Aquabuildr, LLC ("Aquabuildr," "we," "us," or "our") builds the Aquabuildr mobile app, the aquabuildr.com web platform, Aquabot, and the related tools, content and communities (together, the "Service"). This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, who we share it with, and the choices you have. It applies to everyone who uses the Service, wherever you are in the world.
By using the Service you agree to the collection and use of information as described here. If you do not agree, please do not use the Service.
1.Information we collect
1.1Information you give us
- Account details. Name or display name, email address, password (stored in hashed form), profile photo, preferred language and unit system (imperial or metric). If you sign in with Apple, Google, Facebook or another identity provider, we receive the name, email and account identifier that provider shares with us.
- Aquarium data. Everything you enter about your tanks: tank dimensions and volume, inhabitants (fish, invertebrates and plants), water parameters and test results, dosing records, equipment, maintenance tasks, reminders, notes, logs and reports.
- Photos and video. Images you upload or capture in the app — for example, photos of your fish for Fish Trackr, test strips, or tank photos shared to the community. Where you enable camera-based features, we process the images you choose to submit.
- Community content. Posts, questions, answers, replies, reviews and likes you share in Discussions, the community feed, Q&A, or vendor reviews. Community content is visible to other users by design. The Service does not offer private user-to-user messaging.
- Aquabot conversations. Questions you ask our AI assistant and the responses it generates.
- Purchase details (web checkout). If you buy Premium or products directly on aquabuildr.com, we collect your name, email, billing and shipping address, order details, and a payment token from our payment processor. We never receive or store your full card number.
- Support and correspondence. Messages you send to support, feedback you submit, survey responses and beta program participation.
- Accredited Vendor and partner applications. If you apply to the Accredited Vendor program or another partner program, the business information you submit.
1.2Information collected automatically
- Device and app information. Device type and model, operating system and version, app version, language and region settings, unique device identifiers, push notification tokens, and crash and performance diagnostics.
- Usage information. Features you use, screens you view, actions you take (for example, adding a fish or logging a water change), time spent, and the source that brought you to the Service.
- Log data. IP address, access dates and times, browser type (web platform), and the pages or endpoints requested.
- Approximate location. If you grant the location permission, we use your device's approximate location to show aquarium stores, accredited vendors and other businesses near you. We do not collect precise GPS location, and we do not track location in the background. You can turn this off at any time in your device settings; we then rely only on a coarse location derived from your IP address to localize content.
- Cookies and similar technologies (web). aquabuildr.com uses cookies and local storage to keep you signed in, remember preferences, measure use through Google Analytics, and attribute affiliate purchases. See Section 9.
1.3Information from other sources
- App stores. Apple App Store and Google Play handle Premium subscriptions purchased in the app. They send us confirmation of your subscription status, product, trial and renewal dates, and region.
- Payment processor (web). Our payment processor confirms payment status for purchases made on aquabuildr.com and handles card data under its own security standards.
- Accredited vendors and affiliate partners. When you buy through a partner link, the partner may confirm to us that a purchase occurred so we can attribute it. The partner's own privacy policy governs what they collect.
- Sign-in providers. Basic profile information from Apple, Google, Facebook or other identity providers you choose to use.
1.4What we do not collect
We do not use advertising SDKs or ad networks in the Service, we do not collect precise location, and we do not collect government identification numbers or full payment card numbers.
2.How we use information
We use the information we collect to:
- Run the Service. Create and secure your account, store your tanks, sync across devices, process orders, and deliver the features you use.
- Generate your tank insights. Calculate the Tank Health Score, check compatibility, size filtration (Filter Recommendr), compute safe parameter ranges, produce "Do This Next" guidance, and send reminders you set.
- Power AI features. Answer your Aquabot questions, analyze photos you submit (for example, to identify a species, read a test strip, or flag possible signs of disease), and improve the accuracy of those features over time. See Section 4.
- Show you what is nearby. Use approximate location to surface local stores and accredited vendors.
- Personalize your experience. Show relevant content, starter tanks, vendors and products; remember your language and units; tailor onboarding to your experience level.
