Last updated: July 31, 2026
Ontolabe is a field-instrument console. This policy explains what data it uses and, just as importantly, what it does not. The short version: Ontolabe has no accounts, no analytics, no ads, and no server of its own. The only information that ever leaves your device is your approximate location, sent solely to fetch local weather alerts (described below); nothing else about you is collected, stored off your device, or shared.
Ontolabe requests access to your device’s location for three instruments:
Sun / moon — sunrise, sunset, and moon phase are computed entirely on your device from your coordinates. Nothing is transmitted.
ISS — the station’s public orbital elements are fetched from a public feed (Celestrak), and its position — along with its bearing and distance relative to you — is computed on your device. Your location is not sent to that feed.
Local weather alerts — to fetch alerts for your area, Ontolabe includes your approximate coordinates in a request to the U.S. National Weather Service (api.weather.gov), a public government service. This is the only situation in which your location leaves the device. It is sent solely to answer that request; Ontolabe attaches no identifiers to it, and the developer never sees it. The NWS’s own handling of requests is described in its privacy policy.
Ontolabe never stores your location history and never shares your location with the developer, advertisers, or any analytics service.
Ontolabe uses the microphone only to drive the sound instrument — a live level meter and frequency spectrum. Audio is analyzed in short buffers as it is captured and immediately discarded. Ontolabe does not record, save, or transmit audio. Only numeric readings (a sound level, never the audio itself) may be kept in the app’s local history on your device.
The barometer, magnetometer, motion sensors, and GPS feed live readings to the instrument panel. These readings stay on your device, where recent history is kept locally so tiles can show trends. This history never leaves your device and is pruned automatically.
Some instruments fetch public data feeds: space-weather indices and alerts (NOAA), earthquake activity (USGS), the ISS’s orbital elements, weather alerts (NWS, see above), and news headlines (RSS). Except for the NWS weather-alert request described above, these requests contain no location, no sensor readings, and no personal data — they simply download public information. As with any internet request, the operators of those services can see your IP address.
You can also add your own RSS or Atom news feed by URL. When you do, Ontolabe fetches it directly from the address you provide, so that server receives an ordinary web request — including your IP address — as with any other feed. Add feeds you trust, and remove them at any time in Settings.
Alerts (falling pressure, geomagnetic storms, ISS passes, and so on) are opt-in and generated on your device. Ontolabe uses local notifications only — there is no push server.
Ontolabe has no user accounts, no analytics or advertising SDKs, and no developer server that receives your data. The only information that ever leaves your device is your approximate location, and only to fetch local weather alerts as described above — it is never stored, linked to your identity, sold, or shared. Ontolabe does not track you across apps or websites.
If a future version of Ontolabe changes how data is handled, this page will be updated and the date above revised before that version ships.
Questions about this policy can be sent to ontolabe@icloud.com.