Privacy policy

What the app stores, and why

Push alert token. If you turn on lake alerts, your phone gives the app a push token, a random code that lets us send notifications to that phone. We store it on our alert server with the alert topics you picked (lake level, ramps, weather, wind, weekends, notices) and any ramps you starred, so we can send only the alerts you asked for. It isn’t linked to your name or any account. Turn alerts off in the app and the token is deleted from our server.

Your settings. Your alert choices and starred ramps are also kept on your phone so the app remembers them.

List My Business. If you send a listing request, we receive what you type: business name, type, phone, email, website and notes. We use it only to contact you about a listing on Lake Lanier Now. We don’t sell it or share it.

Lake Today posts (optional)

Lake Today is the part of the app where people share posts and photos about the lake. It’s optional; reading posts doesn’t need an account.

Sign in with Apple. To post, reply or like, you sign in with Apple. Apple gives us a random identifier for your account that only works with our app. We don’t receive your email address or your Apple ID.
What we store: the display name you pick, the date you accepted the community guidelines, your posts, photos, replies and likes, any place you tag a post with, people you’ve blocked, and reports you make or that are made about your posts.
Who can see it: your display name, posts, photos and replies are public to anyone using the app. Likes are shown as a count. Blocks and reports are private.
Photos: photos are shrunk on your phone before upload. We don’t add or keep your location from them; only a place you choose to type in is shown.
Moderation: Lake Lanier Now reviews reported posts and may remove posts or ban accounts that break the community guidelines.
Deleting it: in the app, go to Lake Today → your name → Delete my account. That permanently deletes your account and everything you posted. You can also delete individual posts.

What the app uses but does not collect

Location. If you allow it, the app uses your location on your phone to show where you are on the lake map, and to fill in a message when you tap “Share my location”. You choose who that message goes to. Your location is never sent to us, unless you start a shared trip in the Boat GPS (see “Boat GPS and trip sharing” below).

Lake and weather data. To show the lake level, forecast and listings, the app downloads public data from the U.S. Geological Survey, the National Weather Service, Open-Meteo and lakelaniernow.com. Those services see a normal web request from your phone, as when you visit a website.

Boat GPS and trip sharing

The Boat GPS works in your browser or the Lake Lanier Now app. Your location is used on your device to show your position and plan routes. It isn’t sent to us unless you start a shared trip. Settings, saved spots and your track are stored only on your device.

If you choose Share my trip, we store what you enter (boat name, your name, an optional contact’s name and email, your expected-back time and destination), your planned route, and your phone’s position about every 30 seconds until you end the trip. Anyone with the trip link can see your name, boat, route, ETA and positions from the last 3 hours. The link stops working when you end the trip, or 24 hours after it started.

If you name a contact and haven’t ended the trip by your expected-back time plus the delay you choose, we send that contact one email with your last known position. We email them once more if you then end the trip. We don’t use contact emails for anything else.

All trip data, including positions and contact details, is deleted 7 days after the trip ends. Trip sharing is a convenience, not an emergency or rescue service. Positions can be delayed or missing without a cell signal.

Lake level and depth information comes from public U.S. Geological Survey and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers data. Depths are estimates for reference, not for navigation.

On the website

Lake alert sign-up. The sign-up form asks for your email and, if you want text alerts, your phone number, plus the alert types you pick. We use them only to send those alerts. Every text alert lets you reply STOP to opt out.

The Thursday email. If you subscribe, we keep your email address in our newsletter tool (MailPoet, running on our site) to send it to you. It sets cookies to remember that you subscribed. Every email has an unsubscribe link.

Photo submissions. If you send photos for the gallery, we get the photos plus the name or handle for the credit, your email, and where, when and what the photo shows. We remove the GPS location from every photo when it arrives. Before a photo goes live, we have it checked automatically by Claude, an AI model from Anthropic, to catch anything that doesn’t belong in a family-friendly gallery. The photo and what you wrote on the form are sent to Anthropic for that check only. Photos it isn’t sure about wait for a person to review. Photos are published only once approved, with the credit you gave. We use your email only to ask about your photos.

Visit counts. The site is hosted on WordPress.com. Its built-in Jetpack Stats counts page views and measures page speed so we can see what people read. It does not build an ad profile or follow you to other sites. Automattic, which runs WordPress.com, describes what it collects in its privacy policy.

We keep form entries until we’ve handled them, and delete them sooner if you ask.

In the shop

Orders. When you buy from the Lake Lanier Now shop, we collect your name, email, phone number if you give it, shipping and billing addresses, and what you ordered, so we can fill the order, answer questions and keep the records tax law requires.

Payment. Card payments are handled by Stripe. Your card number goes straight to Stripe and never reaches our site. Stripe’s script runs on shop pages to help prevent fraud and may set its own cookies. See Stripe’s privacy policy.

Printing and shipping. Our shirts and gear are printed and shipped by Printful, so we share your name, shipping address, phone number if given, and the items you ordered with Printful to make and deliver them. See Printful’s privacy policy.

Sales tax. To work out the right sales tax, your shipping address is sent to WooCommerce’s tax service at checkout.

Store statistics. WooCommerce, run by Automattic like WordPress.com, records shop activity such as products viewed and carts started, so we can see what sells. It isn’t used for advertising.

What we don’t do

No accounts needed to use the app (sign-in is only for posting on Lake Today)
No advertising, ad tracking or selling of data
No analytics or tracking across other apps and websites

Children

The app is a general-audience guide to the lake. We don’t knowingly collect personal information from children.

Deleting your data

Turn off alerts in the app to delete your push token from our server, or delete the app. To have a List My Business request, a form entry or a submitted photo deleted, or to unsubscribe from texts or emails, email us at the address below. We keep shop order records as long as tax and accounting law requires.

Shared trip data is deleted automatically 7 days after the trip ends. To have it deleted sooner, email us with the trip link.

Changes and contact

If this policy changes, we’ll update this page and the date at the top. Questions: office@wannagrowbrand.com.