Privacy

Privacy policy

Last updated 19 August 2026. Applies to this website and to the Deer Journal app at app.deerjournal.co.uk.

Deer Journal is a record-keeping app for deer management. The short version: the records you enter are yours, they are stored so that you can get them back and report from them, and they are not sold, shared or used for advertising. The detail follows.

Who is responsible for your data

Deer Journal is the data controller for the records described here — it decides what is collected and why, and is responsible for looking after it. Questions, requests and complaints go to the contact address at the foot of this page.

This website

This site is a set of static pages. It sets no cookies, runs no analytics, and includes no advertising or tracking scripts. Fonts and images are served from this domain rather than from a third-party CDN, so simply reading these pages does not report your visit to anyone else.

The site is hosted by Netlify, who keep standard server logs of requests (including IP addresses) for security and operational purposes.

What the app stores

Signing in to the app and using it creates the following:

• Account details — your email address, and the display name you set in your profile.
• The records you enter — outings, culls, sightings, the properties and areas you set up, boundaries, cull targets, gates and their access codes, tag numbers, and any notes you write.
• Location data — where you choose to capture a GPS fix against a cull, sighting or boundary. Location is used for that purpose only. It is not tracked in the background and the app does not follow your movements.
• Photographs you attach to records.
• Working data held on your own device — a cached copy of your records so the app works offline, part-finished forms saved as you type, and any changes queued while you have no signal. This lives on your phone and is cleared if you sign out or remove the app.

Where it is stored

Records sync to a hosted database and file store operated on our behalf by Supabase, which also handles sign-in. The data is held in Ireland. Access is restricted at the database level so that a signed-in user reaches their own records and those of outings deliberately shared with them, and not anyone else's.

Ireland is in the European Economic Area, which the UK recognises as providing an equivalent standard of protection, so no additional safeguards are required for your records. The third-party services listed below are separate — they receive only what is described there, never your records.

Third parties the app contacts

The app is deliberately restricted to a short list of external services, and contacts them only in the course of doing what you have asked:

• Google — for sign-in, if you choose to sign in with Google. The app receives your email address and basic profile identity. It does not read your Gmail, contacts, or anything else in your Google account.
• Google Drive — only if you use the backup feature. The app asks your permission at that point and writes a single backup file of your own records to your own Drive. It does not browse, read or modify anything else there, and the backup is in your account and under your control.
• Google Maps and Ordnance Survey — to draw map imagery. Map services necessarily receive the area of the map being displayed.
• Open-Meteo — to fetch weather for an outing, which requires sending an approximate location.
• BigDataCloud — to turn a set of coordinates into a place name.

None of these are given your records. There are no advertising networks, data brokers or analytics providers in the app.

What is never done with your data

• It is not sold, rented, or passed to third parties for their own purposes.
• It is not used for advertising, profiling or behavioural targeting.
• Your cull records are not submitted anywhere on your behalf. The app produces statutory return files for you to submit; it does not send them to NatureScot or anyone else itself.

How long it is kept

Records are kept for as long as your account exists, because the point of a stalking journal is the multi-season history. If you ask for your account to be deleted, your records are deleted with it.

Your rights

Under UK data protection law you can ask for a copy of your data, ask for it to be corrected, ask for it to be deleted, or object to how it is handled. In practice the app already gives you the first of those directly — the export functions produce your full records as a spreadsheet at any time, without having to ask anyone.

To exercise any of the others, or if you are unhappy with how your data has been handled, contact us at the address below. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk.

Security

The site and the app are served over HTTPS only. Access to the app is by invitation, not public sign-up. Please note that gate and access codes stored in the app are held so that they are available to you in the field — treat them with the same care you would treat the codes themselves.

Changes

If this policy changes materially, the date at the top of this page changes with it.

Contact

Questions about any of the above: info@deerjournal.co.uk.