Terms and Conditions
Terms of Use
These Terms of Use ("Terms") are entered into between you and Bluewater Intel LLC ("Company," "we," "us," or "our") and govern your access to and use of the Bluewater Intel application, website, and any related services (collectively, the "Services"). Please read them carefully. By accessing or using the Services, you accept and agree to be bound by these Terms and our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, do not access or use the Services.
1. What Bluewater Intel Is — and Is Not
Bluewater Intel is an educational and planning tool intended to help you learn how to fish, where to fish, and when to fish. It aggregates and models oceanographic and environmental information to produce estimates and suggestions.
The Services are NOT a navigation system and must not be used for any navigation, positioning, mapping, tracking, routing, or GPS purpose. Do not use the Services for marine navigation, route planning, collision avoidance, or to identify hazards, depths, or safe passage. Waypoints, charts, and positions shown may be inaccurate, incomplete, or out of date. Always rely on official nautical charts, properly maintained navigational equipment, and your own seamanship. Marine conditions are dangerous and change rapidly; you are solely responsible for the safety of yourself, your crew, and your vessel.
1a. Waypoint & Structure Information
Fishing waypoints, structure markers, ramps, and similar locations shown in the Services are compiled from a variety of sources, including state and federal government databases, other public records, open-source information, information submitted by users, and information provided by fishermen and other contributors. The waypoint database is updated regularly, but a coordinate or marker does not guarantee that fish, bait, or bottom structure is present at that location at any given time. Ocean currents, storms, sediment movement, fishing pressure, and natural bottom changes can shift, cover, or alter structure over time.
Waypoints and structure markers are intended as a planning guide and reference tool to help fishermen explore and organize trips — not as a promise of catch, navigational certainty, or current seafloor conditions. Bluewater Intel will not be held liable for any loss of time, fuel, bait, equipment, or other expenses arising from your reliance on any waypoint, structure marker, or related location information in the Services, or from traveling to or fishing any such location.
2. No Guarantee of Results
Fishing involves countless factors outside anyone's control. The Services' predictions, scores, waypoints, and "hot spots" are estimates and guides, not guarantees. We do not promise that fish are present at any location, that you will catch fish, or that any prediction will prove accurate. Information is based in part on historical and modeled data. Past conditions and model outputs do not guarantee future results.
3. Eligibility & Your Account
You must be of legal age to form a binding contract to use the Services. If you create an account, you agree to provide accurate, current, and complete information and to keep it updated. You are responsible for safeguarding your login credentials and for all activity under your account, and agree not to share your account or use another person's account. Notify us promptly of any unauthorized use. We are not liable for any loss arising from unauthorized use of your account. We may suspend or terminate accounts, in our sole discretion, for any violation of these Terms or for conduct we deem harmful, abusive, or unlawful.
3a. Community Fishing Reports & User Content
The Services may allow you to post community fishing reports and other content you submit (together, "User Content"), such as report text, target species, the port you fished from, and the date fished. When you post a fishing report, that User Content is public to other users of the Services under an anonymous handle — not under your name or email. You choose the port and date; the region is derived from the port. You may edit reports you authored. You retain ownership of your User Content. By posting, you grant Bluewater Intel LLC a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, transferable license to host, store, display, reproduce, and use that User Content in connection with operating, improving, and promoting the Services (including using port-level report signals in Bite Map scoring). You represent that you have the right to post the content and that it is accurate to the best of your knowledge. You agree not to post content that is unlawful, harassing, defamatory, spam, or that reveals another person's private information. We may remove or refuse User Content at our discretion. Community reports are user-submitted and are not verified by us; they are not a guarantee of fishing conditions or catch.
4. Follow All Laws and Regulations
You are responsible for knowing and obeying all applicable fishing, boating, environmental, and safety laws — including licenses, seasons, size and bag limits, protected areas, and closures. Regulatory information in the Services may be incomplete or out of date; always confirm current rules with the responsible government agency before fishing.
5. Intellectual Property
The Services and all content, software, designs, text, graphics, data compilations, waypoint datasets, and other materials, together with the underlying source and object code and the structure, organization, scoring algorithms, models, and methods of the Services, are owned by the Company or its licensors and are protected by intellectual property and other laws. We grant you a limited, revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable license to access and use the Services for your personal, non-commercial use only. You acquire no other rights, by implication or otherwise, in the Services.
6. Prohibited Uses
You agree that you will not: (a) copy, modify, distribute, sell, resell, sublicense, publish, or make any commercial use of the Services or any content without our written permission; (b) decompile, reverse engineer, disassemble, or otherwise attempt to derive the source code, algorithms, or data structures of the Services; (c) access, scrape, harvest, or copy any part of the Services using any robot, spider, scraper, or other automated means without our written permission; (d) circumvent, disable, or interfere with any security, access-control, or usage-limitation feature; (e) remove or alter any copyright, trademark, disclaimer, or other proprietary notice; (f) introduce any virus or harmful code, or otherwise impair or interfere with the Services or any other person's use of them; or (g) use the Services in any unlawful manner or in any way that suggests an unauthorized association with the Company.
