Privacy Policy
Effective 26 October 2026
Nebulon: Sky Map & Stargazing ("Nebulon") is an iPhone app for looking at the night sky, and nebulon.app is its website. They are made by an independent developer ("we", "us"). This policy explains what the app, the website and the Nebulon server (api.nebulon.app) handle, and for how long. Contact: support@nebulon.app.
The short version
- No accounts and no sign-in. We never ask for your name, email address or any other contact details.
- No ads, no tracking, no third-party analytics. We don't sell or share your information for advertising.
- The position the app sends to our server is rounded to about 1 km. Our server stores neither that position nor the rough place it works out from your IP address the first time you open the app.
- The app proves it is the genuine Nebulon app with Apple's App Attest, using a random key made for this installation; our server keeps its public part, which says nothing about who you are, and deletes it after 90 days without use.
- The camera, motion sensors and your photos stay on your iPhone.
- Purchases are handled by Apple. We never see your payment details.
Who is responsible
The controller of the data this policy describes, who decides how it is used and answers for it, is Oto Sharvashidze, [postal address to be added], Georgia, support@nebulon.app.
Location
- The app uses your location on your iPhone to work out what is visible in your sky.
- For tonight's conditions, the cloud forecast and light pollution, the app sends a position rounded to two decimal places (about 1 km) to our server, api.nebulon.app. About once a day, iOS lets the app refresh tonight's forecast in the background for the widget and the clear-sky alert, with the same rounded position of your last location or chosen place.
- Our server uses the position to answer that one request and does not store it. Answers that depend on your position are marked private, so shared caches don't keep them. For the cloud forecast, our server asks Apple's WeatherKit for an area of about 11 km around the rounded position, and keeps that area's forecast for up to one hour so nearby requests can share it; it is not linked to you.
- When you first open the app and no location or chosen place is set yet, the app asks our server for a rough place to start the tour from. Our server answers with the approximate location that our hosting provider derives from your IP address, about city level; it is used for that answer only and is not stored.
- To show the name of your place, the app sends the same rounded position to Apple's geocoder. If our server can't be reached, the app asks Apple Weather directly through Apple's WeatherKit framework, also with the rounded position. When you search for a city, the words you type go to Apple Maps, and the Dark Sky Map is an Apple map, so your iPhone loads the map for the area on screen from Apple. Apple handles these requests under Apple's privacy policy.
- Your chosen place, the places you searched recently, saved spots and the widget's last result are stored on your iPhone.
Camera
The sky camera view is processed on your iPhone only. With Auto-align on, the app looks for the Moon, bright planets and stars in small parts of the camera picture, on your iPhone, to line the sky up. Nebulon never records, stores or sends camera images.
Motion
Motion and compass data point the sky view where your phone is facing. They are used on your iPhone only.
Photos
Nebulon asks for add-only access to your photo library, and only to save a picture you choose to save. It cannot see your photos.
Notifications
- If you turn on Messages from Nebulon, your iPhone gives the app a push token (a random identifier from Apple). The app sends it to our server with the app version, language, time zone and whether it is a test build, when it is new and at most once a day after that, so we can send you notifications.
- We delete the token when you turn notifications off in Nebulon, when Apple tells us it is no longer valid, or when the app has not checked in for 90 days.
- Notifications go to everyone who turned them on; we don't send personal or targeted notifications. Reminders such as clear-sky alerts and satellite passes are scheduled on your iPhone.
App Attest
To keep scripts from using up the services our server pays for, the app proves to our server that it is the genuine Nebulon app with Apple's App Attest. The first time, your iPhone makes a random key for this installation in its secure hardware and Apple confirms it. Our server keeps the key's identifier and public key, a counter, whether it is a test build, and when the key was registered and last used. Nothing in it says who you are, and it is not linked to your push token. The app trades the key for a one-hour app token that it sends with its requests to our server, including those that carry your rounded position. Our server checks the token and does not store it, neither with your position nor in its logs; the challenges it hands out for this are not stored either. When our server requires App Attest, it also uses the token to limit how many requests one installation can make: Cloudflare's rate limiter counts each installation's requests for 60 seconds, under a hash of the key's identifier. We delete a key that has not been used for 90 days.
Purchases
Nebulon Pro is sold by Apple through the App Store. Apple processes the payment; we never see your payment details or your Apple Account. The app checks your purchase on your iPhone, and our server is not involved.
Diagnostics
The app uses Apple's MetricKit to keep performance and crash reports on your iPhone. It does not send them to us.
What our server and our hosting provider see
- The app talks to api.nebulon.app, and the website is served from nebulon.app; both run on Cloudflare. Like any web service, Cloudflare receives your IP address and the app or browser's user agent with each request, to deliver the service and protect it from abuse.
