Legal
Privacy Policy
1. Who we are
Aurora Radar is run by Creatively Apps Limited, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 17537980), registered office 80 Cramptons Road, Sevenoaks TN14 5DY. We are the controller of the personal data described here. Contact us at privacy@creativelyapps.com.
2. What we collect and why
| Data | When | Why | Lawful basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Saved places (name and coordinates), alert settings | Stored on your device. Copied to our server only if you turn on alerts | To check the aurora, clouds and darkness for your places and send alerts | Contract (providing the service you asked for) |
| Anonymous user ID and sign-in token | If you turn on alerts or share a photo | To link your places, devices and photos to you without needing an email or password | Contract |
| Push subscription (a web address issued by your browser's push service), time zone, quiet hours | If you turn on alerts | To deliver alerts to your device at the right times | Contract |
| Alert history (which place, when, forecast values) | When we send you an alert | To avoid repeat alerts and to measure and publish our accuracy (published only as anonymous totals) | Legitimate interests (running a reliable, accountable service) |
| Sighting photos, capture time, your location at the time of sharing, camera make and model | Only if you share a sighting | To verify the photo is real, recent, local and not AI-generated, then publish it | Consent (you choose to share). Verification also serves our legitimate interest in preventing fakes and abuse |
| Technical logs (IP address, browser, errors) | When you use the app | Security, fixing problems, preventing abuse | Legitimate interests |
We don't collect your name, email address or phone number unless you contact us.
How sighting photos are handled
- We read the photo's metadata (time, GPS position, camera, editing software, AI-generation markers) to verify it.
- Before publishing, we strip all metadata except image orientation. The published location is rounded to about 5 km.
- Rejected photos are not stored. We keep a short record (a fingerprint of the file and the reason) to stop the same image being resubmitted.
- Published photos are public. Anyone using Aurora Radar can see them.
3. Who we share it with
We never sell personal data. We use these service providers (processors) to run Aurora Radar:
- Supabase — database, storage and server functions. Hosted in London, UK.
- Your browser's push service (for example Apple, Google or Mozilla) — delivers alert notifications. They receive the alert text and your push address.
- Our website host Cloudflare — serves the app and keeps basic access logs.
To show forecasts, the app on your device requests data directly from third-party services. They see your IP address and, for weather, the coordinates being checked:
- Open-Meteo (cloud forecasts) — receives the coordinates of your saved places and nearby points.
- NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center (aurora forecast and space weather) — no location is sent.
- Google Fonts, cdnjs (Cloudflare) and jsDelivr — deliver fonts and code libraries.
Our server also requests cloud forecasts (Open-Meteo, or MET Norway as a backup) for the coordinates of places with alerts turned on, and reads AuroraWatch UK's public status. We may disclose data if required by law.
4. International transfers
Some providers may process data outside the UK. Where they do, we rely on UK adequacy regulations or the UK International Data Transfer Agreement/Addendum, or equivalent safeguards.
5. How long we keep it
- Saved places, alert settings and push subscriptions: until you turn alerts off, delete them or use "Delete my data". Push subscriptions that stop working are deleted automatically.
- Alert history: 24 months, then deleted. If you delete your data sooner, your alert history is anonymised (the link to you is removed) so our public accuracy totals stay correct.
- Published sightings: until you ask us to remove them or use "Delete my data".
- Records of rejected photos: 90 days.
- Technical logs: up to 90 days.
6. Your rights
Under UK data protection law you can ask to access, correct, delete or export your data, or restrict or object to how we use it. Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time.
- Delete my data: in the app, use "Delete my data" at the bottom of the page. This removes your places, alert settings, push subscriptions and shared photos from our server and clears the app on that device.
- For anything else, email privacy@creativelyapps.com. Because we don't know who you are, we may ask you to send the request from the app or give details that let us find your data.
If you're unhappy with how we handle your data, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk). We'd appreciate the chance to fix it first.
7. Cookies and storage on your device
We don't use advertising or tracking cookies. The app stores your places, settings and a sign-in token in your browser's local storage, and a service worker caches the app so it loads quickly and works offline. These are strictly necessary for the service you asked for, so they don't need consent.
8. Children
Aurora Radar is not intended for children under 13. You must be 13 or older to share sightings.
9. Security
Data is encrypted in transit. Database access is restricted so each user can only reach their own data, and only verified sightings are public. No system is perfectly secure. If a breach affects you, we'll tell you and the ICO where the law requires.
10. Changes
We'll update this page if our practices change and show the date above. Significant changes will be shown in the app.