Privacy Policy
Orbit: ISS Tracker & Night Sky · Updated 8 November 2026
The short version: Orbit collects no data. Your location, passes and settings stay on your device. The app downloads public satellite, earthquake, event and aurora files, and those requests do not include where you are. There is no account, no analytics, no ads and no tracking.
Data we collect
None. Agentic Quarks never receives your location, your passes, your settings or how you use the app. Orbit has no servers of its own, no account, no third-party SDKs, no analytics and no advertising identifier. In App Store terms: Data Not Collected. You can check this yourself in Settings > Privacy & Security > App Privacy Report.
Your location stays on the device
If you allow location, Orbit takes one approximate fix (about a kilometer) and keeps it on this device. It is used only to work out satellite passes and to point the sky chart. The same place is saved in an App Group that only Orbit and its widget can read, so a widget can show the next pass without asking again. You can refuse location and choose a city instead. The label "Near Cupertino" and the other city names come from a list built into the app. There is no reverse geocoding, so coordinates are never sent to a map company to be turned into an address. Deleting the app deletes the saved place.
Public data the app downloads
To keep the globe current, Orbit downloads public files directly from their publishers: satellite orbits from CelesTrak (the stations and visual groups, at most once a day), earthquakes from the U.S. Geological Survey, open natural events from NASA EONET, and aurora and planetary K index data from NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center. Each request is a plain download. It carries a fixed app name in the user agent (Orbit/1.0, plus the address of this page) and does not include your location, a device identifier, or an account. Agentic Quarks does not run these services and does not receive the requests. Pass times, the sky chart and the aurora chance at your place are computed on the device from those files. A snapshot of the orbits ships inside the app, so a pass can still be estimated when the network is unavailable. Earth imagery from NASA is bundled in the app and is not downloaded again.
Apple Maps, the camera and motion
If you open the map button, Apple serves satellite imagery for the area on screen, which can be centered on your saved place. Those requests go to Apple under Apple's privacy policy. Orbit does not receive them and does not store map tiles. The AR sky finder uses the camera only while that screen is open: the picture is not recorded and is not sent anywhere. Motion sensors, used to point the sky chart when you turn that on, are read on the device and are not sent anywhere.
Purchases, alerts and feedback
Orbit Pro is a one-time purchase handled by Apple. We receive no payment details. Pass alerts are local notifications scheduled on your device. There is no push server. If you choose Send feedback or Request a feature, your mail app opens a message with the app version, build and system version filled in, and nothing is sent unless you send it.
Advertising
Orbit shows no ads. If you installed the app after seeing an ad for it, Apple's privacy-preserving SKAdNetwork may send the advertiser an anonymous, delayed signal that the app was installed, and another coarse signal if you buy Pro. That signal has no name, no location and no device identifier. The app does not send it to us, and we cannot see who it refers to.
Children and changes
The app collects nothing from anyone, children included. If a future version ever changes any of this, this page will say so before that version ships.
Contact
Questions? Email orbit@agenticquarks.com. Orbit is made by Agentic Quarks, LLC.