Privacy policy

Last updated 20 October 2026

Beeky is an Android app that writes up hive inspections from what a beekeeper says at the hive. It is made by Matteo La Barbera, an individual developer in the United Kingdom, who is responsible for your data under UK data protection law (the “controller”). In this policy, “I” and “me” mean Matteo La Barbera.

What Beeky collects

Your account

Your email address and password. The password is handled by Google’s Firebase sign-in service; I never see it. Your email is also saved on each inspection record to show who recorded it.

Inspection records

What you record at the hive: the written-out transcript, the findings Beeky picks out of it (such as the queen, brood, stores, temper, disease signs and varroa counts), any fields you fill in or add yourself, the colony and apiary, and the date and time.

Recordings

The audio of each inspection: your voice, and anything else the microphone picks up while you are recording, so let anyone with you know you are recording. Beeky only uses the microphone while you are recording, and shows that it is. Recordings are kept on your phone for the time you choose in Settings (7, 30 or 90 days, or until you clear them). They are also backed up to your account so they can be replayed on another phone, and backed-up recordings are kept for 90 days whatever the phone setting. If you choose Don’t keep recordings, the audio is deleted once it has been written up and is never backed up.

Your apiaries and colonies

The names of your apiaries and colonies, each apiary’s position and grid reference, and any notes you add, such as access instructions.

Location

Beeky uses your phone’s location to recognise which apiary you are at, and to set an apiary’s position when you ask it to. A position is only saved when you save it as an apiary’s position. For the weather card, an approximate location (rounded to about a kilometre) is sent to Beeky’s server and on to Google’s Weather API to fetch a forecast. Google receives it under the Google Maps Platform terms and its own privacy policy. Beeky’s server does not keep it. To name the town the forecast is for, your phone also asks Android’s own location service (Google’s, on most phones) for the place at that same rounded position. Your phone keeps the last forecast and its town for up to three hours so the card works without signal. Beeky does not track your movements or record where you have been.

The map

The apiary map and the position picker use Google Maps. To show the map, your phone sends Google your IP address, the area on screen and information about your device. Google uses these under the Google Maps/Google Earth Additional Terms of Service and the Google Privacy Policy, as a separate controller rather than on Beeky’s behalf. When you press the find-me button, the map also shows where your phone is; Beeky saves a position only when you save it as an apiary’s position.

Limits and security

To stop the service being misused, Beeky’s server counts how many seconds of audio each account has written up each day, how many weather forecasts it has asked for each day, and when it last sent you a confirmation email. It also uses Google Play Integrity and Firebase App Check to check that requests come from the genuine Beeky app. These checks are done by Google and use information about the app and your device.

Technical logs

When something goes wrong, Google Cloud keeps a record of the error and the request that caused it, which can include your account’s ID. These logs are deleted automatically after about 30 days.

What Beeky does not collect

No contacts, photos, advertising IDs or browsing activity. There are no ads, no analytics and no tracking in the app.

What you have to provide

An email address and a password are needed to make an account; without them you can’t use Beeky. The microphone is needed to record an inspection. Location is optional: without it, you choose the apiary yourself and set its position on the map.

How your data is used

• To write up your inspections, keep them, and show them to you.
• To back up your records and apiaries and restore them when you sign in on another phone.
• To send the emails your account needs: confirming your address and resetting your password.
• To keep the service secure and within fair-use limits.

The legal basis is providing the service you signed up for (performing a contract) and, for security and limits, my legitimate interest in keeping Beeky working and free of abuse.

How recordings are written up

Beeky’s server sends each recording, and then its transcript, to Google’s Gemini models on Google Cloud Vertex AI, which turn the audio into words and the words into the fields of your record. This happens under Google Cloud’s terms: Google processes the data only to do this for Beeky, and does not use it to train its models. The processing may take place in Google data centres outside the United Kingdom. Google may keep requests for a short time to detect abuse of its service, under its own terms; Beeky has switched off Google’s option to cache them.

The write-up fills in a record for you to check and correct. Beeky makes no decisions about you based on automated processing that have legal or similarly significant effects.

Where your data is kept

On your phone, in Beeky’s private storage. In the cloud, your records, recordings and apiaries are stored in Google Firebase in London (Google Cloud region europe-west2), under your account, and security rules only let your account read or change them. Your sign-in details (email and password) are held by Google’s Firebase Authentication service, which runs across Google’s data centres rather than in one country. Data is encrypted in transit and when stored.

Some processing happens outside the United Kingdom: the AI write-up, the sign-in service, the weather forecast and the map (all Google), and the beta emails (Resend). Where your data is transferred outside the UK, it is protected by a safeguard recognised by UK law, such as the UK–US data bridge or the UK International Data Transfer Addendum in Google’s data processing terms.

Who else handles it

Your data is never sold or shared for marketing. These services handle it:

• Google, on Beeky’s behalf (Firebase sign-in, database and file storage, Cloud Functions, Vertex AI, Google Play): stores your data, runs Beeky’s server and writes up recordings.
• Google, under its own terms (Google Maps and the Weather API): receives what the map and the weather card need, as described above.
• Resend, on Beeky’s behalf: keeps the beta sign-up list, sends the beta emails and passes on replies to them, as described below.

Signing up for the beta

If you sign up for the beta on this website, I keep the name and email address you give so I can invite you to test Beeky on Google Play, and email you about the beta: one email to say you’re on the list, then your invite. They are stored in Beeky’s database in London and used for nothing else. Beeky’s emails are sent by Resend, an email service based in the United States, which keeps a copy of the beta list only to send them for Beeky. If you reply, Resend receives your reply and passes it on to me. I delete your details from both when the beta ends, or sooner if you email me at mattchannelbusiness@gmail.com and ask.

How long it is kept

• Your records and apiaries are kept in your account until you delete them or your account.
• Backed-up recordings are deleted automatically 90 days after they were made. The record and its transcript stay.
• Deleting a record in the app removes it from your phone straight away, and from your backup, with its recording, within about 30 days.
• Deleting your account removes everything stored for it in the cloud straight away. Google keeps short-term recovery copies of the database and stored files, which protect records against accidental loss and are deleted automatically within 7 days. Technical logs expire within about 30 days. A note that the account was deleted, holding only its ID and the time, is kept for 2 days so that a phone still signed in cannot recreate any data.
• Deleting your account in the app also removes what is on that phone. Deleting it on the website leaves the phone’s copy until you uninstall Beeky.

Deleting your account

You can delete your Beeky account and everything stored with it at any time: in the app, under Settings → Delete account, or without the app on the delete your account page.

Medicine records must be kept for five years. If you rely on Beeky for them, export them from Records → Export before you delete your account.

Your rights

Under UK data protection law you can ask for a copy of your data, ask for it to be corrected or deleted, ask for its use to be restricted, object to how it is used, and ask for it in a portable form. You can also export your records yourself, from Records → Export. Email me at mattchannelbusiness@gmail.com, and I will reply within one month.

Complaints

If you are unhappy with how your data is handled, please tell me first, by email to mattchannelbusiness@gmail.com. I will acknowledge your complaint within 30 days, look into it, and tell you the outcome. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk.

Children

Beeky is made for beekeepers and is not intended for children under 13.

Changes

If this policy changes, the new version will be posted here with a new date. If a change affects how your existing data is used, the app will tell you.

Contact

Matteo La Barbera — mattchannelbusiness@gmail.com