Privacy Policy

Summary of key points

Before diving into the details, here is a quick overview of how we handle your privacy at SkyMeter:

• What personal information do we collect? Your name, email address, account preferences, the text of natural-language searches you run, device information, usage analytics, technical logs, and your approximate location (country) derived from your IP address.
• Do we process any sensitive personal information? No. We do not collect special-category data such as health, biometric, or religious information. We do not access your device’s precise GPS location unless you explicitly grant your browser permission for a feature that needs it.
• Do we collect information from third parties? Yes. We receive payment confirmation details from our payment processor (Stripe) to manage your subscription, and profile details (such as your email) from our authentication provider (Auth0) when you sign in.
• How do we use your information? To provide 3D flight replays, aviation analytics, natural-language search, and incident detection, and to process payments, secure our platform, and communicate with you.
• Who do we share your personal information with? Only the service providers we rely on to run SkyMeter: Microsoft Azure (hosting and database), Hetzner (storage and processing infrastructure), Stripe (payments), Auth0 (sign-in), Mailchimp (account and transactional email), Cloudflare (security and content delivery), Google Analytics (analytics), and Anthropic and OpenAI (interpreting natural-language searches).
• Do we sell your data? No. We do not sell or share your personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising.
• What are your privacy rights? Depending on where you live, you have the right to access, correct, delete, and export your data, as well as the right to opt out of certain processing.
• How can you contact us? Reach our privacy team anytime at [email protected].

1. Introduction

Welcome to SkyMeter. We are a subscription-based software platform dedicated to providing advanced aviation analytics, historical aircraft tracking, 3D flight replays, and airport safety metrics. Whether you are a pilot, flight school instructor, researcher, or aviation enthusiast, our goal is to give you accurate and actionable flight data.

Because you trust us with your information to make these tools work, we are committed to protecting your privacy. We believe that understanding how your data is handled shouldn’t require a law degree. This Privacy Policy explains in plain language what information we collect, why we need it, and how we keep it safe. It applies to all users accessing our web application globally.

If you have any questions about this policy or how we handle your data, please reach out to us at [email protected].

2. What we collect & why

To run the platform and give you aviation analytics, we collect information in three main ways. For every piece of data we collect, we rely on a specific legal basis under global privacy laws like the GDPR and UK GDPR.

Information you give us directly

When you register for a SkyMeter account or upgrade to a paid subscription, you voluntarily provide us with personal information. Account details: we collect your name, email address, and account preferences to create and manage your profile. Search queries: when you use natural-language search, we process the text of the question you type (for example, “flights over Kennewick last week”).
Why we need it: we cannot create your account or answer your searches without this information.
Legal basis: Contract (to fulfil our Terms of Service with you).

Information collected automatically

As you use our web application, we automatically gather certain technical and usage data to keep the platform running smoothly. Platform data: we collect device information, usage analytics, technical logs, your approximate location (country) derived from your IP address, and tracking data via cookies.
Why we need it: usage data helps us understand and improve the platform; technical logs and device information help us troubleshoot bugs and keep your account secure; approximate country is used to apply the correct cookie-consent defaults for your region.
Legal basis: Legitimate Interest (to improve and secure our platform) and Consent (for non-essential cookies).

Information from third parties

We do not buy data from data brokers. However, we do receive limited information from providers that help you use SkyMeter. Payment data: when you purchase a subscription, we receive billing confirmations and transaction statuses from Stripe. We never see or store your full card number. Sign-in data: when you log in through our authentication provider (Auth0), we receive your email address and basic profile information.
Why we need it: to grant you access to premium analytics, historical data, and export features, and to sign you in securely.
Legal basis: Contract and Legal Obligation (for financial record-keeping).

