in the app and on the website; a photo we decline is deleted, though we keep its fingerprint so it can't be sent again. If we block someone from sharing, we keep their app's ID for good and their scrambled IP address for 30 days. To have a photo taken down, email us.

The app uses the camera only when you tap Take a photo (on Android, through your phone's camera app), and sees only the photos you pick from your library.

Deleting your data

BridgeView has no accounts, so there's nothing to sign in to and close. To delete what the BridgeView app (iPhone or Android) has sent our server:

Alert settings and push tokens: delete the app. Apple or Google then stops accepting its push token, and our server deletes the token and your alert settings the next time it tries to alert you.
Photos you shared and the name you gave: email [email protected] with the ship's name and roughly when you sent them. We delete the photos, your name and your note within 30 days, whether they're waiting to be checked or already public. We keep only each photo's fingerprint, so the same photo can't be sent again, and, if you were blocked from sharing, the records described above.

Server logs

Like most websites, the server sees your IP address when the app or site connects, and keeps it briefly in memory to limit how often one address can make requests. Standard web server logs may also record it for a short time to help keep the service running. We don't use it for anything else.

Ship data and outside links

Ship positions come from AIS, the radio signals ships broadcast publicly, received by a local antenna and the data feeds credited in the app. Ship photos and details come from Wikidata and Wikimedia Commons, and from people who share them in the app. Links to VesselFinder, MarineTraffic, Wikipedia and the YouTube ship cam open those sites, which have their own privacy policies.

Sharing

We don't sell or share your information. Push notifications are delivered through Apple (iPhone) and Google's Firebase Cloud Messaging (Android); shared photos are stored with Cloudflare (R2).

Children

BridgeView isn't directed at children and doesn't knowingly collect anything from them.

Changes and questions

If this policy changes, the date at the top will change with it. Questions or requests about your data: email [email protected] or open an issue on GitHub. See also about BridgeView and the terms.