“Thank you for the respectful way in which the functional and useful app is built and permissions and privacy are handled.”

Privacy Policy

Last Updated: November 2026

This policy covers Sky Map on Android (Google Play and F-Droid), on iOS (the App Store), and this website, getskymap.app.

Who is responsible for your data

Sky Map is published and operated by Penterakt LLC, which is the data controller for any personal data processed through the app. Questions about this policy, or about data the app may hold about you, go to skymapdevs@gmail.com.

Sky Map is open-source and community-built. Contributors to the project do not receive or process your data; where this policy says “we”, it means Penterakt LLC.

In short

• The F-Droid version sends no usage statistics. The Google Play and iOS versions send usage statistics, not linked to your name or account, to Firebase Analytics. You can turn this off in Settings.
• Sky Map has no accounts, no ads, and does not use the advertising identifier. It does not track you across other apps or websites.
• Your location is used on your device to draw the sky. The only time it leaves your device is to fetch a map picture on the location screen (see Map images).

Analytics

Sky Map uses Firebase Analytics (provided by Google) to help us understand how people use the app. It is part of the Google Play and iOS versions, not F-Droid. We use this information to improve the app and for no other purpose. We share it with no one other than Google, which processes it for us.

What we collect

Firebase Analytics collects the following about how the app is used. None of it includes your name, email address, or any account, because Sky Map has none.

These are the categories of data collected. The exact events are defined in Sky Map’s open-source code (AnalyticsEvents.kt), which anyone can read. If the categories change, we will update this policy.

• Usage patterns: when you launch the app (hour of day, day of week), how long each session lasts, and which features you open (gallery, time travel, settings, etc.)
• Search terms: the text you type when you search, the name of the object you pick, and whether the search succeeded. We use searches that find nothing to learn what people are looking for, which is how we found out that Sky Map needed to understand “the big dipper”. Searches are unlikely to contain personal information, but whatever you type is logged.
• Feature interactions: which sky layers you toggle, which time travel events you select, which gallery images you view, whether you use manual or automatic sensor mode, which announcements you see or dismiss, and which options you choose on the Support screen.
• Device capabilities: which motion sensors your device has (accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer, rotation vector) and which sensor path is active. This helps us understand which hardware to support. On Android this includes whether you navigate by buttons or gestures.
• Settings snapshot: key preference values at each session start (e.g. whether gyro is disabled, sensor speed/damping, night mode state). This helps us understand which settings people actually use.
• Language: your device locale (e.g. en-US) to help us prioritise translations.
• Install version: for new installs only, the app version you first installed. This helps us understand user retention across releases.
• Device and install details: the device and system model, the app version, and a random identifier that Firebase creates for each installation of the app. The identifier is not linked to your name, your Apple or Google account, or other apps. Google also uses your IP address to work out your approximate country or city. According to Google, it does not log or store the address in its analytics data.

What we do NOT collect

• Your device’s location: your location (whether entered manually or from GPS) is never sent to analytics. Google derives an approximate country or city from your IP address, as described above.
• Your precise location: Sky Map only asks your phone for an approximate location (Android’s approximate-location permission; on iOS, accuracy of about a kilometre), so it never has your precise position. If you type in a place yourself, the app has whatever you typed. Your phone’s own location service, including Google’s on Android devices, works under its own privacy policy.
• The advertising identifier: Sky Map never reads the advertising ID (IDFA on iOS) and never asks permission to track you.
• Your name or contact details: Sky Map has no accounts and never asks for them.
• Contacts, photos, microphone, health data, or payment details.

How the data is used

Firebase Analytics compiles statistical reports for us that tell us things like which features are popular, which device capabilities are common, and how session length varies across users. This helps us decide which features to improve, which languages to support, and when to drop support for obsolete hardware.

How long it is kept

Google keeps event-level data for 14 months, the maximum its settings allow, and then deletes it.

Opting out

You can turn this off at any time with Settings → Send usage statistics. Turning it off suppresses all analytics collection, including Firebase’s own automatic events. Settings is available once you have accepted the terms on first launch. Until then, Firebase’s automatic events (such as the first time the app is opened) and whether you accepted or declined the terms are recorded.

For more information on Firebase Analytics see https://firebase.google.com/support/privacy.

Map images (Geoapify)

On the location screen, Sky Map shows a map picture of the place you have chosen or that your device found. To get it, the app requests an image from Geoapify, a mapping service, and the request contains your location rounded to three decimal places (about 100 metres at the finest). The location Sky Map starts from is already approximate, as described above, unless you typed a place in yourself. This applies to all three versions of the app. The request also reveals your IP address to Geoapify, as any request over the internet does. No other personal data is sent, and we run no server that receives these requests. See Geoapify’s privacy policy at https://www.geoapify.com/privacy-policy for how it handles them.

Other requests the app makes

• Remote configuration (Google Play version): about every 12 hours Sky Map fetches settings and announcements from Firebase Remote Config. That request goes to Google and carries the app version, device details and a Firebase installation identifier. The usage statistics switch does not turn it off.
• Satellite data (Android): only if you turn on the satellite layer, Sky Map downloads orbit data from CelesTrak (celestrak.org). The request shows your IP address to that service and contains no location.

Tips and donations

• iOS: the optional tips on the Support screen are in-app purchases made through Apple. Apple processes the payment and holds your payment details. We receive only totals in Apple’s sales reports. We never see your Apple ID, your name, or your card.
• Android: the Support screen links to Buy Me a Coffee, an external service with its own privacy policy. The link tells Buy Me a Coffee that the visit came from the app. Anything you give there is handled by that service and not by the app.

Backup

• Android: Sky Map uses Android’s built-in backup: your app settings, including your saved location if you entered or granted one, are eligible for Google’s encrypted cloud backup and for device-to-device transfer when you set up a new phone. This is intentional: it means your saved location and preferences carry over automatically to a new device. This data is handled by Android’s backup system, not by Penterakt LLC or Firebase Analytics, and only Google and (for device transfer) you have access to it. You can turn off backup for Sky Map, along with any app, from your device’s system backup settings.
• iOS: Sky Map’s settings, including a saved location, are part of your normal iPhone backup (iCloud or a computer), which Apple handles. They are not available to Penterakt LLC.

This website

The website at getskymap.app is hosted on Cloudflare. To serve pages, Cloudflare processes your IP address and browser details, as any web host does. We use Cloudflare Web Analytics to count visits and see which pages and referring sites they come from. It sets no cookies and does not track you across sites, and we see only aggregate counts, not individual visitors.

• Store links: the Google Play button carries a campaign tag so Google can tell us how many installs came from the website. The tag is not linked to you by us.
• Support link: the Support link goes through a page on this site (so we can count how many people use it) and then to Buy Me a Coffee, an external service with its own privacy policy. Anything you give there is handled by that service, not by us.
• No accounts, no ads, no forms. The website collects nothing else from you.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, the date at the top will change with it, and the new version will be published at the same address.