Privacy policy
Last updated: 2026-11-11
Bajocapa is an iPhone app for digging, layer by layer, under a city you pick. It has no account, no analytics, no advertising and no tracking. This page lists every piece of information that leaves your phone, where it goes, and how to have it removed.
Who is responsible
The app and this website are published by Michelle Katherine Crawford (“we”). For anything about this policy, write to support@bajocapa.info.
The short version
- Your dig — cleared soil, finds, the list of cities and your settings — is stored only on your iPhone.
- When a city is not built into the app, it asks the Paleobiology Database for fossil records inside a box around that city. The box comes from the app’s own city list, not from your location.
- At each launch the app asks our server whether an update is required.
- If you allow notifications, our push provider OneSignal receives a push token and a device identifier.
- The in-app help desk sends a message to us only when you press Send.
We do not collect your name, location, contacts, photo library, browsing history or advertising identifier, we do not use analytics or crash-reporting SDKs, we show no ads, and we do not sell or share data for advertising.
Everything in one table
| Data category | Collected | Purpose | Retention | Third party | Your control |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Device identifier (identifierForVendor) | Yes, in the launch update check, only when there is no push subscription id | Answer “is an update required?” for this install | Not used for anything beyond answering that request | Our hosting provider Cloudflare carries the request | Delete the app; the identifier changes on reinstall |
| Push subscription identifier | Yes, if you allow notifications | Deliver notifications; also sent with the update check | Kept by OneSignal while the subscription exists | OneSignal; Cloudflare for the update check | Turn notifications off in iOS Settings, delete the app, or ask us to delete it |
| App version and bundle identifier | Yes, in the update check | Decide whether this version needs an update | Not used for anything beyond answering that request | Cloudflare | — |
| Analytics events | No | — | — | — | — |
| Crash diagnostics | No (no crash-reporting SDK) | — | — | — | — |
| Advertising identifier (IDFA) | No; the app never asks for tracking permission | — | — | — | — |
| Attribution data | No | — | — | — | — |
| Embedded web content cookies / local storage | Only if an update notice from api.bajocapa.info is shown inside the app | Display that notice | On your phone until the app is deleted | None; the notice has no trackers or ads | Delete the app |
| Your dig on the device (cleared soil, finds, cities, settings) | Not collected by us; stored only on your iPhone | Keep your progress | Until Start over or the app is deleted | None | Base camp → Start over, or delete the app |
| Contact data from support e-mails | Yes, if you write to us | Answer you | In our support mailbox as long as needed to help; deleted on request | Cloudflare routes e-mail to our mailbox | Ask us to delete the conversation |
| Help desk messages: text, attachments, optional e-mail, optional device details | Yes, only when you press Send | Answer you and fix problems | Not stored on our server; kept in our support mailbox as long as needed, deleted on request | Cloudflare carries the message to support@bajocapa.info | Leave out the e-mail, attachments or device details; ask us to delete it |
| Chosen city (coordinate box) | Sent to the Paleobiology Database for cities that are not built in | Fetch fossil records for that city | The app keeps the result on your phone; we receive nothing | Paleobiology Database (paleobiodb.org) | Use one of the 18 built-in cities to send nothing |
1. What the app sends, and what it does not
Fossil records for your city
Eighteen large cities are built into the app and need no connection. For any other city, the app sends a read-only request to the Paleobiology Database at paleobiodb.org. The request contains only a box of coordinates drawn around the city you chose from the app’s list — no identifier, nothing about you. The app does not use Location Services at all, and the city does not have to be the one you live in. The answer is saved on your phone.
Launch update check
Each time the app starts, it sends three things to https://api.bajocapa.info/api/sync: the push subscription id (or, if there is none, the device’s identifierForVendor), the app’s bundle identifier and the app version. Our server uses them only to answer whether this version must be updated. If our server cannot be reached, the app simply opens as usual. If an update is required, the app shows a short notice from bajocapa.info asking you to update from the App Store.
Help desk
In Base camp → Help and feedback you can write to us. Nothing is sent until you press Send. Then the message text, a reply e-mail address if you give one, photos or files if you attach them, and — only if you leave that option on — device details (iPhone model, iOS version, app version, language and region) are e-mailed to support@bajocapa.info through our server. The server passes the message on and stores nothing. If our server cannot be reached, the app opens the iPhone Mail app with your message instead, and it is sent from your own mail account like any other e-mail.
What we never collect
No account or sign-in, no name, no precise or approximate location, no contacts, no browsing history, no advertising identifier, no analytics events, no crash reports, no purchase data. Bajocapa contains no ads.
2. Device identifiers
The identifierForVendor is a random value Apple gives to apps from the same publisher on one device; it resets when all of them are deleted. The push subscription id is a random value created by OneSignal. Neither is linked by us to your name, e-mail address or any real-world identity, and neither is used to follow you across other companies’ apps or websites.
3. Push notifications
Right after the welcome screens the app asks once whether it may send notifications. Saying no changes nothing about digging. If you say yes, OneSignal, Inc. (our push provider) receives a push token and a device identifier so that occasional news about the app can reach you. You can switch notifications off at any time in iOS Settings → Bajocapa → Notifications. To have the subscription removed from OneSignal, delete the app or write to us.
4. Analytics and crash reporting
Not used. The app contains no analytics or crash-reporting SDK.
5. Attribution and tracking
Not used. The app does not read the advertising identifier, does not use an attribution provider and never shows the App Tracking Transparency prompt, because it does not track you.
6. Web content inside the app
The app does not browse the web. The only page it can show inside itself is our own update notice from api.bajocapa.info. The system web view may keep ordinary cookies or local storage for that page on your phone; the page contains no trackers and no advertising, and deleting the app removes that storage.
7. Children
Bajocapa is rated 4+ in the App Store but is not part of the Kids Category and is written for adults and teenagers. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If a child has sent us a help desk message, a parent or guardian can ask us to delete it.
8. Keeping and deleting data
- On your phone: open Cities, tap the gear to open Base camp, then Start over. This erases your progress and cannot be undone. Deleting the app erases everything it stored.
- Help desk messages and e-mails: kept in our support mailbox only as long as needed to help you, then deleted; we delete them sooner on request.
- Push subscription: held by OneSignal while it exists; we will delete it on request.
- Update check: not used by us for anything after the answer is sent.
To ask for deletion, write to support@bajocapa.info with the subject “Delete my data”. If you used the help desk, tell us the e-mail address you gave, or roughly when you wrote. We reply within 3 business days.
9. Where data is processed
Our hosting and e-mail routing run on Cloudflare’s global network. OneSignal is based in the United States. The Paleobiology Database is run from the United States. When data travels to these providers it may be processed outside your country, under each provider’s own safeguards.
Third parties at a glance
- Paleobiology Database — receives the coordinate box for non-built-in cities. Its data is used under CC BY 4.0.
- OneSignal — push notifications, only if you allow them.
- Cloudflare — our hosting provider; carries the update check, the help desk messages and e-mail to our inbox.
- GeoNames (city names, CC BY 4.0) and PhyloPic (creature silhouettes) — their material is built into the app. The app makes no requests to them.
10. Your rights
Depending on where you live (for example under the GDPR in the EU, KVKK in Türkiye or state laws in the United States), you may ask to access the data we hold about you, correct it, delete it, or object to its use. Because we hold so little, most requests are simple: write to support@bajocapa.info. You can also complain to your local data protection authority.
11. Contact
support@bajocapa.info — we answer within 3 business days. Help topics are on the support page.
12. Effective date and changes
This policy is effective from 2026-11-11. If the app starts sending anything new, we will update this page before that version is released and change the date at the top.