Effective: 2 September 2026
Forager is an independent, fan-made foraging companion built and run by Travis Pirozzini ("I", "me"). It is free to use and supported by advertising. This page explains, plainly, what the app collects, why, who else sees it, and what you can do about it. If anything here is unclear, email me at tpirozzini@gmail.com.
Your foraging spots are private by default. Their locations are stored on my servers so they work across your devices, but no one else sees them unless you share a spot with friends, with specific people, or with the community.
The app uses your location to show what's in season where you are, to pin spots, and to place you on the map. It never sells or shares your precise location with advertisers.
The app shows ads (Google AdMob) to stay free. In the EU/EEA and UK you'll be asked whether you consent to personalised ads; if you decline, you still get the app and you see non-personalised ads instead.
You can delete your account and everything in it from inside the app, any time.
Account details. Your email address, a username, and an optional bio and avatar, so you have an account and other users can recognise you. Sign-in is handled by Firebase Authentication (Google).
Your foraging data. Spots you pin (name, notes, type, species, the precise coordinates, status updates, and any photos you attach), recipes, community posts and comments, "Ask" threads and opinions, bookmarks, collections, and your friends and follow lists. This is the app's whole purpose; it's stored in Google Firebase (Firestore for records, Cloud Storage for photos) on servers in the United States.
Location. With your permission, the app reads your device's location to resolve which region's guide and rules to show, to centre the map, and to pin spots where you're standing. Your current position is used on the device and is not logged to my servers; the coordinates of spots you choose to pin are stored with the spot. Spots and posts you share publicly include their location — sharing is always your explicit choice, and the app tells you before it happens.
Activity and progress. Counts of what you've done in the app (spots created, cards checked, recipes shared) for the points, achievements, streaks and leaderboard, and a coarse "where are users foraging" picture — bucketed to roughly 100-km cells, never individual spots — that I use to decide which region's guide to build next.
Coverage requests. If you ask for your area to be covered, I store the country and region you name and any note you add, tied to your account so one person counts once.
Notifications. If you allow push notifications, a device token (Firebase Cloud Messaging) so the app can tell you when a friend accepts a request, someone comments on your post, or a season you pinned comes back around. You can turn categories off in the app's settings.
Crash and diagnostic data. If the app crashes, Firebase Crashlytics collects technical information — device model, OS version, app version, the state of the app at the time — so I can fix it. This is not linked to your name.
Analytics. Google Analytics for Firebase collects anonymised usage events (which screens are used, which features get used) so I know what to improve.
Forager shows banner and occasional full-screen ads through Google AdMob. AdMob and its advertising partners may collect device identifiers (such as the advertising ID), IP address, and coarse location to serve and measure ads. Google's own privacy policy governs what they do with it: https://policies.google.com/privacy.
If you're in the EU/EEA or the UK, the app asks for your consent before any personalised advertising, using Google's consent tool, and you can change or withdraw that choice at any time from App Info → Ad privacy options. Declining does not lock you out of anything: you'll simply see non-personalised ads. If you're in a US state with a privacy law (California and others), the same place lets you opt out of the sale or sharing of your personal information for advertising. On iOS, the app asks for tracking permission through Apple's standard prompt.
Ads never appear on the species safety cards, the Ask threads, or the season safety information.
Your username, avatar, bio, level and public stats.
Anything you post publicly: community posts (including their location), recipes, Ask threads and the opinions you give, comments.
Spots you share with friends or specific people — only those people.
Your private spots and collections: no one.
Only the service providers the app is built on, each bound by their own policies:
Google Firebase (Authentication, Firestore, Cloud Storage, Cloud Functions, Cloud Messaging, Crashlytics, Analytics) — https://firebase.google.com/support/privacy
Google AdMob — https://policies.google.com/privacy
Google Maps (map tiles and geocoding) — https://policies.google.com/privacy
Wikimedia Commons and GBIF serve species photos and observation data to the app; loading those images means their servers see your IP address like any website you visit. No personal data is sent to them.
I don't sell your personal information, and I don't share it with anyone else.
Your data is kept while your account exists. Delete your account from the app's menu (Delete Account) and your profile, spots, photos, posts, recipes, friendships and notifications are removed from my servers; anonymised aggregate counts (for example, how many spots were ever pinned in a region) are not tied to you and may remain. Crash and analytics data is kept on Google's standard retention schedules.
Wherever you live, you can see, correct, export or delete your data — most of it directly in the app, and all of it by emailing me. If you're in the EU/EEA or UK you additionally have the rights under the GDPR / UK GDPR to object to or restrict processing, to data portability, and to complain to your supervisory authority. The legal basis for the app's core features is the contract you enter by using it; for personalised advertising it is your consent; for crash reporting and coarse usage analytics it is my legitimate interest in keeping the app working. Data is stored in the United States under Google's standard contractual safeguards.
Forager is not directed at children under 13, and I don't knowingly collect personal information from them. If you believe a child has created an account, email me and I will delete it.
I'll post any changes to this page and update the effective date. Meaningful changes will also be noted in the app.
Travis Pirozzini — tpirozzini@proton.me