Privacy Policy

Effective: 2026-08-29 · Last updated: 2026-09-04

1. Data we collect

NowSky requires no account and collects no personally identifiable information. Preferences (theme, observing location, tips) are stored only in your browser's localStorage and never sent to a server.

Google sign-in (optional). If you sign in we store: your Google account ID, email, display name and profile-picture URL (as provided by Google), plus sign-up and last-seen timestamps. Right after sign-in we ask for your birthday and country; both are optional and can be skipped. Purpose: member features (favourites, synced settings), preventing sign-ups under 14, personalised content such as the birthday sky, and per-country usage statistics. Retention: until you delete your account. On deletion the account is deactivated immediately and email, name, picture, birthday and country are erased or replaced with anonymous values; only a minimal record (anonymous ID, sign-up date) is kept for payment-dispute handling. Your signed-in state lives in a browser cookie (7 days) that is never used for advertising.

2. Location

Browser location permission is requested only for the compass and “my location” features in Sky view, and on first visit only if you accept the “Start from your location?” prompt. Coordinates are used only in your browser to compute the sky and are never transmitted or stored. If no observing location is saved and location permission is unavailable, an approximate city-level location derived from your connection (provided by Cloudflare) seeds the initial view; it is not stored on our servers and is kept only briefly in your browser session. If the IP-based location is unavailable either, a nearby city is estimated from your device time zone and browser language alone (no server request), and while that estimate is in use a once-a-day hint invites you to set your location.

3. Cookies & advertising

We may use cookieless traffic statistics (Cloudflare Web Analytics), which do not identify individuals.

We may also use Google Analytics 4 to learn which features are used. It may set cookies; for visitors in the EU, UK and Switzerland it sets cookies only after consent is given in the consent banner (before consent it runs in cookieless, anonymous mode). It records usage such as pages opened, which simulator was used, sharing and language switches — never birth dates, coordinates, names or other personal identifiers. You can refuse collection with the Google Analytics opt-out add-on.

This site may use Google AdSense to serve ads. Third-party vendors, including Google, may use advertising cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits. You can opt out of personalized advertising in Google Ads Settings, and manage third-party ad cookies at aboutads.info. While no ads are being served, no advertising cookies are used.

4. External requests

Satellite orbit data (Celestrak) and object photos (Wikimedia) are fetched from those services; your IP reaches them as part of normal web requests.

5. What we keep in localStorage

Stored only in your browser: theme, dev tier display state, Sky-view observing location, ruler/compass pin state, favorites, coach-mark dismissals, and interstitial session flags. Clearing site data removes them immediately; none of it reaches a server.

6. Data retention

We keep no personal data on servers, so there is no server-side retention period. Browser-stored items remain on your device until you delete them. Emails you send us are kept only as long as needed to respond, then deleted.

7. Children's privacy

NowSky is all-ages educational content. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 (COPPA) or under 14 (Korea). There are no accounts or input forms through which a child could submit personal data.

8. Your rights (GDPR)

Users in the EU and similar jurisdictions have rights of access, rectification, erasure, restriction and portability. Since we hold no personal data server-side, there is usually nothing to act on; for advertising cookies (when ads run), use the opt-outs in section 3 and your browser's cookie controls. For anything else, contact us below — we respond within 30 days.

9. Changes & contact

Updates to this policy will be posted on this page. Questions: contact@nowsky.org (send email)