Aurora Forecast & Alerts Now
Privacy Policy
Effective 2026-11-06
In short: no account, no ads, no analytics, no tracking. The app works on your phone. Our server only hears from your phone if you turn on aurora alerts, and then it keeps the least it needs to send them: a rounded location, your alert settings, a notification token and your subscription status. Turn alerts off and that record is deleted.
Who we are
Aurora Forecast & Alerts Now (“the app”) is made by Swapnil Jain (“we”, “us”). Questions about privacy: business@firstimpresslabs.com.
What stays on your phone
Your location, preferences, the latest forecast and your purchase status are stored on your device and are not sent to us.
What the app asks to use
Approximate location. The app uses your location on the device to work out darkness and your chance tonight. Location permission is optional, and approximate location is enough. If you turn on alerts, a rounded location is sent to our alert server, as described below.
Notifications. If you turn on alerts, the app asks to send you notifications so it can deliver them.
What we collect, only if you turn on alerts
Alerts are a Pro feature. When you turn them on, the app sends the following to our alert server. Nothing is sent to our server if you never turn on alerts.
| Data | What exactly | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Approximate location | Your home location rounded to 0.1 degree (one decimal place, roughly 11 km), and the destinations of any trips you add, rounded the same way. The server rounds again before storing, whatever the app sends. | To work out the aurora chance where you are. |
| Notification token | The Apple Push Notification service (APNs) device token for the app on your phone. | To deliver alerts to your phone, and, near a renewal date, at most one silent message a day that asks the app to refresh your purchase status. |
| Purchase status | From the signed purchase record Apple gives the app: the original transaction ID, whether it is a lifetime purchase, and when the subscription expires. We check Apple's signature on it. Apple also tells our server directly about renewals, expiries and refunds (App Store Server Notifications), including whether auto-renew is on. | To confirm you are entitled to alerts, to keep them running when your subscription renews, and to limit one purchase to 10 devices. |
| Alert settings | Naked eye or camera, the minimum chance, quiet hours (before midnight or any time), your time zone, travel radius, trip dates and the time zone of each trip, the time and chance of the last alert we sent, and when we last asked the app to refresh your purchase status. | To decide when to alert you, and not to repeat an alert within 3 hours unless the chance rises a lot. |
We do not collect your name, email address, phone number, contacts, photos, payment card details, precise location, browsing or search history, usage analytics or crash data. We do not ask for or use the advertising identifier.
This data is not linked to your identity: there is no account, and none of it tells us who you are. It is used only to provide alerts.
How long we keep it
Your alert record (location, token, purchase status, settings and trips) is deleted when any of these happens:
- You turn alerts off in the app. It is deleted at once.
- Your subscription ends. It is deleted when Apple tells us the subscription has expired, and in any case no later than 16 days after it lapses. That grace period covers Apple's billing retry, so a card problem does not wipe your settings.
- Apple tells us the purchase was refunded or revoked. It is deleted at once, on every device using that purchase, lifetime purchases included.
- Apple's notification service tells us the token is no longer valid, for example after the app is deleted from your phone.
- The same purchase is registered on more than 10 devices. The least recently updated one is deleted.
A lifetime purchase does not expire, so its record is kept until you turn alerts off, the token becomes invalid, or the purchase is refunded.
When a purchase is refunded or revoked, we keep its original transaction ID (an opaque number from Apple) so that an old copy of the purchase record cannot turn alerts back on. It is not linked to any device, token, location or person. It is kept for 400 days, or indefinitely for a lifetime purchase.
The server also keeps a record of its own scheduled checks (time and counts only, no user data) for 14 days, and a cache of cloud cover per 0.1 degree area (no user data) for up to 24 hours.
Who processes it
- Cloudflare hosts our alert server and its database, as our processor. Like any web host, it sees the IP address of each request to the server. We do not log or store IP addresses, and our server logs hold counts only, never tokens or locations.
- Apple Push Notification service delivers notifications to your phone.
- Apple handles all payments. We never see your card details.
- The NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center supplies the aurora and Kp forecasts. The app and the server download whole global files from NOAA, so no location is sent to NOAA.
- Apple Weather provides weather through Apple WeatherKit. To get cloud cover, the app asks Apple Weather about your location, and our server asks about the rounded 0.1 degree locations of people with alerts on.
- Apple MapKit draws maps and finds places, served by Apple in real time.
Apple handles its services under its own privacy policy: apple.com/legal/privacy.
What we do not do
- We do not sell or share your data, and we do not use it for advertising.
- We do not track you across other companies' apps or websites.
- The app contains no ads and no analytics or crash-reporting SDKs.
Your choices
- Use the app without location permission, or with approximate location.
- Turn alerts off at any time to delete your server record.
- Turn off notifications for the app in the Settings app.
Because there is no account, we cannot look up your record by name or email. Turning alerts off in the app is the way to delete it. If you can no longer do that, it is deleted as described above. You can still email us with any request and we will help where we can.
Children
The app is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect data from them.
Changes
If this policy changes, we will update this page and its effective date. A change that collects more data will also be described in the app's release notes.