Privacy Policy

1. Who this policy is from

Boatlink is an app published by Rob, trading as Sea Glass Cockpit. In this policy, "the app" means Boatlink, and "the developer" means the publisher named above. "You" means anyone using the app on their own device.

2. What Boatlink is, in privacy terms

Boatlink is a crew intercom for a boat. The crew's phones and tablets communicate with each other across the boat's own wifi network — either a router aboard, or one phone's Personal Hotspot. One device acts as the host and runs a small server; the other devices connect to that host.

That local network is the entire extent of the system. There is no Boatlink server on the internet, in a data centre, or anywhere else. Data moves from one device on the boat to another device on the boat, and stops there.

3. What the developer collects

Nothing.

The developer does not collect, receive, store, process, sell, share or have any means of accessing any information about you or your use of the app. There is no account to create, no email address to give, no identifier assigned to you, and no channel over which anything could be sent to the developer even if it existed. This is not a policy commitment layered on top of a system that could do otherwise — it is a description of how the app is built.

4. What travels between the devices on your boat

So that the intercom can work, the following moves between crew devices on the local network, and only between those devices:

• Your display name — whatever you type in, so the rest of the crew knows who is speaking.
• Your colour — the colour you pick to identify yourself.
• An optional small profile photo — a thumbnail, capped at 16 KB, and only if you choose to set one.
• Voice audio — while a line is open, and only while it is open.
• Now-playing text — text saying what music someone is playing, if that person chooses to put it "on air".

That is the complete list. None of it is sent off the boat, and none of it reaches the developer.

5. How that traffic is protected

All traffic between crew devices is encrypted with AES-256-GCM, under a key derived from your boat's own join code. Devices prove they were invited using HMAC-SHA256 before they are allowed to take part. A device in the next berth — even one that can see the same wifi — can neither join your boat's session nor read the traffic on it.

6. What is stored on your device

The app stores a small amount of information locally on your own device, so it does not have to ask you again every time:

• Your display name
• Your colour
• Your profile photo, if you set one
• Your own audio preferences

This stays on your device. It is not backed up to any service by the app and is not transmitted anywhere except to the other crew devices as described in section 4. Deleting the app clears all of it.

7. Voice audio

Voice audio is live only. It is carried from one device to another while a line is open, and then it is gone. Boatlink does not record calls, does not write audio to disk, does not buffer audio for later, and does not retain audio in any form. There is nothing to request a copy of, because nothing is kept.

8. Permissions the app asks for, and why

Microphone

For the intercom. This is what carries your voice to the rest of the crew while a line is open.

Local network

To find the other Boatlink devices on the boat's wifi. Without it, your device cannot see the host and the crew list will stay empty.

Camera

For two things: scanning the QR code that gets you aboard a boat's session, and flashing the camera light when someone rings you, so you can see a call in noise or in the dark. The app takes no photos and records no video.

Photo library

Only if you choose to set a profile picture, and only for the picture you pick. The app does not browse, scan or index your library.

Every one of these permissions is used for the purpose stated and nothing else. Declining one disables the corresponding feature; it does not send anything anywhere.

9. Third parties

There are none. Boatlink contains no advertising networks, no analytics SDKs, no crash-reporting services, no attribution or measurement tools, and no third-party components that transmit information off your device. No data is sold, shared or disclosed to anyone, because no data is held.

10. Children

Boatlink is not directed at children. It also collects nothing from anyone, of any age — so there is no children's data for the developer to hold, no parental access request that could be fulfilled with data, and nothing to delete on request beyond deleting the app from the device.

11. Your rights, and why they are easy here

Users in the European Union, the United Kingdom, California and other places with data protection or privacy laws have rights over personal data held about them — typically rights to be told what is held, to get a copy, to correct it, to have it erased, and to object to it being sold or shared.

The factual position with Boatlink is this: the developer collects no personal data, receives no personal data, and processes no personal data. The only information that exists is what sits on your own device and what passes between crew devices on your own network, both under your control. Consequently there is nothing to disclose in response to an access request, nothing to correct, nothing to erase beyond deleting the app, and no sale or sharing of personal information to opt out of.

This section states the facts about how the app works rather than asserting a legal conclusion about compliance with any particular statute.

12. Data security in plain terms

The strongest security property of Boatlink is architectural: there is no central store to breach. There is no server holding crew lists, recordings, messages or accounts, because there is no server. On the wire, traffic is encrypted as described in section 5. On your device, your settings are protected by your device's own operating system and passcode.

13. Payments

Boatlink is free. There are no in-app purchases and no subscriptions, so no payment information is ever requested or handled by the app.

14. Changes to this policy

If the app ever changes in a way that affects this policy, this page will be updated and the effective date at the top will change. Any material change would be a change in what the app does — and would arrive with a new version of the app that you would choose to install.

15. Contact