Tracks Data Solutions Salida, Colorado · Est. 1996
Legal

Privacy policy

Last updated:

This policy explains what information Tracks Data Solutions, Inc. ("we", "us") handles in our mobile apps and on our websites, why, and the choices you have.

Who we are. Tracks Data Solutions, Inc., PO Box 838, Salida, CO 81201, USA. Contact: support@trackssoftware.com.

1. The short version

  • Our apps are for staff of zoos, aquariums and other institutions that use Tracks, our animal-management software. Your institution creates your account.
  • The records you enter in our apps go to your institution's Tracks system. Your institution controls that data. We store and process it on its behalf.
  • We don't sell your information. We don't use it for advertising. We don't track you across other apps or websites. Our apps contain no analytics or advertising code.
  • Voice dictation and QR-code scanning happen on your device. Audio and camera images never leave it.

2. Our role

When you use our apps, your institution (your employer or organization) decides what is recorded and why. In privacy-law terms, your institution is the controller of that data and we are its processor (or "service provider"). We handle it only to provide Tracks to your institution, under our agreement with them.

For information we collect for our own purposes, we are the controller. That means website visitors, people who email us, and the security logs described below.

3. Our apps

Each of our apps has its own section below.

Tracks Go!

Tracks Go! is our iPhone and iPad app for recording daily animal care in the field.

What the app sends to Tracks

  • Your sign-in details. Your institution's facility name, your Tracks username and your password. They are sent over an encrypted (HTTPS) connection to sign you in. Tracks then gives the app a session cookie so it can stay signed in.
  • The records you enter. Checklist values, welfare assessment scores and comments, water-quality and environment readings, and notes, with the date and time. These are saved in your institution's Tracks system under your account, just as when you use Tracks on the web.
  • Your app preferences that belong to your Tracks account, such as your favorite checklists.
  • A device label on water-quality records. This is the generic model name iOS reports, such as "iPad". It is not a serial number or any other identifier.
  • Searches. For example, when you search for an enclosure while setting up a checklist.

The app shows your name, your institution and your user ID. It gets these from your Tracks account; it doesn't collect them separately.

What stays on your device

  • Your password is stored in the iOS Keychain, on this device only, so the app can sign you back in. Signing out removes it.
  • Copies of your checklists and entries, so the app works without a connection. Entries that haven't synced yet wait on the device, kept separate for each person who signs in, and are sent the next time that person is online. Older copies are cleared automatically.
  • The facility name you last used, so it's filled in next time.
  • The home-screen widget's summary (today's checklist progress). It's cleared when you sign out.
  • Display settings, such as light or dark mode.

Deleting the app removes the data it keeps on your device.

Microphone and speech recognition (optional)

If you use voice dictation, your speech is turned into text on your device, using Apple's built-in speech recognition. The app sets this to on-device only. Audio is never recorded, stored or sent — to us, to Apple, or to anyone else. Only the text you choose to keep is saved, as part of your entry. The first time you use dictation, iOS may download Apple's on-device speech model.

Camera (optional)

The camera is used only to scan QR codes printed on checklist tags. Scanning happens on the device. No photos or video are saved or sent.

Notifications

The app may show a reminder if entries are waiting to sync. The reminder is created on your device; we don't send push notifications.

Siri and Shortcuts

You can open parts of the app with Siri or the Shortcuts app. Apple handles those requests under Apple's privacy policy. The app only receives the instruction to open a screen.

Crash reports

If you've chosen in iOS settings to share analytics with app developers, Apple may send us anonymous crash and performance reports. We use them only to fix problems. You can turn this off in iOS Settings → Privacy & Security → Analytics & Improvements.

Links to our websites

The sign-in screen has a link to trackssoftware.com. It opens our website inside the app, and section 6 of this policy applies there.

4. How we use information

  • To provide Tracks and our apps to your institution: sign you in, save and sync your records, and show them back to you and your colleagues, according to the permissions your institution sets.
  • To keep the service secure and working: detect misuse, fix faults, and investigate problems.
  • To answer you when you contact us.

We don't sell or rent personal information. We don't use it for advertising or profiling. We don't share it for "cross-context behavioral advertising".

