Your boat can appear on AIS Fleet when an AIS receiver reports her broadcasts to our network, without you creating an account. Some Saillogger owners also choose to share positions directly over the internet.
This page explains what other members can see, what you control and how to ask for help with privacy concerns.
What a stranger can see
Anyone signed in to AIS Fleet, on the free plan, can see of your boat:
- Her name, her MMSI, her type, her flag, her length and her beam, as she broadcasts them.
- Her position, speed and course as last heard, and when that was.
- Where she has been, from the reports available to AIS Fleet: the last 24 hours on the free plan, and up to the last 7 or 30 days on a paid one.
- Photographs other people have taken of her, if any member has contributed one. If somebody photographs your boat
- That she is in a fleet, to the members of that fleet.
They cannot see who owns her, your name, your e-mail address, or anything you have not broadcast, unless you have chosen to publish it (below).
Following her is one-way and does not require approval. If she is claimed on AIS Fleet, you can receive a notice when somebody follows her or adds her to a list, showing their display name. Choose the channels under New followers in Notification settings.
What you control
Two different things, and it matters which is which.
What she broadcasts over the air is not ours to switch off. Your transponder transmits to every receiver in range, and every AIS site and their customers carry it. There is no button on any website that stops that, and we would rather say so than let you believe otherwise. AIS equipment has a safety role and may be required aboard your vessel, so a decision about the transponder itself is one made aboard. If something about how your boat appears here worries you, write to us and we will look at it with you, though we cannot reach copies other services already hold.
What travels with that position is yours to decide, if you keep a logbook with Saillogger:
| What | Where you decide it |
|---|---|
| Your journal, your logged voyage track and your own photo of the boat | Settings > Sharing on saillogger.com |
| Whether her marker here comes from your own position reports or only from what receivers hear | The AIS Fleet switch under Settings > Integrations |
| Who can see any of it | The access password on your public pages, in the same Sharing tab |
All of it is re-checked every time somebody looks, not fixed on the day they followed you: turn something off and it is off for everyone from that moment, including people already following. The switches are documented in Share your journey in the Saillogger guide, which is where a Saillogger boater's own settings live.
If you do not use Saillogger, those integration and sharing switches do not apply. You can still manage followers once your boat is claimed, block unwanted messages and contact us about vessel data or photographs that concern you.
Your boat's data can be licensed
AIS Fleet licenses vessel data to other software, including recent positions, AIS tracks, recent port calls and licensed catalog photographs.
Where such an answer would be built from a position Saillogger sent on your behalf, the AIS Fleet switch under Settings > Integrations decides it, and switching it off keeps your own reports out of what we sell. Where it is built from what a receiver heard over the air, it is the same public broadcast every AIS site carries, and no switch here changes that.
It never includes your journal, your logged track, your messages or anything about your account.
Who follows your boat
Once your boat is claimed here, her followers are listed in your account under Followers, in the account menu.
- Each new one reaches you in Notifications and by e-mail, offering to Follow back where that member can be reached.
- A member who adds her to one of their lists reaches you the same way, and the notice says it was a list, naming it.
- Someone who subscribes to a list your boat is on is not a follower: they are not listed, you are not told, they cannot message you through it, and they see only her AIS position.
- You can remove a follower. Your boat leaves their following list and they are not told, though anyone can follow an AIS-broadcasting boat again later.
If your boat keeps her log with Saillogger, her followers list lives on Saillogger instead, at saillogger.com/app/followers, and AIS Fleet followers appear there with an AIS Fleet badge. That list is not the whole picture, though: it shows the people who can open your pages right now, so it is empty while Live tracking & monitoring is off, and an AIS Fleet follower who does not hold your current access password drops off it while still following your AIS position.
Being watched when you would rather not be
The map reports vessel movements, but cannot establish whether anyone is aboard. That limitation does not remove the privacy concerns a visible position can raise.
- A boat laid up for the winter. Her transponder is usually off, so she is not reporting; what is on the chart is her last position, ageing. Anyone reading her panel sees how old it is.
- Anchored alone somewhere. A follower can see where you anchored and when you got there. They cannot see whether anybody is aboard, and a stale marker is not evidence of anything: it looks the same whether you are asleep below, ashore for a week, or have your instruments off.
- Sailing shorthanded. The same applies. AIS says a hull is somewhere; it says nothing about who is on her, and it never has.
If attention is unwanted, or you have a privacy or safety concern, write to [email protected] with your boat's MMSI and the activity involved. We can review it with you. Messages explains how to block contact in the meantime.
If somebody photographs your boat
Members may contribute photographs of your boat, so her gallery can contain pictures you did not take. A person reviews every submission before it appears.
If a published photo of your boat shows something you would rather it did not, write to [email protected] with her MMSI and we will take it down. Vessel photos
Claiming her, fleets and messages
Claim your boat is what makes her yours here: her followers listed for you, members able to write to you under her name, notices when a boat you watch comes near her, and nobody else able to claim her afterwards. It is free, and it changes nothing about what people can see.
Fleets
A fleet is a group of boats on one map with a chat of its own, and you are in one when its organizer adds your MMSI. Everyone in a fleet sees everyone else, which is what separates it from a list, where one member is sorting the boats they watch and your boat joins no group. Once she is claimed, you are told the moment somebody adds her to a fleet, and you can leave in one tap. Fleets is the whole of it, from both sides.
Run a fleet
A paid plan lets you start and organize fleets of your own, and you do not need a boat linked to run one, so a club secretary or a rally organizer ashore can run a fleet from the desk. Run a fleet covers starting one, adding boats and what happens if your plan changes.
Messages
Members who follow your boat, and your fleet mates, can write to you, under your boat's name rather than your own. Nobody sees your e-mail address, and you can block anyone. Messages
If your boat already logs with Saillogger
She is on AIS Fleet already, through her MMSI and your sharing settings, so there is nothing to claim and no plan to buy. An MMSI that belongs to an active Saillogger boat is refused by an ordinary claim, which is what stops anyone picking up your boat by typing your number.
The case a claim is really for is two people on one boat: a partner or a crew member who wants her in their own AIS Fleet account. Claim your boat sets out what that moves, because it is more than it looks.