Privacy Policy
Last updated 18 August 2026
Cicara identifies insects from a photo. This page explains exactly what the app collects, how it collects it, what each piece of data is used for, and who else it reaches. It is written to be read, not to be skimmed past.
The short version
- Your photos stay on your phone. We never store them.
- To identify a bug, one photo is sent for analysis and discarded straight after.
- Nothing that identifies you personally is sent with it.
- You are never asked for a name, an email or an account.
- If you have not subscribed, the app shows ads between screens. Subscribers see none.
What we collect and how
The photo you take, for as long as the analysis takes
This covers both kinds of photo the app can send: a photo of a creature, and a photo of a bite or sting mark on skin. Both are handled exactly the same way and neither is kept.
When you ask Cicara to identify something, the app sends that one photo, plus your app language and your device's country setting, to our server, which passes it to a third-party image-analysis provider. The country setting is the region in your iPhone's language settings, such as GB or TR. It is used only to rule out species that do not live where you are, and it is not your location: the app never asks for location permission and never reads GPS, Wi-Fi or cell data. The result comes back and the photo is discarded. It is not written to a database, not kept in a log, and not used to train anything.
This only happens after you agree to it. The first time you try to identify a bug, the app shows a screen telling you what is sent and to whom, and asks for permission. If you decline, identification stays switched off and the rest of the app keeps working. You can switch it off again at any time in Settings → Send photos for analysis, and turning it off takes effect immediately.
An anonymous account identifier
On first launch the app creates an anonymous account through a third-party authentication service. It has no name, no email and no password, and it is not linked to your Apple ID. Its purpose is to tell the app whether this device has an active subscription, and to let the usage events described below be grouped per device without naming anyone.
Your saved finds
Every insect you identify is saved to your collection on your device only, together with the photo. This never leaves your phone, and deleting the app deletes all of it.
Subscription status
If you subscribe, a third-party subscription provider records that a purchase was made against your Apple ID and tells the app whether the subscription is active. Apple handles the payment. We never see your card, your billing address or your Apple ID.
Advertising, if you have not subscribed
When you are not a subscriber, the app shows occasional full-screen ads between screens. A third-party advertising provider chooses them. Subscribers see none, and an ad is never shown over a result, the camera or the purchase screen. Watching one unlocks nothing: reading an identification comes with the subscription, it is not a reward for an ad.
To choose which ads to show and to avoid counting the same one twice, that provider receives your device's advertising identifier, an approximate area worked out from the network address your device connects through, and your device model, operating system version and app version. The approximate area is not GPS: the app still never asks for location permission.
iOS asks you first. The app shows Apple's tracking permission prompt once, after you have had a look around rather than at first launch. If you decline, the advertising identifier is not shared and the ads simply become less relevant; nothing else changes and every feature keeps working. You can change your answer at any time in iOS Settings → Privacy & Security → Tracking. Subscribing removes the ads altogether.
How you move through the app
To see which parts of Cicara are used and which are ignored, the app records events: a screen was opened, a button was tapped, the subscription screen was shown and left after so many seconds, an identification succeeded or failed. Alongside each event it records coarse properties — the kind of creature, how sure the model was, which plan was selected — plus your device model, operating system version and app version. This is handled by a third-party analytics provider on our behalf.
Two things are worth being precise about. First, the photo, the written identification and anything you type never go into this. Only event names and the coarse properties above. Second, these events are tied to the anonymous identifier described earlier, so that use by subscribers can be told apart from use by everyone else. That identifier is not a name, an email or an advertising identifier, and it does not follow you into any other app or website.
A message you choose to send us
If you write to us through the contact form in the app, we receive your message, your app version, your language, and the email address you typed if you typed one. We use it to answer you and to fix what you reported, and nothing else.
What we never collect
No name. No GPS coordinates and no location from Wi-Fi or cell towers — only the country setting described above and, for ads, the approximate area worked out from your network address. No contacts. No reading of your photo library beyond the single picture you choose.
Your photos, the identification you are shown and anything you type are never shared with the advertising provider or the analytics provider, and they are never used to target advertising. We do not sell your data and we never will. If you subscribe, no advertising provider is contacted at all.
Who else your data reaches
We use a small number of third-party service providers to run the app. Each one receives only what it needs for its part, is bound by contract to protect it to the same standard described on this page, and may not use it for its own purposes.
| What they do | What they receive |
|---|---|
| Image analysis | The single photo and your language code, for the duration of the request |
| Anonymous authentication | The anonymous identifier described above |
| Product analytics | Which screens are opened and what is tapped, with the anonymous identifier, the device model and the app version |
| Subscription management | Whether a purchase happened, and the anonymous identifier |
| Advertising | Only when you have not subscribed: the advertising identifier if you allowed tracking, an approximate area from your network address, and your device model |
| Our own server | Passes requests through; keeps any message you send us |
Their names are listed at the bottom of this page. Some of them process data outside your country, including in the United States, under standard contractual clauses.
We do not sell your data, and we never will.
How long we keep things
- Photos: not kept at all. Seconds, in memory, then gone.
- Daily counter: overwritten each day.
- Anonymous account: until you delete it in the app.
- Contact messages: until the matter is closed, then removed.
- Your collection: on your device, for as long as you keep it.
Your rights
You can erase everything yourself, without writing to anyone: Settings → Delete account and data removes your collection, your photos and your anonymous account. Deleting the app removes everything held on the device.
If you are in the EU, the UK, California or another region with data protection law, you also have the right to access, correct, export or restrict the processing of your data, and to complain to your local authority. Because we hold almost nothing tied to you, most of these are answered by the delete button above. For anything else, use the contact form in the app.
Children
Cicara is rated 4+ and is safe for a child to use, but it is not directed at children and we do not knowingly collect data from anyone under 13. There is nothing in the app that asks a child for personal information.
Changes
If this policy changes in a way that matters, the app will tell you before the change takes effect. The date at the top always reflects the current version.
Contact
Use Settings → Contact us in the app. It reaches us directly and we read every message.
Service providers
We use a small number of processors to run the app, each for one purpose only: an image-analysis provider that receives the photo and returns the identification, an authentication provider that issues the anonymous identifier, a subscription provider that records whether a purchase is active, an analytics provider that receives the usage events, an advertising provider that supplies the ads shown to people who have not subscribed, and the app store operator that handles payment and distribution. None of them receives your name, e-mail or contact details, and none of them is permitted to use your data for its own purposes. If you want the current list of processors by name, ask us through Settings → Contact us and we will send it to you.