Privacy Policy

Last updated: June 2026 (ads & analytics update)

No account, no login

SkyPulse does not require you to create an account, sign in, or provide any personal information. There is no user profile and no password.

Data stored on your device

Saved aircraft, saved airports, saved search areas, alert rules, cached aircraft snapshots, and the bundled airport/airline database are stored locally on your device. The app does not upload this data anywhere.

Location

If you grant location permission, your location is used only on-device to:

• Center the map and find aircraft and airports near you;
• Evaluate local alert rules (e.g. an aircraft entering your area).

Your location is not transmitted to any SkyPulse backend. When the app queries open aviation APIs for aircraft in an area, only the requested geographic coordinates/bounding box are sent to those third-party services (below) — never an identifier tied to you.

Third-party open data services

To show live data, the app makes requests to free, public services. These services may receive the geographic area being queried and standard request metadata (such as your IP address) as part of normal internet requests:

• ADSB.lol — live aircraft (primary)
• OpenSky Network — live aircraft (anonymous fallback)
• adsbdb — flight route lookup (origin/destination)
• OpenStreetMap — map tiles

Airport and airline reference data from OpenFlights is bundled in the app and used entirely offline. Please refer to each provider's own policy for how they handle requests.

Diagnostics & analytics (Firebase, free tier)

SkyPulse uses Google Firebase on the free (Spark) tier to improve reliability and quality. None of this requires a login or collects personally identifying information:

• Crashlytics — anonymous crash reports;
• Analytics — aggregate, non-personal usage events (e.g. which screens are used);
• Performance Monitoring — anonymous app performance metrics (e.g. startup time, network request timing) to help us keep the app fast;
• Remote Config — feature flags / tunable defaults;
• Cloud Messaging (FCM) — optional push for announcements.

Google may process this diagnostic data as described in the Firebase privacy documentation.

Ads (Google AdMob)

SkyPulse is free and supported by ads delivered through Google AdMob. The app shows a banner, occasional full-screen (interstitial) ads, and optional rewarded ads. To serve and measure these ads, Google and its partners may use a device advertising identifier and standard request data (such as your IP address). SkyPulse itself still has no account and does not build a profile of you.

• On first launch you'll see a consent choice (Google's User Messaging Platform) where required by law (e.g. the EEA/UK). You can review or change this later.
• How Google handles ad data is described in Google's policy and the AdMob documentation.

Ad-free rewards

You can optionally watch rewarded ads to earn credits and unlock blocks of ad-free time (up to a few hours per day). Your credits and ad-free timer are stored only on your device, reset daily, and are not linked to any account or sent to a server.

Children

SkyPulse is a general-audience aviation utility and is not directed at children, and it does not knowingly collect personal information from anyone.

Limits of the data

Free ADS-B data is best-effort: not every aircraft appears, coverage varies, data can be delayed, and some military/private aircraft may be hidden. Route and ETA information is estimated and is not a source of truth for travel planning.

Contact

Questions? Open an issue on GitHub.