Privacy Policy
Effective date: 21 June 2026
Auroral (“the app”, “we”, “us”) is an aurora-forecasting app. The short version: Auroral has no account system, no analytics, no advertising, and no backend server that we operate. Your data stays on your device, except for the coordinates needed to fetch a forecast.
What we collect
- Location. With your permission, the app reads your device location to compute the aurora viewing forecast for where you are. You can also set a location manually by searching for a city instead of granting location access.
- Your settings. Notification threshold, language, night-vision preference, and similar choices.
We do not collect your name, email, contacts, photos, advertising identifiers, or any analytics/usage telemetry.
How your location is used
Your coordinates are used only to retrieve the data needed to score tonight’s sky:
- Weather / cloud cover — your coordinates are sent to the Norwegian Meteorological Institute (Met.no) to fetch the cloud forecast for that point.
- Light pollution — your coordinates are sent to lightpollutionmap.info to look up the darkness (Bortle) value for that point.
- Aurora activity — the app downloads NOAA’s global aurora-oval dataset in full and finds the nearest point on your device. Your location is not sent to NOAA.
These requests are made solely to return a forecast for the location you are checking. We do not sell, rent, or share your location for advertising, profiling, or tracking.
What we store
- Your settings and your most recent location are stored locally on your device (in the app’s own storage) so the app can work and check conditions in the background. They are not uploaded to any server operated by us — we operate no servers or databases.
- You can clear stored data at any time by deleting the app.
Notifications
Auroral schedules notifications locally on your device to alert you when aurora conditions are favorable. We do not run a server that pushes messages to you.
Background activity
With your permission, the app may periodically check conditions in the background and notify you. This uses your most recently known location; the app does not continuously track your movement.
Third parties
The app contacts these services only to fetch forecast data for the point you are checking. Their handling of network requests is governed by their own policies:
- Met.no — met.no/en/About-us/privacy
- lightpollutionmap.info — lightpollutionmap.info
- NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center — weather.gov/privacy
Children
Auroral is not directed at children and does not knowingly collect data from them.
Changes
If this policy changes, we will update the effective date above.