Privacy Policy
Last updated: September 22, 2026
Summary
Starshelf has no account, no backend server, and no analytics. Everything you log — sessions, observations, gear, photos, certificates — is stored only in a local database on your device. Nothing is uploaded, ever, unless you explicitly choose to export or share a file yourself.
What Starshelf Stores, and Where
| Data | What it is | Leaves your device? |
|---|---|---|
| Sessions | Sky conditions, observing-night date, notes | Only if you export or share it |
| Observations | Catalog or custom object, eyepiece, magnification, rating, note, optional sketch/photo | Only if you export or share it |
| Gear | Telescopes, eyepieces, binoculars, Barlows, filters, and their specs | Only if you export or share it |
| Life-list progress | First-observed date per catalog object, derived from your observations | Only if you export or share it |
| Unlocked certificates | Which catalog/tier or session, unlock date, a cached PDF | Only if you export or share it |
| Observer Name | The name printed on your certificates | Only if you export or share it |
| App settings | Theme choice, last-used filters | Never |
All of the above lives in a local database file and, for photos and exported PDFs, files in the app's own private storage area. None of it is copied anywhere unless you tap Export, Share, or Print, which hands a file to your device's own share sheet — at that point, where it goes is under your control, not ours.
No account identifiers, device identifiers, or advertising identifiers are collected. There is no login, no user profile, and nothing that identifies you personally is ever created or transmitted by the app.
Camera and Photo Access
If you choose to attach a sketch or an eyepiece-view photo to an observation, the app can access your camera. This is entirely optional — you can use Starshelf fully without ever granting camera access, and picking an existing photo from your library uses your platform's own photo picker, which the app never gets broad access through. Any photo you attach is stored locally on your device and is never transmitted anywhere unless you personally export or share it.
In-App Purchases
Starshelf offers one optional one-time purchase ("Starshelf Pro"). Purchases are processed entirely by Apple (App Store / StoreKit) or Google (Google Play Billing) — Starshelf never sees your payment details, and there is no developer-run server that validates or stores anything about your purchase. Entitlement state (whether Pro is unlocked) is checked locally on your device against the store's own records.
Third Parties, Analytics, and Advertising
Starshelf contains no analytics SDK, no crash-reporting SDK, no advertising SDK, and no third-party tracker of any kind. The only network requests the app can ever make come from the platform's own purchase and review APIs (StoreKit on iOS, Play Billing and Play's in-app review API on Android) — both talk directly to Apple or Google, never to a server operated by us. Starshelf does not use cookies, web beacons, or any cross-app or cross-site tracking mechanism, because it makes no requests capable of carrying one.
Data Deletion
Settings → "Delete All My Data" immediately and permanently erases every session, observation, gear item, unlocked certificate, and exported file stored by the app on your device, and resets the app to its first-run state. This happens instantly, on-device — there is no request process, because there is no server copy to delete in the first place. Your purchase entitlement (if you bought Starshelf Pro) is not affected by this control, since it is separately verifiable against the store's own records via "Restore Purchases."
Uninstalling the app removes everything else the app stored on your device.
Children's Privacy
Starshelf is not directed at children and does not knowingly collect any information from anyone, of any age — nothing the app stores ever leaves the device, and there is no account or profile of any kind to create.
Changes to This Policy
If this policy changes, the "Last updated" date above will change accordingly. Any change will describe data practices as they actually exist in the current version of the app — this document is a description of behavior, not a grant of new permissions.
Contact
Questions about this policy or the app's data practices: kyled@beaconlightinvestments.com