Privacy policy.

The Catch is operated by The Catch App Pty Ltd (ABN 55 700 091 096) ("we", "us", "our"). This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, and protect your personal information when you use The Catch app and website.

Location privacy

Your GPS coordinates and fishing marks are private by default. They are not visible to other users or to fisheries management bodies unless you explicitly choose to share them. No screen, report or admin tool we use shows your marks or GPS.

The app gives you granular controls to share specific session locations with specific guests on a per-trip, per-session, per-guest basis. You can revoke any sharing grant at any time. There is no override for fisheries or for any third party.

Marks when you work for a charter operation

Your marks stay private when you skipper or crew for a charter operation. The operation's owner and admins cannot see your marks or your notes on them unless you approve it. They can send you a request; you answer it in your own account under Settings, Who can see my marks.

If you approve, you choose who sees the marks you fish on that operation's trips (its owner and admins only, or its whole crew) and how far back (everything you have fished for them, or only from that day onwards). Your personal marks and personal trips are never included. You can stop at any time, and sharing stops automatically if you leave the operation. Marks you shared while sharing was on remain visible to that operation; nothing new is shared after you stop. The same screen lists every mark you have fished for each operation and whether it is shared.

A charter trip itself belongs to the operation you logged it for. Its owner and admins can see that trip's sessions, hours, catches and returns. Where each session and catch took place is shown to them at reporting-grid level only, the same level Fisheries receives, unless you have approved sharing as described above. Only the skipper of a trip always sees its exact locations. This applies once your app has updated to the current version.

Catch and trip data

Your personal catch history, session data and fishing statistics are accessible only to you and your crew. Individual records are not shared, aggregated with identifiable information, or made available to third parties without your explicit consent or unless you choose to share specific trips using the app's sharing features (see Section 4).

Data you may choose to contribute

The Catch is designed to provide personal value first — your catch history, CPLH trends, and fishing intelligence built from every trip you log. This data belongs to you and is not shared with fisheries or the broader research community unless you explicitly opt in.

If you choose to contribute data to community fisheries research, the following information — and only the following — is shared in anonymised form:

• Species caught
• Size (if measured)
• Date of catch
• Fisheries reporting grid square

No GPS coordinates, specific marks, tide data, or personally identifiable information is included in contributed data.

The reporting grid system

The Catch uses standardised fisheries reporting grids to associate catch data with broad geographic areas rather than precise coordinates. A sub-grid represents an area of approximately 10km × 10km. When data is contributed, fisheries managers can identify that a species was caught within a grid square during a given period. They cannot determine the specific location, vessel position, or individual marks within that area.

Platform security & compliance

The Catch complies with Apple App Store and Google Play privacy requirements, which mandate full disclosure of data collection practices and provide users with the right to access, correct, and delete their data.

The Catch is built on an enterprise-grade database platform with row-level security. Your data is technically inaccessible to any party that has not been explicitly granted permission by you. There is no administrative override or backdoor access to individual user data.

The Catch is built by Northern Territory fishers whose livelihoods depend on the same fishery. Our objective is to support the long-term sustainability of this resource through transparent, community-driven data — not to exploit the people who rely on it.

1. Information we collect

Account information: When you create an account, we collect your name and email address.

Trip and catch data: We collect the fishing data you enter into the app, including trip details, catch records, GPS coordinates, session times, and passenger information.

Location data: With your permission, we collect GPS location data when you start and end fishing sessions. This data is used to record where you were fishing and to calculate session statistics. We do not share your exact fishing locations publicly or with third parties.

Device information: We collect basic device information required to operate the app, including device type and operating system version.

2. How we use your information

We use your information to operate and improve The Catch app, calculate fishing statistics including Catch Per Line Hour (CPLH), support fisheries data collection and research in anonymised aggregated form when you opt in, and communicate with you about the app.

3. Data sharing

We do not sell your personal information.

Fisheries data: Anonymised, aggregated catch data may be shared with fisheries management bodies to support stock assessment and conservation research, only when you choose to contribute.

Service providers: We use secure servers in Australia to store your data.

User-initiated sharing: The app provides three tools for sharing your own data with other people. Each is initiated and controlled by you. See Section 4 for full detail.

4. Sharing your trip data with other people

The Catch gives you three separate ways to share your fishing data, all initiated by you:

Inviting people to a trip. You can add people to a trip's passenger list, send them a join link, or share a QR code. Once they join, they receive an enduring read-only summary of the trip — by default, this excludes exact GPS coordinates, mark names, and other passengers' identifying details. You can choose to grant specific guests access to specific sessions' locations, or revoke that access, at any time. Access to the trip itself cannot be revoked once granted; you cannot un-share a trip from a passenger by deleting the trip or your account. If you do not want a particular person to retain a copy of a trip, do not share that trip with them.

Granting guests location access. For trips you've shared, you can additionally grant individual guests access to the exact GPS coordinates and mark names of specific sessions. This is a separate, explicit action from sharing the trip itself, and is revocable per-guest, per-session at any time. Default is private — no location detail is exposed unless you explicitly grant it.

Public share links. From a Completed Trip, you can create a public preview link that displays an aggregated trip summary (your first name, trip date, kept/released/sharked counts, top species, total line hours and CPLH). The link is intended for social media. It does not expose GPS, mark names, other fishers' names, individual catches, or fish weights. Public share links expire automatically after 30 days, and you can revoke any link at any time from inside the app.

5. Data storage and security

Your data is stored on secure servers in Australia. We use industry-standard security measures including row-level database security to protect your information. Your data is technically inaccessible to anyone who hasn't been explicitly granted permission by you.

6. Your rights

You can access the data we hold about you, request correction, request deletion of your account and data, and export your catch data. Trips you have shared with other people will remain accessible to those people after your account is deleted, with your identifying details removed. To exercise these rights, contact us at ahoy@thecatch.com.au.

7. Kids and young people

The Catch is for fishers of all ages, and we welcome kids using the app.

Parents and guardians. If you'd like us to view, correct, or delete data we hold about your child, contact ahoy@thecatch.com.au. We'll respond promptly.

8. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of significant changes through the app.

9. Contact

The Catch App Pty Ltd
Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia
ahoy@thecatch.com.au