Skysta Privacy Policy, what changed

16. Changes to this policy

If Skysta changes what it collects, who receives it, or how long it is kept, this policy is updated and the effective date at the top changes with it.

How you will be told, and its limits. A material change gets a dated note at the end of this section and the effective date at the top moves. The policy you reach from Settings → Privacy Policy is this same document, so an updated app carries the updated text.

That is the whole of the mechanism, and it is worth being blunt about what it is not. Skysta has no in-app announcement, no changelog screen, and no push notifications of any kind. So this page is the notice, and reading it after an update is how it reaches you.

If a change ever needs your consent, it will be asked for on screen before anything new is collected, rather than announced.

16.1 What changed on 28 August 2026

Three things changed, and two of them are material. This entry says exactly what, because thirteen people accepted the previous version of these documents and deserve to be able to check what moved.

The age question is gone. Skysta no longer asks anyone how old they are. Until today the app asked the month and year you were born before it would let you in, worked the answer out on the phone, threw the answer away and kept two yes-or-no values on the device. All of that is removed: the question, the two stored values, and every mention of them in this policy. Nothing about it was ever sent anywhere, so there is nothing collected in the past to delete, and there is nothing new collected in its place. This is not a claim that Skysta verifies age. It never did, it said so in those words, and now it does not ask at all. The Terms of Use now require you to be 18 or over, which is a condition you accept rather than something the app tests. §12 is the whole of the children position and it is shorter than it was.

“Show on the map” now starts OFF, for everybody, on every photograph. The switch used to start on for adults and for anyone whose age the old gate did not know, and off only for someone it knew was under 18. It now starts off with no condition on it at all. Nothing seeds it: not your age, which the app no longer knows, not your last answer, and not where you are. It is still decided per photograph and one tap turns it on. This change reduces what is published rather than increasing it, and it means the exact capture pin is now published only when somebody deliberately switches it on. §4.1, §4.2, §2, §10, §12 and §13 all moved with it.

These documents are now written for the United States only. Skysta will be available on the United States App Store and is not directed to people elsewhere. Everything that existed only to satisfy European and United Kingdom law has been removed from this policy: the lawful-basis analysis, rights framed as GDPR rights, the Article 27 representative boxes, the transfer machinery, and the children’s-code reasoning. Not one disclosure about what the app does with data was removed. The field-by-field lists in §1, §2, §3.2, §4, §8, §8.1, §8.3, §9 and §9.1 are all still here, in full. What went was legal apparatus, not substance. §13 now offers the same rights to everybody, whether or not a law requires them, and says honestly that Skysta almost certainly does not meet the thresholds that would make those rights mandatory.

What did not change. Everything else. The journal backup, the seven days in the feed and permanence afterwards, the ~5.5 km locality cell on every shared sky, the two diagnostics answers and what each one collects, the retention windows, and what deleting your account does and does not reach are all exactly as they were.

16.2 A later change on the same day, 28 August 2026

“Show on the map” starts ON again. The entry above, written earlier today, records the switch moving to off for everybody. That was reversed the same day. It now starts on for everyone, on every photograph, and you turn it off on the share screen when you would rather not publish the pin.

Both entries stay here because both happened. A change log that quietly tidies itself up is worth less than no change log. So if you set your account up this morning and read that the switch started off, this paragraph is how you find out that it does not any more.

Nothing was republished and no sky already on the feed changed. This only changes how the switch is set when you next open the share screen. A sky you already shared carries whatever you shared it with, and Remove the place (§7) still takes the pin, the town name, the spot tag and the ~5.5 km cell off it together.

What did not change, and this is the part people ask about. Every shared sky still carries the ~5.5 km locality cell whether the pin is on or off. Turning the switch off has never taken a sky out of its Local area and it does not now. The cell is still never drawn on a map and it still never becomes a place name. The switch is still per photograph, still one tap either way, and still never remembered from one post to the next. A sky you keep in your journal still publishes nothing at all. §4.1 has both states side by side.

16.3 A third change on the same day, 28 August 2026

The age floor in the Terms of Use goes back to 13. §16.1 records it moving from 13 to 18 earlier today; that was reversed, so §12 above now says 13 in both places and the Terms and this policy agree again.

Nothing about what is collected changed with it. Skysta still does not ask your age, still does not estimate it, and still has no age question anywhere in the app. Skysta remains not directed to children under 13, and we still do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 13.

One thing was added in the app, and it belongs in this policy because it is about what gets published. "Show on the map" still starts on. The first time you share a sky with it on, Skysta stops once, says plainly that an exact pin is about to be published and who can see it, and offers to share without the pin instead. After you answer once it never appears again. It records a single yes-or-no on your own phone so it knows not to ask twice, and that answer is never sent anywhere.

