Ava: Privacy Policy
The short version
- Ava keeps your data on your phone. There are no accounts. We never ask for your name.
- To get a forecast, Ava sends the forecast square (about 25 km), not your exact position, with a random install id.
- Ava uses your location only while you use it, or while an anchor watch or passage log you started keeps running with the screen off. It never asks for location "all the time".
- Boats nearby sends your exact position about every 2 minutes while the Anchor tab is open or the anchor watch runs. We use it once to find boats within 3 km, then drop it.
- Sharing your anchor circle with Ava boats within 3 km is off until you turn it on. While on, it is shared while your anchor watch runs and deleted 10 minutes after the watch stops.
- Boat systems (Bluetooth, NMEA, Signal K, Victron) are read on your phone and stay on your phone.
- When you buy Ava Pro, the store takes the payment. Our server checks the purchase with Google or Apple. We never see your name, card or address.
- Help improve Ava (counts of what you use) is off unless you turn it on.
- Comments and Send feedback reach us only when you send them. We keep them 180 days.
- Your crew list and medical notes never leave your phone, except in a backup file you make.
- No ads. No tracking. No analytics company. We do not sell or rent your data.
1. Who is responsible
Smart Hatch LLC, a Florida limited liability company, 1317 Edgewater Dr #3333, Orlando, FL 32804-6350, USA, runs Ava's server and decides how the data on it is used (the "controller"). This is the same whichever store you used. Contact: james@smart-hatch.com.
On the App Store, Ava is sold for now by Brittany Stone, a member and manager of Smart Hatch LLC. Apple tells the seller about sales in totals. The seller receives no personal data about you from Apple or from Ava.
2. Location
Ava asks for location only when you first use a feature that needs it (the Daily Brief's "Use my position", the anchor watch, the passage log). It asks for "While using the app" only.
| What uses location | When | What happens to it |
|---|---|---|
| The Daily Brief | When you open it with "Use my position" | Rounded to 0.05° (about 5 km) and sent to get your forecast (section 3) |
| Passage plans | When you plan from your position | The route's forecast squares are sent (section 3) |
| The anchor watch | From when you press Start until you stop it. It keeps running with the screen off: on Android as a foreground service with a notification you can see; on iPhone with the location indicator in the status bar | The GPS is read on your phone to sound the drag alarm. The last 7 nights of your swing (the anchor history) are kept on your phone only. Boats nearby uses it as in section 4 |
| The passage log | From when you start a log until you stop it, the same way as the watch | The track is kept on your phone only |
| Boats nearby | While the Anchor tab is open, or while the watch runs | Section 4 |
| A comment | Only if you add a position | Rounded to 0.01° (about 1 km) unless you tick "exact" (section 6) |
When you stop the watch or the log, Ava stops reading the GPS for it. If you deny location, the rest of Ava still works: you type or pick places instead.
3. What leaves your phone
"Sent" means it leaves your phone. Both stores use this test for "collected". Anything marked "phone only" is not collected by us.
| What | When | Where it goes | Why | How long we keep it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Forecast requests: the centre of each forecast square on your route (0.25°, about 25 km; offshore, 1°); for the Daily Brief, your position rounded to 0.05° (about 5 km); the forecast items asked for | Each plan, Daily Brief, trip and passage-alert check | Our forecast server (Cloudflare). If our own forecast tiles cannot answer, the server asks Open-Meteo, then MET Norway, with the square only | To get the forecast | Answers are stored per square for everyone, never beside your install id. Totals of requests per region (no install, no position) for 60 days |
| Install id: a random code made on first launch. Not a hardware or advertising id | With every request to our server | Our server | Fair-use limits; your plan | On your phone until you uninstall. On our server only as a short hash |
| Server key ("token") issued by our server | With every request | Phone and our server | To tell the server your plan | Up to 30 days |
| Install first-seen record: the day our server first saw this install and the last day it asked for a key or checked its plan, under a hash of the install id | At the first request, then once a day at most | Our server | The 14-day trial; recognising tester and founding-crew codes on this install; day and week totals of active and returning installs, with no install named | Until 13 months after the install was last seen |
| Network address check: a salted hash of your internet address (never the address itself), with the times trials started from it | When a trial starts or the app asks for a server key | Our server | At most 5 trials per network in 30 days; limits on how often one network asks for keys | 30 days for trials; key-request counts roll over daily. Never with an install id |
| Purchase check: the store's purchase token (Android) or transaction id (iPhone), the product id | When you buy, restore, renew, or open the app with a plan | Our server, which asks Google Play or Apple | To confirm your plan | The token is used and not stored. We keep a hash of it, with the hashes of up to 10 installs it unlocked (an install drops off 30 days after its last use) and its monthly usage counts |
| Store notifications: Google and Apple tell our server when a subscription renews, lapses or is refunded | When it happens | Our server | To keep your plan right | With the purchase hash above; day totals with no id |
| A code you type (beta code or founding-crew code) | When you type it | Our server | Tester gift; the founding-crew price | The code is checked as a hash and never stored. A founding-crew code's hash is kept with the installs it unlocked (at most 3) |
