Last updated: October 3, 2026
This Privacy Policy explains how Blue Helm LLC, a California limited liability company ("Blue Helm," "we," "us," or "our"), collects, uses, and shares information when you use the BlueHelm app and our related services (the "App"). By using the App, you agree to this policy. If you have questions, email services@getbluehelm.com.
If you create an account, we collect your email address and send you a one-time code to sign in. We store a display name derived from your email, an account identifier, and a secure sign-in token on your device. You can use much of the App without an account; some features (like cloud sync and AI guide generation) require one.
We collect a device identifier and basic technical details such as device model, operating-system version, and app version. We use these to run features (for example, to anchor your free-trial period and to meter AI usage), keep the Service secure, and diagnose problems. Our servers may briefly log request information, including IP address, as part of normal, secure operation.
BlueHelm uses your location, including in the background, for its core safety features. Background location powers anchor-drift monitoring (so we can alert you if your boat drags while your screen is off) and live trip / float-plan sharing while a session is running. You grant this through your device's location permission, and you can change or revoke it at any time in your device settings — turning it off will limit those features.
Where your location goes depends on the feature:
We collect the boat details, questionnaire answers, checklists, saved places, emergency contacts, and other content you enter. This is used to run the App and to generate your personalized vessel guide. It is stored on your device, and if you're signed in, it may be synced to your account so it's available across your devices and after a reinstall.
If you add a photo of your boat or a profile photo, it is stored on your device. If you're signed in, your boat photo is also backed up to your account on our servers so it comes back after a reinstall; profile photos stay on your device. Photos or screen recordings you choose to attach to a feedback report are sent to us with that report. We request photo-library access only so you can choose an image; we don't browse your library.
If you're signed in and add a document to your boat's Document Vault — such as registration, insurance, survey, title, receipts, or warranty papers, as a PDF or a photo — the file is uploaded and stored on our servers so it comes back on a new phone or after a reinstall. It is available only through your account, and the assistant does not read the documents in your vault.
If you're signed in and add an owner's manual for the assistant, we read the manual's text on our servers and keep that text (not the PDF itself). When you ask a question, the passages that match it are sent to our AI provider along with your question.
You can delete any document or manual in the app. Deleting a boat deletes its manuals, but not the documents in its vault; deleting your account removes both.
If you ask BlueHelm to look up your boat's specifications or to find its owner's manual, the builder, model, year, engine and type of boat you entered are sent to our servers and to our AI provider (Anthropic), which searches the public web for them. We ask your permission before the first lookup, and you can turn lookups off in Profile. What it finds is shown to you with the sites it came from, and nothing is saved until you confirm it. If you choose a manual it found, your phone downloads the file from the site shown, as a browser would, and sends it to us to be read like any manual you upload; that site sees a request from your phone.
When you use the "Your Boat" AI assistant or generate a guide, the messages and the relevant boat context you send are transmitted to our servers and to our AI provider (Anthropic) to generate a response. The boat context is your boat's operating guide (built from your answers) and the details you've entered about the boat — such as its name, type, make, model, size and home port and, if you've entered them, its registration or hull ID, MMSI, and insurance or towing-membership numbers. On the Captain plan, we also keep your most recent questions and the boat's answers, plus short notes the AI writes about you and your boat, with your account so the boat can remember across your devices; they are deleted when you delete the boat or your account. We also keep usage counts to apply plan allowances and prevent abuse. Please don't enter sensitive personal information you wouldn't want processed this way.
If you ask something your boat's own information can't answer, the assistant can look it up online once you have allowed lookups. The question as you typed it and your boat's builder, model, year, engine, type and length are sent to our AI provider (Anthropic), which searches the public web to answer it. Your boat's name, your position, your contacts and the rest of the conversation are not sent with it. The answer names the sites it came from. If you choose to keep an answer, it is saved with your boat, marked as found online.
