Privacy Policy

What we collect, why we collect it, and the control you have over it — in plain English.

At Birbs, we'd rather collect as little about you as possible and tell you exactly what that little is. This policy explains what data the site gathers when you read an article, sign up for the Daily Birb, build a life list, submit a photo, or send us a correction — and the rights you have over all of it.

We don't sell your email address, your account or your life list, and we don't pass them to advertisers. Birbs is free to read, and pages on the website may show ads served by Google, which use cookies, including, where you allow it, to personalise ads. The "Advertising" section below explains exactly what that means and how to turn personalised ads off. The same honesty ethos that governs our content governs our handling of your information: nothing hidden, no fine-print surprises.

Effective date: 22 August 2026. Last updated: 1 November 2026. What changed in this update: we added the "Advertising" section, because the website may now show ads served by Google, and updated the other sections to match, including how analytics cookies work in the European Economic Area, the UK and Switzerland.

Who we are

Birbs.com (“Birbs”, “we”, “us”, “our”) is operated by Viral Again, located at House 13, Street 1, Overseas 7, Phase 8, Bahria Town, Islamabad, Pakistan. For the purposes of applicable data-protection law, Viral Again is the “data controller” responsible for your personal data.

This policy covers the birbs.com website and the Birbs mobile app for iOS and Android. If you have any question about this policy or your data, contact us at [email protected] or through our /contact/ page.

What we collect

We collect information in three ways: what you give us directly, what's gathered automatically as you browse, and what we receive from a small number of trusted service providers.

• Newsletter email — When you sign up for the Daily Birb at /newsletter/, we store the email address you provide and the date and source of your sign-up (so we can prove consent).
• Account & life list — If you create an account or save species to your personal life list, we store your account credentials (a hashed password, never plain text), your saved species, lists, and any preferences you set.
• Form submissions — When you submit a photo (/submit-photo/), a correction (/submit-correction/), or a message via /contact/, we receive the information you choose to include: typically your name, email address, the photo or text you submit, and any optional notes. Photos may carry embedded metadata (such as EXIF, which can include capture time and, if you've enabled it on your device, location) — we may strip this before publication.
• Analytics & technical data — Automatically, we may collect your IP address, browser and device type, operating system, referring page, the pages you view, and timestamps. This is standard server and analytics data used to keep the site running and understand what's useful.
• Advertising data — On website pages that show ads, Google and its advertising partners may collect data through cookies and similar technologies, such as your IP address, browser and device details, the pages you visit and how you interact with ads. See "Advertising" below.
• Cookies & similar technologies — Small files and identifiers stored on your device. See "Cookies & analytics" below.

We do not knowingly collect special-category data (such as health, ethnicity, or political views). Please don't include sensitive personal details in a photo caption or correction.

Cookies & analytics

Cookies are small text files a site stores on your device. Here is what they are used for on Birbs:

• Essential cookies — needed for the site to function: keeping you logged in, remembering your life-list session, and security. These can't be switched off without breaking core features.
• Preference cookies — remember choices like dark mode or dismissed banners.
• Analytics — We use Google Analytics 4 (property G-8YK2CR751J), provided by Google, to understand aggregate traffic: which guides get read, where readers arrive from, and how the tools perform. Google sets its own cookies and processes usage data, including your IP address, on our behalf. In the European Economic Area, the UK and Switzerland, Google Analytics doesn't set cookies unless you allow it through Google's consent tool, which appears on pages that show ads. Without that choice it sends Google only limited, cookieless signals, such as the time, your browser type and the page you came from; like any web request, these reach Google with your IP address, which Google says Analytics doesn't store. We do not use analytics to build advertising profiles of you.
• Advertising cookies — On website pages that show ads, Google and its partners set cookies to serve and measure ads, limit how often you see the same ad, prevent fraud and, where you allow it, personalise ads. See "Advertising" below.
• Your control over cookies — Outside the European Economic Area, the UK and Switzerland, analytics cookies are set when you visit. Wherever you are, if you would rather not be counted you can opt out at any time: block or delete cookies in your browser, switch on your browser's tracking protection, or install Google's official Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on. Your choices about advertising cookies are covered under "Advertising" below. Essential cookies can't be switched off without breaking core features such as staying signed in.

Advertising

Some pages on the birbs.com website may show ads served by Google AdSense. Where they appear, ads help pay for the site and keep it free to read. We don't choose the individual ads you see, and ads never change what we write or recommend.

Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits to this website or to other websites. Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to you based on your visits to this site and/or other sites on the internet.

Other third-party vendors and ad networks may also serve ads on Birbs through Google, and may use cookies to do so. Google explains what it does with this data in How Google uses information from sites or apps that use its services.

