OurWater — Privacy Policy

Last updated: 1 October 2026 · Applies to the OurWater web app, the OurWater iOS and Android apps, and the OurWater website

In short. OurWater is run by Western Sydney University for community water monitoring. We collect what the app needs to work: your account details, the stations and readings you record, and photos and locations you choose to share. Readings and station details are visible to every signed-in OurWater user, because sharing them is the point of the app; your contact details are not. We do not advertise, do not sell personal information, and do not publish your data on the open internet. You can see, correct and delete your data from the app.

1. Who we are

OurWater (previously called MyWell) is operated by Western Sydney University ("the University", "we", "us") as part of the MARVI program (Managing Aquifer Recharge and Sustaining Groundwater Use through Village-level Intervention). The University is the data controller for the personal information described here.

For any privacy question, request or complaint, contact us at marvi@westernsydney.edu.au, or write to OurWater Administrator, Attention: Professor Basant Maheshwari, Western Sydney University, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith NSW 2751, Australia. This address is also the grievance contact for users in India.

2. Information we collect

Category	What	Why
Account	Email address, the name you want the app to call you by (a nickname is fine), your username, your password (stored only as a salted hash), your country and app language. A phone number is optional and is only on file if you add it to your profile.	To create and secure your account, sign you in, send one-time verification codes, and contact you about your account.
Consent record	The version of the Terms and Conditions you accepted and when; your confirmation that you are 18 or older; or, for an account opened for you by a school or organisation, the administrator who vouched for you and when.	To show that consent was given, and to ask again when the Terms change.
Location	Your device's GPS position when you tap "Use my location", and the coordinates you record for monitoring stations and readings.	To place stations on the map and tag readings with where they were taken. Device location is used only when you choose to share it; you can decline or revoke it in your device settings.
Photos	Images you upload of wells, stations or field conditions. The app removes embedded camera metadata (such as GPS position and device identifiers) before a photo is uploaded.	To document monitoring sites. Photos are only collected when you choose to upload them.
Monitoring data	Station details, water-level and water-quality readings, rainfall and other measurements, notes, and the organisation or team you belong to.	The core function of the app: recording, sharing and analysing community water data.
Assistant conversations	Questions you type into the OurWater assistant and the station data it looks up to answer them. Conversations are kept on your device, not on our servers, apart from a usage count.	To answer your questions and keep the assistant within its monthly allowance.
Messages and feedback	In-app messages, data requests, announcements, and feedback you send, with the app version, device type and screen you sent it from.	To let organisations communicate, to answer requests, and to fix problems you report.
Technical	Server logs with the time, the request, your account id and your network address, kept for a limited period.	Security, abuse detection (for example unusually large data exports) and troubleshooting.

OurWater uses no advertising or analytics trackers, and we do not sell personal information.

3. Who can see what

OurWater is a shared monitoring platform, so an account is needed to see any data, and signed-in users can see each other's stations and readings. The table shows who sees each kind of information.

Information	Visible to
Station name, type, readings, photos and notes	Every signed-in OurWater user.
Station location	Shown at its recorded position to every signed-in user, so that readings can be compared and reused. The station's owner can instead choose to show people outside their organisation an approximate position (about 1 km), or to hide the station from them; the owner, their organisation and OurWater administrators always see the exact position.
Who owns a station or recorded a reading	You, your organisation's administrators and team members, and OurWater administrators. Other users see the data without your identity.
Your name, email address, username and phone number	You, your organisation's administrators, and OurWater administrators. Never other users, and never the public.
Anything at all	Not the open internet: OurWater does not publish data without a sign-in.

Monitoring data may also be shared, without your contact details, with schools, universities, researchers, participating organisations and public agencies for the non-commercial purposes described in the Terms and Conditions.

4. Service providers we use

We share information with service providers only as needed to run OurWater, and with authorities when the law requires it.

Provider	What it does	What it receives	Where
Amazon Web Services	Hosting, the database and photo storage	All OurWater data	Sydney, Australia
Amazon Bedrock (AWS)	The AI model behind the OurWater assistant	The question you type and the station data the assistant looks up for it	Sydney, Australia
Amazon SES (AWS)	Sending email: verification codes and notices	Your email address and the message	United States
Open-Meteo	Weather and rainfall forecasts	The coordinates of the station or location you look at, sent from your device; no account details	Europe
Capgo	Delivering app updates to the installed iOS and Android apps	Your app version and a device identifier	Europe
Apple App Store and Google Play	Distributing the apps	Whatever you share with them under their own privacy policies	Various

5. How long we keep information

Account information is kept while your account is active and deleted when you delete your account.
Monitoring records (stations and readings) may be kept after an account is deleted, without your name or contact details, so that the long-term monitoring record stays complete. You can ask us to remove specific records.
Feedback is kept without your account attached, so that improvements made in response to it can be shown.
Server logs are kept for a limited period for security and troubleshooting and then deleted.

6. Your choices and rights

See and correct: your profile and your stations and readings can be edited in the app. For anything else, email us.
Delete your account: Settings → Delete account in the app, or email us. This removes your personal information as described in section 5.
Withdraw consent: you can stop using OurWater and delete your account at any time.
Location: sharing your device location is optional. For each station you own you can choose whether people outside your organisation see its exact position (the default), an approximate position (about 1 km), or do not see it at all.
Photos: uploading photos is optional, and you can remove any photo you uploaded.
Report content or ask for removal: if a station, photo or note shows your property, identifies you, or is on your land without permission, email us. We acknowledge every report within five working days and will correct, generalise or remove content where appropriate.
Complain: you may complain to us first, and then to the University's Privacy Officer or, in Australia, to the NSW Information and Privacy Commission. Users in India may raise a grievance at the contact above under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023.

7. Children

Self-service OurWater accounts are for people aged 18 or older, and the sign-up form asks you to confirm this. A person under 18 may use OurWater only through an account opened for them by a school or organisation that holds the consent of their parent or guardian; the administrator who opens the account confirms this to us, and the school or organisation is responsible for their participation. If you believe we hold information about a child without such consent, contact us and we will remove it.

8. How we protect information

Everything travels over encrypted HTTPS connections.
Passwords are never stored in plain text, only as a salted hash.
Data is stored on Amazon Web Services in the Asia-Pacific (Sydney) region, with access limited to the OurWater team.
Camera metadata is removed from photos before upload, and a station's owner can generalise or hide its position for people outside their organisation.
Large data exports are logged and reviewed.

9. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The "Last updated" date above shows the current version, and when a change is significant we will tell registered users in the app.

10. Contact

Questions, requests or reports: marvi@westernsydney.edu.au. The OurWater Terms and Conditions are available in the app at /terms.