7. Third-Party Data, Content & Links
The Services display information from third parties, including government and public sources (for example NOAA and NASA) and other data providers. Such materials are the responsibility of the parties that provide them, may be inaccurate or unavailable, and do not necessarily reflect our views. The Services may also contain links to third-party sites and resources provided for convenience only. We do not control and are not responsible for third-party content, data, or sites, and your use of them is at your own risk and subject to their terms.
8. Advertising & Use of Data
The Services may be supported by advertising, and we reserve the right to display advertising within them. We also reserve the right to generate, use, share, and sell aggregated and de-identified information derived from usage and from the data you provide — information combined and stripped so that it cannot reasonably be used to identify you — for any purpose, including analytics, research, and commercial data products. We do not sell or share the personal information that identifies you, and we will not publicly identify you. Our handling of your information is governed by our Privacy Policy, which controls in the event of any conflict on privacy matters.
9. Subscriptions, Payments & Refunds
Some features of the Services are offered on a paid subscription basis. By starting a subscription you authorize us and our payment processor to charge the applicable fees and any taxes to your selected payment method, on a recurring basis, until you cancel.
Payment processing. Payments are processed by Stripe, Inc., our third-party payment processor. By subscribing you also agree to Stripe's terms and authorize Stripe to store and charge your payment method. We do not collect or store your full payment-card number; that information is handled directly by Stripe under its own terms and privacy policy. You are responsible for providing accurate, current payment information and for keeping it up to date. Plans and pricing. Current plans and prices are shown in the app at the point of purchase (for example, a monthly plan and a discounted annual plan). Prices are stated in U.S. dollars and exclude any applicable taxes, which may be added. We may change prices prospectively; any price change will not take effect until your next renewal after we provide notice, and your continued subscription after a price change takes effect constitutes acceptance of the new price.
Free trial. If we offer a free trial, you may be required to provide a valid payment method to start it. Unless you cancel before the trial ends, your subscription will automatically convert to a paid subscription and your payment method will be charged the then-current fee. The trial length and terms are shown at sign-up. Only one trial per customer unless we state otherwise; we may modify or withdraw trial offers at any time. Automatic renewal. Subscriptions renew automatically at the end of each billing period (monthly or annually, as selected) at the then-current rate, and your payment method will be charged at the start of each new period, until you cancel. By subscribing you acknowledge and consent to this automatic, recurring billing.
Cancellation. You may cancel at any time through the billing/account management portal in the app (which opens our payment processor's customer portal) or by contacting us at info@bluewaterintel.com. When you cancel, your subscription remains active through the end of the current paid period and then does not renew; access to paid features ends when that period ends. Canceling stops future charges but does not, by itself, generate a refund of amounts already paid. Refunds. Except where required by law, all charges are non-refundable and we do not provide refunds or credits for partial billing periods, unused time, or features you did not use. We may, in our sole discretion, offer a refund, discount, or credit in a particular case, which does not entitle you or anyone else to the same in any other case. If you purchased through a third-party app store, that store's refund policies and procedures may also apply.
10. Disclaimer of Warranties
THE SERVICES ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE," WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, ACCURACY, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. We do not warrant that the Services will be accurate, reliable, uninterrupted, error-free, or secure, that defects will be corrected, or that any data (including weather, sea-surface temperature, chlorophyll, depth, waypoint, structure, or location information) is accurate, complete, or current. Waypoint and structure coordinates are compiled from third-party, public, user-submitted, and contributor sources and may be outdated or imprecise. Any reliance you place on the Services is strictly at your own risk. This does not affect any warranties that cannot be excluded or limited under applicable law.
11. Limitation of Liability
TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, the Company and its owners, members, employees, licensors, suppliers, and partners will not be liable for any injury, death, property damage, or loss, or for any indirect, incidental, consequential, special, exemplary, or punitive damages, arising out of or relating to your access to or use of (or inability to use) the Services, including any reliance on any prediction, waypoint, structure marker, data, or content — including any loss of time, fuel, bait, equipment, or other trip expenses from traveling to or fishing any waypoint or location shown in the Services — even if advised of the possibility of such damages. To the extent any liability cannot be excluded, our total aggregate liability will not exceed one hundred U.S. dollars ($100) or the amount you paid us, if any, for the Services in the twelve months before the claim, whichever is greater. Your sole and exclusive remedy for dissatisfaction with the Services is to stop using them.