To answer questions like "what was my last trip" or "where's the nearest fuel", the assistant can ask your phone to look something up. The lookup runs on your device, against what is stored there. (If you're signed in, your saved places and emergency contacts are also backed up to your account, as described above; the assistant does not read that backup.) But the result of that lookup is then sent to our servers and to our AI provider as part of answering you, exactly like the rest of your message. Depending on what you ask, that result can include:
The assistant can also offer you a card — for example "open the planner for Avalon". Tapping it is the only thing that does anything; the assistant cannot create a trip, send a message, or change your settings on its own.
Your device storage is not encrypted by BlueHelm beyond the protections your phone and its backups provide.
When you create a float plan or designate people to receive a shared location, we collect the trip and contact details you enter (such as names and phone numbers or emails of the people you choose). This information is used only to provide the sharing you request and, if you're signed in, to back up your emergency contacts to your account so they come back on a new phone.
Purchases are handled by the Apple App Store or Google Play. We use RevenueCat to manage subscription status. Before you sign in it uses an anonymous app-user identifier; once you sign in, that identifier is based on your email address. It also receives your purchase receipts and basic device and app information (including your app version and whether the App was installed from a store), so it can tell us whether your subscription is active. We don't receive your full payment-card details.
If you email us or send a message or bug report from inside the App, we keep your message and contact details so we can help you and keep a record of the request. A bug report also includes your app version, phone model and operating-system version, and any screenshots or screen recordings you choose to attach.
When you accept our Terms of Service or acknowledge the in-app safety notice, we record that you accepted, which version you accepted, where in the app you accepted it, and the date and time — on your device and, when you're signed in, on our servers. We keep these records to show what terms applied to your use of the App.
We share information only in these limited ways:
To draw maps and charts, find places, and provide forecasts and tides, the App uses public and third-party services. Some are contacted directly by your phone, and some by our servers on your behalf. When your phone contacts a service directly, that service sees your phone's IP address and whatever the request needs, and may keep its own logs. None of the map, place, weather or update services below is given your BlueHelm account or email address. When our servers contact a service for you, it sees our servers' address, not yours.
Contacted directly by your phone
Contacted by our servers for you
Those providers operate under their own terms and privacy practices, and we're not responsible for their data's accuracy or availability.
Data stored on your device stays until you delete it or uninstall the App. Data associated with your account is kept while your account is active and for as long as needed to provide the Service, then deleted or de-identified, except where we must keep certain records to meet legal, tax, security, or fraud-prevention obligations.
You can delete your data at any time:
Deleting your account removes your boats, documents, manuals, boat photos and AI memory from our servers. We keep a few records after that: a record that the account accepted our Terms (identified only by a random account number), usage counts, a trial-start record used to stop the free trial being restarted, and any feedback reports you sent. We remove your email address and the link to your account from those reports; the text and attachments you sent stay as you wrote them. Purchase records held by Apple, Google and RevenueCat are governed by their own retention practices.
We aim to process deletion requests promptly, typically within 7 business days, and will confirm when it's done.
If you're a California resident, the California Consumer Privacy Act, as amended by the CPRA, gives you the right to:
To exercise any of these, email services@getbluehelm.com. We'll verify your request using the email associated with your account, and you may use an authorized agent where the law allows. We honor these rights regardless of where you live.
We take reasonable, industry-standard measures to protect your information — for example, encrypting data in transit with HTTPS/TLS, storing sign-in tokens in your device's secure keystore, and limiting access to systems that hold personal data. That said, no app, server, or method of transmission is 100% secure, and we can't guarantee absolute security. Please keep your device and email account secure, since they can be used to access your BlueHelm account.
The App is not directed to children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has provided us personal information, contact us at services@getbluehelm.com and we'll delete it. Account holders must be adults, as described in our Terms of Service.
We operate in the United States, and your information is processed and stored in the U.S. If you use the App from outside the U.S., you understand your information will be transferred to and handled in the United States.
We may update this policy from time to time. If we make material changes, we'll give reasonable notice — for example, by posting the updated policy here with a new date, or through an in-app notice. Your continued use of the App after the changes take effect means you accept the updated policy.
Questions or requests about your privacy? Reach us at services@getbluehelm.com.
Blue Helm LLC, California, USA. A postal address is available on request.
© 2026 Blue Helm LLC. All rights reserved.