Last updated: 20 August 2026
Descend is operated by Oliver de Monchy, an individual contactable at descend.app@gmail.com.
Descend is built local-first: everything you log — dives, sightings, wishlist countries — is stored directly on your phone and works fully offline. Nothing is sent anywhere unless you create an account. We don't sell your data, run ads, or share it with data brokers or advertisers.
Descend asks for two device permissions, both only in the moment you choose to use them. We don't request your location, Bluetooth, or health data — dive sites are typed in manually, and dive-computer import is a planned future feature that will get its own entry here once it ships.
Photo Library — Opened when you tap "add photo" to attach a picture to a dive, your profile, a piece of gear, or a certification card. Purpose: display that photo in the place you attached it. We never scan your camera roll beyond the specific photo you choose.
Camera — Opened when you choose "Take Photo" instead of picking an existing picture, in any of the same four places (a dive, your profile, gear, or a certification). Purpose: let you capture a new photo on the spot rather than picking one you already have. We don't access the camera at any other time.
On your device — All of your dive log data — titles, sites, countries, depths, conditions, equipment, notes, marine life sightings, and any photos you attach — lives in this app's local storage on your phone. We have no way to see it, back it up for you, or recover it if your phone is lost, unless you've created an account.
Your account (optional) — Creating an account is optional and only needed for features that require a server — backing up your log so it survives a lost phone and syncing across devices. The dive data you choose to sync is stored with our backend provider, Supabase, which encrypts data in transit and at rest. You don't need to provide any personal data to use Descend's core features — dive logging works fully offline with no account at all. If you choose to create an account, an email address is required to do so; without one, we can't create or maintain your account, though everything you've logged locally remains fully usable.
Sign in with Apple — If you sign in with Apple, we receive only what Apple shares with us — your name and email, or a private relay address if you choose to hide it. We never see your Apple password.
Legal basis — We process account and sync data because it's necessary to provide the features you asked for. Where that's not the basis — for example, a future optional marketing email — we'll rely on your explicit consent instead, which you can withdraw at any time.
International transfers — Supabase stores and processes your account data in London, UK (Supabase's eu-west-2 region). If you're in the EEA, this counts as a transfer of your data outside the EEA; the UK has been granted a data-adequacy decision by the European Commission, meaning it's recognized as offering an equivalent level of protection to EU law, so no additional safeguard is needed. If you're in the UK, your data isn't leaving the country. Account emails (confirmations, password resets, account deletion) are sent via Resend, whose infrastructure for this domain is set to the EU (Ireland) region.
Descend uses three third-party services today:
Where we share data with these providers, we require them to protect it to a standard equivalent to this policy.
Descend doesn't currently use any analytics, advertising, crash-reporting, or tracking services. If that changes, we'll name the service here and update the "Last updated" date before it ships.
Dive logs & photos on your device — Kept until you delete the dive, clear local data, or uninstall the app.
Synced account data — Kept for as long as your account is active.
After you delete your account — Removed from our live systems immediately and purged from backups within 30 days.
Wherever you're located, you have the following rights over your data.
Right to access — Ask for a copy of the account data we hold about you. Anything that only lives on your device is already visible in the app.
Right to rectification — Ask us to correct inaccurate account data.
Right to erasure — Delete individual dives anytime from within the app. If you've created an account, Settings has a Delete Account option that removes your account and any data on our servers (see "Data retention" above); data that only ever lived on your device is unaffected and goes away when you delete the app.
Right to restrict or object — Ask us to limit certain processing, or object to it.
Right to portability — Settings > Data & Export generates a PDF copy of your dive log at any time.
Right to withdraw consent — Where processing is based on your consent (for example, a future marketing email), withdraw it at any time — this won't affect anything already done before you asked.
Right to complain — If you're in the UK or EEA, you can lodge a complaint with your local data protection supervisory authority at any time, whether or not you've raised the issue with us first.
Descend is not directed at children and we don't knowingly collect information from anyone under 16.
If this policy changes in a meaningful way, we'll update this page and the "Last updated" date at the top.
Questions about this policy, or requests relating to your data protection rights above, can be sent to descend.app@gmail.com. If you're in the UK or EEA, you can also contact your local supervisory authority directly at any time.