Terms of Service

Last updated: 27 June 2026

These Terms of Service (“Terms”) govern your access to and use of the websites, APIs, and downloadable files provided by SkyMeter (“SkyMeter,” “we,” “us”). By creating an account, subscribing to a paid plan, or otherwise using the Service, you agree to be bound by these Terms.

If you do not agree to these Terms, do not use the Service.

1. The Service

SkyMeter aggregates publicly available ADS-B (Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast) flight traces, enriches them with airport, aircraft, weather, and runway data, and presents the result as historical flight replays, dashboards, statistics, and downloads.

The Service is intended for educational, analytical, and recreational use. It is not certified for navigation, dispatch, flight planning, search and rescue, incident investigation, or any other operational or safety-of-life purpose.

2. Data accuracy & disclaimers

Flight data is sourced from third-party ADS-B aggregators, public weather services (NOAA, ECMWF, Iowa Environmental Mesonet), and public registries (FAA, OurAirports, OpenFlights). Our pipeline performs interpolation, smoothing, attitude reconstruction, and incident detection on top of those raw inputs. None of this is guaranteed to be accurate, complete, current, or fit for any particular purpose.

THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE,” WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR NON-INFRINGEMENT. SKYMETER DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, TIMELY, SECURE, OR FREE OF ERRORS.

Detected events such as “go-around,” “unstable approach,” “rejected takeoff,” “runway excursion,” “stall,” and “overspeed” are heuristic classifications produced by automated algorithms. They are intended to surface flights that may be of interest for further review. They are not findings of fact, and they should not be cited as evidence in any operational, regulatory, or legal proceeding.

SkyMeter does not determine pilot fault, regulatory compliance, aircraft airworthiness, or official accident findings. Only the relevant civil aviation authority or accident investigation body can make those determinations.

3. AI-generated content & natural-language search

Parts of the Service use artificial intelligence. Our natural-language search translates your plain-language questions into flight data queries, and some flight, airport, route, and incident summaries, descriptions, and analyses are generated automatically.

AI-generated responses, summaries, and analyses may be incomplete, outdated, or wrong. They can misinterpret your question, return the wrong flights, or describe events that did not occur. AI output is informational only, and you should independently verify anything you intend to rely on against primary sources.

AI output does not constitute aviation, legal, engineering, financial, or other professional advice, and must not be used for navigation, flight planning, dispatch, or any operational or safety-of-life purpose. You are responsible for how you use it.

4. Accounts

Some features require an account. You agree to provide accurate registration information and to keep your credentials confidential. You are responsible for activity under your account. We may suspend or terminate accounts that violate these Terms or that we reasonably believe are being used to abuse the Service.

5. Subscriptions & billing

Paid plans are billed in advance on a monthly or annual cycle through Stripe. Subscriptions auto-renew at the end of each cycle unless cancelled before the renewal date. You can cancel at any time from your account dashboard; cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period.

We may change plan pricing or features. If we change them in a way that affects an active subscription, we will give you at least 30 days’ notice and you may cancel before the change takes effect.

All sales are final. We do not provide pro-rated refunds for unused time on a cancelled subscription, except where required by applicable law.

6. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

  • Reverse engineer, decompile, or attempt to extract source code from the Service.
  • Scrape, crawl, or systematically download data from the Service except through the API, in accordance with the rate limits and terms of your plan.
  • Circumvent, disable, or work around subscription tiers, paywalls, usage limits, or rate limits, or access paid features without an active, paid entitlement.
  • Use automated means to extract data in order to build, train, or populate a competing product, dataset, or service.
  • Resell, sublicense, or redistribute the Service or its data in bulk without a separate written agreement.
  • Share, sell, or transfer your account or credentials, or otherwise make access to the Service available to anyone other than the account holder.
  • Abuse or overload the natural-language search, AI, or API endpoints, including by sending automated or high-volume requests beyond the limits of your plan, or attempting to defeat anti-abuse or quota controls.
  • Use the Service to harass, stalk, dox, or harm any individual, including by identifying private aircraft owners.
  • Interfere with the Service’s operation, including denial-of-service attempts, injecting malicious payloads, or evading anti-abuse measures.
  • Use the Service in violation of applicable export control or sanctions law.

