Privacy Policy

Last updated: 2026-05-14

AP Field Guide (the "Service") is a hobby project that helps WiFi engineers identify wireless access points from photos. This page explains what data we collect, why, and what choices you have. We aim to collect as little as possible.

What we collect

• Account information. If you sign in with Google, we receive your email address and display name. If you sign up with email/password, we store the email and a username you choose. We do not receive or store passwords (Firebase handles auth).
• Photos you upload. Each AP photo you submit ("log a sighting" or admin contribution) is stored so the Service can identify it and so other users can see matched references in their own results.
  Note on EXIF: before any photo leaves your device, our cropper / capture step re-encodes it through an HTML canvas, which strips embedded EXIF metadata (including GPS coordinates). The image file the Service stores does not contain your camera's EXIF tags.
• Approximate location. Where your photo had GPS coordinates in EXIF (or you allowed in-browser geolocation when capturing), we read those coordinates client-side, send them as a separate field, reverse-geocode them server-side to a city / state / country, and store only that coarse location on the sighting record. We do not store the raw latitude/longitude.
• Identification metadata. The AI's top guesses, your final selection, and timestamps. Used to improve the catalog over time.
• Usage signals. Standard server logs (request times, IP addresses, error traces) are kept by our hosting provider (Google Cloud / Firebase) for operational and security purposes.

What we do NOT collect

• We do not collect phone numbers, postal addresses, or payment information.
• We do not use third-party analytics or advertising trackers.
• We do not sell or rent any of your data.

How we use it

• To identify the access point in your photo.
• To populate your personal Field Journal of unique APs you've spotted (plus a per-AP sighting history of where and when you've spotted each model).
• To display you on the public leaderboard (by your chosen display name — never by email).
• To grow the reference catalog. Every photo you submit when logged in — whether you confirmed an AI guess, picked the model from the list, or corrected the AI — is added to a review queue as a candidate reference image. An admin reviews each candidate; approved images become part of the public reference catalog used to identify the same model for other users.
  When a candidate is approved, it appears in the catalog as an anonymous reference image — the public catalog record does not include your account or contributor identity. (The link from a catalog image back to the contributor is retained privately for admin-only audit purposes.)

Who we share it with

We use a small number of Google Cloud services to run the Service. They process your data on our behalf:

• Firebase Authentication — sign-in
• Firebase Hosting — serves this site
• Cloud Functions — runs identification logic
• Firestore + Cloud Storage — stores documents and images
• Vertex AI — generates image embeddings and field-guide text
• Google Maps Geocoding API — converts the coordinates we read from your photo or device into a city name

We do not share data with any other third parties. We do not sell data. Aggregated, anonymous statistics (e.g. "the catalog has 137 models") may appear publicly.

How long we keep it

• Account data is kept while your account is active.
• Sighting photos and journal entries are kept indefinitely unless you ask us to delete them.
• Reference images approved into the catalog become part of the Service and remain even if you delete your account.
• Server logs are kept for up to 30 days for operational purposes.

What's visible to other users

• Approved reference images are public — anyone who identifies the same AP model sees them as part of the match result. Reference images are anonymized (no contributor identity attached publicly).
• The leaderboard is public — only your chosen display name appears; if you haven't set one, you appear as a masked identifier (e.g. d•••i).
• Your Field Journal is private to you.
• Your raw email address is never shown publicly anywhere.

Your choices and rights

• Use the app anonymously. You can identify APs without signing in — though your sightings won't be saved to a Field Journal and won't be added to the reference catalog. Contributing requires an account.
• Account deletion. You can delete your own account at any time from the in-app Settings page. This removes your profile, your Field Journal, and your personal sighting images within 30 days. Feedback records of your past sightings are anonymized (the link to your account is removed). Reference images previously approved into the public catalog will remain — see the per-photo removal note below.
• Per-photo removal request. If a specific photo of yours that was approved into the public catalog is something you'd like removed, email the address below with enough detail to identify it. We will evaluate and remove it where it does not break catalog matching for that model (you can think of this as a request, not a guarantee — popular AP models may have many reference photos to choose from, others only one).
• Correction. If you spot incorrect data about you, email us and we'll fix it.

Children

The Service is intended for users 13 years and older. We do not knowingly collect data from children under 13. If you believe a child has registered, contact us and we'll delete the account.

Security

We use Google's infrastructure for hosting and storage, which includes encryption in transit and at rest. Access to user-submitted images is restricted to admin reviewers and other users who view a publicly leaderboarded sighting. We do not guarantee absolute security — no online service can — but we apply reasonable safeguards.

Changes to this policy

We may update this page when the Service changes. Material changes will be announced on the home screen. The "Last updated" date at the top reflects the most recent revision.

Contact

Questions, deletion requests, or concerns: dan.spulecki@gmail.com