Privacy Policy

Effective October 18, 2026

1. Who we are
2. What we collect
3. What stays aboard
4. How we use it
5. Who we share it with
6. Phone numbers and texts
7. Cookies
8. How long we keep it
9. Security
10. Your choices and rights
11. Where it's stored
12. Children
13. Changes
14. Contact

1. Who we are

Boat Bot (“Boat Bot”, “we”, “us”) runs the website boatbot.io, the web app at app.boatbot.io, the Boat Bot software for a computer aboard your boat, the Boat Bot Signal K plugin and the Boat Bot Android app (together, the “Service”). This policy explains how we handle personal information in the Service. For the data in this policy, we are the controller.

2. What we collect

You give us

• Account details: your name and email address.
• Sign-in security: one-time sign-in codes (stored only as a scrambled hash and deleted within 10 minutes), the secret for your authenticator app if you turn on two-step sign-in, and scrambled copies of your backup codes.
• Invites: when a boat owner invites someone by email, that person's email address and any note the owner adds.
• Boats and crew: boat names, which boats you're on and your role (owner, crew or guest), and your boat's own web address if you set one.
• Messaging choices: whether you want product news by email, your mobile number if you sign up for text alerts, and a record of each consent or opt-out (what you agreed to, the exact wording shown, the date and time, and the IP address it came from).
• Plans and payments: each boat's plan, trial dates and usage against its limits. If an owner pays for a plan, Stripe collects the card and billing details; we receive and keep only Stripe's customer and subscription IDs, the plan, billing period, payment status and renewal date. We never see or store full card numbers.
• Messages to us: anything you send when you contact us.

Your boat sends us

• Boat readings: when a boat is connected, its latest position, wind, depth, speed, heading, battery and solar figures, anchor-watch state and active alarms. We keep the latest reading, not a track history, unless you turn on cloud backup.
• Cloud backup (optional): if a boat owner turns it on, copies of the boat's Boat Bot files, which can include the log book, galley lists, maintenance records, settings and history.
• AI and voice requests (when Boat Bot provides them): if your boat uses Boat Bot's AI or voice service rather than its own keys, Matey's questions and the text to be spoken pass through our servers to the providers named in section 5. We pass them on and don't keep their content; we keep only counts (number of requests, tokens and characters) per boat per day to manage cost and limits.

Collected automatically

• Technical data: IP address, browser or app type, the pages and features used, timestamps and error details, in server logs.
• Sign-in records: when you signed in and your active sessions.
• Abuse protection: short-lived counters tied to IP addresses and email addresses to stop repeated attempts.

We don't use advertising trackers, analytics services, or social-media pixels.

3. What stays aboard

The Boat Bot software runs on a computer on your boat (usually a Raspberry Pi) that you control. Data kept there, such as conversations with Matey, voice memos, photos, the log book, galley and maintenance records, and the boat's history, stays on that computer unless you turn on cloud backup or share it. The boat's owner is responsible for that computer and who can use it.

When aboard and online, the boat's software may contact these services directly:

• Speech recognition: “Hey, Matey” and offline speech recognition run on the device. The Android app uses the phone's microphone only while listening for or to you, and processes the wake word on the phone.
• AI answers from Anthropic, and spoken replies from ElevenLabs, either through Boat Bot or with the owner's own keys.
• Weather and sea forecasts from Open-Meteo, which receives the boat's approximate position.
• Web search for some questions, which sends the search words to a search engine.
• Phone alarms through ntfy, if set up, which carries the alarm text to your phones.

4. How we use it

• To run the Service: sign you in, show you your boats, deliver invites, connect your boat, and send alarms and reminders.
• To keep it secure: two-step sign-in, stopping abuse and fraud, and investigating problems.
• To send messages: service emails you need (sign-in codes, invites, security and account notices, changes to these terms) and, only if you opt in, product news and text alerts.
• To improve it: fixing errors and understanding which features are used, using our own logs.
• To meet legal duties and enforce our Terms.

If you're in the UK, the European Economic Area or a similar place, our legal bases are: performing our contract with you (running the Service), our legitimate interests (security, fixing problems and improving the Service, balanced against your rights), your consent (product news and text alerts, which you can withdraw at any time), and legal obligations.

We don't use your information to make decisions that have legal or similarly significant effects on you by automated means alone.

