1. Who we are
WreckAtlas is published by CosmoLabs Ltd, a private limited company registered in Scotland under company number SC883326. For the purposes of the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018, CosmoLabs Ltd is the data controller for the limited personal data described in this policy.
You can reach us at hello@cosmolabs.co.uk for any question about this policy or about your data.
2. What the app stores on your device
The following is created on your iPhone or iPad. None of it is transmitted to us, and we have no way of reading any of it:
- Dive logs — dates, depths, bottom times, ratings and the wreck each dive is linked to. These sync to your iCloud account; see section 3.
- Photographs you attach to a dive log. These sync with the dive log they belong to.
- Favourites, your gear list, your display name and profile photo.
- App settings — units, filters and map preferences.
Apart from dive logs, this data is removed when you delete the app, and because we never hold it we cannot recover it for you.
3. Dive logs and iCloud
Your dive logs and their photographs are stored in your own private iCloud account, using Apple's CloudKit. This means your dive history survives deleting the app, replacing your phone, or moving to a new device signed into the same Apple Account.
This data sits in a private container that only WreckAtlas on your devices can read. We have no access to it. We cannot read it, copy it, back it up on your behalf, or restore it if you delete it. Apple's handling of it is governed by Apple's own privacy policy.
If your device is not signed into iCloud, or iCloud Drive is switched off, the app carries on working and stores your dive logs on the device only. In that case they are lost if you delete the app.
Everything else the app creates — favourites, gear list, settings, display name and profile photo — stays on the device and does not sync.
4. Location
If you grant location permission, the app uses your position to sort wrecks by distance, to show where you are on the map, and to calculate a bearing to a chosen wreck. Your location is processed on the device only. It is not sent to us, not sent to any third party, and not stored beyond what the app needs to draw the current screen.
Location permission is optional. The map, the wreck records and the dive log all work without it. You can change or withdraw permission at any time in iOS Settings → Privacy & Security → Location Services.
5. Network requests the app makes
The wreck database, the written histories, the heritage designations and the photographs are all bundled inside the app. WreckAtlas makes no requests to any server of ours, because we do not run one. The only network activity is:
| Request | Purpose | What that service sees |
|---|---|---|
| Apple iCloud (CloudKit) | Syncing your dive logs to your own iCloud account | Apple stores the data in your private container. We have no access to it. Covered by Apple's privacy policy |
| Apple Maps | Drawing map tiles | Handled by Apple under Apple's privacy policy; Apple states Maps does not associate this with your Apple Account |
Because we operate no server of our own, there are no logs of your use of the app for us to hold, and nothing for us to profile.
6. What we do not do
- No advertising, no ad identifiers, no IDFA.
- No third-party analytics or tracking SDKs embedded in the app.
- No selling or sharing of personal data. Ever.
- No accounts, no passwords, no email address required to use the app.
7. Information Apple provides to us
WreckAtlas is distributed through the App Store and TestFlight. Apple gives developers aggregated, anonymised statistics about downloads and usage, and — only if you have chosen to share analytics with developers in iOS Settings — crash reports and performance data. This information reaches us in a form that does not identify you. Apple's handling of it is governed by Apple's own privacy policy.
If you join the TestFlight beta, Apple shares your email address and name with us as the developer so we can manage the beta, and TestFlight collects additional usage and crash data. That is covered by Apple's TestFlight terms. We use beta contact details only to run the beta, and delete them when it ends.
8. If you contact us
If you email us — a bug report, a data correction, a beta request — we hold that message and your email address for as long as needed to deal with it and to keep a record of the correction. Reports about wreck data accuracy may be kept indefinitely as part of the dataset's revision history, but we remove personal details from them.
9. Lawful basis
Where we process personal data, we rely on:
- Legitimate interests — responding to correspondence and to reports about data accuracy.
- Consent — for optional device permissions such as location and photo library access, which you grant and can withdraw in iOS Settings.
- Contract — for handling any future subscription, though billing itself is carried out by Apple and we never see your payment details.
10. Where data is processed
We operate no servers and process no personal data outside the correspondence described in section 8. Your dive logs are held by Apple in your own iCloud account, under Apple's terms and its own international transfer arrangements. This website is hosted by Netlify; see section 13.
11. Your rights
Under UK data protection law you have the right to ask for access to your personal data, to have it corrected or erased, to restrict or object to its processing, and to data portability. In practice, because almost everything WreckAtlas creates lives on your own device and is never sent to us, the fastest route to erasure is to delete the app.
To exercise any right in relation to data we do hold — correspondence, or server logs — email hello@cosmolabs.co.uk. We'll respond within one month.
If you're unhappy with how we've handled your data, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113.
12. Children
WreckAtlas is a reference tool for qualified divers and is not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 13.
13. This website
cosmolabs.co.uk is a static site hosted on Netlify. It sets no cookies and runs no analytics or tracking scripts. Netlify records standard server request logs, including IP addresses, for security and operational purposes. Web fonts are loaded from Google Fonts, which receives your IP address when serving them.
14. Changes to this policy
If we change how data is handled — in particular if accounts or subscriptions are introduced — we'll update this policy and change the version and date at the top before the feature ships. Material changes will also be flagged inside the app.