Privacy

Last updated: 20 October 2026.

This is written plainly because you should be able to read it. It says what we collect, why, how long we keep it and how to make us delete it. Where the honest answer is "we do not collect that", it says so.

The short version. The app collects nothing about you and sends nothing about you. Once a day, if it happens to have a connection, it asks our server one question — is this licence still good, and is there a newer reviewer — using your device code and a checksum of your licence; and when you download an exam or enter an unlock code, it sends what that needs and nothing more. The microphone (quiz bee) is heard on the phone only. No name, no address, no location, nothing about what you study. The website collects only what a purchase needs, plus, if you choose to register, a photograph of an ID that a person looks at once and then deletes, and a photograph of you for the day you pass. We never see your card. When you pass we congratulate you by name, rank and photo, like every review centre — unless you tick the box that says not to, on the page or later by email.

What the app sends

Almost nothing, and never anything about your studying. Your answers, your scores, your starred questions and your notes stay on the phone. There is no account, no password and nothing to log into.

Once a day, if the phone happens to have a connection, the app asks our server a single question. It sends three things:

your device code — the eight characters the app shows you, which identify a handset and not a person;
which reviewer it is (deck, engine, and so on);
a checksum of your licence — not the licence, and nothing that can be turned back into it. It tells us which purchase is running on that handset, and proves the phone actually holds the licence it is asking about.

The answer says whether the licence has been withdrawn (after a refund, for example) and whether a corrected question bank has been published.

Two more exchanges happen only when you ask for them:

Downloading an exam's questions. The app fetches the exam's encrypted question package from our server. In the Google Play version, Google's Play Integrity check first confirms the request comes from the genuine app on a genuine phone: the app sends us Google's verdict and a key it made on the phone, and we send back the package key locked to that phone. Google's own handling of that check is covered by Google's privacy policy. Nothing about you or your studying is sent.
Entering an unlock code. The app sends the code and your device code so the unlock can be made for this phone.

The microphone is used only in quiz bee, when you start it, to hear your spoken answer. Speech is recognised on the phone itself; no recording or audio ever leaves it.

If the app never gets a connection, it never stops working. This is not a licence check and there is no grace period to run out. A seafarer out of contact for months is using the app exactly as intended.

Who is responsible

Shorepass is operated from the Philippines and is the personal information controller for what is described here, under Republic Act 10173 (the Data Privacy Act of 2012).

Questions, corrections, or a request to delete: privacy@seamanapp.com. We answer within a few days. If you are not satisfied you may complain to the National Privacy Commission (privacy.gov.ph).

The app on your phone collects nothing

This is the part most study apps cannot say, so it is worth being precise about. The app has no account, no analytics, no advertising and no trackers. What it sends is listed above, and that is all of it.

Your answers, your scores, your speed, your ink and drawings, your starred questions and your whole history stay on your handset. They are included in your phone's own backup if you have one turned on, and they reach nobody else. We could not read them if we wanted to, and we have never wanted to.

What the website collects, and why

What	Why	Kept for
Device code eight characters	A licence is issued to one handset. The code names the phone so the licence can be bound to it. It is a one-way hash — it carries no serial number, no phone number, no account and nothing about you.	With the order record, and for our own accounts
Email address optional at checkout	To send you your licence, so you keep a copy you can paste again on the same phone. If you leave it blank the purchase still works, but the only copy is the one on your screen.	With the order record
What you paid, and when	To know the licence was actually bought, and for our own accounts.	As long as tax records require
Registration: full name, rank, email, phone, one photograph of an ID, and one photograph of you (in uniform if you have one)	Only if you choose to register. It is how we know a Shorepass passer is a real seafarer before we congratulate one publicly, and the photograph of you is the one that goes on that post.	Name, rank and contact stay; the ID photograph is deleted once a person has checked it; the photograph of you stays for the post and is deleted the moment you ask

Your card details never reach us

Payment is taken by PayMongo on their own pages. We receive a yes or no and an amount. We never see, hold or store a card number, a GCash PIN or a bank login. PayMongo's handling of your payment is governed by their own privacy policy.

The ID photograph, specifically

It is stored outside the public web directory under a random filename, and the row in our database holds only a path — so deleting your document is deleting one file. It is served to nobody by any public address; the only way to look at it is an internal page behind a separate token.

There is no automatic reader and there will not be one. A person looks at it. An automatic approval on an identity document is a mistake nobody notices until it lands on a real seafarer's name.

Being congratulated publicly, and how to say no

Every review centre posts its passers, and so do we: when you pass, we publish your name, your rank and the photograph of you that you gave us on the Shorepass website and social pages. It is a verified pass under your own name, and it is yours.

If you would rather we did not, tick the box on the registration page that says "Do not post my name or photo when I pass". It is not a condition of registering, of buying, or of anything else, and a registration with that box ticked is an ordinary registration. What we will never publish, with or without the box:

Your ID photograph or any number on it
Your email address or phone number
Your device code
Anything at all about how you scored, how fast you answered, or what you got wrong — which we do not have in the first place

You can change your mind at any time, either way, by email, without giving a reason. Say no and we stop and take down what is still ours to take down; say yes and we put it up.

What we do not do

No advertising, and no selling your details to anyone. Not now and not as a change of plan later.
No trackers or analytics on this website. No Google Analytics, no Facebook pixel, no third-party scripts of any kind — the pages load nothing from anywhere but this site, and the browser is told to enforce that.
No cookies for tracking. The pages keep your device code and your order reference in the browser's own session storage so that coming back from the payment page finds your licence. It is erased when you close the tab, and it never leaves your browser.
No profiling and no automated decisions that have any effect on you.

Who else sees any of it

PayMongo, our payment processor, for the payment itself.
Our email provider, to deliver your licence to your inbox.
The company hosting the server.

Nobody else. There is no analytics company, no advertising network and no data broker in this list, because there is none in the system.

Your rights, and how to use them

Under the Data Privacy Act you may ask us to:

Tell you what we hold about you — we will send it.
Correct anything wrong.
Delete it, including both photographs, at any time.
Withdraw your permission to be congratulated publicly.
Object, or complain to the National Privacy Commission.

Write to privacy@seamanapp.com from the address you registered with. Deleting your details does not switch off a licence you have already paid for: the licence lives on your phone and works to its expiry date whatever we delete at our end.

Deleting your data

To have your data deleted, email privacy@seamanapp.com with your device code (the eight characters on the app's unlock screen) and, if you bought on the website, the email you used. We delete the orders, unlock records and email address tied to it within 7 days and reply to confirm. What is on the phone itself - your progress, marks and notes - you delete by uninstalling the app or clearing its data. There is no account to close.

Keeping it safe, and what we cannot promise

The site is served over HTTPS. Identity documents are stored outside the public directory and are reachable only through an authenticated internal page. Uploads are decoded and checked before they are written, so a file pretending to be a photograph is refused.

What we will not tell you is that any of this is unbreakable, because nobody can honestly say that. What we can say is that we hold as little as the job needs, that the most sensitive thing we ever take is deleted as soon as it has served its one purpose, and that if something did go wrong we would tell you and the National Privacy Commission rather than hope you did not notice.

Children

Shorepass is for candidates sitting professional maritime licensure examinations. It is not intended for anyone under 18 and we do not knowingly collect anything from a child.

Changes

If this policy changes, the date at the top changes with it. If a change means we would use something you have already given us for a genuinely new purpose, we will ask you first rather than announce it here and hope.