Privacy policy

OrbitalSpace is an independent business based in New Delhi, India (full postal address on the contact page). For any privacy question or request, email [email protected].

Apart from the anonymous visit statistics described under Analytics, we do not collect or store any data about you. Your browser loads public data directly from Open-Meteo, USGS and NASA EONET, and on the Pro natural events view also from GDACS and the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center. Those requests contain only map coordinates or feed names, but like any web request they reveal your IP address to that provider, whose own privacy policy applies. Our host, Vercel, and our network provider, Cloudflare, keep standard security logs (IP address, time, page requested) for a limited period. We do not use these logs to identify anyone.

Every page of OrbitalSpace loads Cloudflare Web Analytics, a script from static.cloudflareinsights.com that reports to orbitalspace.in. For each page view it records the page address, the page you came from, your browser, operating system and device type, your country as worked out from your IP address, and how fast the page loaded. It sets no cookies, uses no browser storage, does not keep your IP address and does not identify you or follow you across other sites. We use these statistics as totals, to learn which pages and layers people use, where visitors come from and how fast the site is. The same measurement runs whether or not you are signed in, and it is never linked to your Google account or your payments. Cloudflare processes this data under its own privacy policy.

OrbitalSpace asks for your location only when you tap Near me, the Locate button or a button such as Show the city nearest me. Your browser then shows its own permission prompt, and your browser or device works out the position under its own privacy terms. We round it to 0.1 degrees, roughly 10 km, and use it only in your browser to sort places by distance and find the nearest city, country or earthquake. It is kept in this tab's session storage, so it is gone when you close the tab. It is never sent to OrbitalSpace or stored on our servers. If you say no, everything else keeps working, and you can withdraw the permission at any time in your browser's site settings.

The countries list may pin a country guessed from your browser's language settings. That guess is made in your browser and is not sent to us or stored.

To show prices, our server reads the country that our host, Vercel, or our network provider, Cloudflare, works out from your IP address with each request for the pricing page, your account page or a Pro checkout. We use it only to choose your price and currency: Indian rupees in India, US dollars everywhere else, with a regional discount for visitors from many countries. We do not store it, link it to your account or add it to your Razorpay order.

Sign in is optional and uses Google Sign-In through Firebase Authentication. When you sign in, Google shares with us only the basic profile information covered by the openid, email and profile permissions:

• your name,
• your email address,
• your profile photo URL,
• a unique account identifier (Firebase user ID).

We do not request access to your Gmail, Drive, contacts, calendar or any other Google data, and we never see or store your Google password.

• To sign you in and keep you signed in across visits and devices.
• To show your name and photo on your account page.
• To check whether your account has Pro, using the paid until date we record after a payment. While Pro is active, to save the cities and countries you add and to unlock CSV downloads. Places you saved stay visible and removable on your account page after Pro ends, but new ones cannot be added.
• When you request Team access, to store your name, email address and the plan you chose, so we can reply to your request or email you if Team opens. If you asked earlier to hear when Pro opens, that request is still stored and is used only to contact you about Pro. Deleting your account erases it.
• When you press a button to buy Pro, to prefill Razorpay's checkout with your name and email address, to attach your Firebase user ID, the plan period and the price we set to the Razorpay order so the payment can be matched to your account and checked, and to record the payment and the date your Pro ends.
• To reply when you write to us, using your email address.

We do not use Google user data for advertising, profiling, selling, credit decisions or training AI or machine learning models, and humans do not read it except to email you about a plan you asked for, when you ask us for help, or when the law requires it.

OrbitalSpace's use and transfer of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

Your sign in record is kept by Firebase Authentication. Your saved places, any Team request (or earlier request to hear about Pro), the date your Pro ends and a record of each Pro payment credited to your account (your user ID, the Razorpay order and payment IDs, the plan length, the amount and currency, and the time) are stored in Google Cloud Firestore in the Mumbai (asia-south1) region. Access rules let only your own signed in account read or change your saved places and requests, and read your Pro end date. Only our server writes your Pro end date and payment records, after Razorpay reports the payment as paid, and payment records cannot be read or changed from the website. Razorpay keeps its own record of each payment under its own privacy policy. Firebase Authentication, Vercel and Cloudflare are global services, so your data may also be processed outside India, including in the United States, where Vercel runs our server code. Data is encrypted in transit (HTTPS) and at rest by Google Cloud.

