Sounder privacy policy
Short version: Sounder collects nothing. No account, no analytics, no ads, no tracking. Your location and everything you save stay on your phone and in your own iCloud.
Location
If you allow it, Sounder reads your location to show where you are, to record tracks, and to read the depth under you from a depth pack. While a track is recording it keeps doing so with the screen off, and iOS shows the location indicator. Your location is never sent to us or anyone else.
Photos and camera
Photos you attach to waypoints are stored in the app, on your phone. The camera is used only when you take one.
iCloud backup
If iCloud Drive is on, Sounder copies your waypoints, tracks, areas, photos and catalog list into its folder in your iCloud Drive (Files, iCloud Drive, Sounder). That's your Apple account's storage; we can't see it. Delete the folder in Files to remove it.
The network
Maps are tiles downloaded from the servers of the layers you turn on: the built-in ones are run by U.S. government agencies (USGS, NOAA, NWS, the Army Corps of Engineers, the Forest Service), and any layer or catalog you add is fetched from the address you gave it. A tile request tells that server which piece of the map is being viewed, and like any web request, it sees the IP address it came from; their own policies cover that. Sounder sends no identifiers and nothing you've saved. It contacts no server of ours except the catalogs you subscribe to.
What's stored
Your saved items, photos, layer settings, catalogs and downloaded packs, on your phone (visible in the Files app under On My iPhone, Sounder), plus the iCloud backup above. Deleting the app deletes what's on the phone.
Children
Sounder collects no information from anyone, children included.
Changes and contact
If this ever changes, this page changes first, with a new date. Questions: support@ducktyping.dev.
Last updated 2026-10-29.