16.4 A fourth change on the same day, 28 August 2026

“Show on the map” starts OFF again, and this is the third setting of one switch in one day. §16.1 records it moving to off. §16.2 records it moving back to on. This entry records it moving to off once more, and that is where it stands for the public launch. All three entries stay above this one because all three happened. A change log that quietly tidies itself up is worth less than no change log, so nothing earlier in this section has been edited to look like it always said this.

This change reduces what is published. It does not increase it. That is the direction, and it is the sentence to hold on to if you are wondering whether you have been publishing more than you thought. Nothing new is collected, nothing new is published, and no field was added to anything. A sky you shared earlier today carried a pin only if the switch was on when you pressed Share, and the share screen said in words what that meant, beside the switch, before you pressed it.

Nothing was republished and no sky already on the feed changed. This only changes how the switch is set when you next open the share screen. A sky you already shared carries whatever you shared it with, and Remove the place (§7) still takes the pin, the town name, the spot tag and the ~5.5 km cell off it together, and still cannot be undone.

So here is the switch as it is now. It starts off, for everyone, on every photograph. One tap turns it on for that one photograph, nothing remembers the answer, and the next photograph starts off again. With it on, the sky you share carries the exact coordinate the shutter fired at and the name of the town. Left off, it carries neither, and no field on the record says where you stood. §4.1 has both states side by side, and §4.2 says just how precise the pin is.

The one-time notice from §16.3 is still there, and what it is for has shifted. The first time you turn the pin on and share, Skysta stops once, says plainly that an exact pin is about to be published and who can see it, and offers to share without the pin instead. After you answer once it never appears again. When the switch started on, that sheet interrupted a default nobody had chosen. Now it confirms a decision you made on purpose. It is still a disclosure rather than a setting, it still changes no default, and the answer it records is still a single yes-or-no on your own phone that is never sent anywhere.

What did not change, and this is the part people ask about. Every shared sky still carries the ~5.5 km locality cell whether the pin is on or off. The pin has never been what puts a sky in its own area, and turning the pin off has never taken a sky out of the Local feed of people near where it was taken. It does not now. The cell is still never drawn on a map and it still never becomes a place name. The trusted spot tag still appears on its own near a trusted spot and still comes off with one tap (§13.3). A sky you keep in your journal still publishes nothing at all. The age floor is still 13 (§16.3), Skysta still does not ask your age, and nothing about what is collected moved with this change.

16.5 What changed on 29 August 2026

Nothing new is collected, and nothing in the app changed. This entry is a correction to what §1 and §9 said about the online-status record. The words were checked line by line against the code that writes that record, and two of them did not match.

The reason given for it was wrong, so it has been replaced with the true one. §9 said the record was there “so the service knows an account is currently active”. Nothing in Skysta asks that question. No screen shows your online status or anybody else’s, and there is no code on the server that reads the record at all. The only things that read it are the part of the app that clears away your own stale connections, the account deletion that removes it, and the developer’s tool that sweeps up whatever a deletion left behind. §1 and §9 now say that plainly, including the part where nothing uses it. The record is still written, exactly as it always was.

The list of what is in it is now complete. §1 named the connection time, the heartbeat, and the app version and build. The record also carries a random name for that one connection, and three fixed values that are the same on every record ever written. All of them are now listed, field by field, and §1 now says how often the heartbeat is rewritten and when a connection counts as gone. Nothing was added to the record to make that list longer. It has held these fields since the feature shipped, and this policy had described four of them.

What did not change. Where the record lives, who may read it, how long it stays, and what deleting your account does to it. It is still under your account identifier in a separate Google database, still readable by your account alone and by nobody else, still kept until you delete your account, and still removed at step 9 of §11. Nothing about your photographs, your location, the feed, the journal backup or diagnostics moved with this change.

16.6 What changed on 30 August 2026

A shared sky now leaves the public Moments feed after three days instead of seven. That is the only number that moved. §6 and the short version at the top both say three days now, counted from the moment the sky was published, off the same field feed membership always used.

Nothing about the life of the photograph changed, and this is the part to be exact about. A sky that leaves the feed is not deleted and never was. It moves, and it stays where it moves to, indefinitely: on your profile, where anyone who taps your byline sees everything you have ever shared, however old, and on the page of the trusted spot it was tagged at, if it carries a tag. A shorter feed window means a sky is news for a shorter time. It does not mean the photograph lasts a shorter time. No server in Skysta deletes anything on its own, there is still no scheduled cleanup job and nothing that wakes up on a timer, and the only two people who can take a shared sky down are still you, from the ⋯ menu, and the developer, on moderation.

