Privacy

Ranger is a free app for visitors to wildlife centres, plus this website. This page explains what we collect, why, and how long we keep it. The short version: you don’t need an account, and we don’t collect your name or email to use the app.

Who we are

Ranger is run by Phil Gillett in the UK. For anything about your data, email phil.tgillett@gmail.com.

Using the app as a visitor

No account, no sign-in. The app creates a random ID on your phone so it can tell one visit from another. That ID isn’t linked to your name, email or phone number, and deleting the app removes it.

• Usage counts. Which screens you open, which animals you look at and which offers you tap, recorded against the random ID. Centres see totals, such as “visitors today”, not individual people.
• Your location, if you allow it. Used on your phone to show you on the centre map. If the centre has it switched on, the app also notes which enclosure you spent time near, and for how long, so the centre can see what visitors enjoy. That may also be used to send you one message the next day about what you spent time with. We keep it for 90 days. Turn the next-day message off under Settings, Post-visit messages, or turn off location for Ranger in your phone settings at any time.
• Notifications, if you allow them. We store a notification token for your phone, linked to the centre you’re visiting, so we can send you: reminders before events the centre has chosen, news when a display is cancelled or moved, new offers from that centre, messages the centre sends to everyone there, and the next-day message described above. Turn notifications off in your phone settings at any time.
• Booking a place on a talk. If you book a seat, we ask for a name and how many are in your group, so the keeper has a list. It’s only shared with that centre.
• Passes. If a centre gives you a membership or sponsor pass, it includes the name the centre took when you bought it.
• Crash reports. If the app goes wrong, it sends us the error along with your phone’s operating system and app version, so we can fix it. No personal details.

Centre staff using The Ranger Station

Staff accounts need an email address and password so we know who can change a centre’s information. You can delete your account yourself from inside The Ranger Station.

This website

This site doesn’t use cookies, doesn’t ask you to sign in, and doesn’t run advertising trackers.

Who else handles your data

We use Supabase to store app data and Expo to deliver notifications. Apple and Google handle downloads through their stores under their own privacy policies. We don’t sell data to anyone.

Your rights

Under UK data protection law you can ask what we hold about you, ask us to correct it or delete it, or complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ico.org.uk). Most of what the app collects isn’t linked to you personally, so deleting the app is usually enough. Email us if you’d like anything else removed.