Privacy Policy for NightWatch Astro

Last updated: August 20, 2026

This policy explains, in as much detail as we can reasonably manage, what NightWatch Astro (referred to below as "the app") does and does not do with your information. NightWatch Astro is developed and published by Augusto Amoroso ("we", "us", "the developer") as an independent, hobby-scale project for amateur astronomers and astrophotographers. We built this app for ourselves first, and we genuinely don't want your data — this document is our best effort to say exactly what that means in practice, not just in a marketing sense.

1. There is no server behind this app

NightWatch Astro does not talk to any server that we (the developer) operate, own, or have access to. There is no user database, no cloud sync, no account system, and no backend of any kind that we control. Because of that, there is no place where "your data" as a developer-held asset could exist in the first place. The two exceptions to "the app talks to nobody" — the weather service and the map tile servers — are both third-party, publicly available services that the app calls directly from your device, described in detail in section 4 below. We never see, receive, log, or have any visibility into that traffic; it goes straight from your phone to those services.

2. Information the app stores on your device

NightWatch Astro stores information locally, inside the app's own private storage area on your phone (a small on-device database and a private folder for photos), so that the app's features can work. None of the following ever leaves your device unless you explicitly choose to share it (see section 5):

• Saved locations — a name, GPS coordinates, an optional description, and any photos you attach, for observing spots you choose to save.
• Recorded tracks — GPS points logged while you use the Track Trace feature to record a route, along with timestamps, optional notes, and any photos attached to individual points.
• App settings — things like night-vision mode, coordinate display format, and your auto-save interval preference for track recording.
• A weather cache — when you check the Weather screen, the forecast data returned for the location and date you picked is cached locally so the app doesn't have to re-download it every time you reopen the screen. This cache holds only weather data (temperature, cloud cover, wind, and so on) and the coordinates/date it applies to — nothing about you.

All of this lives in standard Android app-private storage, which other apps cannot read. Automatic Android system backup is disabled for this app (technically: android:allowBackup="false"), specifically so that none of this data is ever copied to a cloud backup service, including your own Google account's backup. The practical consequence is that if you uninstall the app, or if you get a new phone, none of this local data carries over automatically — you'd need to use the app's own Export/Share features (see section 5) to move a copy of specific tracks or locations yourself beforehand. We chose this tradeoff deliberately, in favor of the strongest and simplest privacy story: your data really does stay only on the one device it was created on.

3. Permissions the app requests, and why

Android requires apps to explicitly ask for certain permissions before using certain device capabilities. Here is every permission NightWatch Astro requests and exactly what it's used for:

• Location (precise and approximate) — used to show your current position on the Home screen, to power the Compass, Level, Sky, and Weather features, to let you save your current spot as a Location, and to record GPS points while a track is active. Location access is entirely optional: the app functions (minus the location-dependent parts) without it, and you can grant or deny it at any time from Android's own permission settings.
• Camera (used indirectly) — the app doesn't request the Camera permission directly. Instead, tapping "Take Photo" launches your phone's own camera app via a standard Android intent; that app handles the actual camera access under its own permission, and only hands the finished photo back to NightWatch Astro.
• Notifications — used only to show a local, on-device notification while a track recording is active in the background (so you know it's still running). This is not a push notification and does not come from, or get logged by, any server — it's generated entirely on your phone.
• Foreground service (with location type) — lets track recording keep running reliably in the background (e.g. with the screen off or the app minimized) without Android stopping it to save battery. This is what the notification above is required to accompany, per Android's own rules for background location use.
• Internet / network state — required for the Weather screen and the Map screen to reach the third-party services described in section 4. The app has no other use for network access.

The app does not request broad storage/photo-library access — attaching an existing photo uses Android's built-in Photo Picker, a system UI that lets you choose specific photos without granting the app access to your whole gallery.

4. Third-party services the app talks to

Two outside services are involved in specific features, and only when you actually use those features:

Weather data — Bright Sky

The Weather screen fetches real weather data from Bright Sky, a free, independent weather API. When you open that screen (or hit Refresh), the app sends the latitude, longitude, and date you've selected to Bright Sky's server, and receives forecast/observation data back. No account, name, email, device identifier, or advertising ID is sent — just coordinates and a date, the minimum needed to answer "what's the weather there, on that day." As with any network request, Bright Sky's server does see the IP address the request came from, which is standard for essentially all internet traffic and outside the app's control; see Bright Sky's own site for how they operate. We chose Bright Sky specifically because it requires no API key and no account on our end either.

Map tiles — OpenStreetMap

The Map screen displays map imagery using osmdroid, an open-source library that downloads map tiles from OpenStreetMap's tile servers for whatever area of the map you're currently viewing. This is how essentially every map in every app works — the server sees which tile images are being requested (i.e., roughly which area of the world you're looking at on the map) but nothing else about you. We use OpenStreetMap specifically because it's free and open, and needs no API key, account, or billing relationship with a mapping company.

PayPal (only if you choose to donate)

The Settings screen has an optional "Buy me a coffee" link. Tapping it opens PayPal's own website in your browser or PayPal app — the app itself has no payment integration, does not process, see, or store any payment or card information, and has no visibility into whether or how much you donate. Anything you do on PayPal's site is covered by PayPal's own privacy policy, not this one.

5. Sharing — always something you choose to do

NightWatch Astro never sends your saved data anywhere on its own initiative. Every sharing action is something you actively trigger:

• Sharing a location or a track's summary as text opens Android's own system share sheet — the same one used across every app on your phone — with the coordinates or summary pre-filled. You then pick where it goes (a messaging app, email, notes, anything installed), or you can back out and send nothing.
• Exporting a track as a GPX file works the same way: the app builds the file, then hands it to the system share sheet so you can send it to whatever app or contact you choose (or a GPS/mapping tool that reads GPX files).
• Suggesting a feature opens your phone's own email app with a pre-filled message (your typed name, email address, and suggestion), addressed to us. Nothing is transmitted until you press send inside your own email app — NightWatch Astro has no way to submit this on your behalf, and doesn't store a copy of what you typed once you leave that screen.

6. Data we do not collect

To be direct about it, NightWatch Astro does not use or include: analytics or usage-tracking software of any kind, advertising or ad networks, advertising identifiers, crash-reporting services that phone home, cookies or web trackers (there's no in-app browser or web view), or any form of user account, login, or authentication. We have no way to know how many people use the app, what they use it for, or anything else about usage patterns — by design, not because we turned a setting off.

7. Children's privacy

NightWatch Astro is a general-audience tool and is not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children, and given the app has no accounts and no server, there is no mechanism by which we could do so even unintentionally.

8. Your choices and control

Because everything lives on your device, you're always in control: you can delete individual saved locations, tracks, or points from within the app at any time; you can revoke the location or notification permission from Android's system settings at any time (the app will simply lose the features that depend on it); and uninstalling the app removes all of its locally stored data completely, since automatic backup is disabled as explained in section 2.

9. Changes to this policy

If this policy ever changes — for example, if a future version of the app adds a feature that changes what's described here — we'll update this page and the "Last updated" date at the top. Since there's no account system, we have no way to notify you directly; checking back here, or the app's own release notes, is the way to stay current.

10. Contact

If you have questions about this policy or how NightWatch Astro handles information, you can reach the developer, Augusto Amoroso, at nightwatch@milkmail.it, or through the "Suggest a Feature" form inside the app itself.