This policy explains what TANKSENSE collects, why, who it is shared with, how long it is kept, and how to get rid of it. It is written to be read, not survived.
The short version. We collect what the app needs to give you advice about your own aquarium, and nothing else. We do not sell your personal information. Your conversations are not used to train AI models. You can delete your account, and everything in it, from inside the app at any time — no email, no waiting. If you no longer have the app, use our account deletion page.
TANKSENSE ("we", "us") is an iOS and Android application that helps aquarium keepers record their tanks, log water tests, and get guidance about their livestock.
This policy covers the app and our website at tanksenseapp.com, where you can request product news or send us a message.
We are the data controller for the information described in this policy. You can reach us at contact@tanksenseapp.com.
Only what the app needs in order to work. There is no hidden collection.
| Category | What it is, and why we need it |
|---|---|
| Account information | Your first name and email address, so you can sign in and so we can reach you about your account. If you use Sign in with Apple and choose to hide your address, we only ever see Apple's private relay address. |
| Your tanks | What you tell us about each system: type, water type, volume, sump, age, equipment, filter media, and the fish, corals, plants and invertebrates in it. This is what makes the guidance specific to your tank rather than generic. |
| Water tests | The readings you record, and when: ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, phosphate, pH, alkalinity, calcium, magnesium, salinity, temperature. Water changes and RO/DI readings too, if you log them. |
| Photos and video frames | Photos of your tank or animals — and still frames selected on your device from a video — only if you choose to add them. They are used to answer the question you asked and stored with your account. Full videos are not uploaded. |
| Conversations | What you ask Triggy and what he answers, so the conversation has memory and so you can come back to it later. |
| Support messages | If you contact support from inside the app, we receive your message along with your device model, operating-system version, app build and a summary of your tanks — so we can actually diagnose the problem instead of guessing. The form tells you this before you send it. |
| Scanned documents and receipts | If you scan an ICP report or shop receipt, text is extracted on your device. You review ICP values before saving them. For receipt import, only the extracted text is sent for livestock identification; the receipt image is not uploaded. |
| Camera connection data | If you add a supported aquarium camera, we store its owner-scoped connection profile with your tank. The private camera credential is encrypted with AES-256-GCM in your account and cached in the device secure store. Your Wi-Fi password is sent directly to the camera during setup and is never saved by TANKSENSE. |
| Subscription status | Apple or Google Play tells us which TANKSENSE plan is active, the product identifier, and when access expires. We never receive your payment-card details. |
| Waitlist email | If you give us your email address on our website, we store it so we can tell you the day the app is released. That is the only message it will ever be used for. There is no newsletter and we do not sell or share the list. Ask us and it is deleted. |
| Website messages | If you use the contact form on our website, we receive your email address, your message, and your name if you choose to give one, so we can write back. Unlike support from inside the app, this sends no device or tank information. |
| Website live-feed player | Our homepage embeds the public TANKSENSE aquarium feed using YouTube's privacy-enhanced player. When the player loads, your browser connects directly to YouTube so it can display the video. YouTube may receive technical information such as your network address, browser or device details, the referring website, and playback interactions. TANKSENSE does not receive or store raw network or browser-level details; as the channel owner, we may receive aggregated YouTube analytics such as views, watch time, broad device categories and referring sites. |
| Abuse prevention | Both website forms are rate limited so they cannot be flooded. To do that we store a one-way hash of the network address the request came from, with a timestamp. The address itself is never written down, the hash is not linked to your message or your waitlist entry, and the record is deleted after a day. |
| Diagnostic data | Basic information about crashes and app performance. |
We do not build advertising profiles. We do not use your data for any purpose beyond the list above.
Triggy, the assistant inside TANKSENSE, is built on large language models provided by Anthropic. This is the section we most want you to actually read.
When you ask Triggy a question, the following is sent to Anthropic's API in order to generate the answer: your message, any photo or locally selected video frame you attached, and the relevant context about your tank — its type, size, age, equipment, livestock and recent water tests.
Triggy is a guide, not a veterinarian, and he can be wrong. Guidance is drawn from vetted aquarium husbandry and aquatic-veterinary sources and is offered for educational purposes only. For serious, uncertain or fast-moving health problems, consult a qualified aquatic veterinarian. You remain responsible for the care of your animals and for any treatment you choose to give them.
We do not sell your personal information. We do not share it for cross-context behavioural advertising. TANKSENSE does not place advertisements in the app or website. YouTube may display its own interface or advertising inside the embedded public feed under Google's policies.
Some product links in the app are affiliate links — for example to Amazon. If you buy through one, we may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. Those retailers have their own privacy policies, which apply once you leave our app. We only show a product link when your own logged data suggests you may actually need the item. We do not invent a reason for you to click one.
Your data is stored with Google Firebase on infrastructure located in the United States, and is encrypted in transit.
Access is restricted by security rules enforced on the server: your account can read and write only your own data, and no other account can reach it. Our server also verifies that requests genuinely originate from the real TANKSENSE app before it will answer them.
Private aquarium-camera credentials are encrypted with AES-256-GCM before being stored in the account vault. A device keeps only its own secure cached copy: Keychain on iOS and Android Keystore-backed encrypted storage on Android. Camera profiles and credentials are scoped to the signed-in owner; one user cannot read another user's camera data.
No system is perfectly secure and we will not pretend otherwise. If a breach ever affects your personal data, we will notify you and the relevant authorities as the law requires.
Your tanks, tests, photos and conversations are kept for as long as your account exists — that history is exactly what makes the guidance useful. The moment you delete your account, they go.
A waitlist address is kept until the app is released and the announcement has gone out, or until you ask us to remove it, whichever comes first. Website messages are kept in our email for as long as the conversation is useful. Rate-limiting records are deleted after a day.
We may retain minimal records where the law requires it, such as billing and tax records for a completed purchase. Those contain no tank data, no photos and no health logs.
You can delete your account from inside the app, at any time, in Settings. No email, no waiting, no support ticket, and nobody trying to talk you out of it.
When you confirm, we delete:
We delete it. We do not archive it, anonymise it, or hold it "in case you come back." Deletion begins the moment you confirm and completes within minutes. Backup copies held by our infrastructure provider are purged on their standard rotation, typically within 30 days.
It cannot be undone. We keep no hidden copy to restore from. Once your account is deleted we cannot recover your tanks or your history — and neither can anyone else. That is the point.
Deleting your account does not cancel an active subscription. On iOS, manage it in your Apple Account settings. On Android, manage it in Google Play under Payments & subscriptions.
If you no longer have access to the app, you can initiate deletion through our public account deletion page.
Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access, correct, export or delete your personal data, to object to or restrict how we process it, and to withdraw consent. If you are in California, you also have the right not to be discriminated against for exercising those rights.
Most of this you can do yourself, immediately, inside the app: your tanks and tests are editable, and account deletion is one tap in Settings. For anything else — including a copy of your data — email contact@tanksenseapp.com and we will respond within 30 days.
TANKSENSE is intended for adults and older teenagers who keep aquariums. You must be at least 13 years old to create an account. The app is not directed at or marketed to anyone younger, and we do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 13. If we learn that we have, we will delete it.
We are based in the United States, and our service providers process data there. If you use TANKSENSE from outside the United States, your information will be transferred to and stored in the United States, which may have different data-protection laws than your own country. Where required, we rely on appropriate safeguards such as the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses.
If we change this policy we will update the date at the top. If a change materially affects how we handle your data, we will tell you in the app before it takes effect. We will not quietly rewrite the terms underneath you.
Questions about your data, this policy, or anything else: contact@tanksenseapp.com. A real person reads every message.