Observation Companion Privacy Policy

Effective date and last updated: September 7, 2026

This Privacy Policy explains how the Observation Companion Android application (the “App”), provided by Filip Poplewski (the “Developer”), accesses, uses, stores, and shares information.

Information the App accesses

Precise or approximate location. If you choose “Use GPS” and grant Android location permission, the App obtains a one-time location fix. You may instead enter a location manually. The App uses latitude, longitude, and altitude to calculate satellite passes, visibility, and related predictions.

Settings and locally generated data. The App stores your observer location, saved location presets, antenna-band choices, alarm preferences, API endpoint settings, cached satellite data, and calculated passes on your device.

Notifications and alarms. If you enable pass alerts and grant the applicable Android permission, the App schedules local alarms and shows local notifications. The Developer does not receive notification contents or usage data.

Collection, use, and sharing

The App has no user accounts, advertising, analytics, tracking SDKs, or Developer- operated backend. The Developer does not collect or receive your location, settings, identifiers, or App usage data.

Your observer coordinates are not included in requests to SatNOGS or CelesTrak. The App does request OpenStreetMap tiles for the visible map area. Tile identifiers describe the area being viewed and can therefore reveal an approximate location, or a more precise area at high zoom, to the tile service. The Google Play distribution also uses Google Play services to obtain a one-time location fix when requested by you. Google may process device and location data under its own privacy policy.

The App retrieves public satellite information and map tiles from third-party services. Those services receive ordinary network information needed to answer a request, such as your IP address, request time, requested resource, and a user-agent identifying the App. For map requests, the requested resource includes the map-tile coordinates described above. The App does not sell personal data and does not share it with advertisers or data brokers.

If you replace the SatNOGS API addresses in Settings, requests are sent to the server addresses you provide. The operator of each replacement server controls its own data practices.

Data security

The App uses HTTPS for its default remote services. App data is kept in Android's private application storage, which is protected by Android's application sandbox. Release builds disable HTTP request and response logging. No method of storage or transmission is completely secure.

Retention and deletion

Location, settings, presets, and cached data remain on your device until you change them, clear the App's storage, or uninstall the App. You can delete saved presets in the App. Because the App has no account and the Developer does not receive this data, there is no server-side account data for the Developer to delete. Third-party services may retain network request logs according to their own policies.

Children

The App is not directed to children and the Developer does not knowingly collect personal information from children.

Changes to this policy

This policy may be updated when the App's data practices or legal requirements change. The effective date at the top identifies the latest version.

Contact

For privacy questions, contact Filip Poplewski at filip.poplewski@gmail.com.