Privacy Policy
Cows & Fish Riparian Management Society and Miistakis Institute · Riparian Health Assessment App
Last updated 20 August 2026This privacy policy has been compiled to better serve those who are concerned with how their personal information is being collected and used online by the Cows and Fish and Miistakis Institute, Riparian Health Assessment app.
Personal information in the context of this policy, is information that can be used on its own or with other information to identify, contact, or locate a single person, or to identify an individual in context. Please read our privacy policy carefully to get a clear understanding of how we collect, use, protect or otherwise handle your personal information in any of our online tools.
Want to delete your account?
You can permanently delete your account and everything in it at any time, either from the Resources tab in the app or on our website. See Deleting your account for what that removes.
Delete your accountWhat personal information do we collect from the people that visit our apps?
When registering on our mobile apps, as appropriate, you may be asked to enter your email address to create a profile which will allow all data you enter to be connected to one identity, thereby enhancing both the user experience and the scientific rigour.
Mobile apps may collect GPS locations as part of the data collection functionality that is at the core purpose of those apps.
Please note that mobile apps may collect photos, but these are of ecological or natural features, and are only collected through explicit user upload. As well, users are not encouraged to enter photos which could personally identify them.
Permissions the app asks for on your device
The app asks your permission before using any of the following, and uses each one only for the task described:
- Camera. So that you can photograph a site from inside the app while you are standing at it. Photos are only taken when you choose to take one.
- Photos. So that you can attach a picture you have already taken. The app only reads the pictures you pick, never your wider photo library.
- Location. So that the app can place a new site at where you are standing, and show it on the map. See the sections below for how those coordinates are used.
You can refuse any of these, or withdraw them later in your device settings, and the rest of the app keeps working. Without the camera or photo permission you cannot attach photos to a site. Without location you can still create sites by placing them on the map yourself.
When do we collect information?
We collect information from you when you register on our apps. GPS locations are entered as part of your active submission of data through data collection apps or web mapping tools, if you choose to record locations.
How do we use your information?
All information collected online, personal or otherwise, is used in support of our mandate as a conservation stewardship charity.
Your email address, when collected, is used only for the purpose identified by the app where you are asked to enter this information, and to send you account emails such as password resets. Personal information gathered for one app, web site, project or purpose is not transferred to other apps, web sites or projects.
GPS coordinates are gathered when app users are asked to enter geo-locations for ecological or natural data. This information is only used by us to understand where users are generally (not specifically) using the app, such as in what county or similar scale of area. We may use location information to create aggregate data that summarizes the county, region or watershed where the app is being used, for program planning or reporting purposes, but we will not identify any individual site information in such aggregate or summary data.
Who will have access to the information
Although the data collected through our apps may be shared outside of the Cows and Fish and Miistakis Institute in aggregate or summarized form, no personal information nor any individual site information will be. Only Cows and Fish's staff in charge of the program for which the data is collected, and Cows and Fish's web programmer will have access to any personal information. That information will not be shared without your express permission.
How will the information be safeguarded?
Your account details, sites and assessments are stored in a Microsoft Azure SQL database. Reaching that data through the app or this website requires your email address and password, and all traffic is encrypted using HTTPS. Passwords are stored only as cryptographic hashes and are never held or transmitted in a readable form.
Photos you upload are stored in Microsoft Azure Blob Storage. Each photo has its own long, randomly generated web address. We do not publish or share those addresses, but a photo can be viewed by anyone who has its address, which is another reason we ask you not to upload photos that could personally identify you.
How long will the information be retained?
Personal information gathered as part of a project is retained for the duration of the project.
At any time, Cows and Fish will respond to a written request for the deletion of personal information by immediately deleting that information from the relevant project or organizational databases. You can also delete everything yourself at any time, see Deleting your account below.
Some records are held by the service providers we use to run the app, and are kept to their schedules rather than ours. These records do not contain your sites or assessments:
- Email delivery records held by SendGrid, our email provider, which include your email address. These come from account emails such as password resets.
- Crash diagnostics held by Google Firebase Crashlytics, which include your account identifier and email address so that an error can be traced back to a single session. Google retains these for a limited period that it sets.
- Web server logs, which may include IP addresses, kept for a short period to help us troubleshoot problems and identify malicious use.
Deleting your account
You can permanently delete your account and all of the data attached to it at any time.
- In the app: open the Resources tab, tap Data Collection, then scroll to the end of that section and tap Delete Account.
- On the web: go to https://api.cowsandfish.org/delete-account and follow the instructions.
Deleting your account immediately and permanently removes:
- your account and login details
- every site you have created
- every riparian health assessment you have recorded
- every photo you have uploaded
This happens straight away. There is no waiting period, and neither you nor we can recover the data afterwards.
Aggregate and summary information that had already been produced before you deleted your account, such as counts by county, region or watershed, does not identify you or any individual site and is not affected.
If you would rather not do it yourself, you can still ask us to delete your account by writing to riparian@cowsandfish.org.
Third-party disclosure
We do not sell, trade, or otherwise transfer to outside parties any personal information collected directly or indirectly by our mobile apps.
We also do not provide non-personally identifiable visitor information to other parties for marketing, advertising, or other uses.
PIPEDA / PIPA Compliance
Cows and Fish and Miistakis Institute operate under the laws of Canada and the Province of Alberta, and as such is bound by the federal Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and Alberta's Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA).
To ensure compliance, this privacy policy was developed using Guidelines for Online Consent and Seizing Opportunity: Good Privacy Practices for Developing Mobile Apps both developed by the federal Office of the Privacy Commissioner and the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Alberta.
Contacting Us
If there are any questions regarding this privacy policy, you may contact Cows and Fish and Miistakis Institute at riparian@cowsandfish.org.
Cows & Fish Riparian Management Society and Miistakis Institute · cowsandfish.org