- Communicate with you. Send service messages (account, security, billing, order and feature updates), respond to support requests, and send tips, news and offers by email or push notification, which you can opt out of at any time.
- Keep the Service safe. Detect fraud, abuse, spam and policy violations; moderate community content using a mix of staff review, automated filters and user reports; protect the rights and safety of users, animals and Aquabuildr.
- Understand and improve the Service. Analyze usage in aggregate, test new features, fix bugs, and inform product decisions.
- Comply with law. Meet legal, tax, accounting and regulatory obligations, and respond to lawful requests.
2.1Aggregated and de-identified data
We may aggregate or de-identify information so it no longer identifies you — for example, "how many 40-gallon community tanks keep Neon Tetras with Corydoras" — and use that data for research, benchmarking, product development, published statistics, and improving our compatibility, filtration and health-score models. We will not attempt to re-identify de-identified data and will require any recipient to commit to the same.
3.Legal bases (EEA, UK, Switzerland and similar jurisdictions)
Where data protection law requires a legal basis, we rely on: performance of a contract (providing the Service you signed up for and fulfilling your orders); legitimate interests (securing, improving and promoting the Service, which we balance against your rights); consent (optional permissions such as camera, location, marketing messages and non-essential cookies — you can withdraw consent at any time); and legal obligation (record-keeping and responding to lawful requests).
4.AI features and automated processing
Several Aquabuildr features use artificial intelligence and automated analysis, including Aquabot, camera-based species and test-strip recognition, disease indicators, behavior monitoring, the Tank Health Score and Filter Recommendr. Please understand:
- These features provide informational guidance, not veterinary, medical or professional advice. Outputs can be wrong. You remain responsible for decisions about your animals.
- Content you submit to AI features (questions, photos) is processed by Anthropic, our AI provider, acting on our behalf under contract. Anthropic does not use your content to train its models. Anthropic processes requests and does not retain them beyond what is needed to provide the service to us.
- Photos you submit to AI features are kept in your account while it is active so you can review your history, and are deleted with your account.
- We may use your submissions and outcomes to improve Aquabuildr's own models — for example, to make disease detection more accurate — in de-identified form wherever practical.
- The Tank Health Score is an automated calculation based on the data you enter. It is not used to make decisions with legal or similarly significant effects on you.
5.How we share information
We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it with third parties for their own direct marketing or for cross-context behavioral advertising. We share information only as follows:
- Service providers. Companies that process information on our behalf and may use it only to perform services for us: Amazon Web Services (hosting and storage), Anthropic (AI features), Google Analytics (web usage measurement), our email and push-notification delivery providers, crash-reporting tools, customer-support tooling, and our payment processor for web checkout.
- App stores. Apple and Google process in-app Premium subscriptions under their own terms and privacy policies.
- Other users. Your display name, profile photo and any community content you post are visible to other users. Tank data is private unless you choose to share it (for example, by posting a Tank Report to the feed).
- Accredited vendors and affiliate partners. When you click through to a partner or vendor, that partner receives the information needed to attribute and fulfil your purchase. Accredited Vendors do not receive user data from Aquabuildr. Vendor reviews you post are visible to the vendor and other users.
- Shipping carriers. For physical products you order from us, your name, shipping address and contact details go to the carrier delivering the order.
- Business transfers. If Aquabuildr is involved in a merger, acquisition, financing, reorganization or sale of assets, information may be transferred as part of that transaction, subject to this policy.
- Legal and safety. When required by law, subpoena or court order; to enforce our Terms of Use; or to protect the rights, property or safety of Aquabuildr, our users, animals or the public.
- With your direction. When you export your data (CSV or Excel) or ask us to share it with someone else.
Our marketing partner KaveMan Aquatics promotes Aquabuildr but does not receive your personal information from us.
6.Data retention
- Active accounts. We keep your information for as long as your account is active and as needed to provide the Service.
- Premium lapse. If your Premium subscription ends, Premium-only content — such as tanks and features beyond the free tier limits — is kept for 30 days so nothing is lost if you resubscribe. If you do not resubscribe within 30 days, that Premium-only content may be permanently deleted. Your account and free-tier data remain.
