Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

Coastal Companion (the “Service”) is operated by Coastal Companion LLC, a Michigan limited liability company (“we”, “us”). We act as the data controller for personal information collected through the Service. You can reach our privacy contact at support@costal-companion.com. For payment-related processing, our reseller Paddle.com acts as the Merchant of Record and as an independent controller for transactional data — see Section 5.

2. Information we collect

We collect the following categories of personal data:

• Account data: email address, password (hashed), display name, profile photo, and home harbor/location you choose.
• Authentication data: sign-in tokens, session identifiers, and, if you use Google sign-in, your Google account email and basic profile.
• Location data: approximate or precise device coordinates (only with your permission) used to fetch local weather, wind, tides, surf, and chart data.
• Boating & chart data: waypoints, routes, tracks, range-ring settings, alarms, depth queries, offline tile selections, and trip statistics you create or save.
• Marketplace & messaging data: listings, photos you upload, prices, conversations, and message attachments.
• Subscription & billing metadata: subscription status, plan, trial/period end dates, Paddle customer and subscription identifiers, and environment (test/live). Card numbers and full payment details are handled by Paddle and never reach our servers.
• Device & usage data: IP address, browser/device type, language, pages visited, feature interactions, crash and error logs.
• Cookies & local storage: session cookies, preference storage (e.g., chart theme, units, offline tile cache).
• Referral data: referral codes you share or redeem.

3. How we use your data

• To create and operate your account and authenticate you (legal basis: performance of a contract).
• To deliver core features — charts, weather, wind, tides, surf forecasts, route planning, navigation, alarms, marketplace, and messaging (contract).
• To process subscriptions, trials, renewals, and refunds via Paddle (contract, legal obligation).
• To send service emails (password reset, email verification, billing receipts, trial-ending notices, marketplace messages) (contract, legitimate interests).
• To prevent fraud, abuse, and to enforce our Terms (legitimate interests, legal obligation).
• To diagnose bugs, monitor performance, and improve features using aggregated/anonymized analytics (legitimate interests).
• To serve in-app advertising in free tiers (legitimate interests; you can remove ads by subscribing).
• To comply with applicable laws and respond to lawful requests (legal obligation).

4. Location, charts & third-party map data

When you use map, chart, weather, tide, wind, surf, or depth features, your viewport coordinates are sent to third-party providers to return data: Open-Meteo (weather, marine, elevation/GEBCO bathymetry), OpenStreetMap / OpenTopoMap and Esri (map tiles). These providers may log standard request metadata (IP, user agent, requested coordinates) under their own policies. We do not send them your account identifiers.

5. Payments — Paddle as Merchant of Record

Our order process is conducted by our online reseller Paddle.com. Paddle is the Merchant of Record for all our orders and handles payments, billing, sales tax/VAT, invoicing, and subscription management. When you purchase a subscription, Paddle collects and processes your billing name, billing address, country, payment instrument details, IP address, and tax identifiers as an independent controller under its own privacy notice (paddle.com/legal/privacy). We receive only the transaction status, plan, period dates, and Paddle customer/subscription identifiers needed to grant you access. Paddle also provides customer service for billing inquiries and refunds.

6. Who we share data with

We never sell your personal information. We share limited data with the following categories of recipients:

• Hosting & backend infrastructure — for application hosting, database, file storage, and edge compute.
• Authentication provider — to manage sign-in, sessions, and password resets.
• Merchant of Record (Paddle) — for sale of subscriptions, payments, tax compliance, refunds, and invoicing.
• Email delivery providers — to send transactional and authentication emails.
• Mapping, weather, and forecast APIs — as described in Section 4.
• Analytics and crash reporting — to monitor stability and improve the Service.
• Advertising partners — only for non-subscribed users seeing in-app ads.
• Other users — your display name, profile photo, harbor, marketplace listings, and messages you send are visible to the users you interact with.
• Professional advisers and authorities — where required by law or to protect our rights.

7. International transfers

Our service providers may process your data outside your country of residence, including in the United States and the European Economic Area. Where required, transfers rely on appropriate safeguards such as Standard Contractual Clauses or adequacy decisions.

8. Data retention

We keep account data for as long as your account is active. Marketplace listings and messages are kept while the conversation is alive. Billing records are kept by Paddle and by us as required by tax and accounting law (typically 7 years). Crash logs and analytics are kept up to 24 months in anonymized/aggregated form. When you delete your account we delete or anonymize your personal data within 30 days, except where we are legally required to retain it.

9. Your rights

Depending on where you live, you may have rights to access, correct, delete, restrict, export, or object to processing of your personal data, and to withdraw consent at any time. EU/UK users have the right to lodge a complaint with their local data protection authority. You can edit your profile from the Profile tab; to exercise other rights or delete your account, contact us via the Contact page. We respond within one month.

10. Security

We use appropriate technical and organizational measures to protect your data, including encryption in transit (HTTPS), encrypted storage, row-level security on user data, hashed passwords, and least-privilege access controls. No system is perfectly secure; please use a strong, unique password.

11. Children

The Service is not directed to children under 13 (or 16 in the EEA/UK). We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has provided us data, contact us and we will delete it.

12. Cookies & local storage

We use essential cookies and browser storage to keep you signed in and to remember preferences such as chart theme, units, and offline tile cache. Analytics cookies help us understand feature usage. You can clear cookies and storage at any time through your browser settings.

13. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as the Service evolves. Material changes will be announced in-app or by email. The “Last updated” date above always reflects the current version.

14. Disclaimer

Everybody is responsible for their own safety on the water. Coastal Companion is not a yacht broker or associated with any yacht broker and, does not produce or manufacture watercraft of any kind. Also Coastal Companion does not hire anyone to buy or sell watercraft of any kind on our behalf. Coastal Companion is not liable or financially responsible for, any damages caused to a owners watercraft or vessel while using the Coastal Companion app. Coastal Companion is also not liable or financially responsible for any damage caused to public property while using the Coastal Companion app. Coastal Companion is not responsible for providing any financial assistance when purchase on the app are made. Coastal Companion does not sell anything on the marketplace section of this app.

15. Contact

Questions about this policy or your data? Email support@costal-companion.com or reach us through the Contact page.