Your privacy, in plain words
Hui Kilo helps you report a plant or animal you saw in Hawaiʻi. Here is what happens to what you send, said plainly. If a word is unclear, that is our fault, not yours.
You can report without an account.
You do not sign up. You do not give your name. You can report and be done. If you want to check back on a report later, we give you a private link to save — that is all.
For a sensitive animal, you choose how exact the spot is.
Some animals, like a monk seal, are sensitive. Before you send, we ask one question: can responders see the exact spot? If you answer no, your phone blurs the spot to a wide area — about 5 kilometers across — right on your device, before anything is saved. The exact point never leaves your phone. Once it is blurred, no one can get it back, not even us.
Photos have their hidden location removed.
A photo can carry a hidden tag of where it was taken. When you attach a photo, your phone strips that hidden location out before the photo is sent. Our server checks again when the photo arrives, and turns away any photo that still carries a location tag. You do not have to do anything for this to happen.
Only a reviewer can open the exact spot — and you can see when they do.
For a sensitive animal, the exact spot stays hidden by default. A trained reviewer can open it when a response needs it, and every time they do, it is written down. You can see that on your own report page: it will say a reviewer viewed the exact location, and the date. It never shows you the spot back, and it never shows who the reviewer is — you only see that it happened, and when.
Your follow-up link lives on your device.
The link we give you to check on a report is yours to keep on your phone. Anyone who has the link can see the report’s status, so keep it to yourself if you would like. There is no account and no password to lose.
Leaving your contact is optional — and you can erase it anytime.
You never have to give your name, email, or phone. Your report sends fine without any of it. If you choose to leave contact — so DLNR can check your report is real, or reach you back if a response needs it — it is stored in a sealed place, kept apart from where you saw the animal. It never appears on any map, never sits next to your location, and never shows on your status page. You can erase it anytime with your report link: one tap, and it is gone for good — no account needed. Hiki iā ʻoe ke holoi i kēlā manawa aku me kāu loulou hōʻike ponoʻī.
We clear the short-lived duplicate-check record after 7 days.
When you send a report, we briefly remember it so that a slow connection or a second tap does not create a duplicate. We clear that short-lived record after 7 days.
Still being finalized with DLNR
The promises below are not final yet. We are working them out with the Hawaiʻi Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR). We are showing you our intent honestly, and we will not present it as a final promise until it is signed. Please do not rely on it yet.
Not using your reports — or your contact — against you.
Our intent is that a report you make, and any contact you leave, are used to help wildlife and follow up with you — never to bring an enforcement action against you, and never handed to enforcement to find you. The exact terms are still being worked out with DLNR. Until this is signed, we cannot promise it as final here.
How long we keep your report and your contact.
Our intent is to keep report information only as long as it is useful for conservation, and to remove any contact you left a set time after your report is finished — sooner if you erase it yourself. (You can already erase your contact anytime; the automatic time limit is what is still being set.) The retention terms are still being worked out with DLNR. Until this is signed, we cannot promise a specific time here.