- Account deletion. You can delete your account in the app settings at any time, or by emailing us. Your personal information is deleted or de-identified within 30 days, except where we must retain it for legal, security, billing, tax or dispute purposes. Community content you posted may remain visible in de-identified form.
- Orders. Records of purchases are kept as long as required for tax, accounting and warranty purposes.
- Backups and logs. Residual copies may persist in encrypted backups for a limited period before being overwritten.
7.Security
We use administrative, technical and physical safeguards appropriate to the sensitivity of the data, including encryption in transit and at rest, access controls, and monitoring, on infrastructure hosted by Amazon Web Services. No system is perfectly secure; if we learn of a breach affecting your personal information we will notify you and the relevant authorities as required by law.
8.Your rights and choices
8.1Choices available to everyone
- Access, correct and export. View and edit your profile and tank data in the app at any time. Export your tank data in CSV or Excel from the app.
- Delete. Delete individual records, tanks, photos or your entire account from the app settings.
- Marketing emails and push. Unsubscribe using the link in any marketing email, or turn off marketing notifications in the app or device settings. Service, security and billing messages will still be sent.
- Camera, photos and location. Control these through your device settings. Some features will not work without the related permission.
- Cookies. Manage cookies in your browser or through the cookie banner on aquabuildr.com; see Section 9.
8.2Additional rights by region
European Economic Area, United Kingdom and Switzerland. You have the right to access, rectify, erase, restrict or object to processing, to data portability, and to withdraw consent. You may lodge a complaint with your local supervisory authority. Aquabuildr is based in the United States; where we transfer data from these regions we rely on the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses (and the UK Addendum) with our service providers, together with the safeguards described in Section 7.
California and other U.S. states. Depending on where you live, you may have the right to know what personal information we collect, use and disclose; to delete it; to correct it; to opt out of "sale" or "sharing" for cross-context behavioral advertising; to limit use of sensitive personal information; and not to be discriminated against for exercising these rights. We do not sell or share personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising, and we do not use advertising SDKs. We honor Global Privacy Control signals on the web platform.
Other regions. Users in Canada, Brazil, Australia and elsewhere may have similar rights under local law. We will honor requests as required by the law that applies to you.
To exercise any right, email nathan@futrix.io with "Privacy Request" in the subject line, from the address on your account. We may need to verify your identity. You may use an authorized agent where the law allows. We will respond within the time required by applicable law, and in any case within 30 days.
9.Cookies and the web platform
aquabuildr.com uses strictly necessary cookies (sign-in, security, checkout, preferences), analytics cookies (Google Analytics, to understand how the site is used), and affiliate attribution cookies (to credit purchases made through partner links). Visitors from the EEA, UK and other regions that require it will see a cookie banner and can accept or decline non-essential cookies before they are set, and change that choice at any time from the site footer. Most browsers also let you block or delete cookies, though some features may stop working.
10.Children
You must be at least 13 years old (or older where local law requires, such as 16 in parts of the EEA) to create an account. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under that age. If you believe a child has provided us information, email nathan@futrix.io and we will delete it. Educational content in Aquabuildr is written for all ages, but accounts must be created by someone who meets the age requirement; a parent or guardian may manage a tank on a younger hobbyist's behalf.
11.International users
Aquabuildr is operated from the United States. The Service is available in 21 languages and used worldwide; by using it you understand that your information will be processed in the United States and in other countries where our service providers operate, which may have different data protection laws than your home country. We take the steps described in Sections 7 and 8.2 to protect information transferred internationally.
12.Third-party sites and vendors
The Service links to accredited vendors, affiliate stores, and other third-party websites and services. We are not responsible for their privacy practices. Read their policies before providing information to them.
13.Changes to this policy
We may update this Privacy Policy as the Service and the law change. If the changes are material, we will notify you in the app or by email before they take effect, and we will always show the effective date at the top. Continuing to use the Service after the effective date means you accept the updated policy.