7. Intellectual property & ODbL

The Service, meaning our software, designs, branding, and original processed datasets (attitude reconstruction, runway-event detection, flight-phase classification), is owned by SkyMeter and licensed to you only as set forth in these Terms.

The underlying ADS-B trace data is licensed under the Open Database License (ODbL) 1.0. Our processed flight files (the .smr Protocol Buffers format) are made available as Derivative Databases under the same license, attributed to SkyMeter and the underlying data sources. You are free to copy, distribute, and adapt .smr files provided you preserve the attribution and share-alike terms in the ODbL.

Convenience-format exports (FDR, CSV, KML, etc.) are made available under your subscription plan and may not be redistributed in their formatted form without permission, except for personal use.

8. Copyright & DMCA

SkyMeter respects intellectual property rights and expects users to do the same. If you believe material available through the Service infringes a copyright you own or control, you may send a notice to [email protected] with the subject line “DMCA Notice,” including:

  • a description of the copyrighted work you claim has been infringed;
  • the URL or location on the Service of the material you claim is infringing;
  • your name, address, and email so we can contact you;
  • a statement that you have a good-faith belief the use is not authorised by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law;
  • a statement, under penalty of perjury, that the information in your notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or authorised to act on the owner’s behalf;
  • your physical or electronic signature.

We will respond to valid notices in accordance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), may remove or disable access to allegedly infringing material, and may terminate the accounts of repeat infringers.

9. User feedback

If you submit suggestions, corrections, or other feedback (for example, a corrected aircraft registration), you grant SkyMeter a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free license to use that feedback to improve the Service. We do not promise to act on any particular submission.

10. Limitation of liability

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, SKYMETER’S TOTAL LIABILITY ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO YOUR USE OF THE SERVICE WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF (A) THE AMOUNT YOU PAID SKYMETER IN THE 12 MONTHS PRECEDING THE EVENT GIVING RISE TO THE LIABILITY OR (B) USD $100. SKYMETER WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, INCLUDING LOST PROFITS OR LOST DATA.

Some jurisdictions do not allow these limitations; in those jurisdictions, the limitations apply only to the extent permitted.

11. Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless SkyMeter and its officers, employees, and agents from any claim, demand, loss, or expense (including reasonable attorneys’ fees) arising out of your use of the Service in violation of these Terms or applicable law.

12. Termination

You may stop using the Service at any time by cancelling your subscription and closing your account. We may suspend or terminate your access to the Service, with or without notice, if you materially violate these Terms; if we reasonably believe your use is fraudulent, abusive, or poses a security risk to the Service or to others; or as necessary to comply with law or a lawful request. We may also discontinue the Service, or any part of it, on reasonable notice.

Sections that by their nature should survive termination (including data accuracy disclaimers, IP rights, limitation of liability, and indemnification) will survive.

13. General

Entire agreement. These Terms, together with our Privacy Policy, are the entire agreement between you and SkyMeter regarding the Service and supersede any prior agreements or understandings on that subject.

Severability. If any provision of these Terms is held unenforceable, the remaining provisions remain in full effect, and the unenforceable provision will be enforced to the maximum extent permitted by law.

Waiver. Our failure to enforce any provision is not a waiver of our right to enforce it later.

Assignment. You may not assign or transfer these Terms without our prior written consent. We may assign these Terms in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets.

14. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. The most recent version will always be posted at skymeter.io/terms. For material changes, we will give reasonable notice through the Service or by email. Continued use of the Service after the effective date constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms.

15. Governing law & venue

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Delaware, United States, without regard to its conflict-of-laws principles. The exclusive jurisdiction and venue for any dispute arising out of or related to these Terms or the Service will be the state or federal courts located in New York County, New York, and you consent to personal jurisdiction in those courts.

16. Contact

Questions about these Terms? Email [email protected].