Flicker is a birding app made by Andrew Mundy, an independent developer. This page explains what Flicker keeps, who can see it, and how to delete it. Flicker has no ads, doesn't sell your data, and doesn't track you across other apps or websites.
Without an account
You can use Flicker without signing in. Your birds, photos and progress then stay on your phone, and nothing you tag is sent to Flicker.
Identifying birds
Listen runs BirdNET on your phone. The sound from your microphone is analyzed on the device and is never uploaded or saved. Audio only leaves your phone as part of a video you record and add to a post.
When you sign in
You sign in with Apple. Flicker then keeps:
- Your account: the name and email Apple shares (you can hide your email with Apple's relay address), the username you pick, and your profile photo if you add one.
- Your birds: each bird you tag, with its time, count, whether you saw or heard it, the place it was tagged, and any photos or videos you add.
- What you do with friends: who you follow, likes, comments, mentions, reports and blocks.
- Your progress: your streak, medals, levels and recaps, so they come back on a new phone.
- A notification token, if you allow notifications, so friends' activity can reach you.
- Your eBird history, if you import it: one bird per species, without its location, so your life list counts it.
Who sees your birds
You choose who sees your birds: Everyone, Anyone who follows, Followers I approve, or Only me. With Only me, nothing is posted and nobody else sees your birds; they're kept only so they come back if you change phones.
Other people never see where exactly you were. Posts show a spot rounded to about a kilometer, and birds that are sensitive to disturbance are rounded further and posted on their own. The exact spot of each bird is kept so your own map and places work, and only you can read it.
When you walk with friends, Flicker keeps only the square kilometer you're in, for ten minutes, to find friends close by. It's never shown to anyone.
Lookups that use your location
To show which birds are likely around you and to name places, Flicker asks a few services about an area, never about you:
- Apple Maps names the park or place where you tag a bird.
- GBIF (the Global Biodiversity Information Facility) counts which birds people have reported within a few kilometers. Flicker sends only the center of a 2 km square and the month.
- OpenStreetMap says whether there's water nearby. Flicker sends only the center of a 250 m square.
Bird photos and calls come from iNaturalist, xeno-canto and Wikimedia Commons. Those requests name a species, not you or where you are.
Usage in test builds
TestFlight builds record which screens and buttons are used (for example, that Listen started or a bird was tagged), with your account, the app version and a random id for the install. They never include a location, a species or anything you type. App Store builds don't send these.
This website
This website counts visits with Vercel Web Analytics: which page was opened, the site that linked to it, and the country, browser and kind of device. It sets no cookies, and a visit can't be traced back to you or followed to other sites.
Where it's kept
Flicker's server runs on Supabase, which stores the account data, birds, photos and the rest on Flicker's behalf. Apple delivers notifications and handles sign-in. Nobody else receives your data.
Deleting your data
In Flicker, open You, then Settings, then Delete account. Your account, birds, photos, videos, comments, likes, follows and usage events are deleted from the server. Birds kept on your phone stay there until you delete the app.
You can also email hello@flickerbirding.com and we'll delete your account and its data for you.
To take back your eBird history, import an empty list, or delete your account.
Kids
Flicker is great for young birders! Kids under 13 can use Flicker with a parent or guardian on the adult's account. We don't knowingly create accounts for children under 13.
Changes
If this page changes, the date at the top changes too.
Contact
Questions about your data: hello@flickerbirding.com