Privacy Policy

What the app uses

Your location (only if you allow it). When you tap “Use my location,” the app reads your device's coordinates once to look up your town and the forecast for where you are. Location is never used in the background and is never stored by us anywhere except on your device (your saved places list, which you control).

A town you type. If you search for a town instead, only the text you type is used to look it up.

Where that information goes

To produce a forecast, the app sends the coordinates of the place you're checking (your GPS position, or the town you chose) to Apple's WeatherKit and geocoding services. We do not send your name, email, device identifiers, or anything else. The location is not linked to your identity and is not used for tracking.

Apple WeatherKit (Apple Weather)

Receives: latitude/longitude

Why: weather forecast

Apple's geocoding service

Receives: the town name you search; latitude/longitude

Why: town search; turning GPS coordinates into a town name

NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center (swpc.noaa.gov)

Receives: nothing about you (a fixed public feed)

Why: aurora forecast (Kp index)

Like any internet request, these services also receive your device's IP address. Each of these services has its own privacy practices; Apple handles WeatherKit and geocoding requests under the Apple Privacy Policy. We have no control over those practices and do not receive anything back from them except the forecast or town result.

Astronomy (sun, moon, planets, meteor showers) is calculated entirely on your phone.

What we store on your device

Your preferences (units, theme, red-light mode, sky darkness), up to five saved places, your last-used place, and a short-lived cache of the last forecasts so the app works offline for a while. Delete the app to delete all of it.

Notifications

If you turn on reminders, the app schedules local notifications on your device (meteor-shower peaks, “clear tonight”). Nothing is sent to us or to a push service.

Share cards

When you share a card, the image is generated on your device and handed to the app you choose. The card shows the score and the YES/MAYBE/NO status, the one-liner, the town, the date, the best window, tonight's headline sky event, and the app's web address. If the forecast is out of date, it also shows a “Forecast as of …” line. It contains nothing else about you.

Photos

If you choose to save a card, the app asks for add-only access to your Photos, and only at that moment. It can add the card to your library; it never reads your library.

Children

Star Tonight is not directed at children under 13 and does not knowingly collect information from them.

Changes

If this policy changes, the new version will be posted at this address with a new effective date.