The seven days that belong to Google Cloud Storage did not move. A photograph you delete, and every photograph that goes when you delete your account, is still kept by the storage service in a recoverable state for seven days before it is destroyed. That window is Google’s, it is about destroying a deleted picture rather than about how long a sky is in the feed, and nothing here touches it. The one hour Firestore keeps a deleted record readable did not move either, and neither did the thirty days the developer’s own dated copies live on a laptop. §6 has all three of these and they read exactly as they did.

What this does to a sky you already shared. A sky more than three days old leaves the feed sooner than the earlier wording said it would. It goes exactly where it was always going to go, and it stays there for good: on your profile, and on the trusted spot’s page if it carries a tag. Nothing was republished and nothing was deleted. No field was added to or taken off any record.

What did not change. Everything else. Nothing new is collected and nothing new is published. The journal backup, the ~5.5 km locality cell on every shared sky, “Show on the map” and how it starts, Remove the place, the two diagnostics answers and what each one collects, the retention windows above, and what deleting your account does and does not reach are all exactly as they were.

16.7 A later change on the same day, 30 August 2026

Three corrections, made by walking the code again, field by field. One is a field this policy had not disclosed, and two are places where the app had become better than this document said. Nothing in the app changed today; the words caught up with it.

Your block list holds a name, and §1 now says so. When you block somebody, the entry keeps their display name as it stood at that moment, alongside their account identifier and the time. It is there because the record holding a person’s current name is readable by its owner alone, so without a copy the list in Settings → Blocked could not tell you who anyone on it is. A rename after the block does not update it. The entry is still readable by one account, yours, and unblocking deletes it, name included, as does deleting your account. The field has been written since the blocked list learned to show names; this policy had described the sub-collection without naming what an entry holds, and now it does.

Your profile picture is screened before it is accepted, and §3 and §3.3 said it was not. On 28 August the avatar path was given the same on-device check the share path has: it runs only when Sensitive Content Warning is on in iOS Settings, the picture is never uploaded to be judged, a refusal happens before anything is stored, and nothing about a refusal is recorded. This document still called the unscreened avatar a gap, which stopped being true two days ago. The table in §3.3 now has the right answer in it.

A person can be reported, and §3.3 said there was nothing to press. Also since 28 August, tapping somebody’s name or picture on a sky they shared opens their page, and its ⋯ menu has Report this person and Block. An account report records the display name the account was showing when the report was filed, for the same reason the block list does: a name can be changed the minute somebody objects to it. §6 now sets out what each kind of report holds. The limit that remains is stated where it was: somebody who has never shared a sky cannot be reached from any screen in the app, and the answer there is still hello@skystaapp.com.

What did not change. Everything else. Nothing new was collected by any of this today, no field was added to any record today, and the three-day feed, the ~5.5 km locality cell, “Show on the map” and how it starts, the retention windows, and what deleting your account reaches are all exactly as the entry above left them.

16.8 What changed on 1 September 2026

One change, and it is to a surface this policy already warned you about: the Lock Screen card.

The card has its own switch now, and it starts on. It is at Settings → Lock Screen card, directly under the two reminder switches. Until today the card read those reminder switches instead of having one of its own, and the morning switch ships off, so a sunrise window put nothing on the Lock Screen for anybody who had not also asked to be woken before dawn. That was not a decision anybody made about the card; it was a card borrowing a switch that answers a different question. A reminder makes a noise at you. A card sits quietly on a screen you chose to look at.

So the card now appears at sunrise as well as sunset, for everybody, without anyone turning anything on. That is more of your information on a locked screen than yesterday, in the mornings, which is why it is written here rather than left as an improvement nobody was told about. What the card shows has not changed: the place or the planned spot, the Sky Score and its short verdict, and the window's times. It is still drawn on your phone, still sent by no server, and still readable by anybody holding your phone without unlocking it.

Turning it off. Skysta's own switch is the new one above. Your iPhone's Settings → Skysta → Live Activities still turns it off too, and that one wins whatever Skysta's switch says. The card also still keeps to the days you picked and to your quiet hours.

What did not change. Nothing new is collected, no field was added to any record, nothing new leaves the phone, and the reminder switches still control reminders exactly as they did. §10 and §13 have been corrected: both said there was no switch for the card inside Skysta, which was true when it was written and is not true now.

16.9 What changed on 2 September 2026

One change, to the Lock Screen card again, and it is the one the owner had been asking for: the card no longer needs the app to be open to appear.

