LowOps, Inc. ("LowOps," "we," "us," "our") provides the LowOps mobile app, the flylowops.com website and the LowOps Fleet and Schedule web tools (the "Service"). This Privacy Policy explains what personal information we collect, why we collect it, who we share it with, and the rights and choices you have. It is also our notice at collection under California law.
1. Who this policy covers
This policy applies to everyone who uses the Service, worldwide. Section 11 adds rights for U.S. state residents, and Section 13 adds rights for people in the EEA, the UK and Switzerland.
If you join an operator, flight school or employer in LowOps Fleet (an "Operator"), the Operator also decides how the records it receives about you are used, under its own privacy notice. For data in an Operator's workspace, we act on the Operator's behalf (Section 4.3).
2. What we collect
We collect the categories below. Precise geolocation is "sensitive personal information" under several state laws. We do not sell or "share" (for cross-context behavioural advertising) any of these categories, and we have not done so in the past 12 months.
| Category | Examples | When and why |
|---|---|---|
| Account and identifiers | Name, email, username, profile photo, state or country of residence, account ID, a random device ID | When you create an account. Used to run your account, secure it, and apply the privacy rules of your state. |
| Precise geolocation (sensitive) | Live GPS position, altitude, speed and heading | Used on your device to show obstacles and give alerts. It is sent off your device only as described in the rows below and in Section 4.4. |
| Contributed flight data (sensitive) | Flight tracks, alert and proximity events, helipad visits, conditions at the time, linked to your account | Only if you turn on data contribution. Used to build and correct the obstacle database, improve alerts and safety features, and for aviation-safety research. |
| Flight records | Flight recordings you save, pilot logbook entries, aircraft profiles, weight-and-balance entries, maintenance squawks | When you save them. Backed up to our servers and synced only while data contribution is on; otherwise they stay on your device. You can also choose to share them. |
| Pilot profile | Weather minimums, preferences, and flight-review, medical and currency due dates you enter | When you enter them. Used for reminders and to tailor the app and Copilot answers. |
| Aircraft documents | Documents you import (for example a flight manual supplement or a weight-and-balance report), with the aircraft's registration, make, model and serial number | When you import one. Sent to our AI provider to read the document; our servers do not keep the document (Section 5). |
| Copilot conversations | Your questions and the replies; the profile, route, approximate position, weather and airport data a reply needs | Kept on your device. Sent off it only if you turn on the hosted Copilot (Section 5). |
| Community content and messages | Posts, comments, photos (including any information stored in the photo file), kudos, follows, direct messages, reports and blocks | When you post or send them. Used to provide the community features and keep them safe. |
| Jobs and Marketplace | Job applications, résumés and documents you attach, listings, enquiries and messages with sellers or employers | When you apply, list or enquire. Sent to the employer, seller or buyer you choose. |
| Operator records | Membership, role, schedule and duty entries, training records, flights connected to the Operator | When you join an Operator. Shared with that Operator (Section 4.3). |
| Device and diagnostics | Device model, OS and app version, language, region, time zone, feature use, crash reports (which include your account email so we can follow up) | Automatically. Used to keep the app working, fix problems and improve it. |
| Legal records | Which version of the Terms and this policy you accepted, and when | When you accept. Kept to show what you agreed to. |
| Credentials | Your password, stored only as a salted hash by our authentication provider | When you create an account. |
We get this information from you and from your device. We do not buy personal information about you from other companies. The website does not use advertising or analytics cookies; our hosting provider keeps standard server logs, such as IP addresses and the pages requested, to run and secure the site.
3. How we use information
We use personal information to:
- provide the Service, including obstacle alerts, weather, traffic, planning, logbook, recordings, the Copilot and community features;
- create, secure and support your account, and keep a record of what you agreed to;
- build, verify and correct the obstacle database and improve alerts and safety features, using contributed flight data and hazard reports;
- create de-identified and aggregated data for aviation-safety research and product development (Section 7);
- provide Operator, Jobs and Marketplace features you choose to use, and bill Operators for paid plans;
- moderate content, enforce our Terms, and detect and prevent fraud, abuse and security incidents; and
- comply with the law and respond to lawful requests.
We use sensitive personal information, such as precise geolocation, only to provide the Service you ask for, with your consent where the law requires it, and for the other purposes the law permits. We do not use it to infer other characteristics about you. We do not make decisions about you based solely on automated processing that have legal or similarly significant effects.