12. Assumption of Risk
Boating and offshore fishing are inherently hazardous. By using the Services you acknowledge these risks and agree that you participate at your own risk and are solely responsible for your own decisions on the water.
13. Indemnification
You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless the Company and its owners, members, employees, licensors, suppliers, and agents from and against any claims, liabilities, damages, judgments, losses, costs, or expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of or relating to your use of the Services, your violation of these Terms, or your violation of any law or the rights of any third party.
14. Governing Law & Jurisdiction
These Terms and any dispute arising out of or relating to them or the Services are governed by the laws of the Commonwealth of Virginia, without regard to its conflict-of-law rules. Any suit, action, or proceeding shall be brought exclusively in the state or federal courts located in Virginia, and you consent to the personal jurisdiction and venue of those courts.
15. Limitation on Time to File Claims
ANY CLAIM ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THESE TERMS OR THE SERVICES MUST BE COMMENCED WITHIN ONE (1) YEAR AFTER THE CAUSE OF ACTION ACCRUES; OTHERWISE IT IS PERMANENTLY BARRED.
16. Changes to the Services & Terms
We may modify, suspend, or discontinue all or part of the Services at any time without notice, and we will not be liable if the Services are unavailable. We may revise these Terms from time to time; changes are effective when posted. Your continued use of the Services after changes are posted means you accept the revised Terms.
17. Waiver & Severability
Our failure to enforce any provision is not a waiver of it. If any provision is held invalid or unenforceable, it will be limited or eliminated to the minimum extent necessary, and the remaining provisions will remain in full force and effect.
18. Entire Agreement
These Terms and our Privacy Policy constitute the entire agreement between you and the Company regarding the Services and supersede all prior understandings.
19. Contact
Questions about these Terms: info@bluewaterintel.com.
Privacy Policy
Privacy Policy
Bluewater Intel LLC ("Company," "we," "us") respects your privacy and is committed to protecting it. This policy describes the information we collect through the Bluewater Intel application, website, and related services (the "Services"), how we use and protect it, and your choices. By using the Services, you agree to this policy. If you do not agree, do not use the Services.
1. Our Core Commitment
We never sell, rent, or share the personal information that identifies you. Your identity and the personal details tied to it stay private — we do not hand them to advertisers, data brokers, or other third parties for their own use.
Your GPS location and your saved fishing spots (waypoints) are never shared with anyone. Your waypoints and saved spots are private to your account and visible only to you. When you sign in on more than one device, they sync only across your own devices — never to other users and never to third parties. We do not include your GPS location or your waypoints in any data we share or sell, even in aggregated or de-identified form.
Exception — community fishing reports you choose to post: if you post a fishing report, that report is public to other users under an anonymous handle. Public report fields may include the report text, optional species, the port you selected, the date fished, and a coarse region derived from that port. Your name and email are not shown on reports. Do not post a report if you do not want that information visible to the community.
To support and fund the Services, we may show advertising and we may share or sell aggregated or de-identified information — pooled statistics and trends that cannot reasonably be linked back to you as an individual (for example, general fishing-activity patterns by region or season), excluding your precise GPS location and saved waypoints. This is information about groups and trends, not about you. We describe how this works in Sections 4 and 5.
2. Information We Collect
We collect a limited amount of information to operate the Services:
Information you provide: data you enter such as catch logs, waypoints, saved spots, preferences, home port, target species, and community fishing reports (report text, port fished from, date fished, optional species); and any messages you send us (for example, support or feedback emails, including your email address). Your waypoints and saved spots are stored for your use only — kept on your device and, when you are signed in, synced to your account so they are available across your own devices. They are never made visible to other users or shared externally. Community fishing reports you post are visible to other users as described in Section 1.
Location: if you grant permission, approximate or precise device location, used on your device to show relevant conditions and predictions for your area. Your device GPS location is never shared with anyone and is not sold or included in aggregated data. Separately, if you post a fishing report, the port you select (a named harbor or access point, not your live GPS track) is shown with that public report. You can decline or revoke device location permission in your device settings.
Information collected automatically: basic technical and usage information needed to operate and improve the Services and fix problems — for example, device and app version, general usage patterns, and, on the website, standard log data such as IP address and browser type. Where any of this is associated with you, we treat it as personal information under this policy.
App diagnostics & performance data: to keep the app reliable, we collect diagnostic, error/crash, and performance information — for example, app events (such as opening a screen or toggling a layer), error and crash reports, and performance metrics. This data is used solely to diagnose problems, fix bugs, and improve the app's performance and stability. It does not include your GPS location, saved spots, names, or email. Because this information is necessary to operate and maintain the Services, its collection is a required part of using the app and is not optional; if you do not wish for it to be collected, please do not use the Services. We continue to apply data-minimization and de-identification practices to this data.