We do not sell, rent or trade your data. It is processed by the service providers that run OrbitalSpace: Google (Firebase Authentication, Firestore, and the Gmail inbox that receives our support email), Vercel (hosting) and Cloudflare (network security, Web Analytics, and Email Routing, which forwards mail sent to [email protected] to that inbox). Each processes data only to provide its service to us. When you buy Pro, you pay in the checkout of Razorpay, our payment gateway, and Razorpay receives your payment details, such as card, UPI or bank details, and any contact details you enter there directly from you. We also give Razorpay your name and email address, which we prefill into checkout, and your Firebase user ID, the product, the plan period and the price and currency we set, which we attach to the order. Razorpay processes payments under its own privacy policy. We would disclose data only if required by law.

We keep your saved places, any Team request (or earlier request to hear about Pro) and your sign in record while your account exists. You can remove any saved place at any time on your account page. The Delete account button on the same page permanently erases all of these immediately. If you bought Pro, it does not erase the date your Pro ends or the records of your Pro payments, which hold your Firebase user ID, the Razorpay order and payment IDs, the plan period, the amount and currency, and the time. It also does not change the records Razorpay keeps of your payments. Any Pro time left on a deleted account ends with it. You can also email [email protected] and we will delete your data within 30 days, apart from the Pro records described here. You can revoke OrbitalSpace's access to your Google account at any time at myaccount.google.com/connections.

Mail sent to [email protected] is forwarded by Cloudflare Email Routing to our private Gmail inbox. We use your message and email address only to reply to you, and we keep them as a record of our conversation. Ask us and we will delete them, unless the law requires us to keep them, for example for a payment.

Pro is bought through Razorpay, a payment gateway. Your full card number, UPI PIN and bank login go straight to Razorpay under its own privacy policy and never reach us. When we check that a payment went through, Razorpay's reply includes limited details such as the payment method, a UPI ID or a card's last four digits; our database does not store them. When you press a button to buy Pro, your browser loads Razorpay's checkout from checkout.razorpay.com, and we prefill it with the name and email address from your Google account. The order we create at Razorpay carries the product, the plan period, the price and currency we set and your Firebase user ID, and, when a US dollar price is charged in Indian rupees, the dollar price and the exchange rate used. That rate is the day's European Central Bank rate, which our server fetches from Frankfurter (frankfurter.dev) without sending anything about you. Once Razorpay reports the order paid, we check that the amount and currency paid match the order, then store in Firestore the order ID, the Razorpay payment ID, your Firebase user ID, the period, the amount and currency, and the time, and we record the date your Pro ends. Deleting your account does not delete these payment records or your Pro end date; we keep them for as long as tax and accounting law requires. We do not send a receipt email, and Razorpay's automatic receipts are switched off. Your confirmation is the message on screen and the Active until date on your account page.

OrbitalSpace is also the merchant for payments made to VideoNote, Astrolenz and ContextBridge. Payments for all of these and for OrbitalSpace Pro go through one Razorpay merchant account, so the payee name shown in your bank or UPI app may not read OrbitalSpace. Razorpay processes all these payments under its own privacy policy and handles your card, UPI and bank details. Razorpay shares with us the payment ID, amount, status and product, the contact details you gave at checkout such as your email address and phone number, and limited method details such as a card's last four digits or a UPI ID. We keep these records for as long as tax and accounting law requires.

Signing in sets one strictly necessary cookie, __session, holding a sign in token that expires after an hour and is refreshed while you use the site. Firebase keeps your sign in state in your browser's storage (IndexedDB, or local storage if IndexedDB is unavailable). The page address remembers which layer and place you are viewing so links can be shared. This tab's session storage also remembers the last view of each layer and, if you shared it, your rounded location, and your browser's local storage keeps your last few searches and whether you have seen the globe's gesture tips. None of these are sent to us. When you start a Pro checkout, your browser saves the Razorpay order ID and the time in local storage (os-pending-orders). Until that payment is confirmed, and for no more than 7 days, OrbitalSpace checks the order again each time you visit signed in on that browser, so Pro can still switch on if the payment went through after the tab closed. The entry is removed once the payment is confirmed, and it holds no card, UPI or contact details. Razorpay's checkout script, from checkout.razorpay.com, loads only when you are signed in and press a button to buy Pro, and Razorpay's own privacy policy covers what it collects. Cloudflare Web Analytics, described above, works without cookies or browser storage. We use no advertising or tracking cookies.

You can ask to access, correct, export or delete your data, or withdraw consent, by emailing [email protected]. This includes your rights under India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 and, where it applies, the GDPR. Our grievance officer is listed on the contact page and resolves complaints within one month. If you are not satisfied with our answer, you can complain to the Data Protection Board of India or, under the GDPR, to your local data protection authority. Sign in is only for people aged 18 or over. Anyone can explore the free layers without signing in.

If we change this policy, we will update the date at the top of this page, and we will email signed in users before any change that affects how their data is used.