Look North — Privacy Policy

Last updated: July 12, 2026

Look North is built with your privacy in mind. This policy explains what information the app collects, why it's collected, and how it's used.

What We Collect

Location

Look North requests access to your device's location to:

• Determine which aurora alerts are relevant to you based on your latitude
• Look up your local light pollution level (Bortle class) to provide personalized viewing advice
• Filter push notifications so you only receive alerts when aurora may be visible from your area
• Personalize storm cards using local conditions such as cloud cover, smoke or haze, moonlight, daylight, and estimated aurora reach
• Rank Go North viewing locations using factors such as distance, current sky conditions, light pollution, and the northern horizon

You can set your Alert Location using your device's current location, a postal code, or coordinates selected manually. In Automatic mode, Look North may refresh your location when you open or return to the app so alerts and viewing guidance continue to match where you are.

Starting with version 1.7, Look North also offers optional Travel Updates. If you enable Travel Updates, Look North may request Always location permission and use Apple's significant location change service to update your Alert Location after you travel a meaningful distance, including before you reopen the app. Look North does not use continuous background GPS tracking.

Travel Updates are turned off unless you choose to enable them. You can turn them off at any time, switch to a manual Alert Location, or revoke location permission through your device settings.

Your precise latitude and longitude are stored locally on your device and in our database, Firebase Firestore, to power these features. Related information, such as the location source, selected location mode, location accuracy, and the time the location was updated, may also be stored so Look North can determine whether your Alert Location is current.

Your coordinates may be provided to weather, mapping, geocoding, or environmental-data services when needed to retrieve local conditions and viewing guidance. Location is not used for advertising, sold to third parties, or used to track you across other companies' apps or websites.

Starting with version 1.5, if you choose to submit an aurora sighting through the "Did You See It?" feature, the location you attach to that sighting is included with the submission. This location may be read from a photo's EXIF metadata, taken from your current location, selected manually on a map, or obtained from another location option you choose within the reporting flow. Submitting an aurora sighting is optional.

Push Notification Token

When you enable notifications, your device generates a unique push notification token (FCM token). This token is stored in our database and used solely to deliver aurora alerts to your device. It is not linked to your identity and is not used for advertising.