Legal & privacy
Plain-language rules for using Out Of Sight and a clear account of what happens to your data.
Use it safely
Out Of Sight is an independent hobby project. It is not an official aviation feed, navigation aid, traffic service, collision-warning system, emergency service, or law-enforcement dispatch tool.
Aircraft observations can be late, incomplete, blocked, duplicated, or wrong. A missing aircraft does not prove the sky is clear. Flight paths, takeoff alerts, headings, speeds, and status labels can also be delayed or unavailable.
Fuel and endurance displays are estimates based on elapsed time and published performance assumptions—not onboard telemetry. Never make a safety, travel, or legal decision based only on this app. Do not view or operate it while doing so would be unsafe or unlawful.
What the app handles
Effective October 12, 2026. Out Of Sight is operated by Jackson Mann. For privacy questions or deletion requests, email jacksonmann253@gmail.com.
Live location
If you allow location access, your coordinates, speed, and heading are used on your device for map positioning, distance calculations, and Ride Mode. Simply opening those features does not cause Out Of Sight to store that location on its servers. If you have not chosen a state, the map sends one location fix through our server to the U.S. Census geocoder to identify your state. Map tile requests also reveal the area being viewed to the map provider. These services may retain request logs under their own privacy policies.
Live tracking on iPhone
Turning on Live tracking starts a location session that continues while you use other apps or lock your phone. Your device calculates the nearest tracked aircraft, distance, and ride state and shows them in a Live Activity. Your coordinates are not sent with aircraft-data requests. Tap Live again on Home to end this session and background location access. Ending Ride Mode does not stop Live tracking. If location or aircraft data expires, the activity keeps its last known state, aircraft, distance, and original update time until fresh data becomes available.
Home Screen widget on iPhone
With location permission, the widget calculates aircraft distances on your device when iOS refreshes it. The app and widget share your selected state, aircraft preferences, distance bands, and last calculated result in private storage on your phone. Your coordinates stay in memory and are not saved there or sent with aircraft-data requests. The widget works independently of Live tracking and keeps its last known result and update time when new data is unavailable.
Takeoff alerts
Enabling alerts stores a random device ID, selected state, aircraft preferences, and either browser push details or a Firebase messaging token for the mobile app. Google Firebase and, on iPhone, Apple Push Notification service deliver mobile alerts. Alert subscriptions do not include your location or speed. Turning alerts off stops registration for notifications and deletes the server subscription.
Preferences
Local storage and first-party cookies remember choices such as state, time format, contrast, Ride Mode distances, and dismissed prompts on this device. Use “Reset preferences” in Display & Time to clear them.
Routine requests
Hosting, database, push, and map providers receive the technical data normally sent with web requests, such as IP address, browser details, time, and requested resource. Map requests can reveal the area being viewed. Those providers apply their own privacy terms. Firebase also collects SDK diagnostic and technical metadata to operate and improve its services. Notification delivery records are associated with your device subscription. We do not use this data for advertising or cross-app advertising tracking.
Retention and deletion
Any location reports submitted before reporting was discontinued remain subject to the seven-day retention and scheduled deletion policy. Turning off takeoff alerts deletes the associated push subscription from Out Of Sight. Preferences stored on the device can be removed with “Reset preferences” in Display & Time. To request deletion of other data that may be associated with you, email the privacy contact above with enough detail to identify the relevant record, such as its approximate date and time. Data may be retained longer only when reasonably necessary for security, abuse prevention, or legal compliance.
Terms of use
Your agreement
By accessing or using Out Of Sight, you agree to these terms. If you do not agree, do not use the service.
Permitted use
The service is offered for lawful, personal, non-commercial, informational use. You may not use it to harm or endanger anyone, facilitate unlawful conduct, interfere with aircraft or communications, disrupt the service, bypass access controls, or redistribute third-party data in violation of its provider’s terms.
Availability and changes
Features, coverage, providers, aircraft records, and the service itself may change, pause, or end without notice. Access may be limited when needed to protect the service or comply with law or provider terms.
No warranties
The service and its information are provided “as is” and “as available.” To the fullest extent allowed by law, no warranty is made about accuracy, completeness, timeliness, availability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement.
Limits on liability
To the fullest extent allowed by law, the project operator, maintainers, and contributors are not liable for injury, property damage, citations, penalties, data loss, or other damages arising from access to, use of, inability to use, or reliance on the service.
Aircraft data & maps
Aircraft observations come from ADSB.lol under the Open Database License (ODbL) 1.0. Aircraft registration and ownership details are derived primarily from the FAA Releasable Aircraft Database. Supplemental public agency records may help resolve ambiguous registrations. Out Of Sight has no access to private agency systems or official operational feeds.
Third-party services control their own availability, accuracy, terms, and privacy practices. Out Of Sight is an independent app. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or operated by the FAA or any federal, state, county, or local government agency, data provider, aircraft operator, or manufacturer.
OpenSky attribution: Schäfer et al., Bringing Up OpenSky: A Large-scale ADS-B Sensor Network for Research, IPSN 2014.