Account and payment information: when you create an account or purchase a paid subscription, we collect the information needed to provide it, such as your email address and subscription status. Payments are processed by Stripe, Inc., our third-party payment processor, under Stripe's own privacy policy. Stripe collects and processes your payment-card and billing details directly; we do not collect or store your full payment-card number. We receive limited billing information from Stripe — such as your subscription plan, status, and the result of a charge — to manage your account and access. We do not use your payment information for advertising.
3. Cookies & Similar Technologies
On the website we may use cookies or similar technologies to keep you signed in, remember your preferences, understand general usage, and support advertising. Where we serve ads, we expect to favor contextual ads (based on the content you're viewing) rather than ads targeted using your personal profile; if we ever use targeted advertising that involves sharing personal information with an ad network, we will provide the disclosures and opt-out choices required by law. You can set your browser to refuse some or all cookies, though parts of the website may then not function properly.
4. How We Use Your Information
We use the information we collect to: provide and display the Services and generate predictions and conditions for your area; save your catches, waypoints, settings, and fishing reports; operate the community fishing-reports forum; create and manage your account; process payments and manage your subscription, trial, billing, and renewals through our payment processor; respond to your requests and support messages; operate, secure, maintain, and improve the Services, including diagnosing problems, fixing bugs, and monitoring and improving app performance and stability using the diagnostic, error, and performance data described in Section 2; show advertising within the Services; and comply with our legal obligations.
We may create aggregated or de-identified information from usage and the data you provide — combining and stripping it so it no longer identifies you — and use, share, or sell that aggregated information for any purpose, including analytics, research, and commercial products (for example, regional fishing-activity trends). We do not re-identify it, and we contractually require recipients not to attempt to re-identify it. We never use your personal information to publicly identify you.
5. How We Share Information
We do not sell or share the personal information that identifies you. We may share or sell only aggregated or de-identified information as described in Section 4. We disclose personal information only in these limited situations:
Community fishing reports: when you choose to post a report, the public fields of that report (anonymous handle, text, optional species, port, date fished, and region) are displayed to other users of the Services. That is not a sale of your identity; it is content you elected to publish to the community forum.
Advertising partners: if we show ads, advertising providers may collect limited technical data (such as device or cookie identifiers) to deliver or measure ads. We do not give them the personal details that identify you, and where any such sharing would qualify as a "sale" or "sharing" under applicable law, we will provide the required opt-out.
Service providers: with vendors who perform services for us (such as hosting and payment processing — for example, Stripe, which processes subscription payments), under obligations to protect the information and use it only to provide those services to us.
Legal and safety: to comply with a law, court order, or government or regulatory request; to enforce our Terms of Use or other agreements; or where we believe it is necessary to protect the rights, property, or safety of the Company, our users, or others.
Business transfer: if the Company is involved in a merger, acquisition, financing, reorganization, or sale of assets, your information may be transferred as part of that transaction. We would seek to ensure it remains subject to protections consistent with this policy.
6. Data Storage & Security
Some data (such as your catch log and preferences) may be stored on your device and/or on secured servers we control or use to operate the Services. We take reasonable administrative and technical measures to protect your information, but no method of storage or transmission is perfectly secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.
7. Third-Party Data Sources & Links
The Services display environmental data from public providers (for example NASA and NOAA) and may contain links to third-party sites. Viewing that data or those sites is governed by those parties' own terms and privacy policies, which we do not control. We do not share your personal information with them as a condition of displaying their public data.
8. Your Choices & Rights
You can decline or revoke location permission in your device settings (some features may be limited), clear locally stored data through the app or your device, and adjust browser cookie settings. You can edit fishing reports you authored from the Fishing Reports page. To request access to, correction of, or deletion of personal information we hold about you (including reports tied to your account), contact us at info@bluewaterintel.com and we will respond as required by applicable law. Depending on where you live, you may have additional rights under laws such as the CCPA (California) or GDPR (EU/UK).
9. Do-Not-Sell / State Privacy Notice
We do not sell or share the personal information that identifies you within the meaning of laws such as the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA/CPRA) or Nevada Revised Statutes Chapter 603A. We may sell or share only aggregated or de-identified information that does not identify you. If we ever introduce advertising or data practices that would qualify as a "sale" or "sharing" of your personal information under applicable law, we will post a clear "Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information" choice and honor it. Questions or requests: info@bluewaterintel.com.
10. Children
The Services are not directed to children under 16, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. If you believe a child under 16 has provided us information, contact us at info@bluewaterintel.com and we will take reasonable steps to delete it.
11. Changes to This Policy
We may update this policy from time to time. The "last revised" date below reflects the latest version, and material changes will be reflected here. Your continued use of the Services after changes are posted means you accept the updated policy.
12. Contact
Questions about this policy or your information: info@bluewaterintel.com.