Last updated: 6 August 2026

Who we are and scope

Working with Wildlife (“we”, “us”, or “our”) publishes the SDR Direction Finder Android application (“the App”) and operates the website workingwithwildlife.org.

This Privacy Policy explains how information is handled when you:

• use the publicly distributed Android phone version of SDR Direction Finder;
• visit workingwithwildlife.org;
• submit an enquiry, application or booking;
• contact Working with Wildlife for support or another purpose.

Privacy enquiries may be sent to:

Working with Wildlife
Email: [email protected]
Website: https://workingwithwildlife.org/
Telephone: +27 72 222 4893
Country: South Africa

SDR Direction Finder Android App

App privacy summary

The App does not require a user account and contains no advertising, advertising trackers, in-app analytics or crash-reporting service.

Working with Wildlife does not operate an App backend that receives users’ radio samples, receiver audio, saved locations, bearings, tracks, points of interest, presets or collar calibrations.

The App is not completely disconnected from the internet. It communicates with third parties when it loads or downloads online map tiles and when Google Play verifies the App’s purchase license.

Information may also leave the device when you deliberately share a location or file or open an external link. Where a separately installed SDR driver is required, the App communicates with that driver locally on the Android device. The external driver is an independent application governed by its developer’s privacy policy.

The statement that the App contains no advertising or analytics applies specifically to the Android App. The Working with Wildlife website uses analytics and advertising-measurement technologies as described later in this policy.

Information accessed and processed on your device

Location and compass information

If you grant location permission, the App can access precise or approximate location supplied by Android.

Location is used to:

• show your position on the Bearing Map;
• log the position and direction of a bearing;
• calculate magnetic declination;
• display distance and direction to points of interest;
• record GPS tracks when you start track recording;
• assist the Compass screen and map-navigation features.

The App may access the current or last-known location when you tap the bearing-log control on the main receiver screen.

While the Bearing Map or Compass screen is active, the App receives foreground location updates. The App does not request Android’s ACCESS_BACKGROUND_LOCATION permission.

When you deliberately start REC, the App starts a location foreground service, identified by an ongoing notification, so GPS track recording can continue while the App is minimized, not visible or the screen is off. Recording continues until you stop REC or Android stops the service.

Apart from an active REC session, location updates used by the Bearing Map and Compass stop when the relevant screen is paused.

Saved bearings can contain latitude, longitude, direction, timestamp, label and line length. Points of interest can contain coordinates, labels, descriptions, symbols, colours and timestamps. Recorded tracks contain coordinates, timestamps, names and calculated distances.

These field records are stored locally on the device unless you deliberately export or share them.

Radio, receiver and calibration information

The App stores radio and receiver settings locally, including frequencies, modes, gain, PPM correction, filter settings, receiver type, presets, preset names, scan settings and derived collar or beacon calibration values.

Incoming SDR samples are processed locally to produce audio, spectrum, waterfall, signal-strength and detection results. The App does not upload radio samples, receiver audio or calibration records to Working with Wildlife and does not provide cloud synchronization.

When you start the receiver, the App uses a foreground service so live SDR processing and demodulated audio can continue while the App is minimized or the screen is off. An ongoing notification indicates that the receiver is active. Processing stops when you press STOP or the service ends.

Files and field records

The App can access files that you deliberately select through Android’s file picker, including supported preset, KML, KMZ, CSV or related field-data files.

The App can create exports in the device’s Downloads folder. Depending on the feature used, an export may contain:

• frequencies and preset names;
• calibration information;
• coordinates and bearings;
• points of interest;
• recorded track points;
• timestamps;
• labels and descriptions.

App preferences and licence status

The App stores settings and operational state locally, including display and language preferences, onboarding status, map settings, offline-map cache information and Google Play licence status and check timestamps.

Network communications and third parties

Online map providers

When you open the Bearing Map using an online layer, or deliberately download map tiles for later use, the App sends HTTPS tile requests to the selected map provider.

A normal tile request can disclose to that provider:

• your internet protocol address;
• the App identifier used as the request’s User-Agent;
• the requested tile coordinates and zoom level;
• the request date and time;
• ordinary connection and device information recorded by the provider.

Requested tile coordinates identify the area of the map being viewed or downloaded and may correspond to your current or intended field location.

Working with Wildlife does not receive or retain copies of these map requests.