Your choices about ads:

• Everyone — You can turn off personalised advertising from Google at Google's Ads Settings, and from many other vendors at aboutads.info. You may still see ads, but they won't be based on your interests. Blocking or deleting cookies in your browser also limits advertising cookies.
• European Economic Area, UK and Switzerland — On pages that show ads, we ask for your choice through Google's consent tool, and you can decline. You can change your mind at any time using the "Privacy and cookie settings" link on those pages.
• US states with privacy laws — Some US state laws treat personalised advertising as a "sale" or "sharing" of personal information. If one of those laws applies to you, pages that show ads include a "Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information" link, which you can use to opt out.

This section applies to the website only. The Birbs mobile app's own screens show no ads; a website page you open from the app works like any other visit to the website.

The Birbs mobile app (iOS & Android)

The Birbs app is a reader for this website. It has no accounts and no sign-up, it shows no advertising, and it contains no analytics or tracking SDK — we receive no usage analytics from the app at all.

• Location — If you choose to use “Near you”, the app asks for location permission while you are using it (never in the background). Your coordinates are sent to birbs.com so we can ask the eBird network which birds have been reported near you, and are used for nothing else. We do not store your coordinates, attach them to any identity, or use them for advertising or tracking. You can refuse or withdraw the permission at any time in your device settings; the rest of the app carries on working.
• Your life list — The birds you save in “My Birds”, and your Birdle progress, are stored only on your device. They are not uploaded to us, and deleting the app deletes them.
• Content — Everything else the app shows is read from the public birbs.com API. The app sends us no personal data in order to read it.

No accounts, no ads, no tracking, and no analytics SDK in the app itself. Website pages you open from the app are covered by the rest of this policy.

Third parties we share data with

We use a short list of service providers to run Birbs, and we share only what each one needs. Our hosting and analytics providers handle your data on our instructions. Google's advertising services, affiliate programmes and embedded content providers also handle data under their own privacy policies, as described below.

• Email — Your newsletter subscription is stored in our own database on our own hosting, and the Daily Birb and account emails are sent from our own servers. We do not pass your email address to a third-party marketing platform.
• Analytics — Google Analytics 4, provided by Google, processes traffic and usage data as described above.
• Advertising — Google AdSense, and other ad vendors working through Google, may collect data from your browser through cookies when a page shows ads, as described in "Advertising" above. Google handles that data under its own privacy policy.
• Hosting & infrastructure — Cloudways provides the managed hosting that stores the site, its database and uploaded media. Cloudflare sits in front of birbs.com and media.birbs.com to deliver pages and block abuse, and processes connection data such as your IP address in order to do so.
• Amazon Associates & other affiliates — Some buying-guide links are affiliate links, clearly disclosed. When you click one, Amazon (or another affiliate program) may set its own cookie and track the resulting visit/purchase under their own privacy policy so we can be credited. We never see your card or full purchase details. See our affiliate-disclosure page.
• Embedded media — Pages may embed content from third parties such as Wikimedia Commons (photos), eBird / the Cornell Lab of Ornithology (occurrence data and maps), and xeno-canto (bird sounds). When such content loads, that provider's servers may receive your IP address and set cookies under their own privacy policies. We always credit these sources.
• Legal & safety — We may disclose data if required by law, a valid legal request, or to protect the rights, safety, and security of Birbs, our readers, or the public.

We do not sell your email address, account or life list, and we do not share them with data brokers or advertisers. Advertising cookies work differently: see "Advertising" above.

How we use your data

We use the information above only for purposes you'd reasonably expect:

• To send the Daily Birb and service emails you've asked for.
• To run your account and life list, and remember your preferences.
• To publish and credit photos you submit, and to act on corrections you send.
• To respond to your messages and support requests.
• To measure and improve the site — which content helps, what to build next, and to keep the Identify-a-Bird tool working well.
• To keep the site free to read, including by showing ads where they appear, as described in "Advertising" above.
• To keep the site secure, prevent abuse and spam, and diagnose technical problems.
• To meet our legal and accounting obligations.

Our legal basis (where this applies to you)

We are based in Pakistan, which does not currently have a comprehensive data-protection statute in force. We nevertheless apply the standards below to everyone.

If you are in a region with data-protection law such as the UK or EU GDPR, we rely on these legal bases: consent (for the newsletter, and in the European Economic Area, the UK and Switzerland for analytics cookies, advertising cookies and personalised ads — you can withdraw any of these at any time); contract and legitimate use (to run your account and life list, and to respond to what you send us); legitimate interests (to keep the site secure, measure aggregate usage, and improve what we offer, balanced against your rights); and legal obligation (where the law requires us to keep or disclose records).

