Privacy policy

FotoNoa asks you for no account and no sign-up, collects no personal data, sells nothing, shares nothing with anyone, and carries no advertising. Everything you set up stays on your phone.

What it does do is count, anonymously, how many people open the app and which screens they use, and receive a report if it closes on its own. That goes to Firebase, a Google service, and is explained in section 6. You can switch the statistics off from «About» whenever you like.

The only thing that leaves your phone is loose coordinates, sent to the services needed to answer you (the forecast, a place search, the height of the terrain). They travel with no name, no account and nothing that identifies you.

There is one exception, and it happens because you choose it: if you write to us from «About → Write to me», that message is indeed sent. It is described in detail in section 5.

The app uses your location for one thing only: working out the sky from where you are. Sunrise and Moon times, the position of the Milky Way, the forecast and eclipses all depend on your coordinates.

• You can decline the permission and choose the place by hand; the app works just the same.
• The chosen location is saved on your phone, not on a server of ours.
• It is sent only to the services listed below, and always as a pair of coordinates, with no user or device identifier.
• There is no background tracking and no history of where you have been.

The camera permission is used only for the augmented reality viewer, where the app draws planets, constellations, satellites and the Milky Way over what you are looking at. The image is processed live on the phone: it is not saved, not uploaded anywhere and not shared with anyone.

To orient the viewer the app also reads the phone's sensors (compass, accelerometer and gyroscope). That data never leaves the device.

The following is stored locally, in the app's private storage:

• The chosen location and your latest place searches
• Your favorites and the map pins
• Your photo gear (cameras and lenses) for the guides
• App preferences and cached downloads (forecast, maps)

None of it syncs to a server. If you uninstall the app, all of it is deleted.

In «About» there is a button, Write to me, for sending a comment without leaving the app. It is optional: if you don't use it, nothing is sent.

When you use it and tap Send, only this travels:

• The text you wrote.
• Whatever contact you filled in (email or Instagram), an optional field that exists only so I can reply. If you leave it empty, nothing is sent.
• The FotoNoa version and your phone's operating system, so a problem you report can be understood.

The message is delivered through Web3Forms, which forwards it by email and publishes it nowhere. There is no database and no server of our own: the message ends up in a mailbox, like any email you send me.

It is used to read it, to reply if you left a contact, and to improve the app. It is not shared with anyone, not used for advertising and not cross-referenced with any other data. If you want it deleted, write to me and I'll delete it.

FotoNoa has no advertising, uses no ad SDK, does no profiling and does not use your phone's advertising identifier. What it does use is Firebase, from Google, for two specific things:

• Usage statistics (Firebase Analytics). How many times the app is opened, which screens are used and how long sessions last. Each event carries the app version, the phone model, the operating system, the language and the approximate country (derived from the IP address, with no coordinates). Your location does not travel, nor what you search for, nor your gear, nor any personal data.
• Crash reports (Firebase Crashlytics). If the app closes on its own, it sends which part of the code failed, the phone model, the operating system and the app version. It serves only to fix the error.

To group that information Firebase generates a random identifier per installation. It is not tied to your name, account or phone number, and a new one is generated if you reinstall the app. The data is processed on Google servers, which may be outside your country. Statistics are kept for 14 months and crash reports for 90 days.

Statistics are switched off from «About FotoNoa → Anonymous usage statistics», and from that moment on no more are sent. Crash reports cannot be switched off separately, because they carry no personal data and they are what keeps the app running. If you would rather have none at all, the only way is not to use the app.

Notifications about sky events (eclipses, meteor showers, Moon phases) are calculated and scheduled by your own phone when you open the app: they pass through no server and no data of yours goes out. They arrive switched off; you turn them on, and you turn them all off or just some from the bell in the header.

The «Workshops near you» notification is different: it arrives through Firebase Cloud Messaging, from Google, on the topic for the country you are in (Uruguay, Argentina, Spain or other), which is inferred from the time zone chosen in the app. Only when you turn that switch on does Firebase generate a device identifier to deliver it; turning it off deletes it. Your exact location does not travel, nor any personal data, and the workshops you see in the app are downloaded from Firebase remote config without identifying you.

To give you up-to-date data the app queries these services. In doing so, they receive the query (which may include coordinates) and, as with any internet request, the IP address it is made from. Each one has its own policy:

• Open-Meteo — weather and sky forecast
• OpenStreetMap (Overpass y Nominatim) — what's at a point on the map, nearby places and fallback search
• LocationIQ — place search and the name of the place you're in
• Esri (ArcGIS) — base maps for the Terrain background and on the desktop
• AWS Terrain Tiles — elevations and terrain profile
• Wikipedia / Wikimedia — text and images of celestial objects and places
• CelesTrak — satellite orbits
• Google Street View (Maps Embed API) — seeing the place from the ground
• NASA — public-domain astronomical data and images
• Web3Forms — delivering your message when you use «Write to me» (only if you use it)
• Firebase (Google) — anonymous usage statistics and crash reports (section 6)

FotoNoa is free and stays that way: no advertising, no data selling, no account and no subscription, and every feature is available to everyone alike.

Keeping it going has costs (the maps, the forecast, the store accounts and development time), and it is sustained by voluntary donations from the people who use it. A donation is a one-off, for whatever amount each person chooses, and it unlocks nothing: the app is the same for someone who donates and someone who doesn't.

Payment is processed by a third party and we neither see nor store card or account details. On iPhone and iPad it is made as an in-app purchase handled by Apple; on Android and from this site, Mercado Pago or PayPal. Each one has its own policy:

• App Store (Apple) — donations from iPhone and iPad are made as an in-app purchase
• Mercado Pago — donations from Android and from this site, in Uruguay
• PayPal — donations from Android and from this site, from other countries

FotoNoa is suitable for all audiences, but it is not specifically aimed at minors and collects no data from them. Since there are no accounts and no personal data, there are no profiles of underage users either; the statistics in section 6 are anonymous for everyone alike.

We store no data of yours on any server: it is all on your phone and you control it. You can revoke the location and camera permissions whenever you like from the system settings, and delete everything by uninstalling the app.

Two things may remain outside your phone: a message you sent us with «Write to me», which sits in a mailbox, and the anonymous statistics and reports from section 6, in Firebase. If you want whatever can be associated with your installation deleted, ask me at the email below with your phone model and the approximate date, and I'll request it from Firebase.

If the app ever changes the way it handles data, this page is updated and the date above changes. The address of this page is stable: https://fotonoa.com/en/privacy

Any questions about this policy or about the app, write to me at hola@fotonoa.com.