TRIPLED UP

Privacy Policy

Last updated 29 July 2026

This policy describes what Tripled Up ("the app," "we," "us") collects, why, and how it is handled. It is written to match what the app actually does, rather than generic boilerplate.

Who this covers

Tripled Up is a social app for the commercial bass and tuna fishing community in and around Cape Cod Bay. It is not directed at children, and account creation requires a working phone number capable of receiving an SMS verification code.

What we collect

Phone number. Collected at sign-up and verified via a one-time SMS code (sent through our verification provider, Twilio). Verification is what unlocks posting — we treat it as your identity guarantee, not your email. By default, your phone number is shown on your profile so other users can reach you directly (tapping it opens Messages) — you can turn this off anytime in your profile settings, which hides it from everyone else's view of your profile. It's also used, in hashed form, to help you find friends who are already on the app from your contacts (see below) — that use isn't affected by the display setting.

Email address. Collected at sign-up for account recovery. Confirming it is optional — the app is fully usable without confirming your email — but we recommend it in case you ever need to reset your password. Like your phone number, your email is shown on your profile by default (tapping it opens Mail) and can be hidden with the same profile setting — one toggle controls both.

Location. When you post a sighting, bite, catch, or condition report, we capture your exact GPS location at that moment. What happens to that exact location depends on who you shared the report with:

  • Friends-only or a specific boat/group: the friends/members you shared it with can see your exact location.
  • Shared publicly ("global"): your location is randomly offset by up to roughly a nautical mile before anyone else ever sees it. Your exact spot is never shown to the public — only you (and friends, for friends-shared reports) can see precisely where a report was made.

We also ask for location access if you turn on hot-spot alerts (to notify you when nearby reporting activity picks up) and if you choose to share a location in a direct message — the same friends-only/obfuscation rules above don't apply to a location you deliberately attach to a message, since sharing that is an explicit, one-time action you take.

Photos. If you attach a photo to a report, a message, or your profile, that photo is stored and shown to whoever the report/message/profile is visible to under this policy's normal visibility rules. Apart from the catch verification described immediately below, we don't scan or use your photos for anything beyond displaying them where you posted them.

Catch verification. Because a reported catch earns leaderboard points, photos attached to catch reports (and only catch reports) are checked automatically to keep the leaderboard honest. The check looks at three things: whether the photo shows the species you said you caught, whether it looks like an original photo rather than a stock image or screenshot, and whether it matches a photo already submitted with an earlier catch report.

To do this, the catch photo and the species you declared are sent to Anthropic's Claude API. Nothing else goes with it — not your name, your account, your location, or your contacts. The result is never an automatic penalty: if a check doesn't pass, the report is put in front of a human admin to decide, exactly like a report that someone has flagged. Only an admin can remove a report or take away its points.

Photos attached to messages, to your profile, or to non-catch reports are not sent anywhere for analysis.

Contacts (optional). If you choose to use "find friends from contacts," your phone hashes each contact's number on your device before anything is sent to our servers — we only ever receive hashes, never your contacts' actual phone numbers, names, or any other contact info. We use those hashes only to tell you which of your contacts already have a Tripled Up account. Declining this is fully supported; nothing else in the app is affected if you skip it.

Messages. Direct messages, boat messages, and group messages (including any photo or location attached to them) are stored and delivered to the people or group you sent them to. They aren't visible to anyone else, including us, except as needed to operate the service (e.g., delivering a push notification) or to review a specific message you or someone else has flagged (see Moderation, below).

Usage data. We record a small set of app events — account registration, report creation, likes, and content flags, plus basic session activity — to understand overall app health and engagement. These are tied to your account internally but are never shared outside the app or used for advertising; we don't have ads, and we don't sell data to anyone.

Device push token. If you allow notifications, we store a device token (via Apple/Google's push services) so we can deliver notifications like new messages, friend requests, and hot-spot alerts. You can revoke this anytime in your device's notification settings.

Who else sees your data

We use a small number of service providers to run the app, each of whom only receives what they need to do their specific job:

  • Twilio — sends the SMS verification code during sign-up. Receives your phone number for that purpose only.
  • Supabase — hosts our database, file storage, and backend infrastructure. All app data described above lives there.
  • Expo / Apple / Google — deliver push notifications to your device via their standard push services.
  • Mapbox — generates the small map-thumbnail image shown for a shared location in a message. Only the coordinates needed to draw that specific thumbnail are sent.
  • Anthropic — analyzes photos attached to catch reports for the catch verification described above. Receives the catch photo and the species you declared, and nothing else that identifies you.

We do not sell your data, and we do not use it for third-party advertising.

Moderation

If you or someone else flags a post, an admin can review the flagged content (report or message) to decide whether to dismiss the flag, remove the content, or warn/block the account. This is the one case where content you posted, that wasn't otherwise shared with an admin, may be reviewed by one — specifically and only the flagged item, for the purpose of resolving that flag.

Your choices

  • Showing your phone number and email on your profile is on by default and can be turned off anytime from your profile page — doing so hides both from everyone else's view of your profile immediately. It doesn't affect phone-hash contact matching (see above), which never shows your actual number to anyone regardless of this setting.
  • Contacts, location, camera, and notification permissions are all optional and can be changed anytime in your device settings; declining any of them still leaves the rest of the app usable.
  • Deleting your account and data: you can do this yourself at any time, and you don't need to contact us. There are two ways:
    • In the app — You → Profile → Delete account. This takes effect immediately.
    • On the web, without installing the app — go to https://www.tripledup.com/delete-account, enter your email address, and click the link we email you to confirm. We ask you to confirm by email so that nobody else can delete your account by entering your address.

Either route permanently removes your profile, reports, photos, exact locations, messages, comments, likes, flags, friendships, memberships, leaderboard standings, notification settings and push tokens. It cannot be undone.

If you own a boat or group, we'll ask you who should take it over before anything is deleted — a boat can't be left without an owner, and it belongs to its crew as much as to you. You can name someone yourself or let us pick the longest-serving senior crew member. A boat or group with no other members is deleted along with your account.

Data retention

We keep your data for as long as your account is active. If you delete your account, we remove your profile, reports, messages, and other account-linked content, except where we're required to keep something longer (for example, moderation records tied to a safety action already taken on the platform).

Two things outlive a deletion, and we'd rather be explicit about both. Boats and groups you owned pass to another member rather than being deleted, as described above. And if you deleted your account through the web page, we keep a record of that request — your email address and the dates — so we can show the request was made and honoured. We use it for nothing else.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes in a way that matters, we'll update the "Last updated" date above and, for material changes, let you know in the app.

Contact

Questions about this policy or your data: support@tripledup.com