The available providers are:

• OpenStreetMap Foundation for the street-map layer: OpenStreetMap privacy policy
• Esri for the satellite-imagery layer: Esri privacy information
• OpenTopoMap for the terrain layer: OpenTopoMap provider information

Each provider controls its own server logs, retention periods, security measures and international processing. Its practices are governed by its own policies and terms.

Downloading tiles saves copies in the App’s private map cache so they can be displayed later without a live data connection.

Google Play purchase and licence verification

The paid App uses Google Play’s licensing service to verify that it was legitimately acquired. The App asks the installed Google Play client to perform verification; it does not contact a Working with Wildlife licensing server.

Google may process account, device, purchase, transaction and licence information under the Google Privacy Policy.

The App stores only the resulting licence status and licence-check or grace-period timestamps locally.

Working with Wildlife does not receive your Google password or payment-card details. Google Play may separately provide us with order, licensing, refund, financial and aggregated store-performance information through Play Console for customer support, accounting, fraud prevention and legal compliance.

External SDR drivers

RTL-SDR operation uses the separately installed SDR Driver application where required. SDR Direction Finder communicates with that driver through a local loopback connection on the same Android device.

The external driver is an independent application controlled by its own developer. Its practices are covered by the SDR Driver privacy policy.

If you use another separately installed receiver driver, including a compatible SDRplay driver, that application is governed by its developer’s privacy policy and terms. Working with Wildlife does not control those external applications.

Airspy and HackRF receivers supported directly by SDR Direction Finder communicate with the App through USB and do not require the external RTL-SDR driver.

User-initiated sharing and external links

The App can create a location link or field-data file for sharing. Information is transferred only after you choose the share or open action and select another application or service through Android.

The selected recipient, messaging application, cloud-storage service, mapping application or other destination will process the information under its own privacy policy.

Shared locations and exported field records may be sensitive. You should check their contents and intended recipients before sharing them.

Opening Google Maps, Google Play, a driver-download page, the Working with Wildlife website or another external link transfers control to the selected browser or external application.

What the App does not do

SDR Direction Finder does not:

• contain advertisements;
• use an advertising identifier;
• contain an in-app analytics or behavioural-tracking SDK;
• create a Working with Wildlife user account;
• upload field records or radio samples to a Working with Wildlife server;
• access contacts, messages, photographs, the microphone or the camera;
• sell personal information;
• use personal information for targeted advertising;
• automatically publish or share saved locations, tracks, bearings, points of interest, presets or calibrations.

Last updated: 11 February 2026

Working with Wildlife (“we”, “us”, or “our”) operates the WwW SDR Direction Finder mobile application.

Data storage, retention and deletion

App settings, presets, calibration values, bearings, points of interest, recorded tracks and cached map tiles are stored locally on your device. They may remain until you delete or overwrite them, clear the relevant cache or App storage, or uninstall the App. Files exported to Downloads or shared with another application or service remain in the destination you selected and must be deleted there.

Revoking location permission prevents future location access but does not delete records already stored. The App sets Android backup of its private application data to disabled, although device-manufacturer transfer behaviour may vary.

Because Working with Wildlife does not receive or store this local App data, we cannot view or remotely delete it. Third-party map providers, Google Play, external SDR drivers and services with which you deliberately share information retain data according to their own policies.

Support or privacy messages that you voluntarily send may be retained for as long as reasonably necessary to respond, maintain business records, resolve disputes and comply with legal obligations.

Security

App data is stored in Android’s private application storage or in files and locations that you deliberately select. Remote network requests described in this App Privacy Policy use HTTPS. Local loopback communication with a separately installed SDR driver remains on the same Android device.

No storage or transmission method can be guaranteed to be completely secure. You should protect access to your device and carefully review exported or shared field records and their intended recipients.

When visitors leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.

An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.

If you upload images to the website, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to the website can download and extract any location data from images on the website.

If you leave a comment on our site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.

When you log in, we will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select “Remember Me”, your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed.

If you edit or publish an article, an additional cookie will be saved in your browser. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the article you just edited. It expires after 1 day.

Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.

These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.

For users that register on our website (if any), we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.

If you have an account on this site, or have left comments, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.

Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service.

Contact Us should you have any other questions about our project. For more information about Working with Wildlife, visit our About page. You can visit our Terms and Conditions page Here. Alternatively, Click Here to be redirected back to our home page.