| Platform and app version ("android", "1.20.1") | With the key request | Our server | Compatibility; limits | With the token |
| Boats nearby | Section 4 | |||
| Help improve Ava (off unless you turn it on): at most once a day, counts of plans, Daily Briefs, finder runs and passage-alert checks, and whether Ava asked you for a store rating; your home region and the regions and months you plan (region codes only) | Once a day, only if on | Our server, added to that day's total for everyone | To decide what to build next and to size the service | Day totals only. Never stored with an install id. No positions |
| Comments, catalog corrections, Send feedback | Section 6 | |||
| Map pictures (satellite views) | When a map shows imagery | Our server, then Esri | To show the map | Tile numbers only. Not logged with the install id |
| Hazard feeds (earthquakes, cyclones, tsunamis, El Niño) | Each Daily Brief and plan | Our server, which reads public feeds | Warnings | No position is sent for these |
| Region data | Once a day on Wi-Fi when a newer version exists (Android; iPhone where available) | Our server | Up-to-date reefs, places and local rules | The request is counted under a hash of the install; logs 14 days at most |
| Update check and tour videos | When the app starts and each hour; when you play a tour | Our web host (Cloudflare Pages) | To tell you a new version exists; to play the video | Our host sees the request like any web page; we do not log it |
| Store review request | After a good moment, a few times a year at most | The store shows its own rating box | So happy users can rate Ava | We learn nothing about your rating. With Help improve Ava on, we count that the box was shown |
| Error logs on our server: status codes, the route name, time, an 8-character hash of the install id | Each request | Our server | To fix faults | At most 14 days. Never a position, a search, a token or the full install id |
Phone only, never sent by Ava: your boat profile and limits, passage logs and tracks, the anchor history (swing line and heat map), saved spots and plans, notes, local rules you add, deadlines, provisioning, crew list, watch list, diets and medical notes. They leave the phone only in a backup, a float plan or a picture you choose to share.
4. Boats nearby
Looking. While the Anchor tab is open, or while the anchor watch runs with "Alert me when a boat nearby drags" on (the default), Ava sends your GPS position (or your anchor) to our server about every 2 minutes (every minute for 10 minutes after a drag alarm, yours or a boat nearby). The server uses it once to find Ava boats within 3 km and drops it. It is not kept and not logged.
Sharing. While your anchor watch runs, Ava also shares, with the same updates: your anchor position, your alarm circle's size, your boat's last GPS position, "watching" or "dragging", and the name you choose (blank shows "A boat"; at most 24 characters). Ava boats within 3 km see it: free users in a dragging-boat alert, Pro users on the Boats nearby map.
- Sharing is off until you turn it on ("Share my anchor and circle" in the Anchor tab). Turn it off at any time.
- The first time the Anchor tab opens, Ava shows a notice that says what the look sends. Nothing leaves your phone until you press OK.
- The record is deleted when you stop the watch or turn sharing off, or 10 minutes after its last update if the phone goes quiet.
- It is kept under a hash. Other boats see a different hash, never your install id, your track, a contact or your boat's model.
5. Bluetooth and boat systems
Settings > Boat systems is off until you set it up.
- Victron Bluetooth (Android and iPhone): Ava listens to the Instant Readout broadcasts of your own Victron devices (battery monitor, solar charger) and decodes them with each device's key, which you type. It never connects to a device and never changes anything on it. On Android the scan is declared "never for location". Nothing is sent anywhere.
- NMEA 0183 gateways and Signal K servers on your boat's Wi-Fi: Ava reads wind, depth, speed, heading, position, batteries, tanks, engine and AIS targets nearby on your phone. A Signal K connection asks your server for read-only access, with a random client id.
- Victron VRM (Android, if you paste a VRM token): your phone calls Victron's VRM service itself, every 5 minutes, with your own token, to read your own installation. Nothing goes through our server.
- What Ava does with the readings, all on your phone: live tiles, the boat alarms on the anchor watch, the boat's GPS compared with the phone's at anchor, the instruments' wind, speed and heading in your passage log, the house battery in the Daily Brief.
- Readings are kept in memory and in one snapshot file that the next one replaces (at most 6 hours old). Device keys, the VRM token and the Signal K approval are encrypted on the phone and left out of backups.
- None of it reaches us.
6. Comments, corrections and feedback
| What | When | Kept |
|---|---|---|
| Comments ("Comment on this"): your words (up to 1,000 characters), what they are about, how you know, a position only if you add one (rounded to 0.01°, about 1 km, unless you tick "exact"), the plan or Brief you commented on (positions rounded), the app version and region, and an email only if you give one | When you press Send | 180 days, then deleted. Under a hash of the install id. The email is used only to reply |
| Catalog corrections: the boat model, the figure you changed, your number | When you save a changed catalog boat while "Send my changes to Ava's catalog team" is on (on by default; turn it off and nothing is sent) | 180 days |
| Send feedback: your words, the app version and build, the kind of device, its time zone, your boat's type, size, engines, fuel use and speed table, the version of each region's data, the app's last error messages (positions removed), and a count of each kind of error | When you press Send | 180 days |
Nothing you send is published by itself. We read every comment first. An approved correction changes Ava's data with the words "from a user", never your words or your contact.
