Privacy Policy
Effective date: August 17, 2026
This Privacy Policy explains how OrbitDeck for iOS ("OrbitDeck," "the app," "we," "us") handles information. OrbitDeck is developed by Paul Stoetzer, N8HM ("the developer"). We are committed to protecting your privacy. In short: OrbitDeck does not collect, store, or transmit your personal information to the developer, and contains no advertising or third-party analytics or tracking.
The developer does not collect any personal information through OrbitDeck. OrbitDeck has no user accounts, no advertising, and no analytics or tracking SDKs. All of your settings, favorites, saved sites, and cached data are stored locally on your device.
OrbitDeck can use your device's location to set your observer station, which is required to compute satellite pass predictions, look angles, and related information. Location is used only on your device. It is not transmitted to the developer and is not shared with any third party. Providing location is optional — you may instead enter your station manually as latitude/longitude or as a Maidenhead grid square. You can enable or revoke Location access at any time in the iOS Settings app.
OrbitDeck can optionally connect to third-party amateur-radio services if you choose to enter credentials for them:
Any passwords you enter are stored in the device's secure iOS Keychain, not in the app's preferences, and are never sent to the developer. They are transmitted only to the corresponding service, over an encrypted connection, when you use that feature. Your use of those services is governed by their own privacy policies.
To function, OrbitDeck downloads publicly available data from the following services. These requests are made directly from your device to each service and necessarily include your device's IP address, which those services may process according to their own policies. OrbitDeck does not send them your personal information.
OrbitDeck identifies itself and rate-limits its requests in accordance with these services' usage policies.
If you schedule a pass alarm, OrbitDeck uses local notifications delivered on your device. Notification permission is requested only when you first schedule an alarm. No notification data leaves your device.
OrbitDeck contains no third-party analytics, no advertising, and no tracking. We do not track you across apps or websites, and OrbitDeck does not use the Advertising Identifier (IDFA) or request App Tracking Transparency permission.
OrbitDeck is a utility for amateur-radio operators and is not directed to children. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone, including children under 13.
Because OrbitDeck stores its data only on your device and the developer maintains no servers or accounts, there is no personal data held by the developer to retain or delete. You can remove all of OrbitDeck's local data by deleting the app from your device.
Network connections made by OrbitDeck use standard encrypted transport (HTTPS/TLS). Credentials are stored in the iOS Keychain. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, but OrbitDeck minimizes risk by keeping your data on your device.
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Material changes will be reflected here with a new effective date.
If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or OrbitDeck's privacy practices, contact the developer at n8hm@arrl.net.