Privacy Policy

Last updated: September 2026

Location, kept on your device

When you search a city, use "Use my location," or enter coordinates, we save that location in your browser only. It's sent to our server with each request (so we can compute planet positions, weather, and so on for it), but we never store it in a database or link it to you as an identity. Clearing your browser's site data removes it completely.

What we store

News articles: titles, summaries, links, images, and source names, pulled from public RSS feeds — none of it about you.

Astronomical/space-weather data: satellite orbital elements, geomagnetic indices, and similar reference data, cached briefly to keep the site fast — again, not about you.

The contact form: whatever you type is sent as an email to our inbox, not saved in a database.

Email alerts ("Get Notified"): if you sign up, we store your email address, the location you subscribed for, and which conditions you asked to be notified about (sky visibility, aurora, meteor showers, ISS passes) — nothing else. Alerts are sent through Cloudflare's own email service, which requires verifying your address directly with Cloudflare before any alert can be sent to it. That data is used only to check conditions for your location and email you when they're met. Every alert email includes a one-click unsubscribe link, which deletes your subscription entirely.

What we don't have: accounts, logins, passwords, names, or any server-side record of your location history or reading habits beyond an active email alert subscription.

Browser permissions

"Use my location" uses your browser's geolocation API, which only runs — and only asks permission — when you click it. We never request it automatically. Turning your coordinates into a place name ("London, England") happens as a direct call from your browser to BigDataCloud's free geocoding service — your coordinates go straight there, not through our server.

Third-party data sources

Sky and space-weather data comes from NASA, NOAA, CelesTrak, and Open-Meteo; news comes from the outlets listed on the About page. Each has its own privacy practices — following a link from skycrate takes you to their site, governed by their policy, not this one.

"Ask what tonight's good for"

This button only runs when you click it. When you do, that night's already-computed data (moon phase, visible planets, cloud cover, aurora odds — not your name or any identity) is sent to Google's Gemini API to generate a plain-language summary. Nothing is sent unless you click the button. If you type a follow-up question, that text is sent to the same API alongside the same data, and only answered if it's actually about tonight's sky.

Analytics

We may use basic, privacy-respecting analytics to see overall traffic, without identifying individual visitors.

Children's privacy

skycrate isn't directed at children, and we don't knowingly collect personal information from anyone, of any age.

Contact

Questions about this policy can be sent via the contact form.