Privacy policy

Last updated: 18 October 2026.

This policy covers EPIC.Projector.Earth (epic.projector.earth) and its single-feature sites: weather., skypics., presence. and iss.projector.earth (together, "the app"). blueturn.projector.earth, the viewer with no extensions, has its own, shorter policy at blueturn.projector.earth/privacy/. The app is operated by Michael Boccara ("Projector.Earth", "we"), in Israel. This policy says what the app collects, why, who else sees it, and what you can do about it. Questions, or requests to see, correct or delete data: info@projector.earth. The rules of use are in the Terms of Service.

In short

• You can use the app without an account. Signing in with Google is only for publishing photos, for filtering "my photos", and for a few restricted features.
• Sign-in asks Google for your identity only (your name, picture and a Google id). We never get your email address.
• Skypics asks for Google Drive access only when you publish a photo or open your Drive folder, and only for files and folders the app itself created. It cannot see the rest of your Drive.
• A published photo is public: anyone with the link can see it, together with where it was taken. People in the frame are blurred before upload.
• We never access your Google Calendar. "Next Pass" opens Google Calendar's own page, and you press Save there.
• We count how the app is used with Google Analytics. We don't sell or share data for advertising.

1. What the app collects

Visiting the app

• Hosting and the data proxy. The page is served by GitHub Pages. Satellite images, storm data and similar are fetched through our proxy (a Cloudflare Worker). Those services see your IP address and browser details, as any web server does. The proxy keeps request logs for troubleshooting and rate limiting.
• Analytics. We use Google Analytics 4. It records usage events, such as opening the menu, switching a view or extension, choosing a storm, sharing a link, or whether you accepted or refused the location prompt (the result only, never your position). A weather search sends the words you typed. Share and deep links send the link itself. Google Analytics also sets cookies and records approximate location from your IP address, device and browser type. Your browser's tracking protection, a content blocker or Google's opt-out add-on turns it off.
• On your device. The app keeps preferences, a remembered Google session, and an unpublished photo (until you publish or discard it) in your browser's storage (IndexedDB, localStorage). Clearing the site's data in your browser removes all of it.
• Anonymous cloud id. Skypics and Presence sign your browser in anonymously to Firebase (Google), which gives it a random id. It carries no name or email. It is how the database knows which records are yours.

Signing in with Google

• Sign-in asks Google for the openid and profile scopes. We receive your Google id, name, given and family name, and profile picture. We do not request your email address.
• The Google pop-up returns a one-time code. Our proxy exchanges it for tokens using our OAuth client secret, passes them to your browser, and stores nothing. The tokens (including a long-lived refresh token) live in your browser. Signing out revokes the grant at Google and clears them.
• You can see and revoke what the app may do at myaccount.google.com/permissions.
• Use of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. We use it only to provide the features described here, and we do not transfer it to others, or use it for advertising.

Skypics: Google Drive and public photos

• Drive access. The first time you publish a photo, or tap My Skypics Drive folder, Google asks for the drive.file scope. It lets the app see and change only files and folders it created itself. It cannot list, read or change anything else in your Drive.
• Where photos go. In your Drive, the app creates a folder at My Drive › Pictures › Blueturn › SkyPhotos and puts your published photos there. You own them.
• Photos are public. To show a photo to everyone, the app sets the file to "anyone with the link can view". Photos are taken with the in-app camera and re-encoded before upload, so the file carries no camera metadata. The location is stored separately (below). People the app detects are blurred in the file before upload.
• The public record. For each photo we store a record in our database (Google Firestore) that anyone using the app can read: a link to the photo, when it was taken, where it was taken, the camera direction, how much of the frame is sky, and your Google id, name and profile picture. Labels and a short caption from the app's AI analysis of the photo are stored with it, shared by all viewers. The analysis runs in the viewer's browser; only the resulting text is stored.
• Taking a photo down. The trash button on your own photo deletes its record, so it disappears from the app. It does not delete the file in your Drive, and the file stays viewable by anyone who has the link until you delete it, or stop sharing it, in Google Drive. To have a record removed for you, write to info@projector.earth.

Location

• Your device's location is requested through your browser's own prompt and only when you tap a location control (Presence, ISS or Skypics). You can refuse, or change your mind in the browser settings.
• ISS: your position stays in your browser. It is used to compute when the ISS passes over you. To show "City, Country", the approximate coordinates are sent to a reverse-geocoding service, BigDataCloud, or Photon (Komoot, OpenStreetMap) if it fails. Nothing is stored on our side.
• Presence: if you allow location, your "eye" is written to our database so others see it: your coordinates, country and region, an emoji, and a heartbeat. It is readable by every user while you are present and is removed when you leave. The "cannon shots" you send (launch point and direction) are removed when you leave too. Without location, you appear only as an emoji. If you share an invite link, a short-lived session record links the participants' anonymous ids.
• Push notifications (Presence, optional). If you opt in, we store your browser's notification token and its user-agent text, to tell you when someone opens your invite link.
• Skypics: the location of a photo is stored with it, as above.

Other things that leave your browser

• ISS: the live video is an embedded YouTube player, which contacts Google/YouTube under their own policies. Our proxy reads the live stream's public preview images. A Next Pass reminder opens calendar.google.com in a new tab, with the title and time of the pass in the link. We never see your calendar.
• Weather: story pages are fetched from Wikipedia (Wikimedia sees your IP address). Searching for a related video goes through our proxy to YouTube.
• Clouds: the live cloud map is fetched by your browser from clouds.matteason.co.uk.
• Libraries: a few scripts load from public CDNs (jsDelivr, Google's gstatic), which see your IP address.

2. Who processes your data

We do not sell personal data or use it for advertising.

3. How long we keep it

• Photo records stay until deleted (see "Taking a photo down").
• Presence records are removed when you leave; notification tokens until you opt out or they expire.
• Proxy logs and analytics data follow the retention settings of Cloudflare and Google Analytics.
• Data in your browser stays until you clear it or sign out.

4. Your choices and rights

• Refuse the location prompt: the app works without it.
• Sign out (main menu), and revoke access in your Google account.
• Delete your photos in Google Drive, and ask us to remove their records.
• Clear the site's data in your browser to remove local storage, cookies and the anonymous id.
• Block analytics with your browser or an extension.
• Depending on where you live (including under Israeli privacy law and, for people in Europe, the GDPR), you may have the right to see, correct, delete or restrict the use of your personal data, to object to it, and to complain to your data protection authority. Write to info@projector.earth and we will answer within one week.
• You can remove your own photos in the app (trash button) or ask us to; we act on requests within one week.

5. Children

You must be at least 13 to use the app, and under 18 only with a parent's or guardian's agreement (see the Terms). The app is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect their data. Do not sign in or publish photos if you are younger. If you think a child has given us data, write to us and we will delete it.

6. Changes

We will update this page and its date when what the app does changes. The latest version is always at https://epic.projector.earth/privacy/.