What we collect, what we deliberately do not, and why a seafarer can use MWApp without telling us who they are.
IMWIRSA is a non-profit association registered in Tallinn, Estonia. This policy explains how we handle personal data on this website and in MWApp, our application for seafarers.
MWApp needs no registration, no email address and no phone number. A seafarer can use it without telling us anything about themselves.
What MWApp remembers — a name if given, a chosen assistant, a marked ship position — stays in the phone's own storage. We do not receive it.
We measure how many times the app is opened, in aggregate. We do not track what any individual does inside it.
Last updated: 28 July 2026. MWApp is in active development and currently has no server of its own. When that changes, this policy will be updated before the change goes live, and the date above will tell you when.
MWApp is a progressive web app. It runs in the browser and, at present, has no back-end server. That is not a temporary shortcut — it is why so little data exists to protect.
All of the following is kept in the phone's local storage. It never leaves the device, and we have no way to read it:
All of it can be erased at any time from Settings → Clear my data. Because nothing is held on a server, deletion is immediate and final — there is no copy anywhere for us to remove.
MWApp can use the phone's location for two things, and only when the seafarer asks it to. The first is finding the nearest port: the coordinates are used for a single calculation on the device and are then discarded — only the result, which port, is kept. The second is marking where the ship is docked, so the seafarer can find their way back. That position is stored on the phone and is handed to the phone's own maps application when navigation is requested. Neither is transmitted to us.
In the current prototype the assistant's replies are pre-written demonstration text. Nothing typed into the chat is transmitted anywhere or stored beyond the current session. When a live assistant and a connection to our welfare coordinator are introduced, this section will be rewritten in advance and the change described plainly.
We need to know roughly how many seafarers have the app on their phone. That number matters to the unions and welfare organisations we work with, because it shows whether seafarers actually want this. We measure it by recording that the app was opened from a home screen rather than from a browser. The record is a page count and nothing more: it contains no identifier, no MWA-ID, and nothing that could distinguish one seafarer from another.
We use Cloudflare Web Analytics. It sets no cookies, stores nothing on your device, and does not identify visitors by IP address or browser fingerprint. It tells us how many pages were viewed and roughly where visitors came from. Nothing more, and nothing about you personally.
The contact form and the partner enquiry form send what you type to us by email through the service FormSubmit.co, which acts as a processor. That means your name, email address and message pass through their systems on the way to info@imwirsa.org. Messages are then held in our mailbox for as long as needed to deal with your enquiry and to keep a record of the partnership.
If you would rather not use the form, write to us directly at info@imwirsa.org. It reaches the same place, one step shorter.
Coordinators who complete a port information form give us their name, organisation and contact details so that we can work with them. Their name appears in the app only if they have agreed to it — the form asks explicitly, and the default is no. This information is not shared with anyone outside IMWIRSA.
We do not sell data. We do not share it with advertisers. We run no advertising. We do not build profiles of seafarers, and we do not pass information about any seafarer to a shipowner, a manning agent or an employer. This last point is not merely a policy — it is the reason MWApp is designed without accounts in the first place.
IMWIRSA is established in Estonia and is subject to the General Data Protection Regulation.
You may ask what we hold about you and have it corrected. For most seafarers the answer will be: nothing, because the app never sent us anything.
You may ask us to erase what we hold. In the app you do not need to ask — Settings → Clear my data does it immediately.
If you believe we have handled your data wrongly, you may complain to the Estonian Data Protection Inspectorate (Andmekaitse Inspektsioon).
To exercise any of these rights, write to info@imwirsa.org. We answer within 30 days, usually much sooner.
Data controller: IMWIRSA — International Maritime Welfare Innovation Research and Support Association, Tallinn, Estonia. Contact: info@imwirsa.org
This policy was last updated on 28 July 2026. Earlier versions are available on request.