Privacy Policy

Last updated 4 July 2026

1. Who we are

Badger ("Badger", "we", "us") is operated by Ewan Kirk. For UK and EU data-protection purposes we are the data controller. Questions or requests: ewan@thekirks.co.uk.

2. Our approach

Badger is built to hold as little of your data as possible. Your messages and their media are end-to-end encrypted, so we cannot read them. Everything else we store is restricted to the people you choose to share it with.

3. What we collect

• Account — your email address (to sign you in) and the display name and profile photo you set.
• Location — your device's location, when and only when you choose to share it.
• Mood & status — the mood and status emoji you set.
• Messages & media — the text, photos, videos, voice notes, files, polls and GIFs you send, all end-to-end encrypted.
• Contacts (optional) — if you use the invite feature, the email addresses of the contacts you select are hashed to check who is already on Badger. We do not upload or store your address book.
• Notification token — a push token so we can tell you about new messages.
• Diagnostics — crash reports (via Firebase Crashlytics) to help us fix problems.

4. What is end-to-end encrypted

Your direct and group messages, and all media within them, are encrypted on your device and only decrypted on your recipients' devices. We and our infrastructure providers cannot read them. Your location, mood, display name and photo are not end-to-end encrypted: they are stored on our servers so we can deliver them to the people you share with, protected by access rules and encrypted in transit and at rest.

5. How we use your data

Only to run the app: to sign you in, show you and your chosen friends on the map, deliver your messages, send notifications, and keep the service working and reliable. We do not sell your data, use it for advertising, or build profiles about you.

6. Who can see it

• The people you share with — you control this per conversation, and can hide your location or stop sharing at any time.
• Google Firebase, our infrastructure provider, which handles sign-in, the database, file storage, notifications and crash reporting on our behalf.
• Giphy (GIF search) and our map-imagery provider — when you use those features, your search terms and IP address may be sent to them.

We do not share your data with anyone else.

7. Retention & deletion

You can delete your account at any time from within the app; this removes your profile, location, messages and related data. Group messages can expire automatically where an admin sets a retention window, and location data expires on its own after a short period.

8. Your rights

If you are in the UK or EU, you have the right to access, correct, delete or export your data, and to object to or restrict its processing. Email ewan@thekirks.co.uk and we'll help. You may also complain to the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).

9. Security

Data is encrypted in transit and at rest. Messages are additionally end-to-end encrypted. Access to stored data is restricted by security rules to the people you have chosen to share with.

10. Children

Badger is not intended for children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect their data.

11. Changes

We will update this policy as the app evolves and revise the date above. We will highlight significant changes in the app.