WaterDx Privacy Policy

WaterDx is a product of Sediment Technologies, LLC, a Florida limited liability company ("we", "us"). Our scientists come from Florida Atlantic University. This policy explains what we collect, why, who helps us process it, and the choices you have.

It covers waterdx.ai, the WaterDx app, our phone line at (573) 928-3739 ("573-WATERDX"), our emails, and our WhatsApp and text alerts.

1. What we collect, by feature

1.1 Free satellite read (/free-read)

You give us:

• Your name and email (required). We send your read to this email.
• Phone, organization, website and LinkedIn (optional).
• An outline of your water body that you trace on a satellite map, plus the name you give it.
• Optional details: depth, fresh or salt water, a note about what you're seeing, your answers to a short multiple-choice survey about your water (saved with your note), and up to 3 files (for example lab results or photos) with a description.
• A visibility choice: "Keep it private" (the default) or "Add to the public map."
• Your agreement to our Terms of Service and this Privacy Policy, with the time and the version you agreed to.
• Your text-message choice: whether you asked us to text you updates about your water. This box is optional and unticked unless you tick it.

We also record:

• A one-way hash of your IP address (SHA-256). We use it to limit how many reads one source can request. We do not store the raw IP with your read.
• Shape measurements we calculate from your outline (area, length, direction).

If you use "Use my location," your browser shares your location with the map so it can center itself. If you use "Find," the text you type is sent to OpenStreetMap's Nominatim service to find the place.

1.2 Request a call

You give us: name, email, phone, role or organization, LinkedIn, website and a message. You must give an email or a phone number. We use a one-way hash of your IP address for rate limiting. We may use Cloudflare Turnstile to check that you're not a bot.

1.3 Accounts

To use the portal or buy a plan online, you need an account. We collect your email and a password (handled by our authentication provider; we never see your password in plain text). When you create an account, we record that you agreed to our Terms of Service and this Privacy Policy, when, and which version.

1.4 Purchases (Pond Health Check and Pond Monitoring)

Online payments are handled by Stripe. Stripe collects your card details. We do not see or store your full card number. We store:

• your Stripe customer ID, plan, subscription status and renewal date;
• your kit order: email, plan, order status, tracking number, water-body name, and the lab results for your sample, with the trophic score (Carlson Trophic State Index) and diagnosis we produce from them.

Kits are currently ordered by request: we collect your shipping address by phone or email when we arrange your order, and use it only to ship your kit and returns. Stripe may collect your billing address.

1.5 Lab results you enter

If you enter your own lab numbers in the app, we store them and use them to produce your diagnosis.

1.6 Phone line, (573) 928-3739

• Our greeting tells every caller: "Calls and voicemails may be recorded."
• Press 1 connects you to a team member.
• Press 2 leaves a voicemail. Voicemails are recorded and transcribed. The recording, the transcript and your caller ID are emailed to our team.
• Press 3 gives a spoken status update to registered clients. We recognize you by your caller ID, check it against our client alert list, and read your sites' latest status. Before the update, the line says: "This update is generated automatically from your monitoring data." AI phrases the update (see Section 4).

Our phone service is provided by Twilio.

1.7 WhatsApp and text alerts

For clients with monitoring programs, we send drone images and water alerts by WhatsApp. If you tick the text-message box on the free read, we may text you updates about your water. We store the phone number, an optional label for who the number belongs to, which sites it follows, delivery logs, and the messages you send to that number (the first 500 characters). Reply STOP to stop. Reply START to resume. See Section 6.

1.8 Client monitoring programs

For clients with drone or field programs, we process drone images, field data sheets and photos, and sample records. Drone images are uploaded by the client to a Google Drive folder and archived in Cloudflare R2. Our software analyzes water color and the cover of the lake or sea bed. It does not try to identify people. Images may still show people by chance.

1.9 Using the app

When you use the app, we store the projects, sites, uploads and settings you create. We also log how much AI you use so we can apply plan limits.

1.10 Website analytics

We may use Plausible, a cookie-free analytics service. It is off unless we turn it on. If on, it counts page views and events without cookies and without personal profiles.

1.11 Cookies and local storage

We do not use advertising cookies. The app uses your browser's local storage to keep you signed in and remember settings.

2. How we use your information

We use it to:

• produce and deliver your read, diagnosis, kit results and alerts;
• reply to you, and follow up when you ask us to, after a scientist reviews your read, or when your read fails;
• process payments, ship kits and run subscriptions;
• operate the phone line and WhatsApp and text alerts;
• prevent abuse (rate limits, bot checks);
• improve our science and our product, using your data in a way that does not identify you;
• meet legal duties.

When you submit a free read, our team gets an email with your contact details and the read so a scientist can review it and follow up.

We may email you about your read or order. These transactional messages (for example "your kit shipped" or "your results are ready") continue even if you opt out of marketing. We will only send marketing emails as the law allows. Every marketing email has a one-click unsubscribe link, and you can also reply STOP. We process unsubscribes within 10 business days.

3. Service providers (processors)

These companies process data for us under their own terms. They are not allowed to use your data for their own marketing.

Satellite, weather and water-data sources (NASA, NOAA, USGS, EPA, SFWMD, Copernicus and others) receive only the coordinates of the area we analyze. They do not receive your name or contact details. See our Credits page.

