Privacy Policy

RASSPL WP Bronzies NPC is a South African Non Profit Company registered under CIPC number 2024/377296/08.

We only collect information that our services actually need to operate. Depending on how you use them, this may include:

• name, phone number and email address, provided when you register
• authentication account information (see “How Information Is Shared” below) -- we do not store your password ourselves
• a member number, membership status and prize-giving category
• competition participation and catch records -- species, length, sex and notes
• catch photographs
• capture date and time
• GPS/location information, where a competition requires it
• device-generated identifiers used only to submit a catch offline and prevent it being recorded twice
• role information, such as member, marshal or administrator
• verification and moderation records created when a marshal or administrator reviews a catch
• technical logs required for security and fault investigation

Authentication (signing in and password handling) is managed for us by our configured authentication provider, Supabase Auth -- WP Bronzies itself never stores or sees your password.

We collect information through:

• registration
• profile maintenance
• competition participation
• catch submission
• photograph capture (taken directly in the app -- never uploaded from your camera roll)
• GPS permission, when you grant it
• offline capture and later synchronisation once you reconnect
• interaction with authorised marshals or administrators reviewing your submissions
• the necessary technical operation of the service (e.g. error logs)

We use the information described above to:

• manage membership and access to the app
• administer competitions
• calculate and display points and results
• verify catches
• enforce competition rules
• maintain catch histories
• support conservation and catch-data records
• prevent duplicate or fraudulent submissions
• operate offline synchronisation
• provide security and technical support
• comply with lawful obligations
• communicate important operational notices

We do not use your information for advertising, profiling or direct marketing.

Catch photographs are used for catch verification, competition administration, catch history and approved results. Please do not upload photographs that are unrelated to your catch, unlawful, or otherwise inappropriate.

Photographs may contain embedded or visible information beyond the fish itself (for example, background detail visible in the frame). The app may compress or otherwise process a photograph before it is uploaded.

Catch photographs and results are only ever visible to you and to authorised marshals/administrators reviewing or displaying approved results within the app -- they are not published on the public website. You should not assume a photograph is private in every context once a catch has been submitted, since it becomes part of the record a marshal or administrator can review.

Separately, authorised event photographs (for example, from community outreach or conservation-education events) may be used to document and share the organisation’s community and conservation activities, including on this website. Where an event photograph includes a young participant, we only publish it where appropriate permission or authority for that participant’s involvement and depiction has been obtained. If you have a question or request relating to an event photograph, please contact us at wpbronzies@gmail.com.

GPS location is requested only where a competition or submission rule requires it.

• Test competitions, where supported by the app, do not require GPS at all.
• Where required, location may be used to assess whether a catch was captured within a competition boundary.
• You may refuse location permission, but doing so may prevent you from submitting a catch where location is mandatory for that competition.

Precise catch location is treated as protected information within our systems -- it is not displayed publicly.

Our progressive web app may temporarily store competition information, draft catches, photographs and queued submissions directly on your device so that you can keep capturing catches without a signal.

• This information remains on your device until it is synchronised online or cleared.
• A queued submission stays associated with the member who created it, even on a shared device.
• If you use a shared device, please sign out and use the app’s own account-switching process when you finish, rather than leaving your session open for the next person.
• We recommend protecting your device with a PIN, password or biometric lock, since anyone with access to an unlocked device could see information saved there.

We share information only where necessary, with:

• authorised marshals and administrators, for verification and competition administration
• service providers required to host or operate the system (see “Service Providers” below)
• lawful authorities, where we are legally required to do so
• research or conservation recipients, only where applicable and appropriately authorised

We do not supply identifiable member information to Rhodes University or any other research body. Where catch/conservation data may be shared for research purposes, it is aggregated, limited or de-identified where practical, subject to the purpose of that sharing and any applicable arrangements at the time.

We currently use the following categories of service provider:

• Supabase, for authentication, database services and photo storage
• Vercel, for website hosting
• StormGlass, for marine weather/conditions data used in competition planning (using competition location only, never linked to an individual member)
• Resend, for a single operational email (notifying an administrator that a new member has signed up)

These providers may change as our services develop. Where we engage a new service provider, we take reasonable steps to use a reputable provider and to require appropriate safeguards for any information they process on our behalf.

Our service providers may process information on servers located outside South Africa. We do not claim that all information is physically hosted within South Africa.

We take reasonable steps to use reputable service providers and to protect information that is transferred in this way.

We use reasonable technical and organisational safeguards, which may include:

• authenticated access to the app
• role-based permissions (member, marshal, administrator)
• database-level security policies restricting who can read or change a record
• protected, non-public photo storage
• server-side validation of every submission
• identity checks built into offline capture and synchronisation
• encrypted network communication
• limiting access to only what a given role needs

No system can be guaranteed completely secure or immune from every possible breach, and we do not claim formal security certification.

We retain information for as long as reasonably required for membership administration, competition records, catch history, conservation reporting, legal and audit obligations, dispute resolution and security.

We do not currently apply fixed retention periods for every category of information. As the organisation grows, we intend to formalise and, where appropriate, publish more specific retention schedules.

Subject to applicable South African law, you may ask us for:

• confirmation of whether we hold personal information about you
• access to that information
• correction or updating of inaccurate information
• deletion, where legally and operationally permitted
• objection to certain processing
• withdrawal of consent, where our processing relies on your consent

Some competition and audit records may need to be retained even after you close your account, for example to preserve the integrity of past results or to meet a legal obligation.

Where youth participants are permitted, registration, consent and supervision requirements must be handled in accordance with the organisation’s rules and applicable law. A parent, guardian or authorised adult may be required to assist with or approve participation.

We distinguish between a few different kinds of on-device storage:

• Necessary authentication/session storage -- cookies that keep you signed in, set by our authentication provider.
• PWA caches -- static app files cached by the browser so the app can install and load offline.
• Offline application storage -- the on-device queues and caches described under “Offline Use” above.
• Preference storage -- small local values such as which saved profile is currently active on a shared device.

We do not use advertising or marketing cookies, and we do not currently use analytics cookies.

Our website or app may occasionally link to external sites. Those sites have their own privacy practices, and WP Bronzies is not responsible for their content or policies.

We may update this policy as our services, technology or legal requirements change. When we do, we will revise the “Last updated” date at the top of this page.

If you have a question about this policy or how we handle your information, please contact us:

RASSPL WP BRONZIES NPC

CIPC registration number: 2024/377296/08

Email: wpbronzies@gmail.com

Website: www.wpbronzies.org