4. Who we share information with
We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it with data brokers or advertisers. We disclose personal information only as follows.
4.1 Service providers
We use companies that process data on our behalf, under contract, only to provide their services to us:
- Supabase: database, file storage and sign-in (authentication);
- Netlify: website hosting;
- Google Workspace: email, when you write to us;
- Anthropic, PBC: the hosted Copilot and document import, only when you use them (Section 5); and
- Apple: App Store distribution and App Store purchases, under Apple's own terms.
4.2 People you choose to share with
Other users see what you post publicly or send them. Employers receive the applications you send them. Sellers and buyers receive the enquiries and messages you send them.
4.3 Operators you join
If you accept an invitation to join an Operator, that Operator can see the records the app tells you it will share when you join. These can include flight recordings, hours, alert and hazard exposure, training records and schedule entries for flights connected to that Operator. This sharing happens because you choose to join, wherever you live. You can leave an Operator at any time; records it already holds stay with it.
4.4 Data services your device contacts directly
To show live information, the app requests it directly from public data services. These services receive your device's IP address and the location or area being requested, and they handle that information under their own privacy policies:
- Traffic: adsb.lol receives the area around your position, to return nearby aircraft. adsbdb.com receives a registration or ICAO address when you look up an aircraft.
- Weather: NOAA's Aviation Weather Center (aviationweather.gov), the National Weather Service (api.weather.gov) and Open-Meteo receive the locations you ask about. NATS receives requests for UK NOTAMs.
- Maps and obstacles: OpenStreetMap data servers (Overpass), OpenFreeMap, USGS and Apple Maps receive the map areas you view.
4.5 Legal, safety and business transfers
We may disclose information if the law requires it, to respond to valid legal process, or to protect the rights, safety or property of our users, the public or LowOps. If LowOps is involved in a merger, acquisition, financing, reorganization or sale of assets, information may be transferred as part of that deal. It would remain subject to this policy unless you are told otherwise and, where the law requires, asked for consent.
5. AI features
Copilot. The Copilot runs on your device by default, and then nothing you ask it leaves your device. If you turn on the hosted Copilot, we relay your conversation, your pilot profile, your route and approximate position, and the weather and airport data a reply needs, through our servers to Anthropic, which generates the reply. Our servers record the time of each request, your account ID and usage counts, but not the text of the conversation. Conversations you keep are stored on your device only.
Document import. When you import an aircraft document, the app first tells you it will be sent for processing and asks you to confirm. We then relay the document, and the aircraft's registration, make, model and serial number, through our servers to Anthropic, which reads the document and extracts its figures for you to review. Our servers do not keep the document.
Under its commercial terms, Anthropic acts as our service provider. It does not use this data to train its models, and it deletes it after a limited retention period (currently up to 30 days), unless it must keep it longer to enforce its usage policies or comply with the law. We use AI-feature data only to answer you.
6. Flight data contribution
Data contribution is off until you turn it on, either when you first open the app or later under Settings › Privacy & Data › Your data › Share my flight data. While it is on, the app uploads the contributed flight data described in Section 2, and backs up and syncs your recordings and logbook. You can turn it off at any time; uploading stops at once, every safety feature keeps working, and your recordings and logbook stay on your device. Turning it off does not delete what you already contributed. To have that deleted, delete the individual flights or your account (Section 9), or contact us (Section 11).
7. De-identified and aggregated data
We may create de-identified or aggregated data from the information we hold, for example obstacle-encounter rates by region, and use or share it for aviation-safety research and product development. We take reasonable measures to make sure it cannot be linked to you. We publicly commit to keeping it in de-identified form and not attempting to re-identify it, except to test our de-identification. Anyone we share it with must agree to the same.
8. How long we keep information
- Account data, flight records, logbook and community content: while your account is open, or until you delete them.
- Contributed flight data: up to 36 months in identified form. After that it is deleted or de-identified.
- Diagnostics and crash reports: only as long as needed to diagnose and fix problems.
- Records of what you agreed to: for as long as your account exists and for a reasonable period afterwards, to show what you agreed to.
- De-identified and aggregated data: may be kept indefinitely.
We may keep information longer where the law requires it or to resolve a dispute. When you delete a flight in the app, we delete its stored track and telemetry from our servers.
9. Deleting your account
You can delete your account at any time in the app, under Settings › Account › Delete account. You do not need to email us or wait for us.