5. Where data is stored, and who else handles it

Tracks data, including everything sent from our apps, is hosted on Microsoft Azure. Microsoft acts as our hosting provider and is bound by its own data-protection commitments. We don't give your information to anyone else, except:

  • your institution, which controls its Tracks data;
  • when required by law, or to protect the rights, property or safety of people or of our service.

Our websites use a few other services, such as our email provider. Section 6 lists them.

Because our customers are worldwide, your data may be stored in a country other than your own.

6. Our websites

This covers tracksdatasolutions.com and trackssoftware.com.

  • No analytics or advertising. We don't use analytics or advertising tools on either site, and we don't set tracking cookies. Some services we use, listed below, may set their own cookies.
  • Cookies we set. Each site sets a session cookie, which it needs to work. tracksdatasolutions.com also sets a security cookie (XSRF-TOKEN) that protects its contact form from forged messages. These cookies don't track you, and they expire two hours after your last visit.
  • Server logs. Like most websites, our web servers record basic request information: IP address, browser type, the page requested, and the time. We use it only for security and to keep the sites running.
  • Fonts, scripts and images. tracksdatasolutions.com hosts its own fonts and files. trackssoftware.com loads fonts from Google Fonts, some scripts from jQuery's and Cloudflare's public servers (code.jquery.com and cdnjs.cloudflare.com), and some images from DigitalOcean. When your browser fetches these files, the service sees your IP address.
  • Videos. Some pages on trackssoftware.com show videos from YouTube. YouTube, which Google owns, may set cookies and collect information about your visit. See Google's privacy policy.
  • Spam protection. Our contact forms use Google reCAPTCHA to block spam. On tracksdatasolutions.com it loads on the home page, where the contact form is. On trackssoftware.com it loads on every page. Google receives information about your browser and device, including your IP address, and may set cookies. Google's privacy policy and terms of service apply.
  • If you email us or use a form, we use what you send to reply, and keep it as long as needed to handle your request and our business relationship. The contact form on tracksdatasolutions.com asks for your name, email address and message. The contact and demo request forms on trackssoftware.com ask for your name, facility, email address and, for the contact form, a message. The forms send what you enter to our team by email; they don't save it in a database. tracksdatasolutions.com sends it through Mailgun, our email delivery service.
  • Newsletter. The newsletter sign-up on trackssoftware.com sends your email address to Mailchimp, which runs our mailing list. You can unsubscribe with the link in any newsletter.
  • Links to other sites, such as Facebook and LinkedIn, are plain links. Those sites' own policies apply once you visit them.

7. How long we keep information

  • Records in Tracks (including those entered in our apps) are kept for as long as your institution's agreement with us requires, and according to your institution's instructions. When an agreement ends, we delete or return the data as that agreement says.
  • Server and security logs are kept for a limited time and then deleted.
  • Messages you send us are kept as long as needed to deal with them and for our normal business records.

8. Security

Data moves between our apps and Tracks over encrypted HTTPS connections. Passwords saved by our apps are kept in the iOS Keychain. Access to Tracks data is limited by the permissions your institution sets. No system is perfectly secure, but we work to protect your information and to fix any problem quickly.

9. Your choices and rights

  • Your Tracks records and account: because your institution controls this data, please contact your institution's Tracks administrator first. They can view, correct or remove records, and close your account. You can also write to us at support@trackssoftware.com, and we'll pass your request to your institution and help it respond.
  • Information we control (website visits, emails to us): contact us at support@trackssoftware.com.
  • In the app: you can deny microphone or camera access at any time in iOS Settings; the rest of the app keeps working. Signing out removes your saved password from the device, and deleting the app removes its data from the device.

Depending on where you live, you may have rights under privacy laws such as the EU and UK GDPR, the California Consumer Privacy Act, Canada's PIPEDA or Australia's Privacy Act. These can include the right to access, correct, delete, restrict or object to the use of your information, to receive a copy of it, and to complain to your local data-protection authority. We won't treat you differently for using these rights. We may need to confirm your identity before acting on a request.

10. Children

Our apps and websites are for professionals and are not directed at children. We don't knowingly collect information from children under 16.

11. Changes to this policy

If we change this policy, we'll update the date at the top. If a change is significant, we'll say so in our apps or on this page.

12. Contact us

Tracks Data Solutions, Inc.
PO Box 838, Salida, CO 81201, USA
support@trackssoftware.com