Capture Animals privacy policy

Last updated October 23, 2026. Capture Animals is a free game: you photograph wild animals and collect them in your Field Guide. This page says what the game keeps about you and why. There are no ads, nothing is sold, and nothing is shared with advertisers or data brokers.

Without an account

The Android app identifies animals on your phone. Your photos stay on your phone and aren't sent to us. If you allow location, the app uses it on the phone to show nearby parks and your state's animals. The app looks up the game server's address and new versions on GitHub, which sees your IP address like any website.

With an account

• Account: your email, username and password. The password is stored only as a bcrypt hash, never as text. Your email is never shown to other players, and is used only to send you a link if you forget your password. Sign-up asks the year you were born only to check you are 13 or older; it isn't kept.
• Photos you capture: the photo (resized, with its hidden camera data such as GPS removed), which animal it is, how sure the game was, its photo score, and when and where it was taken. Where comes from the photo or, if you allow it, your phone's location. You can turn off saving where in the app.
• What other players see: one photo per animal in your album, the gallery and the feed, with likes and comments. Never your exact spot: other players see about 10 km, friends about 100 m, and rare or legendary animals only a town or region. You can hide your captures from the feed or make your account private.
• Social: friends, likes, comments, blocks and reports you send.
• Notifications: if you turn them on in a browser, that browser's push address.
• Network: your IP address is used for a few minutes to slow down password guessing and spam. It isn't stored with your account.

How it's used

Only to run the game: identifying animals, your Field Guide, scores, friends, the feed and notifications, and keeping the game safe (reports and moderation). When you tell the game it named the wrong animal, that answer (not your photo) may be used to improve the animal identifier. Your photos aren't used to train it.

Where it's kept

On the game's server in the United States, reached over an encrypted (HTTPS) connection through Cloudflare. Cloudflare carries the traffic; it doesn't store your game data.

Keeping and deleting

Your data is kept while you have an account. Deleting a photo in the app deletes it and its likes and comments. Deleting your account (in the app under your account, or on the delete account page) removes everything right away: account, photos, captures, likes, comments, friends, blocks and reports. Copies in the server's backups go when those backups are replaced.

Safety

You can block any player and report photos, comments and players. Reported content is reviewed and removed if it breaks the rules (bullying, spam, inappropriate or personal content, or photos that aren't of animals). The game is meant for players 13 and older. See the community rules.

Changes

If this policy changes, the date above changes, and big changes are shown in the app.

To reach us, use the contact email on the game's Google Play listing.