BLAEK: Planetary Privacy Policy

Summary

BLAEK: Planetary uses your location, only while the app is open, to work out where the Sun, Moon and planets are in your sky. That calculation happens entirely on your device. Your location is never saved, never sent to us and never shared. The app has no accounts, no advertising and no tracking.

The app goes online for one thing: when you open it, it checks with our update provider, Expo, for a newer version of the app’s content and design. That check never includes your location. It is described under App updates below. The app also opens a web page when you tap Privacy Policy at the bottom of the main screen, which opens this page in your web browser.

Who we are

BLAEK: Planetary is published by Blaek Mass, LC (“we”, “us”). This policy covers the BLAEK: Planetary app for iPhone and iPad.

Location

When you first open the app, iOS asks whether Planetary may use your location while you are using the app. If you allow it, the app reads your current position and your device’s compass heading so it can show each planet’s direction and height above the horizon, and point the ritual compass toward it.

Your location is held in the app’s memory only while the app is running. It is not written to storage, and it is not sent off your device. The app does not use your location in the background.

You can choose to share only your approximate location; the planetary positions remain accurate to within a small fraction of a degree. If you decline, the planetary days and ritual reference still work, but position and compass guidance are unavailable. You can change this at any time in Settings → Privacy & Security → Location Services → BLAEK: Planetary.

Other information

The app does not ask for access to your contacts, photos, camera, microphone, health or motion data, or any other protected information. For location, the app only ever requests while-in-use access.

App updates

Planetary receives fixes and new content, such as text, seals and layout, directly from our update provider, Expo (operated by 650 Industries, Inc.), without a new download from the App Store. Each time you open the app, it asks Expo’s servers whether an update is available, and downloads it if there is one.

Each check sends Expo:

• your device’s IP address, as any internet connection does;
• a random identifier created when the app was installed. It is not linked to your name, Apple Account or device, and it is replaced if you delete and reinstall the app;
• the app’s version, the update it is currently running, and that it is running on iOS;
• if the most recent update failed to start, a short technical error message so the faulty update can be withdrawn.

It never includes your location, compass heading or anything you do in the app. Expo handles this information for us, under a data processing agreement, to deliver updates and to give us aggregate counts of how many installations are running each update. We use those counts only to check that updates are reaching people. Expo may also use the IP address and error messages for its own aggregate trend analysis of its service; for that use Expo is responsible under its own privacy policy. We do not combine update-check information with any other information or use it to identify you, and it is not used for advertising or tracking.

The app works fully offline: without a connection it skips the check and keeps the version you already have. You can stop checks over mobile data in Settings → Apps → BLAEK: Planetary → Cellular Data (Mobile Data). Deleting the app removes its identifier from your device.

App Store privacy labels

The App Store lists the same information under App Privacy:

• Data Not Linked to You: Identifiers (Device ID). The random installation identifier sent with each update check. It is used to deliver updates (App Functionality) and for counts of how many installations run each update (Analytics).
• Data Not Linked to You: Diagnostics (Crash Data). The short error message sent if an update fails to start. It is used to withdraw a faulty update (App Functionality) and, by Expo, for aggregate trend analysis of its service (Analytics).
• Data Used to Track You: none. Nothing is used for tracking or advertising.

Your location is not listed because it never leaves your device.

How long information is kept, and deleting it

We keep nothing from the app. Your location exists only in the app's memory while it runs. The planetary hours shared with the widget stay on your device and are replaced each time the app has your location. We don't store copies of update checks; we only see Expo's aggregate counts of installations per update.

Expo keeps update-check information it handles for us for as long as we use its service. Our agreement requires Expo to delete it, or return it to us, within 90 days after we stop, unless the law requires it to keep some of it. Information Expo uses for its own trend analysis is kept as its privacy policy describes, which is only as long as reasonably necessary.

Stopping or deleting it. You can stop the app from sending update checks by using it offline. Deleting the app removes its identifier from your device, and later checks from a new installation can't be connected to the old identifier. Because the identifier isn't linked to your name or Apple Account, we can't look up records about you personally. If you want to ask about or request deletion of update-check information anyway, email inquiries@blaekmass.com. Expo is required to help us respond, and to tell us within seven days if you send a request to Expo directly.

Who else handles information

Apart from Apple, Expo is the only company that receives information from the app, and only for the update checks described above. Our data processing agreement with Expo requires it to:

• use the information only to provide its service to us and as our instructions allow, apart from the trend analysis described above;
• protect it with technical and organizational security measures, including encryption in transit and at rest and access limited to people who need it, and keep it confidential;
• tell us without undue delay if it is lost or accessed without authorization;
• help us respond to requests about it, and delete it as described above;
• transfer it from the EEA, the UK or Switzerland to the United States under the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework and its UK and Swiss extensions.

Expo runs its service with other companies, such as cloud hosting and content-delivery providers, and lists them at expo.dev/privacy/subprocessors. Expo must give them access only to what they need, hold them to the same data protection standard, and remains responsible for them. We use Expo only on that basis, and we will stop using it if that changes. Apple's handling is described below.

Information handled by Apple

When you download the app, Apple processes your purchase and download under Apple’s privacy policy. If you have chosen to share analytics with app developers in your device’s settings, Apple may give us aggregated crash and usage reports that do not identify you. You can change this at any time in Settings → Privacy & Security → Analytics & Improvements.

Security

Updates are delivered over encrypted connections. Only we can publish them: our Expo and source-code accounts are protected by two-factor sign-in, and every update is reviewed before we release it. If information handled for the app were ever exposed without authorization, at Expo or anywhere else, we would notify affected people as the law requires, and post a notice on this page.

Children

Planetary is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone, including children.

Changes to this policy

If a future version of the app changes how information is handled, we will update this page and its effective date before that version is released.

Contact

Privacy questions may be sent to inquiries@blaekmass.com.