Privacy

Privacy policy

What CollarID collects, where it is kept and who can see it. This covers the collarid.org website and dashboard, the CollarID app for iPhone, and the data that CollarID collars and the Handheld Receiver send to us.

Last updated October 7, 2026 · New Lens Labs LLC

In short

Collar data is kept on our server. It can be seen by the people and organizations a collar is assigned to, and by New Lens Labs staff, who watch deployed collars for problems.
It goes further only when you send it there: a share link, an alert, or a connection to another service.
The app asks for your location to show you on the map and to help find lost collars. You can say no and everything else still works.
There is no advertising and no tracking across other apps or websites. We do not sell data.

Who we are

CollarID is made by New Lens Labs LLC. In this policy, “we” and “us” mean New Lens Labs. For any question about your data, write to [email protected].

What we collect

Your account

A username, your email address if you give us one, and your password. The password is stored only in scrambled (hashed) form; we cannot read it.
The organization you belong to and your role.
Your alert settings: whether you want alert emails, and the address of a webhook if you set one.

We create accounts for our customers. You cannot sign up by yourself on the website or in the app.

Collar data

What a collar sends: its positions and the times they were taken, battery level, temperature, humidity, light, step counts and radio signal strength, along with the radio message as it was received.
About the collar itself: its identifiers, software version, settings and schedules, and health reports such as faults and restarts.
What you add: details of the animal (species, name, sex, date of birth, weight, a photo link, notes), field notes, which can carry a position, deployment checklists and geofences.
Sound recordings stay on the collar’s memory card. When you open them in the data viewer they are read and analysed in your browser. They are not uploaded to us.

The CollarID app

Bluetooth connects the app to your collars and to the Handheld Receiver. What passes over Bluetooth stays between your phone and the device, unless it is sent on as described below.
Your sign-in is kept in the iPhone’s Keychain. Saved schedules and collar settings are kept on the phone and, when you are signed in, in your account.
What the Handheld Receiver hears. When you are signed in and sharing is on, the app passes on the collar messages the receiver picks up: which collar, when and how strongly it was heard, the receiver’s name, and the message itself. They are stored as that collar’s data. Sharing starts on; the switch is on the Find tab, under Handheld Receiver.
Your location on the map. The Find tab can show where you are. That position stays on your phone.
Your location with a sighting (optional). If you turn on location sharing on the Find tab, under Handheld Receiver, the app adds where your phone is to each lost-collar sighting it reports: the position, its accuracy and the time. It is sent to us, stored with your account, and shown to the people who can see that collar, so they know roughly where it was heard. The app reads this position only while a receiver is connected and sharing is on, and only ever asks for location “While Using the App”.

The app contains no advertising or analytics code.

Support messages

When you send the support form while signed in, we receive your message together with your username, email address, role, organization and the collar serial number you entered.

Technical records

Our servers keep logs for troubleshooting and security. They can include your IP address, the time and what was requested, as well as collar messages and the alerts that were sent.
We keep a record of changes made in accounts, such as a collar being assigned or data being deleted, with the username of whoever made the change.

In your browser

The dashboard keeps your sign-in and your display preferences in your browser’s storage. One cookie keeps you signed in to the customer documentation; it lasts up to 12 hours. We set no advertising cookies.

What we use it for

To run CollarID: show you your collars, send them your settings and deliver the alerts you turn on.
To look after deployed collars: watch for faults, low batteries and lost contact, and help you when something goes wrong.
To answer support requests.
To keep the service secure, and to fix and improve the collars and software.

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

Who can see collar data

The people and organizations a collar is assigned to. We assign each collar to accounts and organizations. Others in your organization also see your username beside the notes, deployments and saved schedules you create.
New Lens Labs staff, so that we can watch deployed collars for problems and help you.
People you share with.
- A share link shows a collar’s positions and readings to anyone who has the link, without signing in. It stops working by itself after the time you choose when you make it: 1, 7 or 30 days, and 30 days unless you change it. You can turn off a link you made sooner, in the dashboard.
- Alert emails, and messages to a webhook you set, carry the collar’s name and what happened, such as a low battery or a geofence crossing.
- If you connect a collar to EarthRanger, its positions and sensor readings are sent there through the Gundi service.
- If your organization connects its own LoRaWAN network server, we exchange that organization’s collar messages and collar registration details with it.
The owners of a lost collar you help find. A sighting you report, with where your phone was if you shared it and the name of your receiver, is shown to the people who can see that collar. They see your username only if you can see that collar too.

Companies that help us run CollarID

Hetzner hosts the server that holds accounts and collar data.
Cloudflare delivers the collarid.org website.
An email provider delivers alert and support emails.
OpenFreeMap supplies the map. Your device asks it for map images directly, so it sees your IP address and the area you are looking at.
Google Fonts, jsDelivr, unpkg and the Tailwind CDN supply fonts and code libraries to the website, and unpkg supplies the map library to the app. Your device fetches these directly, so they see your IP address.
timeapi.io tells the data viewer which time zone a file was recorded in. The viewer sends it the first position in the file, rounded to about 10 metres.
Apple distributes the app through the App Store and TestFlight, under Apple’s own privacy policy.

We do not give your data to anyone else unless the law requires it.

Where it is kept

Accounts and collar data are kept on a server in the United States. If you use CollarID from another country, your data is sent to and kept in the United States.

How long we keep it

Collar data and account details stay until you or we delete them. We do not delete them on a schedule.
In the dashboard you can delete a collar’s data for a range of dates, your notes, your geofences, your saved schedules and your connections to other services, and turn off a share link you made.
To have an account or a collar’s data deleted, write to [email protected].
When an account is removed, the sightings it reported, including where the phone was, and the field notes and deployment checklists it added stay with the collars they belong to, but are no longer linked to the account. Our record of account changes keeps the username.

How we protect it

Connections to the website, the dashboard and the app’s server are encrypted.
Passwords are stored only in hashed form, and the app keeps your sign-in in the iPhone’s Keychain.
Collar data can be reached only by signing in, apart from the share links you create.

No system is perfectly secure. If you think someone else has used your account, tell us straight away.

Your choices

Sharing and location. The app’s Find tab, under Handheld Receiver, has a switch for sharing what the receiver hears and one for adding your location. You can also change the location permission in your iPhone’s Settings under CollarID. Without your location, sightings are still reported; they just carry no position of yours.
Alerts, email address and password. Change these in the dashboard.
A copy, a correction or deletion. Depending on where you live, you may have legal rights over your personal data, such as the right to see it, correct it or have it deleted. To use them, write to [email protected].

Children

CollarID is a tool for researchers and wildlife managers. It is not meant for children, and we do not knowingly collect data from them.

Changes to this policy

When this policy changes we will update this page and the date at the top.

Contact

New Lens Labs LLC · [email protected] · Support