7. Why we may use your data (legal bases, for the EU and the UK)
- Forecasts, the install id, the server key, the purchase check, store notifications, the trial, codes and the tester gift: to provide the service you asked for (the free plan or your subscription).
- Fair-use limits, the trial's network check, abuse prevention and error logs: our legitimate interest in a reliable, affordable, fair service. We keep the minimum, as section 3 shows.
- Boats nearby, looking: to provide the feature you opened.
- Boats nearby, sharing: your consent where the law asks (the OK on the notice; withdraw it with the switch); elsewhere, our legitimate interest in boats warning each other of a drag, with a notice and a switch to stop it.
- Help improve Ava: your consent. Turn it off in Settings > Privacy at any time.
- The day and week totals of active installs: our legitimate interest in knowing whether people keep using Ava, with no install named in the totals.
- Comments and Send feedback: your consent, by sending.
- Catalog corrections: our legitimate interest in an accurate boat catalog; the switch stops it.
8. Who else receives data
| Who | Role | What | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cloudflare, Inc. | Our processor: hosts our server, its storage, the web version, the update check and the videos | Every request to our server | Worldwide network; USA |
| Google LLC (Google Play) | Takes the payment for Android purchases; answers our purchase check; sends store notifications | The purchase token | USA, worldwide |
| Apple Inc. (App Store) | Takes the payment for iPhone purchases; answers our purchase check; sends store notifications | The transaction id | USA, worldwide |
| Open-Meteo (Switzerland) | Forecast provider | Forecast squares from our server, no install id | Switzerland, EU |
| MET Norway | Backup forecast provider | Forecast squares from our server, no install id | Norway |
| Esri | Satellite map pictures | Tile numbers from our server | USA |
| Victron Energy B.V. | Only if you link your own VRM account: your phone talks to Victron directly | Your token and installation id | Netherlands, EU |
| Ava boats within 3 km | Other users | Your shared anchor circle (section 4) | Near you |
| Public feeds: USGS, NOAA, GDACS, JMA, ECMWF | Our server reads them | No personal data | USA, EU, Japan |
We do not sell personal data. We do not share it for advertising. Ava has no advertising or analytics code. The Android app includes Google's Play Billing Library; the iPhone app uses Apple's StoreKit. Both only handle purchases. We may disclose data if a court or the law requires it.
9. Data sent abroad
Smart Hatch LLC is in the USA. Our server runs on Cloudflare's worldwide network. Data from the EU, the UK and Switzerland travels under the Standard Contractual Clauses in Cloudflare's data processing terms. Because we keep so little (section 3), almost nothing about you is stored in the USA beyond hashes, comments you send and a shared anchor for 10 minutes.
10. How long we keep it
| Record | Kept |
|---|---|
| A Boats nearby look | Not kept |
| A shared Boats nearby record | Until the watch stops or sharing is off, or 10 minutes after its last update |
| Error logs | At most 14 days |
| Trial network-address hash | 30 days |
| Server key | Up to 30 days |
| Purchase link (hashes) | An install drops off 30 days after its last use; the purchase hash while the subscription is active, and its monthly counts roll over |
| Comments, catalog corrections, Send feedback | 180 days |
| Install first-seen date | 13 months after the install was last seen |
| Region totals of forecast requests (no id, no position) | 60 days |
| Help improve Ava and server day totals (no id) | As day totals, with no link to anyone |
| Everything on your phone | Until you delete it or uninstall Ava |
11. Your rights, and deleting your data
Wherever you live, you can ask us to:
- show you the data we hold about your install;
- correct it;
- delete it;
- stop or limit a use of it;
- send it to you in a common file format;
- withdraw a consent you gave.
Ava has no accounts, so we find your data by the install id. Settings > Privacy > Delete my server data writes the email for you, with the install id. Or write to james@smart-hatch.com with the install id from Settings > About. We answer within 30 days. Our privacy contact (privacy officer) for every country, New Zealand and Brazil included, is james@smart-hatch.com.
What we delete on request: your install's first-seen date, its usage counts, its purchase link, your comments, corrections and feedback, and a shared Boats nearby record. Purchase records at Google and Apple belong to them: ask them. Uninstalling Ava deletes everything on the phone.
You may complain to your data-protection authority. In France and French Polynesia, that is the CNIL (https://www.cnil.fr); in the UK, the ICO (https://ico.org.uk).
12. Children
Ava is for adults. It is not meant for children under 16, and you must be 18 to buy Ava Pro. We do not knowingly collect data from children. If you think a child sent us something (a comment, for example), write to james@smart-hatch.com and we will delete it.
13. Security
All requests use HTTPS. Our server keys stay on our server, never in the app. Server keys given to your phone expire. Logs never hold a position. Install ids, purchase tokens, codes and network addresses are kept only as hashes. Backup files you export are plain files: keep them safe.
14. Changes
We will post changes here with a new date and version. For a big change, the app tells you.
15. Contact
Smart Hatch LLC, 1317 Edgewater Dr #3333, Orlando, FL 32804-6350, USA. james@smart-hatch.com.
Version 4, 6 November 2026.