Deleting your account immediately and permanently removes your profile, username and photo; your posts, comments and kudos; your flight recordings, logbook entries and shared flights and their tracks; your messages; your marketplace listings, job postings and job applications; and your follows in both directions. Photos you uploaded are deleted from storage at the same time. Deletion cannot be undone.
What is kept, without your name attached. Hazards and obstacles you reported, alert events and flight track points used to build and correct the obstacle database are kept, because other pilots depend on them. Your account and name are removed from these records, which then carry only a random device identifier. We do not use that identifier to re-identify you. An Operator page you created stays for its other members, and records an Operator already holds stay with it. We may also keep a limited record where the law requires it.
Deleting your account does not cancel an App Store subscription. Cancel it in your Apple Account settings.
10. Your choices
- Data contribution: Settings › Privacy & Data › Your data › Share my flight data.
- Location: you can change the app's location permission in iOS Settings. Obstacle alerts need it.
- Hosted Copilot: off by default; choose it, or the on-device Copilot, under Settings › Copilot › Model.
- Operators: join or leave an Operator at any time.
- Blocking and reporting: report any content from within the app, block any user, and review blocks under Settings › Community › Safety › Blocked accounts.
- Deletion: delete individual flights, posts or listings, or your whole account (Section 9).
11. U.S. state privacy rights
Depending on where you live (including California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Virginia), you may have the right to:
- know and access the personal information we hold about you, including the specific pieces, and get a portable copy;
- correct inaccurate personal information;
- delete personal information;
- opt out of the sale of personal information, targeted advertising and profiling (we do none of these);
- limit the use of sensitive personal information (we use it only as Section 3 describes);
- withdraw consent you have given, such as for data contribution; and
- not be discriminated against for exercising these rights.
How to make a request. Email support@flylowops.com with the subject "Privacy request", or use the controls in the app. To protect you, we verify requests using your account email and account details. You may use an authorized agent, who must show that you authorized them. We respond within 45 days. If we cannot, we will tell you why and when to expect an answer.
Appeals. If we decline your request, you can appeal by replying with the subject "Privacy appeal". We will answer within the time your state's law allows. If you are not satisfied, you can contact your state attorney general.
Opt-out signals. Because we do not sell or share personal information, there is nothing for an opt-out preference signal, such as Global Privacy Control, to switch off. If we ever change that, we will honor those signals.
California. In the past 12 months we collected the categories in Section 2, for the purposes in Section 3. We disclosed them for business purposes only to the recipients in Section 4. We have not sold or shared personal information, and we do not disclose it to third parties for their own direct marketing.
12. Children and teens
The Service is not directed to children under 13. The app asks for your date of birth, does not store it, and does not let anyone under 13 continue. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child under 13 has given us information, contact us and we will delete it. We do not sell the data of anyone under 18 or use it for targeted advertising. If you are under 18, you can remove content you posted, or ask us to remove it.
13. EEA, UK and Switzerland
- Controller: LowOps, Inc., 30 N Gould St, Ste 100, Sheridan, WY 82801, USA, support@flylowops.com. For data in an Operator's workspace, the Operator is the controller and we are its processor.
- Legal bases:
- Performance of our contract with you: your account and the features you use, including location-based alerts.
- Your consent, which you can withdraw at any time: data contribution, the hosted Copilot, document import, and the device permissions you grant.
- Our legitimate interests: keeping the Service secure, keeping the obstacle database accurate for everyone's safety, and moderating the community.
- Legal obligations.
- Your rights: access, rectification, erasure, restriction, portability, objection, and withdrawal of consent, using the methods in Section 11. You may also complain to your data protection authority.
- International transfers: we and our service providers process data in the United States. Where required, transfers are protected by the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses (with the UK and Swiss addenda) or another lawful mechanism, such as the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework where a provider is certified.
14. Security
We protect information with encryption in transit (TLS), encryption at rest by our hosting provider, row-level access controls in our database, and hashed passwords. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure. If a breach affects your personal information, we will notify you and the authorities as the law requires.
15. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy. For a material change, we will tell you in the app or by email before it takes effect and, where the law requires, ask for your consent. We will not use personal information we collected before a material change in a materially different way without your consent. The version and effective date are shown at the top of this page.
16. Contact
LowOps, Inc.
30 N Gould St, Ste 100, Sheridan, WY 82801, USA
Privacy requests: support@flylowops.com (subject "Privacy request")
Other questions: hello@flylowops.com