The Slow Motion Birds apps do not collect any data about you. There is nothing to opt out of, because there is nothing being gathered.
v1.5.0 · Updated Sun / 2026-09-27 / 4:10 AM CT
No accounts. No sign in. No analytics. No advertising and no advertising identifiers. No tracking, and no data shared with anyone. That is true of every version, and it is the part that will not change.
Version 1.0, the one on the App Store, makes no network requests at all. Every clip is bundled inside the app itself, so once it is installed it works with the Apple TV disconnected from the internet.
Version 1.1, which adds a clip of the day, does reach the internet, and this page says so before that version ships rather than after. It reads three things and sends nothing about you:
The app never asks for your location. There is no location permission in it, and no code in it that reads one. The only way it knows anything about where you are is the town or ZIP you choose to type, and that stays on your own device.
Fourteen clips are still built into every version, so the app still plays with no internet at all.
These things, and they never leave it: whether shuffle is on or off, which clips you starred as favorites, whether you chose to play favorites only, whether the app opens each session with the clip of the day, whether the nerdy camera details are shown, the town or ZIP you typed for bird counts, and a list of the past clips of the day the app has shown you. Your Apple TV, iPhone or iPad stores those the same way it stores any other app setting. Deleting the app removes them, and version 1.1 also has a button in its settings that forgets all of them at once.
The clips the app has downloaded are kept in its cache so it keeps working offline for a week. They are just video files, they say nothing about you, and the system may clear them whenever it needs the space.
Every clip in the app was shot by Colton Mulligan, in his own backyard in Nashville and on his own trips. No cameras in the app, no photos read from your device, no access to anything on your Apple TV, iPhone or iPad.
Nearby sighting numbers come from eBird, run by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and the app says so wherever it shows them. The app talks to our own service rather than to eBird directly, so that eBird never sees you, only us, and all we ever send is a rounded map location for the place you typed and the name of the bird on screen.
The app is rated 4 and up. Since it collects nothing from anyone, it collects nothing from children either.
Write to colton@foxfuelcreative.com.
If a future version of the app ever does collect something, this page changes first and the version stamp above moves with it. That is the rule, and version 1.1 is the first time it has been used: this page described 1.1's network reads before 1.1 was submitted to Apple.
Everything above is about the app. This part is about the website you are reading it on, slowmotionbirds.com, which is a separate thing from the app.
The website counts page views with a cookie-free visitor counter (Cloudflare Web Analytics). It sets no cookies, does not fingerprint anyone, and counts visits, not people. That counter is deliberately left off this one page. Like the rest of the site, this page does load its typefaces from Google Fonts, so your browser contacts Google to fetch them. The site is hosted on GitHub Pages, and the films on its other pages are embedded from Vimeo.
If you sign up for "keep me posted" on the homepage, that's the one time this website collects anything: your email address, what you checked (if anything), and when you signed up. It's used only to send you the updates you asked for, it's never sold or shared, and you can unsubscribe anytime. The list is shared with betterbirder.com, which uses the same signup form and the same rule.
The full plain-language notice for this website and Colton's other sites, covering what is counted, what is never done and how to reach him, is at coltonland.com/privacy.
v1.5.0 (2026-09-27, 4:10 AM): The website now has a "keep me posted" email signup on the homepage. The About this website section says what that collects (email, what you checked, when) and that it's never sold or shared. Nothing above that section, about the apps, changed.
v1.4.0 (2026-09-27, 2:20 AM): Written BEFORE version 1.1 of the apps is submitted, which is the point of the rule this page sets itself. Version 1.1 adds a clip of the day, and with it the app's first network requests: a published schedule file, the clips it names, and, only when you type a town or a ZIP, a bird count from our own eBird service. Nothing about you is collected, stored or logged at either end, and the app still asks for no location permission of any kind. The page now says which version does what, rather than saying "no network requests at all" as though there were only one version. What stays on your device grew to seven settings plus the list of past days, and version 1.1 adds a button that forgets all of them. The page now covers the iPhone and iPad app as well as the Apple TV one.
v1.3.0 (2026-09-26, 8:49 PM): The footer now lists every page of the site, on every page, with the one you are on marked. Each page used to carry its own partial list, and the published contact sheets and the player carried almost none, so the deeper pages were only findable if you already knew they were there.
v1.2.2 (2026-09-25, 3:01 PM): A pasted link to this page now unfurls into its own photo card, built from a frame of the films, instead of the shared text card. Not one word of the statement above changed.
v1.2.1 (2026-09-20, 9:22 PM): Legibility pass, styling only. Not one word of the statement above changed, and the visitor counter is still off this page. Nothing on the page is under 12px now and paragraphs are 16px. The grey used for small print moved to a lighter sibling that measures 7.9 to 1 on the page background (it was 6.2 against a floor of 7). Links inside sentences are underlined so color is not the only cue, the back link, the email address, the Changelog toggle and the footer links are full 44px touch targets, and keyboard focus shows a visible ring.
v1.2.0 (2026-09-19, 10:38 PM): What stays on your Apple TV now lists three things instead of one: the shuffle setting, the clips you starred as favorites, and whether you chose to play favorites only. The app has kept favorites on the device since that feature was added, which was before the app went to the App Store, and this page had not caught up. It now matches the privacy policy text on the app's App Store listing. Nothing about collection changed: the app still collects nothing and makes no network requests, and all three settings stay on the device. Also, the link to coltonland.com now opens in a new tab.
v1.1.0 (2026-09-19, 9:51 AM): Added the About this website section, kept separate from the app's statement on purpose. The rest of slowmotionbirds.com gained a cookie-free visitor counter on 2026-09-18; this page still does not carry it, and the section says both things and links to the full website notice. Nothing the page says about the app changed: no collection, no network, one local preference.
v1.0.0 (2026-09-07, 3:29 PM): First edition, written for the Apple TV app's App Store submission. States the position for version 1 of the app: no collection, no network, one local preference.