4. AI processing

We use AI models from Anthropic (Claude) and, as a back-up, OpenAI. AI helps us:

• write your free read from satellite, weather and watershed data, your note, and your uploaded files and photos;
• interpret lab numbers into a diagnosis;
• answer questions in the app;
• pull data out of documents you upload;
• phrase the spoken status on our phone line.

We send these providers only what the task needs. We do not send your payment details. Under the providers' commercial API terms, they do not use our inputs to train their models. AI can be wrong. See How WaterDx uses AI below.

5. Sharing

We do not sell or share your personal information. We do not sell it for money, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising.

Your contact details are never shared with vendors or advertisers, and never appear on the public map.

We disclose personal information only:

• to the service providers in Section 3;
• to a vendor or partner only if you ask us to connect you;
• if the law requires it, or to protect rights and safety;
• in a merger, sale or reorganization, under this policy.

Public map (opt-in)

If you choose "Add to the public map," anyone can see your water body's name, outline, location, water type and size on our community map. Your name, email, phone and notes are never shown. To make it private again, email [email protected] and we will remove it.

Your read page

Your finished read is stored as a web page at a long, random link. Anyone with the link can open it. Don't forward the link if you want to keep the read private.

6. Phone, text and WhatsApp

• Recording notice: Florida requires all parties to consent to recording (Fla. Stat. § 934.03). Our greeting tells every caller that calls and voicemails may be recorded, before you speak to anyone or leave a message.
• Press-3 status: we recognize you by caller ID. Caller ID can be faked, so this line gives only general water-quality status and no personal or account data. The status is generated automatically, and the line says so before it plays.
• Text messages: we text you only if you ticked the text-message box. Consent is not required to get a read or buy anything. Message and data rates may apply.
• WhatsApp: we send alerts only to people who have agreed to receive them.
• Opting out: reply STOP to any text or WhatsApp message and we stop immediately. Reply START to resume. We keep a record of opt-outs so we never message you after you stop. Messages about an order you placed (for example "your kit shipped") may still come by email.

7. How long we keep data

8. Security

We protect data with:

• encrypted connections (HTTPS);
• access rules in our database so users see only their own data;
• private storage for uploaded files;
• one-way hashing of IP addresses;
• signature checks on payment and WhatsApp webhooks;
• bot checks and rate limits on public forms.

No system is perfectly secure. If a breach affects you, we will notify you as the law requires (for Florida, Fla. Stat. § 501.171).

9. Your choices and rights

You can ask us to:

• tell you what personal information we hold about you;
• correct it;
• delete it;
• give you a copy;
• take your water body off the public map;
• stop marketing emails, text messages, WhatsApp alerts or calls.

How to ask: email [email protected] with the subject "Privacy request," or call (573) 928-3739. We will confirm who you are (usually by replying to the email on file) and answer within 30 days. We will not treat you differently for making a request.

An authorized agent may make a request for you with your signed permission.

California (CalOPPA and CCPA)

• This policy lists the categories of personal information we collect (Section 1) and the types of third parties we share it with (Section 3).
• Do Not Track: our site does not respond differently to browser "Do Not Track" signals. We do not track you across other sites.
• You can review and correct your information by emailing us (Section 9).
• We will post changes to this policy here with a new effective date.

Other U.S. states

Some states give residents more rights. We honor the requests above for everyone, wherever you live.

10. Customers outside the United States

We serve customers in Florida, across the United States, in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and elsewhere in the Caribbean. We store and process data in the United States: our database is hosted in Supabase's us-east-1 region (N. Virginia). If you are elsewhere in the Caribbean or outside the United States, your data will be transferred to the United States, where privacy laws may differ from yours.

11. Children

WaterDx is not meant for children. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 13. If you think a child has given us information, email us and we will delete it.

12. Changes

We may update this policy. We will post the new version here and change the effective date. If a change is material, we will email you at least 30 days before it takes effect.

13. Contact

Sediment Technologies, LLC 466 19th Place, Vero Beach, FL 32960 Email: [email protected] Phone: (573) 928-3739 (573-WATERDX)

How WaterDx Uses AI

WaterDx uses artificial intelligence (AI) to turn water data into plain-English answers quickly. Real scientists built the methods behind it. This section explains where AI is used, what a person checks, and what happens to your data.

1. Where we use AI

The numbers come first. In the free read, the headline numbers and health verdict are calculated by our own code from the data. They are not made up by the AI. The AI explains them.

2. Which AI we use

• Anthropic Claude is our main AI provider.
• OpenAI is a back-up if Claude is unavailable.
• We track AI use per account so we can apply plan limits.

3. AI can be wrong

• AI can misread data, miss context or state things with too much confidence.
• Satellite-based reads are screening estimates. They are not measurements.
• AI output is not regulatory-grade, and it is not engineering, medical or legal advice.
• Before you spend money on a treatment, talk to a scientist. Call (573) 928-3739 or email [email protected].
• If something looks wrong, tell us. We'll check it.

4. What happens to your data

• We send the AI provider only what the task needs: for example, your water body's data, your note, and files or photos you uploaded for the read. We do not send payment details.
• We use the providers' commercial API services. Under those terms, the providers do not use our inputs or outputs to train their models.
• The providers act as our service providers. See the Privacy Policy, Section 3.
• We do not use AI to make decisions about you that have legal or similarly significant effects, such as credit, housing or employment decisions.

Contact

Questions about our use of AI: [email protected] · (573) 928-3739