Privacy policy

NativeFlow is field software for native seed collection. It records where plants grow, what was collected, and who did the work — so this policy is mostly about location data, photographs and video, which is where the sensitivity actually sits.

Who this covers

NativeFlow is operated by ETHERAPPS PTY. LTD. (ABN 58 146 256 493). You can contact us at info@etherapps.com.au.

This policy applies to the NativeFlow web application, the fieldwork app (in a browser or installed on a phone), and this website. It is written to align with the Australian Privacy Principles under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).

Most information in NativeFlow belongs to the organisation you work for, not to us. We hold and process it on that organisation's behalf. If you are a member of an organisation using NativeFlow, ask them first about how they use your records; we will help either way.

What we collect

Account information

Your email address and name, the organisation you belong to, and your role in it. We use an email address and password to sign you in. We never see or store your password.

Field records — including precise locations

The substance of the product: collections, observations, plant locations, seed lots, projects, sites and the notes attached to them. These commonly include precise GPS coordinates captured from your device, along with the date, time and the name of the person who recorded them.

Location is collected only while you are actively using the app to record something, or while a GPS track is running and visibly indicated. NativeFlow does not track your location in the background, and never collects location when the app is closed.

Photographs

Photos taken through the app or attached to a record. Photographs commonly carry embedded EXIF metadata, which can include the coordinates and time the photo was taken. That metadata is stored with the file.

Field video

Short video captured through the app or attached to a field record. Video stays on your device until it syncs, then is stored with the record and governed by the same access controls as other field evidence.

Messages you send us

If you use the contact form on this website, we receive your name, email address, the organisation you give if you give one, the enquiry type you choose, whatever you write in the message, and which page you sent it from. We use it to answer you and for nothing else — it is never added to a marketing list, and we do not need an account to reply.

Technical information

Ordinary server logs — IP address, browser or app version, and pages requested — kept to keep the service running and secure.

The NativeFlow application carries no analytics. Once you sign in — and everywhere in the field app — there is no tracking script, no advertising pixel, and no third-party analytics of any kind. Your field records, plant locations and photographs are never sent to an analytics service. The only cookies the application sets are the ones that keep you signed in.

We count visits to these public pages ourselves, without cookies. There is no Google Analytics, no advertising pixel, and no third-party tracking script anywhere in NativeFlow — the public pages run no JavaScript at all. Our own server records which public page was requested, whether the visit came from a phone, tablet or computer, and the website or search engine that linked you here, if any.

We record your IP address and browser identification with each visit. Your IP address is the network address your connection comes from, and the browser identification is the line your browser sends describing itself — its name, version and operating system. We keep both so we can tell genuine visits from automated ones, investigate abuse of these pages, and understand where our visitors are reaching us from. An IP address is personal information, so this is information about you, held by us.

We do not combine it with advertising networks, we do not sell it, and we do not use it to build a profile of you or to follow you across other websites. Only NativeFlow administrators can read it. It is kept for up to 400 days and then deleted along with the rest of the visit record. Nothing is stored on your device — there is still no cookie and no tracking script on these pages — and to count how many separate people visited on a given day we also keep a scrambled code derived from your address and browser details, which is built with the date mixed in so the code from one day cannot be matched to the next.

None of this applies to the application itself. Once you sign in, and everywhere in the field app, nothing is measured at all. We do not use advertising trackers anywhere, we do not run remarketing or advertising pixels, and we do not sell any of this information.

Sensitive plant locations

The precise location of a threatened or otherwise sensitive plant population can cause real harm if it reaches the wrong people. NativeFlow lets an organisation mark a plant location as sensitive. When it does:

• Exact coordinates are withheld from members who do not have access to them, and the record shows that they have been withheld rather than showing an approximate point.
• Photo coordinates and embedded EXIF are withheld from those members too, and the underlying files cannot be downloaded by them.

Members who do have access to a sensitive location can download the original photo files, which retain their embedded metadata. Controlling who holds that access is the organisation's decision.

Why we collect it

• To provide the product — recording, syncing and displaying your organisation's work.
• To produce the provenance and evidence exports the product exists to create.
• To authenticate you and keep organisations' data separated from each other.
• To bill for subscriptions.
• To diagnose faults and keep the service secure.

We do not sell personal information, and we do not use your field records to advertise anything to you or anyone else.

Where it is stored and processed

Your data is stored in Australia. The database and all uploaded files live with our cloud data provider in its Sydney region.

Some processing happens in Singapore. The web service that renders pages and generates PDF and CSV exports runs with a provider in Singapore. Information is processed there only as needed to deliver those pages and files; Singapore is not used as the durable system of record. We use contractual and security controls intended to keep information protected when an overseas provider processes or can access it.

The other overseas disclosures are the ones listed below — chiefly billing and map imagery.

Who else receives or processes it

We describe these providers by role rather than by name so that a change of supplier does not obscure the data-handling commitments in this policy. If you need to know which companies currently provide them — for a procurement or privacy assessment, for example — write to us at info@etherapps.com.au and we will tell you.

We may also disclose information where the law requires it. If we are ever compelled to hand over records, we will tell the affected organisation unless we are prohibited from doing so.

Data kept on your device

The fieldwork app is built to work without signal, so it stores your work on the device until it can sync: queued records, photographs and video, plus a copy of the sites, plans and species lists you downloaded for the trip.

Signing out deletes all of it from the device. If work is still waiting to sync, the app warns you before signing out, because signing out discards it.

How long we keep it

Field records are kept for as long as the organisation's account is active, because provenance records are the point — a seed lot's history has to outlive the season it came from. When an organisation closes its account, we delete its data within 90 days, except where we are required to keep billing records for longer.

Records that sync successfully are cleared from your device's queue within about a day.

Messages sent through the contact form are kept while we deal with them and for up to 24 months afterwards, so we can pick up a conversation you started earlier. Ask us and we will delete yours sooner.

Getting access, and correcting things

You can see and correct most of your information directly in the product. You may also ask us for a copy of the personal information we hold about you, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete it. Where the information belongs to an organisation's records, we will work with that organisation, since deleting a collection record may affect the provenance of seed already distributed.

Security

Access is enforced in the database itself, so one organisation cannot read another's records. Data is encrypted in transit and at rest. Files are served through short-lived links rather than public URLs. Installed field access uses the supported secure storage provided by the device and application environment.

No system is perfect. If we become aware of a data breach likely to cause serious harm, we will notify affected people and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner as the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme requires.

Children

NativeFlow is workplace software and is not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 16.

Changes to this policy

If we change how we handle information, we will update this page and change the date at the top. Material changes will be communicated to account holders directly rather than left for you to notice.

Contact us, or complain

Questions, access requests and privacy complaints go to info@etherapps.com.au. We will acknowledge a complaint within 5 business days and respond substantively within 30 days.

If you are not satisfied with our response, you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at oaic.gov.au.