Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

planespottr is a service operated by x8 Data Company LLC ("planespottr," "we," "us," or "our"). This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, how we use and share it, and the choices you have when you use the planespottr iPhone app, the planespottr Apple Watch app and the watch face complication (together, the "App").

By using the App, you acknowledge that your information will be collected and used as described in this Privacy Policy.

2. Information We Collect

a. Account Information

You sign in with Sign in with Apple or Google Sign-In. When you do, we receive and store:

Your email address (if you use Apple's "Hide My Email," we receive a private relay address instead)
The name your provider shares with us, which we use as your display name
Your authentication provider and the provider's identifier for your account
When your account was created and when you last signed in

You can also choose:

A username, which other planespottr users can see
A profile picture: a photo you upload or an aircraft livery graphic
A home airport, used for local leaderboards and shown on your profile

We do not receive or store your Apple or Google password.

b. Spots and Location

When you press Spot, the App sends the identifier of the aircraft you chose and your device's location at that moment (latitude, longitude, accuracy and time), along with your time zone and a "City, Region" place name that your device looks up through Apple. We store this with the spot, together with details about the aircraft taken from our flight data, such as registration, type, airline, flight number, route, position, altitude, speed and the distance between you and the aircraft, and the points the spot earned.

The App asks for location access only "While Using the App." It does not use your location in the background. While the map or the watch radar is open, the App uses your location on your device to center the map and find nearby aircraft. To load aircraft, it sends the boundaries of the visible map area (or, on Apple Watch, an area around you) to our servers. These requests are not tied to your account, and we do not log the coordinates in them.

Your precise spotter location, the place name and the exact distance are visible only to you.

c. Photos and Camera

The App uses your camera for AR mode, which shows the sky with aircraft drawn where they are. When you spot an aircraft in AR mode, the App saves a snapshot of the AR view to that spot. You can also add photos to a spot from your camera or photo library. You choose individual photos with Apple's photo picker; the App does not get access to the rest of your library.

Before any photo or profile picture leaves your device, the App redraws it as a new image, which removes embedded location and other metadata. We store photos and profile pictures with our cloud storage provider.

planespottr includes friends, likes, comments and leaderboards. We store:

Friend requests and friendships
Likes on spots and comments
Comments and replies you write
Which spots you have viewed, so the spot's owner can see who viewed it
Private notes and favorites you add to your own spots

e. Purchases

planespottr Pro is sold as an auto-renewing subscription through Apple's App Store. Apple processes your payment; we never receive or store your card or other payment details.

We use RevenueCat, a subscription-management service, to validate purchases, restore them and keep track of whether your Pro access is active. RevenueCat and we process your App Store transaction and product identifiers, purchase and renewal dates, subscription, cancellation and refund status, limited device and platform information, and your planespottr account identifier, which links a purchase to your account.

f. App Usage Information

To understand how the App is used and to investigate problems you report, the App records how you interact with it, including:

The screens you visit
The buttons, controls and gestures you use, and where on the screen you touched
When the App opens, closes or moves to the background
Short notes about an interaction, such as which aircraft, spot or setting it concerned

Each record carries the time, your local time zone, an identifier for that App session, your App version, operating system version and device model. Records are kept on your device until they are uploaded to our servers, where they are linked to your account. These records never include the text you type, such as comments, notes, searches, usernames or email addresses.

We do not use crash-reporting or analytics services from other companies for this.

g. Advertising and Measurement

Ads. If you do not have Pro, the App may show ads served by Google AdMob. We ask Google to serve non-personalized ads only. Where required, the App shows Google's consent form before ads load, and you can change your choice at any time with "Advertising privacy choices" in Settings. Google may still collect information such as your IP address and device information to serve ads, limit how often they appear, measure them and prevent fraud, as described in Google's own privacy policy.

Measuring our own advertising. We use the Meta (Facebook) SDK to measure which of our ads bring people to planespottr. It sends Meta a small set of App events: that the App was installed or opened, that you completed sign-up (and whether with Apple or Google), that you saved your first spot or another spot, and that you made a purchase (the amount, currency and product). We do not send Meta your location, email address, name, account identifier or anything you write.

The App asks for your permission through Apple's App Tracking Transparency prompt. Your device's advertising identifier is shared with Meta only if you allow tracking. If you do not allow it, Meta receives only aggregated, privacy-preserving install information through Apple's SKAdNetwork. You can change this at any time in your device's Settings › Privacy & Security › Tracking.

h. Notifications

If you allow notifications, we store your device's push notification token, the App's environment and when the device was last seen. We use it to tell you about friend requests, accepted friend requests, likes, comments and replies. These notifications can show the other person's name and the beginning of their comment. You choose which kinds you receive in Settings or turn them all off in your device settings.

i. Linking a planespottr Web Account

If you used the planespottr website before the App, you can link that web account once. You enter the website's email address and password; we use them only to confirm the account is yours and do not store the password. We store the web account's email address and username with the link and copy your spots, friends, likes and comments from the website into your App account. You can unlink the web account in Settings, which removes the copied history.

j. Apple Watch

The Apple Watch app uses the sign-in from your iPhone: your iPhone sends your planespottr session to your watch, which keeps it in the watch's secure storage. The watch uses your location while the App is open to show the radar and to record your spots, as described above, and records usage in the same way as the iPhone app. Opening the App from the watch face complication is recorded as a usage event; the complication itself does not collect anything.

k. Information Stored on Your Device

The App keeps your session in your device's Keychain, and keeps preferences, cached images and queued usage records in the App's own storage on your device.

l. Feedback and Support

If you contact us, we collect the information you choose to send, such as your email address and the content of your message.

