Spectra Privacy Policy

About the app

Spectra reads a pool test strip from a photo and tells you what to add. The colour matching runs on your phone, which is why it works at the poolside with no signal.

Your camera and your photos

The app asks for camera access so you can photograph a test strip, and can also read a picture you choose from your library. The image is processed on your device to match the colours against your reference chart.

The photo itself is never uploaded. We have no image storage and the app makes no upload requests. The picture stays in your phone's own storage, and a saved test keeps only a local file reference to it, which is meaningless on any other device.

Accounts

Spectra uses Google Firebase Authentication. There are three ways to use it:

• Anonymous, which is the default. The app creates an internal account identifier so your data has somewhere to live. It contains nothing about you and we cannot connect it to a person.
• Email and password, if you choose to create an account. We then hold your email address and the display name you enter.
• Sign in with Google, if you choose it. Google tells us the email address and basic profile name on that account. We do not receive your Google password, and we do not read your Gmail, contacts, calendar or anything else.

You only need an account if you want your history to survive changing or losing your phone. Passwords are handled by Firebase Authentication and we never see them.

What is stored, and where

If you are not signed in, everything stays on your device. If you are signed in, the following syncs to Google Cloud Firestore under your own account identifier, so that it is there when you sign in again:

• Your test results: the chemical readings, their values, the score and the date of each test
• Your calibrated colour chart, if you have photographed your own test kit
• Your pool setup: the name you give it, its volume, and whether you prefer metric or imperial units
• Your display name, and whether you have finished setup

Access is restricted so that an account can read and write only its own data and nothing belonging to anyone else. This is pool chemistry and a nickname, not sensitive personal information, and none of it is used for anything except showing you your own history.

What Spectra does not collect

No precise or approximate location, no contacts, no microphone, no phone number, no payment details, no advertising identifiers, no health data. There are no ads and no analytics product measuring how you use the app. We do not upload your photos.

Deleting your data

Uninstalling the app removes its local copy, though your operating system may keep app settings in its own device backup depending on your system settings. If you have signed in and want the synced copy erased as well, email support@digitalmidges.com from the address on the account and we will delete it, including the account itself.

Why we are allowed to do this

For anyone covered by the UK or EU GDPR: we process your account details and your readings in order to provide the service you asked for, which is the performance of a contract with you. Keeping the app working and secure rests on our legitimate interest. We do not rely on consent for advertising, because there is no advertising.

Children

Spectra is a tool for looking after a swimming pool and is not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has provided us personal information, email support@digitalmidges.com and we will delete it.

Who else is involved

These providers process data on our behalf, under their own privacy terms:

• Google Firebase Authentication, for sign in
• Google Cloud Firestore, for storing your readings when you are signed in
• Google Sign-In, only if you choose that sign in method

All three are Google services. Your data may be stored on servers in countries other than your own, including the United States. See the Firebase privacy documentation and the Google Privacy Policy.

We require service providers that process data on our behalf, including Google Firebase, to provide the same or equivalent protection described in this policy.

We do not sell personal data, we do not rent it, and we do not share it with data brokers or advertising networks. We do not use it to train artificial intelligence or machine learning models.

How long we keep things

Data stored on your device is yours. Uninstalling Spectra removes the local copy, though operating system backups may remain as described above. Anything held on our side is kept only for as long as it serves the purpose described above.

Your rights

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access a copy of your data, correct it, have it deleted, object to or restrict how we use it, take it elsewhere, or complain to your local data protection authority. Residents of California and other US states with privacy laws have comparable rights, including the right not to be treated differently for exercising them.

To exercise any of these, email support@digitalmidges.com. We do not charge for this and we do not make it difficult.

Security

Data sent between the app and any service travels over encrypted connections. No system is perfectly secure, but collecting as little as possible is the strongest protection we can offer, and that is a deliberate choice rather than an accident.

Changes to this policy

If we change what the app collects, we will update this page and move the effective date at the top. Significant changes will be stated here rather than made quietly.

Contact

Questions, requests or complaints about privacy go to support@digitalmidges.com. We read everything sent there.