5. Who we share it with

We don't sell your personal information, and we don't share it for cross-context behavioral advertising. We share it only as follows:

• Your crew: people on the same boat can see your name and role. Owners also see members' email addresses, and everyone on a boat can see its readings.
• Service providers who process data for us under contract and only on our instructions:

  Provider	What for
  Amazon Web Services	Hosting, database, file storage and backups, and sending email
  Stripe	Taking payments for paid plans, invoices and the billing portal
  Cloudflare	Network delivery, security, and the secure link to your boat's own web address
  Anthropic	AI answers for Matey
  ElevenLabs	Matey's speaking voice
  A text-message provider	Sending text alerts, once you opt in
  GitHub	Hosting the Boat Bot software and app updates

• Web fonts and libraries: our pages load fonts from Google Fonts and a code library from cdnjs (Cloudflare). Your browser contacts them directly, so they receive your IP address.
• Legal reasons: if required by law or a valid legal request, or to protect the safety, rights or property of anyone, including during an emergency.
• Business changes: if Boat Bot is reorganized, merged or sold, information may move to the new owner, who must keep honoring this policy.
• With your permission: anywhere else you ask us to.

6. Phone numbers and text messages

We do not sell, rent or share your mobile phone number or your text-message opt-in consent with third parties or affiliates for their marketing or promotional purposes. Text-messaging opt-in data and consent are shared only with the service providers that deliver our messages. We use your number only to send the text alerts you signed up for, and to keep the record of your consent and opt-out. See our Email and Text Message Terms.

7. Cookies

We use one cookie, __Host-bb_session, which keeps you signed in. It's needed for the Service to work, can't be read by page scripts, and lasts up to 30 days. Matey's screens may also save small preferences in your browser's own storage on your device (for example, whether the instruments are shown). We don't use advertising or analytics cookies, so there's no cookie banner. Our pages don't respond to “Do Not Track” signals because we don't track you across sites.

8. How long we keep it

• Account and boat information: while you have an account or the boat exists. When deleted, it's removed from our live systems right away.
• Sign-in codes: 10 minutes or until used.
• Server logs: 30 days.
• Boat readings: only the latest reading, replaced each time the boat reports.
• Cloud backups: until the boat is deleted, or sooner if the owner asks us.
• Consent and opt-out records: 4 years, even after an account is deleted, so we can prove what someone agreed to.
• Usage counts (per boat, no content): until the boat is deleted.

9. Security

We use encryption in transit (HTTPS), encryption at rest in our database and storage, scrambled sign-in codes and backup codes, optional two-step sign-in (required for administrators), strict limits on who on our side can access data, and protection against repeated sign-in attempts. No system is perfectly secure. If we learn of a breach that affects your information, we'll tell you and the relevant authorities as the law requires.

10. Your choices and rights

• Update your name and messaging choices on your Account page.
• Stop optional messages: untick product news on your Account page or use the unsubscribe link in the email; reply STOP to any text.
• Leave a boat from the boat's page, or ask its owner to remove you.
• Access, correct, delete or export your information, or object to or restrict how we use it: email support@boatbot.io from the address on your account. We'll reply within 30 days (45 where the law allows), and we may need to confirm it's you. Someone you've authorized can ask on your behalf with proof of that authority.

Depending on where you live (for example California and other US states, the UK, the EEA, Canada, Brazil, or Trinidad and Tobago), you may have more rights under local law. We give these rights to everyone, wherever they live, and we won't treat you differently for using them. If you're not happy with our answer, you can complain to your local data-protection authority.

California: in the last 12 months we collected the categories in section 2 (identifiers, account and security details, approximate and precise boat location, internet activity, and the content of messages you send us), for the purposes in section 4, and shared them only with the recipients in section 5. We have not sold or shared personal information as those terms are defined in California law, and we don't knowingly do so for anyone under 16.

11. Where it's stored

We store data in the United States (Amazon Web Services, us-east-1), and our providers may process it in other countries. Where the law requires it, we protect transfers with safeguards such as the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses.

12. Children

Boat Bot isn't meant for children. Account holders must be 18 or older, or have a parent's or guardian's permission. We don't knowingly collect information from children under 13. If you believe a child under 13 has given us information, email us and we'll delete it.

13. Changes

We'll post any change here with a new effective date. If a change is significant, we'll tell you by email or in the app before it takes effect, and ask for your agreement where the law requires it.

14. Contact

Questions or requests: support@boatbot.io.