3. How we use your information

We only use your personal information for specific, clearly defined purposes:

• Core service delivery: we use your account data to provide our core features, including historical flight access, replays, and incident detection. (Legal basis: Contract)
• Natural-language search: we process the text of your searches to interpret your question and return matching flights. (Legal basis: Contract)
• Service improvement: we analyse usage analytics to understand which features our users value most, helping us design better aviation tools. (Legal basis: Legitimate Interest)
• Communication: we use your email to send important account updates, subscription notices, and technical alerts. (Legal basis: Contract)
• Security and fraud prevention: we monitor technical logs and device information to detect unauthorised access attempts and protect your account. (Legal basis: Legitimate Interest)
• Legal compliance: we maintain certain financial and transaction records to comply with tax and accounting laws. (Legal basis: Legal Obligation)
• Marketing: if you opt in, we will send you newsletters and product updates. You can opt out at any time. (Legal basis: Consent)

4. Location data

“Location” can mean several different things, so we want to be precise about what we actually use:

• Locations you type into search: when you ask a question like “flights over my city,” the place name is part of your query text. It is not tied to your device’s GPS.
• Approximate location from your IP address: our content-delivery and security provider (Cloudflare) derives your country from your IP address. We use this only to choose the correct cookie-consent default for your region. We do not store a precise IP-based location profile.
• Browser (device) location: if we offer a feature that needs your precise location, it runs only after your browser prompts you and you explicitly grant permission. You can decline, and you can revoke the permission at any time in your browser. We do not access your device’s GPS without that permission.

In short, precise location is only collected when you voluntarily provide it or explicitly grant permission.

5. Automated processing

SkyMeter automatically analyses aircraft telemetry (ADS-B position, altitude, speed, and derived attitude) to generate flight classifications (such as departure and arrival phases), incident detection (go-arounds, unstable approaches, runway excursions, and similar), approach stability scores, and aggregate airport and runway safety metrics.

These automated systems evaluate aircraft telemetry, not individuals. They do not analyse you as a user, and they do not make legal or similarly significant decisions about you. Their outputs are heuristic and informational; see our Terms of Service for the accuracy disclaimers that apply to them.

6. Artificial intelligence

Our natural-language search uses artificial intelligence to translate your plain-language question into a flight data query. To do this, the text of your search is sent to our AI provider, Anthropic (and, in some configurations, OpenAI), which processes it and returns an interpretation. We also keep a log of search queries so we can monitor quality, fix failures, and improve the feature.

We send only the query text needed to answer your question; we do not send your name or account credentials. AI output may be incomplete or wrong and is informational only; please see the AI disclaimer in our Terms of Service.

7. When we share your information

We want to be absolutely clear: we never sell your personal data. We only share your information with the service providers we rely on to run SkyMeter, under agreements that require them to protect it. Our current providers include:

• Microsoft Azure: cloud hosting for our web application, our primary account database, and application monitoring.
• Hetzner: servers that store flight-data files and run our flight-processing infrastructure.
• Stripe: secure payment processing and subscription management.
• Auth0 (Okta): secure sign-in and account authentication.
• Mailchimp: sending account and transactional email (such as subscription and account notices).
• Cloudflare: content delivery, web security, and DDoS protection.
• Google Analytics: understanding website traffic. We have configured this service with IP anonymization enabled and advertising features disabled, so your usage data is used only for internal analytics and is not used to serve you targeted ads across the internet.
• Anthropic and OpenAI: interpreting the text of your natural-language searches (see the Artificial intelligence section above).

Legal requirements

We may disclose your information if we are legally required to do so by a court order, subpoena, or other lawful request from public authorities, including to meet national security or law enforcement requirements.

Business transitions

If SkyMeter is involved in a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, your personal information may be transferred as part of that transaction. We will notify you via email before your data is transferred and becomes subject to a different privacy policy.

With your consent

If we need to share your information for any purpose not listed above, we will ask for your explicit consent first.

8. Your privacy rights

We believe you should have control over your data, regardless of where you live. In compliance with the GDPR, UK GDPR, PIPEDA, CCPA/CPRA, and other US State Privacy Laws, we provide the following rights to all SkyMeter users:

• Access your data: request a copy of the personal information we hold about you. We will provide this within 30 days.
• Correct inaccuracies: update wrong or outdated information directly in your account settings, or ask us to fix it.
• Delete your data: request that we erase your personal data and close your account.
• Port your data: request a copy of your data in a structured, machine-readable format to transfer to another service.
• Opt out of marketing: unsubscribe from our marketing emails at any time via the “unsubscribe” link at the bottom of any promotional email.
• Withdraw consent: where we rely on your consent to process data, you can withdraw it at any time. This will not affect the lawfulness of any processing we did before you withdrew consent.

