Heliograph for iOS

Privacy Policy

Effective 28 June 2026

Heliograph collects no personal data. There is no account, no analytics, no tracking, and no third-party advertising or analytics SDKs. Heliograph runs no servers of its own. The sections below explain this in full.

Information we collect

None. Heliograph does not collect, store, sell, or share any personal information about you. We have no servers that hold user data and no user accounts. This applies across every part of Heliograph — the iPhone app, the Apple TV app, the Apple Watch app and complications, the widgets, and the Control Center control.

Location

Location access is optional. If you grant it, your location is used only on your device to draw your aurora viewline and your local darkness on the map. It is never stored by us and never transmitted off your device. You can use Heliograph without granting location access — on Apple TV, where there is no GPS, you simply pick a region instead.

Network requests to public data sources

To show current conditions, Heliograph fetches public space-weather data and imagery directly from government sources — the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center and NASA (solar imagery via the Helioviewer Project). These requests are necessary to display the data you ask for.

As with any internet request, the operators of those public endpoints may record standard technical information (such as your IP address) in their own server logs under their own policies, which we do not control. Heliograph does not attach any identifier of you to these requests.

Storm alerts (Live Activities)

Significant-storm Lock Screen alerts are generated on your device when Heliograph detects a storm in the public data while the app is running. There is no account, no device token, and no server component — nothing about you is collected or transmitted.

Notifications

Optional "aurora likely tonight" notifications are opt-in and require the standard iOS notification permission. They are computed on your device from the public forecast — no data leaves your device and none is collected.

Siri & App Shortcuts

If you ask Siri or use an App Shortcut for Heliograph (for example, "what's the Kp index?"), the App fetches the answer fresh from the public NOAA feed on your device and speaks it back. Your request is handled by Apple's on-device Siri framework under Apple's privacy policy; Heliograph itself collects nothing.

Children's privacy

Heliograph is rated 4+ and collects no data from anyone, including children.

Third-party services

Heliograph displays public-domain data and imagery from the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center and NASA. Heliograph is not affiliated with or endorsed by NOAA or NASA. The app contains no third-party advertising, analytics, or tracking SDKs.

Changes to this policy

If our practices ever change, we will update this page and revise the effective date above. Material changes will be reflected here before they take effect.

Contact

Questions about this policy? Email bijan@aphelionengineering.com.au.