- Our server uses the IP address to limit how many requests one address can make and, when it requires App Attest, the app token described under App Attest to limit how many one installation can make. For the addresses it keeps counters per address: short counters of 10 to 60 seconds in Cloudflare's rate limiter and, while the hourly limits are switched on, hourly counters in our server's Durable Objects for requests without an app token and for some star tiles. A counter holds the address (for an IPv6 address, its /64 prefix) and a count, and is deleted within about an hour.
- Our own server logs do not contain your IP address, your position, your push token or your App Attest key or token. They record events such as a source failing, and are kept for up to 7 days.
- Cloudflare's security systems may keep a record, including the IP address, of requests they block or challenge, for up to 30 days. Cloudflare acts as our service provider; see cloudflare.com/privacypolicy.
News searches
When you search the news in the app, the search words are sent to our server, which looks them up in our stored articles and asks the Spaceflight News API for matching headlines. The results for the same words can be cached for up to 24 hours. Searches are not linked to you.
Other services the app connects to
Most pictures load directly from the servers that publish them, such as NASA, ESA, ESO and NOIRLab, and Read on opens the publisher's page in Safari inside the app. The app also downloads satellite orbits from CelesTrak and searches NASA's Image and Video Library with the words you type there. If our server can't be reached, the app gets the picture of the day from NASA and the northern-lights forecast from NOAA directly. Videos load from YouTube or Vimeo only after you tap play. Those servers see your IP address like any website you visit; their own privacy policies apply.
The website
nebulon.app presents the app and holds this policy, the terms, support and credits. The website sets no cookies and stores nothing in your browser. It loads nothing from other sites: every page, picture and script comes from nebulon.app itself. It does not ask for your location and does not call our server.
Children
Nebulon is for everyone. It has no accounts and does not knowingly collect personal information from anyone, including children.
Legal bases
Where the GDPR applies, we rely on these legal bases:
- Providing the service you asked for (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR): answering the requests the app makes, such as tonight's conditions and the cloud forecast with the rounded position, the picture of the day, the news and your news searches, and delivering them through our hosting provider with your IP address and user agent.
- Our legitimate interests (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR): delivering this website, keeping the service secure and available for everyone with the rate limits, App Attest and our hosting provider's security systems, and starting the app's first tour from the approximate place derived from your IP address. You can object to this (see Your rights).
- Your consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR): push notifications. You can withdraw it at any time by turning notifications off.
Where your data is processed
- Our server and this website run on Cloudflare, which may process data in many countries. Cloudflare is our processor under its Data Processing Addendum and relies on the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework and Standard Contractual Clauses for transfers.
- Apple processes the requests the app sends to Apple's services (WeatherKit, Maps, the App Store, App Attest and push notifications) under Apple's own privacy policy, apple.com/legal/privacy.
- Our service providers (Cloudflare, Apple) protect your data at least as well as this policy describes.
Your choices and deletion
- You can deny or withdraw location, camera, motion, photo and notification permissions at any time in the iPhone Settings app; the features that need them stop working.
- You don't have to share your location: tap the location chip on the Tonight tab, or the location button on the Sky tab, and choose a place. The sky and tonight's forecast then follow that place; the camera view always uses where your phone is.
- Deleting the app removes everything it stored on your iPhone.
- Turning notifications off in Nebulon deletes your push token from our server.
- Our hosting provider keeps a recovery history of our server's database and storage, so something our server deletes, such as a push token, an App Attest key or an hourly counter, can still be restored for up to 30 days before it is gone for good.
Your rights
You have the right to:
- Access: ask whether we hold data about you and get a copy of it.
- Rectification: have data about you corrected if it is wrong.
- Erasure: have data about you deleted.
- Restriction: ask us to limit how we use data about you.
- Objection: object to our use of data about you that rests on our legitimate interests.
- Portability: get data you gave us in a common, machine-readable format, or have it sent to someone else.
- Withdrawing consent: turn push notifications off at any time, in Nebulon or in the Settings app. Turning them off in Nebulon also deletes your push token from our server at once. If you turn them off only in the Settings app, your push token stays on our server until Apple tells us it is no longer valid or the app has not checked in for 90 days. Withdrawing consent does not affect what was done before.
To use any of these rights, or with any question or request about your data, write to support@nebulon.app. Because we have no accounts and don't store your position, we hold nothing that says who you are: only the random push token (if you turned notifications on) and the App Attest key described above. Deleting the app stops both being used, and our server deletes them once they have not been used for 90 days.
You can also complain to the data-protection authority where you live or work in the EU/EEA or the UK, or to Georgia's Personal Data Protection Service.
Changes
If this policy changes, we will post the new version here with a new effective date. If a change is significant, we will also say so in the app.