3. How We Use Information

We process your information to provide the App you asked for, for our legitimate business interests, to comply with the law and, where required, with your consent.

We use information to:

Provide, operate and maintain the App, including the map, AR mode, the Apple Watch app, spotting, scoring and your log
Show you and your friends your spots, photos, likes and comments, and show leaderboards
Process purchases and manage your access to Pro features
Send the notifications you choose
Measure how the App is used, fix problems and improve the App
Measure the performance of our advertising
Show ads to users without Pro
Detect and prevent cheating, abuse, fraud and security problems
Comply with legal obligations and enforce our Terms

4. Who Can See Your Information

All planespottr accounts are private: your spots are visible only to you and the friends you accept. Other people can see some information so that they can find you and so that leaderboards work.

Any signed-in planespottr user can see:

Your username, display name, home airport and number of spots, in user search
Your username, home airport, total points and spot count on your profile page
Your username, home airport, points, number of spots and your best spot on leaderboards
For an aircraft you spotted, the history of who has spotted that airframe, which may include your username, home airport, the time and time zone of your spot and the flight. This never includes your location.

Friends you accept can also see:

Your spots, including the aircraft, its position, the time, your time zone, an approximate distance band, the flight and route
Photos you have shared with friends
Your profile picture
Likes, comments and views on your spots

Only you can see: your precise location when spotting, the place name, the exact distance, your private notes, your favorites, your private photos and your email address.

Your photos are private by default. You can change the default in Settings › Photo privacy and change any single photo on its spot's screen.

We do not sell your personal information for money.

We share information only as follows:

a. Service Providers

Companies that help us run the App process information on our behalf, including:

Amazon Web Services, for hosting, databases and photo storage
RevenueCat, for purchase validation and subscription status
Apple, for push notifications and place-name lookup
Our flight data providers, which receive aircraft identifiers (not information about you) when we look up routes

b. Advertising and Measurement Partners

Google AdMob, for ads shown to users without Pro, as described in section 2(g)
Meta, for measuring our own advertising, as described in section 2(g)

Under some US state laws, letting Meta use your advertising identifier may count as "sharing" for cross-context behavioral advertising. It happens only if you allow tracking, and you can turn it off at any time as described above.

c. Content Loaded Directly by Your Device

To show some content, your device contacts other services directly, and those services can see your IP address and what was requested:

Apple Maps, for the map
Planespotters.net, for aircraft photos, which are credited to their photographers
OpenWeatherMap, for the cloud weather layer

Apple and Google provide sign-in, and Apple processes App Store payments. They handle your information under their own privacy policies.

e. Legal Requirements and Business Transfers

We may disclose information if required to comply with the law or a legal request, to protect the rights, property or safety of planespottr, our users or others, or in connection with a merger, acquisition or sale of assets, in which case this Privacy Policy will continue to apply to your information.

6. Data Retention and Deletion

We keep your information for as long as your account is active and as needed to provide the App. Uploaded usage records are kept while your account exists. Comments you delete are hidden from everyone and may be kept for moderation.

You can delete your account at any time in Settings › Delete my account. When you do:

Your email address, display name, username, profile picture, notification settings, sign-ins, sessions and device notification tokens are removed
Your precise spotter locations, place names, notes and favorites are removed from your spots, and your photos and profile picture are deleted from storage
Your friendships end, pending friend requests are closed, and your notifications and uploaded usage records are deleted
The remaining records, such as the aircraft details of your spots, your likes and comments, and totals, are kept in anonymized form that is no longer linked to your name, email or sign-in, for aggregate statistics and to keep the service consistent
Purchase and transaction records may be kept by Apple, RevenueCat or us for as long as the law, platform rules or fraud prevention require

Signing in again after deleting your account starts a new account.

7. Your Rights and Choices

You can:

Change your username, profile picture, home airport and photo privacy in Settings
Choose which notifications you receive, or turn them off in your device settings
Turn location and camera access on or off in your device settings (the App's map and spotting need location, and AR mode needs the camera)
Allow or refuse tracking through Apple's App Tracking Transparency prompt and your device's Tracking settings
Change your ad consent choice in Settings › Advertising privacy choices, where offered
Unlink a planespottr web account
Delete your account in Settings

Depending on where you live, including the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and US states such as California, you may have the right to access, correct, delete or receive a copy of your personal information, to object to or restrict certain processing, and to opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information or targeted advertising. To exercise these rights, contact us at [email protected]. We will not discriminate against you for exercising them. We may need to verify your identity before acting on a request.

8. Children's Privacy

The App is not intended for children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. If we learn that we have, we will delete it. If you believe a child under 13 has given us information, contact us.

9. Data Security

We use reasonable administrative, technical and organizational measures to protect your information, including encrypted connections, storing only a fingerprint of your session rather than the session itself on our servers, and keeping stored photos out of public access. No system is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee the security of your information.

10. International Data Transfers

We are based in the United States, and your information is processed and stored in the United States. If you use the App from another country, your information will be transferred to the United States, where data protection laws may differ from those where you live.

11. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will post the updated policy in the App and change the "Last updated" date. If a change is significant, we will let you know in the App. Continued use of the App after the update means you accept it.

12. Contact Us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or your information, contact x8 Data Company LLC at [email protected].