Your information and privacy

When you message Shorey

Shorey receives your WhatsApp sender identifier or phone number, message text, message identifiers and timestamps, and any photos you send. We use these to reply, remember an unfinished submission, review reports and manage messaging preferences. Meta also processes WhatsApp communications under its own policies.

We store a hashed identifier for contributor and conversation records. Subscription records and queued replies also contain the number needed to contact you. After successful processing, the original incoming message envelope is replaced by a limited audit summary. Failed messages may be retained so the operator can investigate and recover them. The admin dashboard normally shows masked phone numbers.

Administrator sign-in

When enabled, Google sign-in is available only to the approved Shorey administrator account. Shorey receives the verified email address and Google account identifier to check access and link the admin account. Sign-in requests identity information only, not access to Gmail or Drive. Shorey keeps its own private session cookie and a sign-in audit record; it does not retain Google access or refresh tokens. Google also processes sign-in under its own privacy policy. Visitors do not need to sign in to use Shorey or share an update.

Photos and beach observations

A report includes the beach, the observation time you confirm, your note and any submitted photo. Photos remain private while awaiting review. Shorey asks permission before submitting material for public publication; a moderator must then approve it.

Your phone number is not shown with a public report. Approved material can be viewed and copied by other people. Only share photos you took and have permission to publish, and avoid including other people’s private information.

Permission to publish does not also give permission for separate research use. The current WhatsApp flow does not collect research consent. Voice-note transcription is not enabled in this pilot.

Reports, review checks and helpful votes

Beach reports now start in WhatsApp, rather than a website upload form. We collect the beach, observation time, note, publication permission and any photo you send. A browser cookie recognises your helpful votes on the website. A helpful vote means someone found an update useful; it does not confirm its accuracy or make it current.

If you choose to share your device or WhatsApp location, we keep it private for review. Uploaded photos may also contain recorded location and camera time. We extract a limited set of these fields and compare photos for duplicates. Metadata can be missing or inaccurate. Public photo copies have embedded metadata removed; precise location and private review findings are not included in public reports. Avoid exact nest locations in wildlife notes.

AI photo review is currently disabled. Photos are reviewed by a moderator. WhatsApp may remove camera metadata, and neither metadata nor a phone number proves a report is accurate.

Updates and choices

Beach Brief interest is confirmed inside WhatsApp. Scheduled delivery is not running yet. You can type STOP to withdraw your messaging subscription. STOP does not automatically delete earlier submissions or other operational records.

Website services and storage

The website uses a cookie identifier to support photo voting, and separate cookies for administrator sign-in. It loads maps and imagery from external providers and retrieves forecast information from Open-Meteo. External providers may receive normal connection information, such as your IP address, when your browser requests their resources.

The public pilot runs on Railway, with records in its PostgreSQL database and photos in private object storage. Meta processes WhatsApp messages through its Business Platform. Temporary local previews may also pass through Cloudflare. The pilot currently has no automatic deletion schedule: records remain until the operator deliberately removes them. Removing a photo from the public page does not automatically erase its private original or all related operational records.

Preventing misuse

Shorey uses hashed counters to limit repeated sign-in attempts, submissions and messages. The counters do not contain raw email addresses, phone numbers or IP addresses. Old counters are pruned when limits are next checked after their retention window. This is separate from the private operational records described above.

Contact and requests

For access, correction, withdrawal of publication permission or deletion requests, use the contact button. We may need to verify that the information belongs to you before disclosing or changing private records.

We will update this notice when the service or its data practices change.