Privacy Policy

Effective date: October 24, 2026

This Privacy Policy explains what information the Lookout Mushroom Kingdom Android app (the "app") collects, how it is used and stored, and the choices you have. The app is published by Lookout Mushrooms ("we", "us"). Questions? Email mike@lookoutmushrooms.com.

Mushroom safety disclaimer

Never eat a wild mushroom based on a photo, this app, an AI answer, a species guess, a rarity badge or anything else in the app. Many deadly mushrooms look almost identical to edible ones, and eating the wrong one can cause permanent organ damage or death. Always have any wild mushroom identified in person by a qualified local expert before you touch it to your mouth, cook it or eat it. Content in the app is shared by users or generated by AI. It is not identification, medical advice or foraging advice. Use it for fun and learning only, at your own risk.

Who can use the app and children's privacy

The app is intended for people aged 13 and over. It is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 13. If you are under 13, please do not create an account or send us any information. If we learn that we have collected personal information from a child under 13, we will delete it promptly. If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child under 13 has given us information, email mike@lookoutmushrooms.com and we will delete it. If you are under 18, please use the app with a parent or guardian's permission.

Future 18+ content. If we later add content about psychoactive ("magic") mushrooms, it will sit behind a separate switch that is off by default and that requires you to confirm you are 18 or over. It will not be shown to anyone who has not turned that switch on. We will update this policy before that content goes live.

Information we collect

  • Account information. Your email address and password (stored by our authentication provider as a salted hash, never in readable form). If you choose to continue with Google, we receive the basic profile Google shares (typically your name or username, email address and profile picture URL).
  • Profile. A username (generated at sign-up, you can change it), and an optional display name, bio and profile picture you choose to add.
  • Content you create. Photos of your finds, captions, an optional species guess and rarity, whether a post is public or private, comments, likes, saved ("bookmarked") posts, and the people you block. For each uploaded photo we also store a digital fingerprint of the image (a hash) so the app can reject duplicate or reused photos.
  • Approximate location (optional, per post). You choose for each post: Off (nothing saved), Approximate area (your coordinates are rounded to roughly 1 km on your phone and again on our server, and shown to others only as a place name such as "Near City, State"), or State only (only the state and country are saved). The app asks only for Android's approximate ("coarse") location permission, only when you turn location on for a post, and never tracks you in the background. Other users never see the coordinates of a post. The Find Map shows only counts of public "Approximate area" finds per grid square of about 5 km, and only where at least three finds share a square. The "You" dot on the map uses your phone's location on your phone only and is not uploaded.
  • Game and activity data. Your Grow Room progress (spores, bags, upgrades, daily goals and reward streak), Mushroomdex progress, Mushy points earned from activity (points have no cash value), and your time-zone offset (used to work out your local "day" for daily rewards and reminders).
  • Ask Mushy (AI assistant; currently limited to invited testers). If Ask Mushy is switched on for your account, we store the questions you ask, Mushy's answers and your chat history, and usage counts (questions, photo checks and voice clips) used to apply limits and prevent abuse. If you choose to send a photo of a grow for a "photo check", the photo is sent for analysis and is not stored by us. If you turn on "Use my journal", your most recent journal entries (species guess, caption, date and rarity, never coordinates) are sent along with that question. If you report an AI answer, we keep a copy of that question and answer so we can review it.
  • Push notification token. If you allow notifications, Firebase Cloud Messaging gives your phone a device token. We store it with your account so we can send you a notification when someone likes or comments on your post. The notification can include the commenter's name and the first part of the comment. We remove the token when you sign out or delete your account.
  • Reminders and notification settings. Reminder preferences (harvest ready, streak, daily reward, in-season tip, weekly recap, Grow Room full) and the schedule for them are kept on your phone. Reminders are created and shown by the app on your device, not by a server. Your likes and comments notification switches are stored with your account.
  • Feature interest. If you tap "Notify me" on a coming-soon feature, we save which feature you tapped.
  • Safety information. Reports you file, people you block, and the date you accepted the one-time mushroom safety notice.
  • Subscription records (Lookout Pro, if and when purchasing is available to you). Payment is handled entirely by Google Play. We receive and store the purchase token, product, order number, status and expiry date so we can switch Pro on. We never see your card or bank details.
  • Technical data. Our hosting providers keep standard server logs (such as IP address, device/app version and timestamps) for security and troubleshooting.

