See the Stars – Privacy Policy

Effective 31 October 2026

See the Stars is an astronomy learning app. It has no advertising, no analytics and no tracking, and we never sell any information. Children use it without an account. A parent, guardian or teacher can choose to sign in to back up progress – that is the only time anything is stored on our side, and it is described below.

What stays on your device

• Your progress (lessons learned, quiz scores, XP and badges) and your settings are saved on your device. It is only copied to our servers if a grown-up signs in (see “Optional grown-up account”).
• Your location is used only on your device, to work out where planets, stars and the International Space Station are in your sky. It is never sent anywhere.
• The camera is used only to show a live view behind the Sky Finder. Nothing is recorded, saved or uploaded.
• Motion sensors (compass and gyroscope) are used only to know where you are pointing your phone.
• Sky reminders (in the iPhone and Android apps, only if you turn them on) are worked out and scheduled on your device. Nothing about them is sent anywhere.
• Saved items (photos and texts you choose to keep offline) are stored only on your device. You can remove them at any time from the Saved screen.

Optional grown-up account

A grown-up can sign in with Google (or Apple on iPhone) from “My journey”, behind a question for grown-ups. If you do:

• We store, in Google Firebase (servers in Mumbai, India): which items were explored and spotted (with the time), and the best quiz score per chapter. Nothing else – no name of the child, no location, no photos.
• Google or Apple tells us an account ID, the account’s name and email address, which Firebase Authentication keeps to sign you in. We use them only for signing in.
• The data is used only to keep progress the same on your devices. Security rules let only the signed-in account read or change its own progress.

Firebase is run by Google; see Firebase’s privacy information.

Classroom mode

A teacher signed in as a grown-up can create a class and share its code. A student who joins with the code gets an anonymous sign-in on their device (no email, no account) and shares only: the nickname they type, and how many items they explored and spotted, badges, quests completed and XP. Only the teacher and the student can see it. The teacher can remove a student or delete the class at any time, and a student can leave the class from “My journey”, which deletes their entry.

Information from the internet

When you are online, the app downloads:

• photos and short encyclopedia texts from Wikipedia (Wikimedia Foundation);
• up-to-date orbit data for the space stations and the Hubble Space Telescope from CelesTrak;
• the sign-in and sync code from Google (only when a grown-up signs in);
• tonight’s cloud forecast from Open-Meteo, for a location rounded to about 10 km (on the Tonight page, when online). Nothing else is sent, and we don’t store it.
• if you switch on the Clouds, Wind or Rain layers in the Sky Finder: the weather from Open-Meteo for the same rounded location (about 10 km) and for eight points about 60 km around it. They are off until you switch them on.
• if you search for a town or city with “Find on Earth” in the Sky Finder: the words you typed go to Open-Meteo’s place search (based on GeoNames). Your location is not sent with it. The famous places built into the app need no internet.
• if you switch on the Storms layer: the list of tropical cyclones from GDACS (the Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System of the United Nations and the European Commission). Nothing about you or your location is sent; the distance and direction to a storm are worked out on your device.

These are ordinary web requests. Like any website, those services can see technical information such as your device’s IP address. The app sends them no personal information. Their own privacy policies apply: Wikimedia, CelesTrak, Open-Meteo, GDACS.

Children

See the Stars is made for curious kids and students. Children use it without an account, and we collect no personal information from them (in classroom mode, only a nickname and progress counts, shared with their teacher). Signing in is for grown-ups only and is behind a question children are unlikely to answer.

Deleting your data

On the device: use “Reset my progress” and “Remove all” on the My journey screen, or uninstall the app. If you signed in: “Delete account” on the My journey screen permanently deletes the account and the backed-up progress straight away. You can also ask us to delete it by emailing pavan@webappslab.com.

Changes and contact

If this policy changes, the new version will be posted on this page with a new date. Questions, or a request to see or delete data (including on behalf of a child)? Email pavan@webappslab.com.