On iOS 26, iOS starts the card itself. While Skysta is open it hands iOS the next four light windows, evening and morning alike, and iOS holds each one and starts it at the minute its window opens, with the app closed. The system plays its alert sound as the card lands, which is iOS's rule for a card that starts this way and not a choice Skysta gets to make. On earlier versions of iOS nothing changes: the card starts only while the app is running.

What that means for your information. Nothing new is collected and nothing leaves the phone. The four windows are solar geometry worked out on the device and handed to iOS on the device. There is still no Skysta server, no push notification and no notification server. The card that starts this way carries no Sky Score until you next open the app, because a number worked out days early is not a reading of the sky it would be shown under.

Your switches still decide. A card is never scheduled for a window that would open inside your quiet hours or on a day you did not pick, and the Lock Screen card switch turns all of it off. Turning Live Activities off for Skysta in your iPhone's Settings still wins over everything. Changing your watched place withdraws the cards scheduled for the old one.

What did not change. §10 and §13 now describe the card starting on its own; everything else in them stands.

16.10 What changed on 2 September 2026, the split

This policy was split into a short version and a full text. The page at skystaapp.com/privacy/ is now a document of ordinary length, about three thousand words, and the text that used to be there, about twenty-five thousand, is at skystaapp.com/privacy/full/. Every section of the short version points to the same numbered section of the full one, so §8 means the same thing on both, and the full one is the one to trust where they differ. This page, the record of every change, moved to skystaapp.com/privacy/changes/.

Nothing about your data moved. Nothing new is collected, nothing new is sent, and no default, window, number or recipient changed. The Lock Screen entry above (§16.9) is still the most recent change to what the app does.

Why. The policy had become long enough that the short version at its top was the only part anybody read, and the short version sat on the same page as twenty-five thousand words. Now the short version is the page. The full text is one link away and still checked against the source code, sentence by sentence.

16.11 What changed on 3 September 2026, the website’s Sky Score

The website can now show a Sky Score. The home page at skystaapp.com lets you type a city, pick one, or press Show my sky, and shows the same Sky Score the app works out. The number is computed in your browser; the page fetches the forecast through a small server of our own at the site’s own address, which asks Apple WeatherKit and Open-Meteo and returns their answers. §2, §9 and §15.1 now describe what leaves your browser when you do this: the place you named, or your position rounded to about 5 km, and nothing about you. The website also draws the trusted spots on a map whose tiles come from OpenStreetMap. None of it is stored and none of it is linked to an account.

What this replaces. §15.1 used to say the website shipped no JavaScript at all. It ships its own now, and nobody else’s. It still sets no cookies, runs no analytics and loads no third-party scripts.

What did not change. Nothing about the app. No default, window, number or recipient in the app moved.

16.12 What changed on 3 September 2026, the website’s map

The website’s map of spots now comes from OpenFreeMap. Until today the map on the home page was drawn with picture tiles from OpenStreetMap. It is now drawn from OpenFreeMap (tiles.openfreemap.org), a free project run on its own servers behind Cloudflare, which sends your browser the pieces of map on your screen and the fonts for the labels. Each request carries your network address, the map area you are looking at, and the name of our site, which is how any map on any website works. OpenFreeMap sets no cookies and asks for no key or account. We send it nothing about you. If your browser cannot draw this kind of map, the older OpenStreetMap map is used the same way as before. §2, §9 and §15.1 now name both hosts.

What did not change. The map’s own code is served from our site, not from anyone else, so the website still sets no cookies, runs no analytics and loads no third-party scripts. Nothing about the app. No default, window, number or recipient in the app moved.

16.13 What changed on 3 September 2026, suggesting a spot from the website

The website can now send us a spot suggestion. Until today the only way to suggest a viewing spot was from inside the app, signed in. The page at skystaapp.com/spots/suggest now takes one without an account: the name you give the place, its town and two-letter state or country if you fill them in, why the sky is good there, whether it is better at sunrise or sunset, the exact point you mark on the map, and an email address if you choose to leave one. It goes to our own server and into the same review queue the app’s suggestions go into, with no account identifier on it. §2, §6, §9, §11 and §15.1 now say so, and §6 says how long each part is kept: the suggestion until a person has reviewed it, and the email address only until we have replied about that one place, then deleted by hand.

What this changes. §15 used to say the map’s tiles and the forecast were the only things the website fetched from anyone. That is still true of what it fetches; a spot you choose to suggest is now the one thing it sends. The website still sets no cookies, runs no analytics and loads no third-party scripts, and the server keeps no record of who asked.

What did not change. Nothing already collected is affected. Nothing about the app. No default, window, number or recipient in the app moved.