Privacy
Last updated October 5, 2026. This page describes what the app does today. If the app changes, this page changes with it.
The short version
- No account, no analytics, no ads and no cookies.
- Your catches, photos, notes and spots are saved in your browser on your device. There is no server copy, so nobody, including me, can see them or recover them for you.
- A few features contact free outside services. They are listed below, with exactly what each one receives.
What is saved on your device
- Your log: catches (species, size, weight, lure, technique, kept or released, water temperature, notes, time, and GPS coordinates if you allowed location), trips (start and end, notes, a weather snapshot, coordinates), and spots (name, type, notes, coordinates). Stored in your browser’s local storage.
- Your photos: stored in your browser’s database.
- Preferences: units, whether weather is on, your fishing region, your species and lure lists, light or dark mode, and whether you have seen the intro and notices.
- Backup folder (optional): if you choose a backup folder in Chrome or Edge, your browser remembers permission to save into it, in its own database on this device. The app can see the folder’s name, not its full path, and only writes the backup files you ask for.
- Saved copies for offline use: the app’s own files, the map code after you first open the map, and map tiles you have viewed.
The app sets no cookies. This data is not encrypted, so anyone who can open your browser profile on this device can see it. Do not enter passwords, Social Security numbers, card numbers or other highly sensitive information.
What leaves your device
Only the items below, and only when you use that feature. Each service also sees your IP address and basic browser details, as any website does. I do not receive any of this.
Place search (Photon, photon.komoot.io)
When: you type 3 or more characters in a place search box.
Sent: the text you typed, plus a rough area (your location rounded to about 11 km) so nearby places rank first.
Weather (Open-Meteo, api.open-meteo.com)
When: weather is on in More → Settings and a running trip gets a location, either from your position or from the spot you pick for it. Once a trip has weather, it isn’t asked again.
Also when: you open the Bite forecast on the Log screen. It asks for the hourly forecast (about 4 days) for your location, or for your saved spot if location isn’t available. The forecast is kept in memory on your device and isn’t saved to your log.
Sent: your location rounded to about 1 km. Open-Meteo says it keeps web server logs, including IP addresses, for about 90 days. Turn weather off in More → Settings to stop this.
Map tiles (OpenFreeMap, tiles.openfreemap.org)
When: you open the Map tab.
Sent: requests for the map tiles, fonts and styles for the area on your screen. OpenFreeMap says it may use Cloudflare to deliver content.
Directions (Google Maps)
When: you tap Directions on a spot.
Sent: a Google Maps link that contains that spot’s coordinates opens in a new tab. Google’s privacy policy applies from there.
Species guide source links
When: you tap a source link on a Species page.
Sent: nothing from the app. The link opens the source’s own website (for example Take Me Fishing or a state wildlife agency) in a new tab, and that site’s privacy practices apply. The guide itself is part of the app and loads from this site, so it works offline.
Sharing and exporting
The app never uploads your files. When you share a trip card or export a backup, it goes where you choose. The trip card image has no spot name and no location.
The web host
Whoever hosts mbfishing.online may keep ordinary server logs, such as IP address, time and the file requested. The app adds no analytics or tracking on top of that.
These services have their own privacy practices: Open-Meteo, OpenFreeMap, Photon, Google.
Location
The app asks your browser for your location only when you do something that needs it: tapping Allow location, Use my location or the locate button, logging a fish, starting a trip, or opening an empty map. While a trip is running, it also refreshes your position every few minutes so new catches get the right place. Your browser asks you first, and you can say no. If you allow it, the exact coordinates are saved with that catch or trip on your device only. You can always search for a place or paste coordinates instead.
Photos
Photos stay on your device. When you add one, the app resizes it (longest side 1,920 pixels) and saves a new copy. That drops the extra data a camera embeds, including GPS tags. If a photo can’t be processed, it is saved unchanged.
Your controls
- Export: More → Back up everything (ZIP with photos), or JSON, CSV and GPX.
- Import: More → Other formats and restore.
- Delete: More → Storage and delete data → Delete all data. It erases your log, photos, preferences and the saved map tiles on this device. Clearing this site’s data in your browser does the same.
Backup files are not encrypted and contain exact spot locations and your notes. Keep them private, especially if you guard your fishing spots.
Because I do not receive your data, there is nothing on a server for me to look up, correct or delete. You hold the only copy.
Children
The app is a general-purpose fishing log and is not designed for children. It has no accounts and does not ask for names, emails or phone numbers. I do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone, including children. Outside services still see an IP address when a feature contacts them, as any website would.
Changes
The date at the top shows when this page last changed.
Credits
- Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL). Map tiles by OpenFreeMap, using OpenMapTiles data.
- Place search by Photon, using OpenStreetMap data.
- Weather data by Open-Meteo.com, licensed CC BY 4.0.
- Map display: Leaflet (BSD-2-Clause), MapLibre GL JS (BSD-3-Clause) and maplibre-gl-leaflet (ISC). Their license texts are in vendor/LICENSES.txt.
- Icons in the app are emoji drawn by your device’s own font. The moon phase, sunrise and sunset are calculated on your device.
- Tide times: worked out on your device from harmonic data in the open Neaps tide database (MIT) and the Neaps tide predictor (MIT). Station data comes from NOAA CO-OPS (US government, public domain), the Norwegian Mapping Authority (Kartverket, CC BY 4.0), the Canadian Hydrographic Service, and TICON-4 (Hart-Davis, M., Dettmering, D., Seitz, F., 2025, doi:10.17882/109129, CC BY 4.0, modified). Predictions are estimates and are not for navigation.
- Species guide: tips are summarized in our own words from the sources listed on each species page (mainly Take Me Fishing, state and federal wildlife agencies, universities, and bird guides such as Cornell’s All About Birds and Audubon). They are not affiliated with or endorsing this app. Fish and wildlife drawings are original illustrations made for this app.