Your records go three places: your MyHydroscape account (if you have one), the public Live Data Map (anonymised), and — with your permission — the regulatory and conservation bodies we work with (anonymised and aggregated). Your records are never sold. No individual's data is shared without their consent. That's a design principle, not a marketing line.
1. Your personal account
If you're signed in to MyHydroscape when you submit, the record appears in your personal dashboard. You see everything you've submitted, on a map, with photos, with full detail.
This view is yours alone. No other user of Hydroscape can see your personal dashboard.
2. The anonymous national dataset
Every record contributes to the aggregated Hydroscape dataset. This is:
- Visible on the Live Data Map — anyone can see that a cormorant was recorded in a given area on a given date, but not who recorded it, and not the precise what3words location
- Visible in platform analytics — species trends, regional totals, seasonal patterns
- Anonymised — your name, email, and account details are never attached to any publicly visible record
3. Regulatory and conservation partners (with permission)
The following bodies can, with permission, receive anonymised and aggregated data to inform their work:
- Rivers Trusts
- Wildlife Trusts
- Water companies (for catchment decisions)
- IFCAs (Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authorities)
- Catchment partnerships
- Environment Agency teams
- Natural England (where relevant)
"With permission" means either platform-wide consent given at signup, or explicit permission for specific research projects. We don't just hand your data over on request. Any data shared is anonymised at individual level and typically aggregated (totals by region and species, not individual records).
If you don't want your data shared with external partners, you can set that preference in your MyHydroscape account.
- We never sell data. Not to advertisers, not to commercial third parties, not to anyone. If that changes, it changes with an explicit opt-in, not buried in terms updates.
- We never attach your personal details to public records. Your name and email are held in your account only.
- We never use your records to train third-party AI. Our HydroVision AI runs on our infrastructure. Your photos aren't flowing through OpenAI or similar.
- We never display exact locations publicly. The Live Data Map shows general areas, not what3words squares, to protect sensitive sites and individual reporter privacy.
- Stored securely in our cloud storage
- Used for AI verification of your record
- Used as evidence on the public Live Data Map (only the photo, never your name)
- Available back to you via your MyHydroscape gallery
- Never shared with third parties for non-research uses
- Never used commercially
If you delete a record, the associated photo is removed from our systems too.
Some species are sensitive — rare birds at active nest sites, vulnerable reptiles and amphibians, species targeted by wildlife crime. For these, the Live Data Map shows reduced detail (general county, no precise area) regardless of your sharing preferences. This is a protection for the species, not a restriction on you.
If you're submitting records on a water that's affiliated with a Hydroscape-adopted club or fishery, your records also feed into that organisation's management dashboard. This is different from the general public Map — the club's dashboard shows records specific to their waters, with the member who submitted them identified (because the organisation is paying for that view, and member-level visibility is useful for fishery management).
You're told if a water is affiliated when you submit — there's no hidden affiliation.