We do not collect your contacts, text messages, precise location, files, microphone audio, or browsing history. We do not run advertising and we do not use advertising or analytics trackers in the app.

How we use information

  • To run the app: sign-in, your journal and the public feed, likes, comments, saved posts, the Find Map, Grow Room and Mushroomdex.
  • To send the notifications and reminders you have not turned off.
  • To answer Ask Mushy questions, apply usage limits, and provide Lookout Pro features you purchased.
  • To keep the community safe: enforce blocks, review reports, remove content or accounts that break the rules, and stop duplicate-photo abuse.
  • To fix problems, secure the service and prevent abuse.

We do not sell your personal information and we do not share it for advertising.

Who can see your content

  • Private posts are visible only to you.
  • Public posts, comments and likes, and your username, display name, profile picture and bio are visible to other signed-in users of the app (except people you have blocked or who have blocked you).
  • Anything you put in a public post or comment may be copied by others. Do not post information you want to keep private.

Service providers that handle data for us

  • Supabase hosts our database, sign-in and file storage (including your photos).
  • Google (Firebase Cloud Messaging) delivers push notifications to your phone.
  • Google Play sells and bills Lookout Pro under Google's own terms and privacy policy.
  • OpenAI processes Ask Mushy requests: your question, the last few messages of that chat, any grow photo you choose to send, and journal entries only if you choose to include them. Text may also be checked with OpenAI's moderation service. Under OpenAI's API terms, data sent through the API is not used to train its models by default and may be retained for a limited period for abuse monitoring.
  • ElevenLabs receives the text of an answer when you tap "Hear Mushy" (a Pro feature) to turn it into speech. We do not store the audio.
  • Google processes your sign-in if you choose to continue with Google, under its own policies.
  • Map tile providers (OpenStreetMap, and CARTO if enabled in a given release) serve the map images on the Find Map. Like any web request, the map request reveals your IP address and the map area being viewed to them.

These providers act on our behalf or provide the service you ask for, and are bound by their own terms. We may also disclose information if required by law or to protect people's safety.

How long we keep information

We keep your information while your account exists. You can delete any post, and your Ask Mushy chats (Ask Mushy → History, or the menu → delete all history), at any time. Photos sent for an Ask Mushy photo check are never stored. When you delete your account, your data is deleted as described on our Account & Data Deletion page. Copies in our hosting provider's backups are overwritten on its normal backup cycle (we expect within about 30 days). Reports you filed, and copies of AI answers you reported, are kept without your identity so we can finish reviewing them. Server logs are kept by our providers for a short period under their own policies.

Security

Data is sent over encrypted (HTTPS) connections. Photos are stored in a private bucket and shown through short-lived links. Database access rules limit each user to the data they are allowed to see. No system is perfectly secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security.

Your choices and rights

  • Edit your profile and delete your posts and comments in the app.
  • Turn location off for any new post, and turn off likes, comments and reminder notifications in Profile → Settings, or in your phone's system settings.
  • Remove app permissions (camera, photos, location, notifications) in your phone's settings at any time.
  • Delete your account and data in the app (Profile → Settings → Delete account) or by email. See the Account & Data Deletion page.
  • Depending on where you live (for example the EU/UK or certain US states) you may have the right to access, correct, export or delete your personal data, to object to or restrict some processing, and to complain to your local data protection authority. Email mike@lookoutmushrooms.com to make a request. We may need to confirm that the request comes from the account's email address.

Where data is processed

Our providers may process data in the United States and other countries. By using the app you understand your information may be transferred to those countries.

AI advice disclaimer

Ask Mushy answers are generated by AI and can be wrong or incomplete. They are for educational and cultivation purposes only. Never eat wild mushrooms based on AI suggestions. Photo checks only say what a grow "looks like", never a certain result. Mushy will not confirm that any wild mushroom is safe to eat and does not help with growing psychoactive mushrooms. Every AI answer has a Report button.

Changes to this policy

If we change this policy we will update this page and the effective date, and tell you in the app if the change is significant.

Contact

Lookout Mushrooms · mike@lookoutmushrooms.com · lookoutmushrooms.com

Mailing address: Michael Davies / Lookout Mushrooms, 300 Cherokee Blvd, Suite 120 PMB 1048, Chattanooga, TN 37405, United States