This Privacy Policy explains how the Wing Sound iOS app (the "App") handles your information. The App is published by Petr Leo Compel ("we", "us"), based in the Czech Republic. The App is an unofficial, fan-made companion for the Wingspan board game and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Stonemaier Games.
We have designed the App so that the simplest accurate statement we can make is: we do not collect any personal data from you. Everything below is just the long-form, lawyerly version of that sentence.
1. The short version
- No account, sign-in, or registration is required to use the App.
- We do not collect, store, or transmit any personally identifiable information.
- We do not use analytics, advertising SDKs, or third-party tracking of any kind.
- Camera frames are processed entirely on your device and are never uploaded.
- The only external network requests the App makes are anonymous calls to the Xeno-canto public API to fetch bird recordings.
- Optional LAN play mode connects devices on your local Wi-Fi to share a bird sound queue. Queue data stays on your local network and is not sent to our servers.
2. Information the App processes
2.1 Camera and microphone
With your permission, the App uses your device's camera to read the printed name on a Wingspan card. Each video frame is fed to Apple's on-device Vision framework for Optical Character Recognition (OCR). The recognised text is matched against a local bird name catalogue bundled inside the App.
- Frames are processed in memory and discarded immediately.
- No photos, video, or audio are recorded, saved, or transmitted.
- The App does not use the microphone.
You can revoke camera access at any time in Settings → Privacy & Security → Camera → Wing Sound.
2.2 Data stored on your device
The App stores a small amount of state locally on your device using Apple's standard
UserDefaults mechanism. This data never leaves your device and is removed
when you uninstall the App.
- Your preferred bird-name display language.
- Whether the developer "OCR Debug" toggle is enabled.
- The current playback queue (a list of bird identifiers and Xeno-canto IDs) so it can be restored when you reopen the App.
2.3 Network requests
When you scan a card or when a queued track starts, the App makes anonymous HTTPS requests to the public Xeno-canto service to look up and stream the bird recording. These requests contain:
- The Latin (scientific) name of the bird or its Xeno-canto recording ID.
- Standard HTTP metadata your device automatically sends to any web server, such as your IP address and a generic user-agent.
Xeno-canto is a third party operated independently of us. Its handling of those requests is governed by Xeno-canto's own policies. Please see xeno-canto.org/about/terms for details.
3. What we do not do
- We do not track you across apps or websites.
- We do not use advertising or marketing SDKs.
- We do not use any analytics product (no Firebase, no Mixpanel, no Sentry, no Crashlytics — nothing).
- We do not sell, rent, or share any data with third parties for commercial purposes.
- We do not require a login, email address, or any other identifier.
4. App permissions
The App requests one permission, with a clear reason shown in the system prompt:
- Camera — required to scan Wingspan cards. The App will function normally for queue playback even if you decline, but you will not be able to add new birds by scanning.
5. Children's privacy
The App is suitable for general audiences, including children playing the Wingspan board game with their families. Because the App does not collect any personal data from any user, it complies with the U.S. Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and equivalent regulations applicable to younger users.
6. Your rights under GDPR / UK GDPR / CCPA
We do not collect or store personal data from users, so there is no personal data for us to access, correct, port, or delete in response to a data-subject request. Uninstalling the App removes all locally stored information from your device.
7. Third-party services
The App relies on the following third-party services. We do not control these services and recommend you review their own policies if you have questions about how they process your requests:
- Xeno-canto — wildlife sound archive, used to fetch bird recordings. xeno-canto.org.
- Apple iOS / iPadOS — the operating system on which the App runs and which provides camera access, on-device OCR, and audio playback. apple.com/legal/privacy.
8. Security
Because the App does not transmit personal data, the surface area for any data breach is minimal. Network communication with Xeno-canto is encrypted over HTTPS. Locally stored preferences are sandboxed by iOS to be readable only by the App.
9. Changes to this policy
If we ever change how the App handles information, this policy will be updated and the "Last updated" date at the top of this page will change. Material changes will also be announced in the App's release notes on the App Store.
10. Contact
Questions about this policy or the App? Get in touch via peelco.cz.