Privacy

SeaLifeWiki counts page views, article reads, map actions, and clicks into the shop. An article read means at least 30 seconds with the article visible and reaching its midpoint.

Aggregate counts

Our own analytics group counts by day, page, broad referral category, and device type. This first-party database does not store IP addresses, names, email addresses, visitor identifiers, search text, or location coordinates. These counts describe events, not unique people. Setup tests are counted separately.

Google Analytics

We also use Google Analytics to measure visitors, traffic sources, page views, engagement, and the same article, map, and shop-click events. Google Analytics uses cookies and browser identifiers to distinguish visits and can collect page addresses, referral information, browser and device information, and interactions through enhanced measurement. Our custom map events send action categories, public species or destination identifiers and result counts. They do not send your search text or location coordinates. Advertising storage, advertising personalization, and Google signals are disabled in our Google tag. Read how Google uses information from sites that use its services.

Map searches and the shop

Map searches send the requested area to the public data providers shown on the map. Optional browser location access helps you search nearby; our analytics events do not record those coordinates. The Shopify shop has its own privacy policy and analytics.

SeaLifeWiki mobile app

The mobile app requests foreground location only when you tap Use my location. It sends the selected search area to our server and then to OBIS and iNaturalist to retrieve public marine records. We do not store submitted device coordinates in our database, analytics, or shared destination cache. The native map provider receives map requests. There is no background location tracking.

Saved articles, species, and destinations stay on your device. Public guide text is cached for offline reading; images and map tiles may require a connection. The first app version includes no advertising or mobile analytics SDK. External links open in your browser. Hosting, map, and data providers may process network information to operate their services.

Your analytics preference

We honor browser Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control settings. You can also turn analytics off for this tab. This stops our aggregate events and Google Analytics collection in this tab; it does not erase previously collected data or existing cookies. Setup-test mode does not send events to Google Analytics.