Gyral Vessels Privacy Policy

Last updated: 2026-09-07

Gyral Vessels is an app for spotting and tracking vessels near the water using AIS, provided by Gyral LLC ("we"). We try to collect as little as possible. This policy explains what we collect, why, and your choices.

Your account

Gyral Vessels uses Sign in with Apple. When you sign in, our server creates an account linked to your Apple sign-in; we do not store your name or email address. You can delete your account, and everything described below that is tied to it, at any time from Settings ▸ Delete Account.

Data tied to your account

While signed in, the following is stored on our servers and tied to your account:

• Your sightings log: the vessel's identity (MMSI, IMO, name, type, length), the time of the sighting, the sighting's latitude/longitude, and any note you add.
• Photos you attach to a sighting, along with per-photo provenance metadata: capture tier, camera make and model from the photo's EXIF data, device model, whether the image is screenshot-shaped, the gap between the photo's capture time and the sighting time, and the distance between the photo's GPS tag and the sighting position.
• Your watchlist of vessels you follow.
• Alert rules you create and the alert inbox they generate.
• Your device's push-notification token, removed from our servers when you sign out.

Deleting your account removes all of the above from our servers.

Feedback you send

If you use Send Feedback, we receive the message you write, the optional email address you provide, and basic device/version metadata (model, OS version, app version/build, locale) to help us reproduce issues. Submissions are stored on our server and emailed to us; we also record the request's IP address for abuse prevention. We use this only to respond to and act on your feedback.

Location

Gyral Vessels uses your device location to center the map, scope nearby vessel searches, and match what your camera sees against nearby AIS positions in Identify. Most processing happens on your device. The map's center coordinates and the position you log with a sighting are sent to our backend. We do not keep a history of your location beyond the sightings you log.

Camera

Identify processes camera frames on your device to match what you're pointing at against nearby AIS positions; these frames are never uploaded. Identify may save frames to your device's Documents folder as part of a local session log, which stays on your device. Only photos you explicitly attach to a sighting are uploaded to our servers.

Service authentication

To request vessel, sighting, and account data from our backend services, the app obtains a short-lived access token. When requesting a token, it sends a randomly generated per-install identifier created by the app on first launch. This identifier is not derived from your device, Apple ID, or any personal information, and is removed when you delete the app.

Notifications

If you create an alert rule, Gyral Vessels sends you a remote push notification through our servers when it fires. You can turn push notifications off at any time in iOS Settings ▸ Notifications ▸ Gyral Vessels. Signing out removes your device's push token from our servers.

Third-party data sources

Gyral Vessels displays data from third parties, including terrestrial AIS receiver networks, OpenStreetMap, GeoNames, Wikidata, the UN/LOCODE and NGA World Port Index, Wikimedia Commons, and Apple Maps. See the in-app Data Sources screen for the full list and licenses.

Data retention

Feedback submissions are retained as long as needed to act on them. Sightings, photos, watchlist entries, alert rules, and the alert inbox are retained until you delete them individually or delete your account, at which point they are removed from our servers.

Your data rights

You can view and delete your sightings and photos, manage your watchlist, and edit or delete your alert rules from within the app at any time, and delete your entire account — removing everything described under "Data tied to your account" — from Settings ▸ Delete Account.

To request a copy of, or deletion of, feedback you have sent us, email info@gyral.io. On a deletion request we remove both the submission stored on our server and the copy in our email inbox. Because feedback is not tied to an account, please write from the email address you supplied with the submission, or include enough of the original message for us to find it.

Children

Gyral Vessels is not directed at children and does not knowingly collect personal information from children.

Changes

We may update this policy; material changes will be reflected here with a new "Last updated" date.

Contact

Questions? Email info@gyral.io.