Odd Orbit Privacy Policy
Effective October 9, 2026. Applies to the Odd Orbit website (oddorbit.app) and the Odd Orbit Android app, which opens the same website.
The short version: Odd Orbit has no accounts, no ads, no tracking across sites and no cookies. We count visits anonymously with Cloudflare Web Analytics (cookieless, no IP stored) and keep a daily count of link tags, explained below. If the app hits a bug, an anonymous error report (what broke and your browser type, with no personal data or location) goes to Sentry so we can fix it. We don't sell, rent or trade any data. If you allow location, it's used to show your weather and the planes near you. Only rounded coordinates leave your device, they are not tied to you, and we don't keep them.
Who we are
Odd Orbit is a free, independent hobby project: a live 3D globe of the Earth with a clearly labeled "mystery" layer of reports, folklore and fiction. Questions about privacy: oddorbitcontact@gmail.com.
Your location (optional)
Odd Orbit asks your browser or phone for your location. You can say no and pick a city instead, or use the default spot. If you say yes:
- On your device: your location centers the map, places the "you are here" marker and works out which satellites are overhead. That math happens on your phone.
- Weather: your coordinates, rounded on your device to a 0.05° grid (about 5 km), go to the Odd Orbit server. The server asks MET Norway for the forecast and, for US locations, the US National Weather Service for rain chance and gusts.
- Nearby planes: your coordinates, rounded to a quarter degree (about 25 km), go to the Odd Orbit server, which asks adsb.lol for aircraft in that area.
Those requests to MET Norway, the National Weather Service and adsb.lol come from our server, not from your device, so those services see the rounded coordinates and never your IP address. To keep the app fast and avoid overloading those free services, the answer for each rounded grid spot is cached on Cloudflare's network for a few minutes to a few hours, so the next visitor in the same area gets the same copy. A cached forecast is just weather for a grid spot and contains nothing about who asked. We don't log these requests or keep your location on our server.
When you tap a spot on the map to see its weather, or the map draws wind arrows and the "411 glow", the coordinates of those map spots (not your own location) are sent the same way.
City search runs entirely on your device against a city list bundled with the app. What you type is never sent anywhere.
What's stored on your device
Odd Orbit uses your browser's local storage (not cookies) to remember:
- your settings: which layers are on, Live or Mystery tab, Creepy Mode on or off, and whether you've seen the touch-controls tip;
- the location you last used (a city you picked, or your GPS coordinates if you allowed location), so the app opens where you left off;
- a copy of the public satellite orbit data (from CelesTrak), so it doesn't need to download it again for 6 hours.
If you arrive through a link with ?ref= in it (for example ?ref=hn), our server adds one to a daily count for that tag, and does the same when the tip button is tapped. That is all it stores: the day and the tag. No cookies, no IP address, no device details and no personal data. The tag is removed from the address bar right away.
A service worker also keeps a copy of the app's own files (plus the whole-globe NASA base map pictures you have already seen) so it opens quickly and works when your connection drops. None of this is sent to us. You can erase it anytime by clearing site data for oddorbit.app in your browser settings (in Chrome: Settings → Site settings → All sites). On Android, the app's data lives in Chrome under that same site.
Error reports (Sentry)
When something in the app breaks, for example a script error, it sends an anonymous error report to Sentry, a bug-tracking service, so we can find and fix the problem. That's the only reason it exists.
- What a report contains: the error message and the line of app code where it happened, the app version, your browser and operating system type (for example "Chrome 130 on Android"), the app page address with everything after the
?removed (a?ref=tag is the one exception), and a short list of what the app did just before the error, like "opened the weather card" or "loaded /api/weather", with any coordinates removed. - What it never contains: your IP address (like any web request, Sentry's server sees it while receiving the report, but the app tells Sentry not to store it), your location or any coordinates (Sentry does note which country a report came from, worked out from the connection), cookies, a user ID, your time zone or language, what you typed, or anything from the console. There's no session recording, no performance tracking and no usage counting. If nothing breaks, nothing is sent.
- The error-report code is hosted on our own server and loads only after the app has finished starting, so it never slows the globe down. Sentry deletes reports automatically after its retention period (30 days on our free plan), under Sentry's privacy policy.
Visit counts (Cloudflare Web Analytics)
We use Cloudflare Web Analytics for anonymous, cookieless visit counts: how many page loads and visits happen each day, which pages are opened, the referring site, and rough browser, device and country breakdowns. It sets no cookies, uses no local storage, stores no IP address, builds no profile of you and does no cross-site tracking. See Cloudflare Web Analytics and the Cloudflare privacy policy below.
Things every website sees
Like any website, the services that deliver Odd Orbit's files and map pictures receive your IP address and normal request details (such as browser type) so they can send content back:
| Service | What it does | Policy |
|---|---|---|
| Cloudflare | Hosts the app, runs the Odd Orbit server and provides anonymous, cookieless visit counts (Web Analytics) | cloudflare.com/privacypolicy |
| NASA GIBS (Earthdata) | Globe imagery, city lights, fire detections, borders and labels | nasa.gov/privacy |
| EOX IT Services | Close-up satellite imagery (Sentinel-2 cloudless) | eox.at |
| Sentry (Functional Software, Inc.) | Receives anonymous error reports when the app breaks (see above). No IP address or location is stored | sentry.io/privacy |
| US Geological Survey | Earthquake feed | usgs.gov/policies-and-notices |
Our server uses your IP address for a moment, in memory only, to stop any one visitor from flooding it with requests (rate limiting). We don't store it, and we've turned off Cloudflare's per-request logs for the Odd Orbit server. Cloudflare may keep its own security and network records under its policy above.
Satellite orbits (CelesTrak) and aurora forecasts (NOAA) are fetched by our server and contain no information about you.
Links to other sites
Some details link to outside sites such as USGS, NUFORC, BFRO, OpenStreetMap or Wikipedia. Those open under their own privacy policies. If a "Keep the lights on" tip button is shown on the website, it opens an outside tipping page (such as Ko-fi) under that page's policy; we never see your payment details. The Android app from Google Play does not show a tip button.
What we don't do
- No accounts, sign-ups, names, emails or phone numbers.
- No advertising, ad IDs, cross-site tracking, fingerprinting or cookies. Visit counts are anonymous and error reports only describe the bug, never you.
- No selling or sharing of personal information, and no profiles of anyone.
- No access to your contacts, photos, camera, microphone or files.
The Android app
The Odd Orbit app on Google Play is a small wrapper that opens this website in Chrome (a "Trusted Web Activity"). It adds no data collection of its own. Location permission is handled by Chrome, and you can change it in Chrome's site settings. Google Play itself may collect information about installs and crashes under Google's Privacy Policy.
Children
Odd Orbit is meant for ages 13 and up because the mystery layers include spooky folklore, internet horror stories and references to real deaths. It isn't directed at children under 13, and it doesn't knowingly collect personal information from anyone. If you believe a child has sent us personal information, email us and we'll delete it.
Security
Everything is served over HTTPS. Since we don't collect accounts or personal records, there's no database of users to leak.
Your choices and rights
You can use Odd Orbit without sharing location, revoke location permission at any time in your browser or phone settings, and clear stored settings as described above. We don't hold personal information about you, but if you have a question or request (including under laws like GDPR or CCPA), email oddorbitcontact@gmail.com and we'll reply.
Changes
If this policy changes, we'll update this page and the effective date at the top. If we ever add something that collects more data, we'll say so here before it goes live.
Odd Orbit · oddorbitcontact@gmail.com