Privacy policy

Who we are

Diveology (the website diveology.com.au and the Diveology app for iPhone) is run by Drew McKillican in Australia. We follow the Australian Privacy Principles in the Privacy Act 1988. Questions and requests: support@diveology.com.au.

Without an account

You can use the iPhone app without an account, and subscribe to Premium without one. Your logbook then stays on your iPhone only: we hold nothing about you, and nothing is backed up or synced. When you add a dive site, the app may send us that spot's position, with nothing else about you, to list the dive sites near it; we do not keep it.

With an account: what we keep, and why

Your account: your email address and the name you give, to sign you in and show your name to buddies you link with. Passkeys are kept as their public key only: the private key never leaves your device. Sign-in codes and recovery codes are kept only as keyed hashes. If you sign in with Apple, we keep the id Apple gives you for Diveology and the email address Apple shares, which can be a hidden one that forwards to you.
Your logbook: the dives you log, import or download (times, depths, profiles, temperatures, tanks and gas, notes, buddies' names, ratings), dive sites with the positions you give them, your kit and your certifications. When you import a file, the website reads it in your browser and sends us the dives, not the file.
Signed-in devices and security: for each device signed in, its type (from its browser or app) and IP address, and a list of sign-ins and security changes, so you can see them under Security and sign a device out.
Buddy links: which two dives are linked, what each diver shares, and any block or report, so that linking, unlinking and blocking work.
Premium: if you subscribe and have an account, the subscription's record from Apple (its Apple transaction number, which plan, and when it renews, ends or was refunded), so your account has Premium on the website and your other devices. Apple tells us when it renews or ends.

The iPhone app keeps a copy of your logbook on your phone so it works with no signal. It uses your location only when you ask it to place a dive site, and that position goes in the site. It uses the camera only to scan a buddy's code: no picture is kept or sent. It uses Bluetooth to read your dive computer, and the dives it reads stay on your phone unless your account syncs them.

Support, reports and complaints

When you ask us for help, or report a dive site or a diver, we keep your message, your account if you have one, and what it is about, so we can answer and act on it. We review every report, and we may take down a shared dive site or block an account that breaks the rules. We keep these for two years after they are closed.

What we do not do

No advertising, no analytics, no trackers, and no logs of the pages you visit (the server notes only its own errors, to fix them). We never sell your information or share it for marketing.

Who else handles it

Amazon Web Services runs our server and database in Sydney, keeps our encrypted backups there, and sends our emails (Amazon SES).
Apple takes payment for Premium (we never see your card), draws the maps on the website and in the app (and so sees the map area shown and your IP address), and handles the app through the App Store and TestFlight. Apple passes us crash reports if you allow it in your device's settings, and TestFlight passes us any feedback you send.
OpenFreeMap draws the website's map when Apple's maps are not available, and so sees the map area shown and your IP address.
Every Diveology diver can see a site you choose to share into the dive site directory: its name, position, country, water, type, entry, depth and what you wrote about it. Never your name, your dives or your notes. You can take it back at any time.
Your buddies see what you choose to share on a dive you link with theirs: your name only, or also the dive, or also its profile, tanks and computer. Never your notes or your sites' positions. You can change what you share, or unlink, at any time.

Your information is kept in Australia. Apple may handle what it sees outside Australia.

How long we keep it

Your account and logbook: until you delete them. Deleting your account removes all of it from our database straight away, with the dive sites you shared into the directory (unless another diver's site is that place too) and your buddy links; our encrypted backups age out within five weeks.
The other version of a dive changed in two places at once (the newer change wins): 90 days.
Sign-ins and security changes: two years. A signed-out device: 30 days.
Support requests and reports: two years after they are closed.

What you can do

See and correct everything in your logbook, in the app or on the website.
Export all of it: in the app (Account, Export your logbook), or on the website (Account, Download my logbook).
Delete your account and everything in it, in full: in the app or on the website (Account, Delete account).
Ask us what we hold about you, or to correct it, at support@diveology.com.au. We answer within 30 days.

If you are not happy with our answer, you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.

Keeping it safe

Passkeys instead of passwords, encrypted connections and disks, and encrypted backups: see privacy and security.

Changes

If this policy changes, the new version is posted here with its date. If a change matters to how we use your information, we will tell you before it applies.