Sky Now is a place to share what you're seeing in the sky right now — a sunset, a rainbow, an aurora — with people nearby. This policy explains, plainly, what we collect and why.
Information we collect
Account information
To create an account, you choose a username and password. No email required — most apps ask for your email address at sign-up; Sky Now doesn't. Your password is handled by our authentication provider (Supabase) and stored using industry-standard hashing — we never see or store it in readable form.
Profile information
Anything you choose to add to your profile: an avatar photo and a short bio.
Content you post
Photos, captions, sky-event tags, and comments you share. Posted photos are automatically stripped of metadata (including any embedded location data) before they leave your device.
Location
When you post an observation, your device's precise GPS coordinates are blurred — shifted by roughly a third of a mile in a random direction — on your device, before anything is sent to us. Your exact location is never transmitted to or stored on our servers. The blurred location is used to place your post approximately on the map and to match you with nearby live-sighting alerts.
Notification token
If you turn on notifications, we store a device push token so we can deliver alerts about predictable sky events (full moons, eclipses, meteor showers) and corroborated live sightings near you. You can turn this off anytime in your device settings.
HLEW severe weather alerts (Missouri & Illinois only)
If your location resolves to Missouri or Illinois, you can optionally opt in to receive direct severe weather alerts from Hyperlocal Extreme Weather (HLEW), our local severe-weather partner. Opting in requires a name, email address, and phone number so HLEW has a way to reach you, and checking a box confirming you understand your photos and videos may be used by HLEW for their weather-safety mission, with attribution. This is entirely optional, off by default, and never required to use the rest of the app — you can turn it on or off anytime in Settings.
Diagnostic data
Our infrastructure providers may log basic technical data (like request timestamps and error rates) to keep the service reliable and to detect abuse.
How we use it
- Operate the core app: your feed, the map, badges, streaks, and notifications.
- Keep the community safe: automated content screening, posting limits, and handling reports.
- Respond when you contact support.
- Diagnose bugs and keep the service running.
- Send severe weather alerts from our local partner HLEW, only if you've opted in (Missouri/Illinois residents only).
Sky Now doesn't show ads today. If we introduce advertising down the road, we'll update this policy before we do — and either way, we do not and will not sell your personal data to advertisers or data brokers.
What we don't do
- We don't sell your data to anyone, ever.
- We don't store or share your precise location — only the blurred version ever reaches our servers.
- We don't track you across other apps or websites.
- We don't require your real name or email address to use the app — the only exception is the optional HLEW severe weather alert opt-in (Missouri/Illinois only), which is never required.
Third-party services
A few specialized providers help run Sky Now. Each only receives what it needs to do its job:
| Provider | What it handles |
|---|---|
| Supabase | Database, authentication, photo storage, and backend hosting. |
| Google Cloud Vision | Automated screening of uploaded photos to confirm they show sky or nature scenes. |
| Expo | Delivery of push notifications to your device. |
| Apple / Google | App distribution and, where used, on-device maps. |
| Hyperlocal Extreme Weather (HLEW) | For users who opt in (Missouri/Illinois only): your name, email, and phone number, so they can reach you with severe weather alerts. If you've also checked the photo/video consent box, HLEW may use and attribute your posted photos and videos as part of their weather-safety mission. |
Moderation & safety
Every photo is automatically checked before it's posted to confirm it shows sky or nature — not people. Posts and comments are checked against a list of disallowed language. Accounts are limited to 10 posts a day. If something still slips through, the report option in the app sends a message straight to our support inbox for review.
Posts tagged as a high-impact severe weather event (tornado, funnel cloud, wall cloud, rotation, or storm damage) are held for a quick review by an HLEW moderator before appearing on the public feed and map. You'll still see your own post on your profile in the meantime.
Your choices
- Edit or delete any post or comment you've made, anytime.
- Change your username or password in Settings.
- Turn notifications on or off in your device settings.
- Delete your account entirely — see below.
Retention & deletion
We keep your information for as long as your account is active. When you delete your account from Settings, the deletion is immediate and permanent: your login credentials, profile, posts, comments, and notifications are all removed from our database. This can't be undone, and there's no recovery window — so we'll ask you to confirm before it happens.
Children's privacy
Sky Now is not directed to children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect information from anyone under 13. If you believe a child has created an account, contact us and we'll remove it.
Data security
Passwords are hashed, not stored as plain text. Traffic between the app and our servers is encrypted in transit. Access to the underlying database is restricted by row-level security policies, so your data is only reachable through the rules built into the app.
International use
Sky Now's data is processed and stored via our infrastructure provider, Supabase. If you're using the app from outside the country where our servers are located, your information will be transferred there in order to operate the service.
Changes to this policy
If we make a material change to this policy, we'll update the date at the top of this page and, where appropriate, let you know inside the app.
Contact us
Questions, concerns, or a request about your data? Reach us at SkyNowSupport@gmail.com.