Privacy policy
The short version
- There is no account and no sign-up. We never ask for your name, email, age or anything else about you.
- Your location is used to find the aircraft near you. Only a rounded version, about a kilometre wide, is sent to the flight-data service.
- Pictures from your camera stay on your phone.
- Ads are never personalised, use no advertising identifier, and are limited to ads suitable for everyone.
- We don't sell data, and we don't collect any to sell.
What the app uses, and why
Your location (while using the app)
The app needs to know where you are to find the aircraft overhead and to place their markers in the right part of the sky. Your precise position is used on the phone itself. To fetch the aircraft nearby, the app sends your position rounded to about one kilometre to the flight-data service adsb.lol, together with your device's internet (IP) address, as every internet request carries. We never see or store your location; the catches you keep store where the aircraft was, not where you were.
Your camera
The camera shows you the sky so you can aim. About once a second, Apple's image recognition built into iPhone checks on your phone whether the camera is pointed at open sky, so aircraft only show when you could actually see them. Those pictures are not saved or sent anywhere. When you keep an aircraft, a small snapshot of the sky around the focus box is saved on your phone only, as "Your sighting" on that catch. It is not uploaded and not included in share cards. Nothing is recorded while you're just looking.
Compass and motion
The phone's compass and motion sensors tell the app which way you're pointing. This stays on the device.
Aircraft details
When an aircraft is in the circle, the app looks up the usual route of its flight in adsb.lol's copy of Virtual Radar Server's route list, hosted on GitHub Pages, using the flight's public callsign. That request carries your IP address but not your location. Airline names come from a list inside the app.
Maps
Trip maps and airport pages use Apple Maps, and the airport album asks Apple's geocoding service which state an airport is in, using the airport's position, not yours. Apple's privacy policy applies to those requests.
Ads
The free version shows a banner ad on the Dex page, never while you are aiming or during a catch. Ads are served by Google AdMob. Every ad request is marked as child-directed, which means: no personalised ads, no advertising identifier, no tracking across apps, and only ads rated suitable for general audiences. To show an ad, Google receives technical information such as your IP address, device model, operating system version and the app's name. How Google handles it is described in Google's privacy policy and how Google uses information from apps that use its services. A one-time purchase removes ads for good. If you ever see an ad that doesn't belong in a family app, tap Report this ad above it, or tell us at the address below, with a screenshot if you can.
Purchases
The remove-ads purchase goes through Apple's App Store. We never see your payment details. Apple's privacy policy covers the transaction. The purchase is asked for behind a question meant for grown-ups.
Photos of aircraft types
The photos on the cards come bundled with the app from Wikimedia Commons, under open licences, and are credited in Settings. Showing them involves no request to anyone.
What stays on your phone
Your catches, your albums, your settings and your sighting pictures are stored on your phone. We have no server and no copy. If your phone backs up to iCloud or a computer, the app's data is included in that backup under your own Apple settings. Deleting the app deletes everything in it.
Analytics and crash reports
The app contains no analytics or tracking code. If you have chosen in your iPhone's settings to share analytics with app developers, Apple may pass us anonymous crash reports, which contain no personal information.
Children
The app is made for families and is rated 4+. It collects no personal information from anyone, children included: no names, no contact details, no accounts, no messages. Ads are treated as child-directed under the US Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and the equivalent rules elsewhere. Purchases sit behind a grown-up question. If you're a parent with any concern, write to us.
Your choices
- Location off: the app can't find aircraft near you, so the sky screen stays empty. You can turn it back on in Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services.
- Camera off: you can still catch aircraft from a list ("Catch without aiming" in the app's Settings), with no sighting picture.
- No ads: buy the one-time purchase, or restore it on a new phone.
- Delete everything: delete the app.
Where the data goes
| Who | What they receive | Why |
|---|---|---|
| adsb.lol (Germany) | Your position rounded to ~1 km, your IP address | Which aircraft are near you |
| adsb.lol's route list, hosted on GitHub Pages | A flight's public callsign, your IP address | Its usual route |
| Apple | Map requests; an airport's position; your purchase | Maps, airport album, remove-ads purchase |
| Google AdMob | IP address and device details, marked child-directed; no advertising identifier | The banner ad on the Dex |
Changes
If this policy changes, the new version appears here with a new date, and the app's Settings link to it.
Contact
Ronald Smith · chickendotdev@gmail.com