Your California privacy choices

SkyMeter does not sell your personal information, and does not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising. California residents nonetheless have the right to make that choice explicit: you can use the “Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information” link in our website footer, which opens your cookie and tracking preferences. You also have the rights listed above, and we will not discriminate against you for exercising them.

To exercise any of these rights, please email [email protected]. If you are located in the EU or UK and feel we have not addressed your concerns, you have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority.

9. Data security

Because SkyMeter handles account and usage data, we take security seriously and apply industry-standard controls. We are not currently certified under a formal framework such as SOC 2, and we do not claim to be; instead, we describe the specific protections we have actually implemented.

Those protections include: SSL/TLS encryption for all data in transit; encryption of data at rest; access controls that limit user data to authorised personnel; authentication managed by a dedicated identity provider (Auth0), with Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) available for your account; and a web application firewall and DDoS protection at the edge (Cloudflare).

However, we must be honest: no method of transmission over the internet or electronic storage is 100% secure. While we work hard to protect your data, we cannot guarantee absolute security. You play a crucial role too: please use a strong, unique password and enable 2FA. In the event of a data breach that compromises your personal information, we will notify you and the relevant regulatory authorities within the timeframes required by law.

10. Data retention

Our general rule is simple: we keep your personal information only for as long as you have an active SkyMeter account. Once you delete your account, your personal data is removed from our active systems. We do retain certain specific types of data for different periods based on legal and operational requirements:

• Active account data: retained until account deletion.
• Financial records: retained for up to 7 years to comply with tax and accounting laws.
• Technical logs: retained for up to 12 months to help us identify security trends and troubleshoot persistent bugs.
• Marketing preferences: retained until you withdraw your consent or opt out.

When you delete data or close your account, residual copies may remain in our encrypted backups for a limited period before those backups automatically expire and are overwritten. Backed-up data is not used for any active purpose during that window.

11. Cookies & tracking

SkyMeter uses cookies and similar technologies. We group them into three categories:

• Essential cookies: required for the site to function, for example keeping you signed in, securing your session, and protecting forms against cross-site request forgery. These cannot be turned off.
• Functional cookies: remember your preferences, such as light/dark theme and language, and your cookie-consent choices.
• Analytics cookies: set by Google Analytics to help us understand which features are used most. These load only with your consent where required.

Our Google Analytics setup has IP anonymization enabled and advertising features disabled (no Google Signals, no ad personalization), and we use Google’s Consent Mode so that, in regions that require opt-in consent, analytics cookies are not set until you accept. We do not use cookies for cross-site or targeted advertising.

You can manage your choices at any time using the cookie banner shown on your first visit, the “Cookie Policy” / “Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information” links in our footer, or your browser settings.

12. Children’s privacy

SkyMeter is a professional aviation analytics platform designed for adults. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 16. If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child has provided us with personal information, please contact us at [email protected]. If we discover that we have inadvertently collected data from a child under 16, we will delete that information immediately.

13. International transfers

SkyMeter is a global platform operated from the United States, with infrastructure hosted on Microsoft Azure (primarily in the United States) and Hetzner (in Germany and Finland). This means your personal information may be transferred to, stored, and processed in countries other than your own, including the United States.

When we transfer data across borders, we rely on appropriate legal safeguards. For users in the European Economic Area (EEA), the UK, or Canada, transfers to processors in the United States are made under legally recognised mechanisms such as the Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs), and we rely on adequacy decisions where they apply, so that your privacy rights travel with your data.

14. Changes to this policy

As we add new features to SkyMeter or as privacy laws evolve, we may need to update this Privacy Policy. If we make significant changes to how we handle your personal data, we will notify you by sending an email to the address associated with your account and by posting a prominent notice on our platform before the changes take effect. Your continued use of SkyMeter after the effective date of the updated policy constitutes your acceptance of the changes. You can always find the most current version of this policy on our website.

15. Contact us

We welcome your questions, comments, and feedback regarding this Privacy Policy. If you need to reach us, please use the following contact details:

Email: [email protected]
Website: https://skymeter.io

We aim to respond to all privacy-related inquiries within 30 days.