1. Eligibility & Access
1.1 Access to Habi-Food is restricted to persons holding a current, active Victorian wildlife rehabilitation permit. You must provide your correct permit number at registration.
1.2 Your access is tied to the currency of your DEECA permit. If your permit expires, is suspended or is revoked, your Habi-Food access will be updated accordingly. You will receive a 30-day data export window before access is removed.
1.3 Access codes are personal, non-transferable and may only be used by the permit holder to whom they were issued. Sharing access codes with others is a breach of these conditions.
1.4 Habi-Food reserves the right to suspend or revoke access for breach of these conditions, misuse of data, or conduct that harms other users or wildlife outcomes.
1.5 For the time being, account access for this platform is managed directly by Habi-Food founder Carni Evans, who verifies licences and manages access.
2. Permitted Use
2.1 Habi-Food may only be used for legitimate wildlife rehabilitation activities, including locating native food sources, planning browse collection, assessing release sites, logging rescue and release records, and monitoring hazards affecting rehabilitation work.
2.2 You must not use Habi-Food to profile, monitor, identify or judge the practices of other carers. The platform is designed to prevent this; attempts to circumvent these protections are a breach of these conditions.
2.3 You must not use Habi-Food for commercial purposes, data harvesting, research without explicit written consent, or any purpose unrelated to licensed wildlife rehabilitation.
2.4 Data accessed through Habi-Food — including government spatial data, vegetation layers, chemical treatment records and network density maps — may only be used for the purposes stated in section 2.1.
3. Privacy & Data Handling
3.1 What is shared with the network: Anonymous, gridded rescue density (species, cause, approximate location) and anonymous release density (species, habitat type, approximate location). Individual care methods, treatment duration, outcomes, shelter throughput and any data that identifies individual carer practice are never shared.
3.2 What stays private: Your exact rescue and release coordinates, animal care records, permit number, contact details, and any personal information you enter remain private to you and accessible only by you and the Habi-Food administrator for platform operation purposes.
3.3 Sharing preferences: You control whether your shelter name appears on release records and whether you contribute to network density data. These toggles are available in My Shelter → Privacy & Sharing and are off by default.
3.4 Licensee organisations: Habi-Food licenses account-management access to wildlife rehabilitation organisations, councils and government agencies.
3.5 Data retention: Your data is retained for the duration of your access. Upon revocation you receive a 30-day window to export your records. After this window, your personal data is removed.
3.6 Third-party data: Habi-Food connects to government APIs (FFMVic, VicMap, EPA, Melbourne Urban Forest, iNaturalist). This data is governed by the terms of the relevant agency.
3.7 Firebase: Animal records and account data are stored in Google Firebase (asia-southeast1 region). Data is encrypted in transit and at rest.
4. Access Controls & Security
4.1 Your access code is single-use and bound to your licence number. It cannot be reused after initial activation.
4.2 You are responsible for keeping your device secure. Habi-Food stores your credentials locally on your device. If your device is lost or stolen, notify the Habi-Food administrator immediately to revoke access.
4.3 You must not attempt to access, modify or delete other users’ data. Attempts to do so will result in immediate revocation and may be referred to DEECA and relevant authorities.
4.4 Habi-Food implements gridding (location rounding) and aggregation to prevent identification of individual carers through pattern analysis.
5. Accuracy & Liability
5.1 Government data integrated in Habi-Food — including planned burn information, chemical treatment records and vegetation layers — is sourced from authoritative agencies but may not always be current, complete or accurate.
5.2 Habi-Food does not guarantee the accuracy, currency or completeness of any data displayed. The platform is a decision-support tool, not a substitute for professional veterinary or wildlife management advice.
5.3 Totally Untamed Wildlife Rescue & Rehabilitation and the Habi-Food platform accept no liability for decisions made on the basis of data displayed in Habi-Food.
6. Intellectual Property
6.1 Habi-Food, including its name, design, code, species database and data integration framework, is an original work owned by Totally Untamed Wildlife Rescue & Rehabilitation.
6.2 You may not copy, reproduce, distribute, modify or create derivative works from any part of Habi-Food without explicit written permission.
6.3 Government data accessed through Habi-Food remains the intellectual property of the relevant agency and is subject to that agency’s licence terms.
7. Sector Conduct
7.1 Habi-Food is designed to serve all licensed Victorian wildlife rehabilitators regardless of organisational affiliation. You agree not to use the platform in a way that disadvantages, targets or disparages other carers or organisations.
7.2 Data contributed to the network is provided to benefit all carers. Using network data to identify, monitor or gain competitive advantage over other carers is a breach of these conditions.
7.3 Habi-Food is a tool for wildlife outcomes. The animals in care are the priority. Conduct that compromises wildlife welfare through misuse of this platform will not be tolerated.