What Underfoot knows, and what it doesn't
Underfoot is a field guide, not a data business. This page describes, in plain language, exactly what the app collects, why, and how a parent can delete any of it.
Last updated: July 2026
Who this app is for
Underfoot is a general-audience family app, operated through a parent's account. It is not directed to children under the App Store's definition, and it's built to be consistent with COPPA and the App Store's rules for general-audience apps: no collection of a child's personal information beyond what's needed to run the app, and no use of that information for anything else.
In practice, that means a parent sets up Underfoot, and a child uses it. There is no sign-up, no email address, no password, and no way for anyone — child or adult — to create a login. The app signs in anonymously in the background so it can identify bugs; that anonymous ID isn't tied to a name, email, or any personal detail.
Profile
There are no logins and no per-child accounts. The whole "profile" is a single set of choices stored on the device:
- A nickname the family picks — never a full legal name
- A "collector's mark" chosen from a built-in set of illustrations
That's it. Underfoot never asks for an email address, birth date, school, or a photo of a child. There's nothing to collect beyond a nickname they picked for themselves and pictures of bugs. This lives on the device, not on an Underfoot server.
Photos & identification
When a kid takes a photo to identify something, that photo is sent once to Google's Gemini vision service to work out what's in it. Gemini receives the image only — it is used to identify the bug, not the child, and Underfoot doesn't attach any name, profile, or account information to that request.
Outside of that one-time identification step, photos are stored only on the device. They aren't uploaded to Underfoot's own servers, backed up to a shared library, or used to train anything.
Location
Location is optional, and Underfoot only asks for it to do two things: figure out which bugs are likely nearby, and suggest parks or trails worth exploring.
The location Underfoot uses is coarse and infrequent — roughly city or county grain, not a street address or a precise coordinate. The exact position of a device is never stored. A family can decline location access entirely and still use the full field guide; the app simply won't be able to tailor suggestions to the area.
Advertising & tracking
Underfoot doesn't carry any third-party advertising SDKs. It doesn't include behavioral or analytics tracking SDKs, and it doesn't participate in cross-app tracking. There's no ad network watching what a family does inside the app, and nothing here is for sale.
In short: the app identifies bugs and suggests places to look for more — and that's the extent of what it does with a family's information.
Deleting your data
A parent can delete everything stored on the device — the nickname and mark, every specimen card, and every locally stored photo — in one tap in Settings, at any time. This also removes the anonymous sign-in. There's no support ticket to file and no waiting period. Once it's gone, it's gone.
Contact
Questions about this policy, or about how Underfoot handles a specific piece of information? Reach out any time.
We read every message and aim to reply within a few business days.