How long we keep it

We keep personal data only as long as we need it for the purpose it was collected, then delete or anonymise it.

• Newsletter — until you unsubscribe; we may keep a minimal record of your unsubscribe so we don't email you again.
• Account & life list — for as long as your account is active; deleted within 30 days of you closing it.
• Form submissions — published photos and accepted corrections may remain as long as the content is live (with credit); unused submissions are kept for 12 months and then removed.
• Analytics — retained in Google Analytics for no longer than 14 months, then aggregated or deleted.
• Advertising cookies — set and kept by Google and its partners for the periods they choose, described in their own privacy policies. You can delete cookies in your browser at any time.
• We may keep limited records longer where the law requires (for example, tax or affiliate records).

Your rights & choices

You have meaningful control over your data. Depending on where you live, you may have the right to:

• Access — get a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
• Correct — fix anything inaccurate or incomplete.
• Delete — ask us to erase your data (the "right to be forgotten").
• Restrict or object — limit or object to certain processing, including profiling.
• Portability — receive your data in a portable, machine-readable format.
• Withdraw consent — unsubscribe from the Daily Birb at any time via the link in every email. You can opt out of analytics cookies using the browser controls described above, and change your advertising choices as described in "Advertising" above.
• Opt out of "sale"/"sharing" — we don't sell your email address, account or life list. Personalised advertising may count as a "sale" or "sharing" of personal information under some US state laws, and you can opt out of it as described in "Advertising" above.

To exercise any right, email [email protected] or use /contact/. We'll respond within 30 days and may need to verify your identity first. Pakistan does not currently operate a dedicated data-protection supervisory authority; if you are in the UK or EU, you also have the right to complain to your local supervisory authority.

Children's privacy

Birbs is a general-audience site about birds and is not directed at young children. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children under 13. If you believe a child has given us personal data, contact [email protected] and we'll delete it promptly.

Security & international transfers

We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect your data — including encrypted connections (HTTPS), hashed passwords, and access controls. No method of transmission or storage is ever 100% secure, so we can't guarantee absolute security, but we work hard to keep your data safe and will notify affected users and regulators of a qualifying breach as required by law.

Some of our providers process data outside Pakistan — in particular Google (analytics and advertising) and Cloudflare (content delivery), both of which run global infrastructure including in the United States and the European Union. Where data leaves your region we rely on the safeguards those providers make available, such as the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as the site evolves or the law changes. When we do, we'll post the updated policy here with a new 'Last updated' date; for material changes we'll give clearer notice — for example, an email or an on-site banner.

Contact us

Questions about your privacy, or want to exercise a right? We genuinely want to hear from you — privacy questions are never a bother.

Email [email protected], or use the form below. For postal requests: Viral Again, House 13, Street 1, Overseas 7, Phase 8, Bahria Town, Islamabad, Pakistan.

Common questions

Do you sell my data?

We don't sell your email address, account or life list, and we don't share them with data brokers or advertisers. Pages with ads are different: Google and its partners may use advertising cookies, and some US state laws count personalised ads as a "sale" or "sharing" of personal information. You can opt out of personalised ads at any time; the Advertising section above explains how. Our hosting and analytics providers process data only on our instructions.

Why do I see ads, and can I turn off personalised ones?

Birbs may show ads to help keep it free to read. Any ads on the website are served by Google AdSense; we don't pick the individual ads, and they never change what we write or recommend. To turn off personalised ads, use Google's Ads Settings (google.com/settings/ads) or aboutads.info/choices. In the European Economic Area, the UK and Switzerland, pages that show ads ask for your choice through Google's consent tool. The Birbs mobile app's own screens show no ads.

How do I unsubscribe from the Daily Birb?

Every newsletter email has an unsubscribe link in the footer — one click and you're out. You can also email [email protected] and we'll remove you. We keep a minimal suppression record only so we don't accidentally email you again.

How do I get a copy of my data, or have it deleted?

Email [email protected] or use our /contact/ page and tell us what you'd like (access, correction, or deletion). We'll verify it's really you, then respond within 30 days.

Do affiliate links track me?

When you click an affiliate link (for example, to Amazon), that retailer may set its own cookie so we can be credited for the referral. That tracking is governed by their privacy policy, not ours — and affiliate relationships never change which products we recommend. See our affiliate-disclosure page.

Why do embedded photos, maps, or bird sounds load from other sites?

We pull photos from Wikimedia Commons, occurrence data and maps from eBird / the Cornell Lab, and recordings from xeno-canto — always credited. When that content loads, the provider's servers may see your IP and set cookies under their own privacy policies. It's how we bring you real, properly-sourced data.