Patterns

Privacy Policy

Last updated September 29, 2026

Patterns is operated by Grow Jungles Inc., a nonprofit organization (EIN 84-3803196). Questions: privacy@wildpatterns.co.

This policy explains what information Patterns collects, why, who it is shared with, and the choices you have. Patterns is operated by Grow Jungles Inc., a nonprofit organization (EIN 84-3803196).

1. Roles

For your account details, Grow Jungles Inc. decides how they are used. For photos and field records uploaded to an institution's workspace, the institution decides how they are used and Grow Jungles Inc. processes them on its behalf (see the Data Processing Terms). Requests about an institution's records may be passed to that institution.

2. What we collect

Account details: name, email, password (stored only as a one-way hash), role, affiliation, institution name, nonprofit registry number when you provide it, phone, country, city, study area, ORCID and bio. If you use Google sign-in, we receive your Google account ID, email and name.
Camera-trap uploads: photos and videos of wildlife, camera and station details, capture times, and GPS coordinates read from the file or entered by you.
Research activity: identifications, names proposed, comments, reviews and an audit log of important actions (for example confirmations, merges and password resets).
Billing: for institutional plans, Stripe collects payment details; we keep only the Stripe customer and subscription references.
Technical data: IP address and basic request logs, used for security, rate limiting and fixing errors.

3. How we use it

to run your account and your institution's workspaces;
to identify individual jaguars by comparing coat patterns, including across institutions;
to send service emails such as invitations and password resets;
to bill institutional licences;
to keep Patterns secure, prevent abuse and improve recognition quality.

We do not sell personal information and we do not use it for advertising.

4. Protecting species locations

Exact coordinates are visible only to platform administrators and to the person who uploaded the photo.
Scientists see locations generalized to roughly 1 km; citizen scientists to roughly 11 km.
Photo links are signed, expire, and are served without GPS metadata.
Individuals are public only when their institution chooses to share them.

5. Who we share with

We use these service providers, each only for the purpose listed:

Microsoft Azure (United States) - hosting, database, file storage and secret storage.
Azure Communication Services - sending service emails.
Stripe - institutional billing.
Google - optional sign-in with a Google account.
OpenAI - optional written summaries; receives a short text of sighting facts only, never photos, coordinates or account details.
OpenStreetMap tile servers - map backgrounds, loaded directly by your browser.

Inside Patterns, members of an institution see that institution's records according to their role, and cross-institution match suggestions may show another institution's individual code, name and reference image. We may also disclose information if the law requires it or to protect people or wildlife from harm.

6. Retention and deletion

We keep account details while your account is open, and institution records while the institution's licence is active or until it asks us to delete them. You can ask us to export or delete your information at privacy@wildpatterns.co. Deleted files remain in recoverable storage for up to 30 days and database backups for up to 35 days before they are overwritten.

7. Your rights

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access, correct, export, delete or object to the use of your information, and to complain to a data-protection authority. Email privacy@wildpatterns.co and we will respond within 30 days.

8. International transfers

Patterns is hosted in the United States. If you use it from elsewhere, your information is transferred to the United States and protected as described here.

9. Children

Patterns is not directed at children and we do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 18. If you believe a child has created an account, contact us and we will delete it.

10. Changes

We will post updates here and change the date above, and notify account holders of material changes.