Data Controller
The Cruising Association (CA), CA House, 1 Northey Street, Limehouse Basin, London E14 8BT. Privacy enquiries: office@theca.org.uk.
About This Statement
This statement explains what information the CAptain's Mate app collects, how it is used, and your rights in relation to it. It should be read alongside the CA's overarching Privacy Statement, which covers your membership data more broadly.
CAptain's Mate is currently available to CA members. The CA may in future make the app available to non-members, including on a trial basis or to members of affiliated organisations. In any version of the app made available to non-members, members' names and personal details will not be revealed.
Throughout this statement:
- 'users' refers to anyone using the app
- 'members' refers to CA members
- 'authorised persons' refers to CA staff, contractors, HLRs, and others granted access by the CA
The app allows users to submit facts, opinions, and location information about places they visit. Members may also access the CA membership directory and boat register, and share their locations with other members through the Friends service.
Information Shared With Other Users and Members
When you use the app, the following may be visible to other users:
- Facts, opinions, and location information you submit about a place
- Images you upload
The following are visible to CA members and authorised persons only:
- Your membership directory entry and boat register entry, if you have enabled sharing via the CA website (see Membership Directory and Boat Register below)
- Your current location, if you enable GPS sharing in the Friends service
- Your vessel's AIS-derived location, if you have registered your MMSI with the CA
- Your on-screen identity — the name and/or boat name you set for Friends, and your username on submitted content
Any images you share must comply with our Image Upload Rules, available on the App Notices page.
Membership Directory and Boat Register
CAptain's Mate provides CA members with access to a membership directory and boat register.
You control what information about you is visible to other members and authorised persons. Individual items — your address, phone numbers, email address, and boat details — can each be toggled on or off independently through your account settings on the CA website. CA staff, relevant volunteers, and HLRs have access to your information regardless of your sharing preferences, for the purposes of administering the Association.
If you prefer not to share your details directly, you can instead enable a contact form, which allows other members and HLRs to message you without revealing your email address unless you reply.
To manage your sharing preferences, visit your account settings at theca.org.uk.
The lawful basis for directory and boat register sharing is consent. You can withdraw this consent at any time by changing your account settings on the CA website or contacting the CA office.
Use of Location Information and Reports
Any facts, opinions, or location information you submit, or have submitted in the past, may be used by the CA in anonymised form, with usernames and any details identifying the contributor removed, to update its almanac and other publications, and may also be made available to third parties for navigational or safety purposes.
When submitting content, members should be aware that it may in future be visible to non-members, and may be used in CA publications. While the CA removes usernames and identifying details before any such use, members should take care not to include information they would not wish to be associated with them — for example, references to their vessel name, home port, or personal circumstances.
Your personal information (including your location, email address, and identity) will not be shared with any third-party organisation without your explicit consent.
The Friends Service
The Friends service is available to CA members and authorised persons only. It allows members to see the locations of other members' vessels on the map. Locations may be derived from two sources:
- GPS location — shared directly from a member's mobile device when they have the service enabled
- AIS-derived location — where a member has registered their vessel's MMSI with the CA, their vessel's location as broadcast via AIS may be shown on the map
GPS Location Sharing
The Friends service is off by default. You can enable or disable it at any time within the app.
While the Friends service is active, your current location will be shared periodically with other members, including when the app is closed or running in the background if that option has been selected in the app. Please ensure you are comfortable with this before enabling the service.
The lawful basis for processing your GPS location data is consent. You can withdraw this consent at any time by disabling the service in the app.
AIS-Derived Locations
AIS location data may be publicly broadcast by your vessel. Where you have registered your vessel's MMSI with the CA, your vessel's location as broadcast via AIS may be shown on the Friends map. If you would prefer it not to be, you can disable this via your account settings on the CA website.
Email Contact Through Friends
You may choose to be contactable by email through the Friends service without revealing your email address on the membership register. In this case the CA sends the initial email on the requesting member's behalf without disclosing your address to them or storing it on their device.
Authentication and Membership Data
The app holds only the information necessary to authenticate you and, for CA members, to display your membership card. This data is provided from CA servers and is not shared with other users via the app.
IP Address Logging
Your IP address may be recorded alongside requests made by the app to CA servers (API requests), for security and fault-finding purposes. The lawful basis for this is the CA's legitimate interests in maintaining the security and integrity of its services. Retention periods for these logs are set out in the CA's overarching Privacy Statement.
Third-Party Processors
The CA uses third-party services to operate its technical infrastructure, including hosting and app delivery. These parties act as data processors under contract and are not permitted to use your information for their own purposes.
Your personal information will not be shared with any other third-party organisation without your explicit consent.
AIS location data used in the Friends service is publicly broadcast under international maritime regulation. The CA receives this as a data consumer and does not share any member data with AIS providers in connection with this service.
Data retention
CAptain's Mate can be used to create data in the form of cruising reports and positions submitted via the Friends feature, as well as to display data submitted by members through their CA account settings on our website or by correspondence with the office. These form two separate categories. Retention periods for information provided to the CA by means other than CAptain's Mate are set out in our Overarching Privacy Policy.
Textual cruising information (cruising reports), photographs, and factual data about locations submitted through CAptain's Mate may be retained by the CA indefinitely, as they contribute to the CA's ongoing cruising information. We encourage members wherever possible to avoid submitting personal information as part of these categories. In the event that such submissions do contain peronal information, you may exercise rights to deletion (see below).
Position information relating to your location which is derived from and supplied by CAptain's Mate as part of the Friends feature is retained for 90 days after receipt. If you disable the Friends service, your location stops being shared immediately and any recent location history is deleted within 90 days.
App performance data (crash logs and diagnostics), and logs containing IP addresses, are treated in accordance with our Web Privacy Policy and may be retained for up to 24 months.
Requesting data deletion
CAptain's Mate can be used to create data in the form of cruising reports and positions submitted via the Friends feature, as well as to display data submitted by members through their CA account settings on our website or by correspondence with the office. These form two separate categories.
You can request deletion of the data CAptain's Mate holds about you at any time.
To remove your membership directory and boat register details yourself, you can use your account settings on the CA website https://www.theca.org.uk/myaccount.
To request deletion of your Friends location history, or personal information contained within submitted content, uploaded images, or any other app data, email office@theca.org.uk with "Data deletion request" in the subject line. We will action your request and confirm once it's complete, normally within 30 days.
If your request relates to information provided to the CA by means other than CAptain's Mate, it will be governed by our Overarching Privacy Policy.
Some data cannot be deleted on request:
- content that has already been anonymised and incorporated into the CA's publications, since it can no longer be linked back to you;
- data we are required to retain for legal, safety, or regulatory reasons — for example, records needed to investigate misuse of the app; and
- information which is essential to managing your membership, while you remain a member of the CA.
Your Rights
Under UK Data Protection Act, 2018, you have the right to:
- Access the personal data the CA holds about you
- Request correction of inaccurate data
- Request erasure of your data in certain circumstances
- Restrict or object to processing in certain circumstances
- Data portability in certain circumstances
- Withdraw consent for GPS location sharing at any time by disabling the Friends service
- Manage your membership directory and boat register sharing preferences via your account on the CA website
To exercise any of these rights, contact office@theca.org.uk.
You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk.
Last Updated
15th August 2026 | Version 2.1
