Privacy Policy — Pale Blue Dot

Last updated: October 12, 2026

Pale Blue Dot (“the app”) is an interactive 3D globe and astronomy app. This policy explains what data the app accesses and how it is handled.

The app has no user accounts, no ads, and no analytics or tracking. We (the developer) do not operate an app server or receive your saved places, notebook entries, preferences or app-usage records. Public-data downloads, optional Android speech, home-screen widgets and sharing involve the services or apps described below.

Information the app accesses

The app requests no location, contacts, camera or microphone access and does not require identity or account details. Its only requested permission is internet access. You can optionally enter a name for a saved place; that choice is stored locally as described below.

Internet access. The app downloads public, openly available data to display on the globe:

Cloud / satellite imagery from NASA
Recent earthquake data from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)
Volcano, wildfire, and severe-storm reports from NASA EONET

These are standard requests to public services. The app does not include any personal information, location, or identifier in these requests. As with any internet request, the third-party service you connect to (e.g., NASA, USGS) may receive your device’s IP address and standard request metadata as part of delivering the data; their handling of that is governed by their own privacy policies.

On-device choices. Named places, their coordinates and optional time zones, widget selections, saved event observations, journey/notebook progress, and preferences stay in app-private storage on the device. The app does not request device location to create a place; you choose one from a catalog or tap the globe. The live wallpaper and widget use the same public-data cache and do not send these saved choices to the developer.

If you add an Earth Today widget, its selected place name, daylight information and globe image are passed to Android’s widget system and displayed by your home-screen launcher. The launcher handles that displayed information under its own privacy practices.

Language and audio preferences. Your chosen app language, first-launch narration choice, separate Talia and Android voice preferences, and music settings are remembered locally. Android’s system app-language settings also manage the locale on supported versions.

Read-aloud audio

First launch offers Talia’s natural voice only, or quiet exploration. Settings has separate Talia voice and Android voice switches. Talia’s fixed educational recordings cover cards, event explanations, guided journeys, challenge prompts and reference reading actions. They are generated by the developer using ElevenLabs and bundled with the app in all 12 supported languages. Playback works offline and makes no requests to ElevenLabs. The app contains no ElevenLabs API key and does not record your voice. Your saved places, notebook entries and preferences are not used to generate these recordings.

Changing event facts and challenge scores use your device’s text-to-speech engine only after you enable Android voice and when a suitable voice is available. A failed Talia recording stays silent and never switches to another voice. The app passes the displayed narration text to that engine. Whether speech runs entirely on-device depends on your selected engine and installed voices; a network voice may send text to its provider under that provider’s privacy policy. The app does not send saved place names or notebook records to ElevenLabs. The wallpaper and widget do not play narration or music.

Sharing images

The app includes a Share feature that lets you capture an image of your current view of the globe and share it using your device’s standard share options (for example, to a messaging or social app of your choice).

Images are created on your device and are only shared when you choose to share them. Sharing is placed behind a parental gate.
The image can include visible saved-place pins. The share caption includes the displayed scene’s date/time and the app’s Play Store link. The chosen recipient app receives the image and caption through Android’s share sheet; the app grants temporary read access to its cached image.
Once you share an image to another app, that app’s privacy policy governs what happens to it.

Retention and deletion

Saved places, notebook records, discoveries, journey progress and preferences remain in app-private storage between sessions. You can delete saved places from the app. The notebook keeps up to 100 saved event observations; older observations are removed as you save more. To remove all locally stored app data, use Android Settings to clear the app’s storage/data, or uninstall the app. Clearing storage also resets your settings and progress.

Downloaded public data is cached locally and replaced as feeds and imagery are refreshed. The most recently prepared share image is kept in the app cache and overwritten when you prepare another image. Android may clear cached files; clearing the app’s storage or uninstalling also removes its local cache. Copies already shared or saved by another app are controlled by that app and are not deleted by clearing Pale Blue Dot’s storage.

What we do NOT do

We do not have user accounts or require sign-in.
We do not show ads.
We do not use analytics, tracking, or advertising SDKs.
We do not receive or sell your locally saved personal choices or app-usage data.
We do not operate a server that receives your data.

Children’s privacy

Pale Blue Dot is designed for curious children aged 9–12 and adults. It does not collect personal information from anyone, including children. Sharing is behind a parental gate, and the Android voice, which may use a network speech service, is off unless turned on.

Permissions summary

Permission	Why it is used
Internet	Download public cloud, earthquake, volcano, wildfire, and storm data

Changes to this policy

If the app’s data practices change, we will update this policy and revise the “Last updated” date above.

Contact

If you have questions about this policy, email zandaulion@gmail.com, or use the support contact listed under App support on Pale Blue Dot’s Google Play page.