Privacy policy for Solar

Last updated: 26 October 2026 · Deutsch (the German version is authoritative)

In short

Solar computes all eclipses and sky events on the device. There are no user accounts, no advertising, no tracking and no third-party analytics or crash reporting tools. The developer receives no data from the app. The developer’s server only delivers the cloud map data and a copy of the satellite orbits, the same for everyone and without an access log.

The only network requests go to the services described one by one below: weather, cloud map, maps, place search, light pollution and satellite orbits. A location only ever goes to Apple. For the weather forecast it is rounded to two decimal places, which is about one kilometre. It goes to Apple unrounded when looking up the place name for your own location and, for places you created yourself, in your own iCloud storage. For the place search, the search text goes to Apple. Climate statistics and terrain elevation are built into the app and need no network.

Controller

Location

Solar asks for the location only while the app is in use, and only once per request, not continuously. It is needed for the times, altitude and direction of an eclipse at your own place. An approximate location is enough. Without permission, places can be added by hand through the search.

The location and all saved places are stored in the app’s settings on the device, and in a shared container on the same device so that widget and Live Activity show the same place. Where a place leaves the device is described in the following sections.

Weather outlook

• Dates within the next ten days: As soon as the weather outlook of an event is shown, Solar requests the cloud cover for the hour of maximum from Apple Weather (WeatherKit). The coordinates go out rounded to two decimal places, without a name and without any device identifier. The result stays stored on the device.
• Later dates: Solar shows climate statistics built into the app (cloud cover of the years 2002 to 2021 from the ERA5 dataset of the Copernicus Climate Change Service). Nothing goes to the network for this.

Apple Weather is a service of Apple. For the required attribution, Solar also loads the Apple Weather logo from Apple’s servers.

Cloud map

The cloud map in the “Map” tab shows, on one timeline, the satellite images of the past two days and the forecast for the coming days. The satellite images come from EUMETSAT, the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites, the forecast from the open data of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). Both are prepared by the developer’s server at apps.mick2605.de. Solar downloads files for the whole world there, the same for everyone; no location or map area is sent, and EUMETSAT and ECMWF learn nothing about its use. The server keeps no access log (see “This website”).

Elevation of searched places

A place added through the search has no elevation above sea level. Solar reads it from an elevation map built into the app (ETOPO 2022 by the US agency NOAA). Nothing goes to the network for this. For your own location, Solar uses the elevation measured by the device.

Apple: place search, place name and maps

• Place search: while typing, the search text goes to Apple’s map service (MapKit) so that matching places appear.
• Place name: for your own location, Solar asks Apple’s map service for the name of the place and its time zone. The location goes to Apple for this.
• Maps: the shadow map, world map and light map show map tiles from Apple. The device loads the visible map area from Apple for this.

Apple is responsible for these services and for Apple Weather. According to Apple, the requests are not linked to the Apple Account. See Apple’s privacy policy.

Light pollution map

The light map and the “Sky Brightness” complication on Apple Watch show David J. Lorenz’s atlas of artificial sky brightness. Its image tiles are hosted on djlorenz.github.io, a GitHub Pages site (GitHub, Inc., USA). Only the number of a tile is requested. A tile at the finest level is about 600 kilometres wide; no coordinate is sent. As with any connection, the server sees the IP address. GitHub may store it in its logs; see the GitHub privacy statement. For transfers to the USA, GitHub relies on the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework.

Satellite orbits

For passes of the ISS, Tiangong and other bright satellites, Solar first loads current orbital elements from the developer’s server (apps.mick2605.de, no access log), which fetches them from CelesTrak every six hours. If it cannot be reached, Solar asks CelesTrak directly (celestrak.org, USA) and then the TLE API (tle.ivanstanojevic.me). The request is the same on every device and contains neither a location nor anything else about the person. As with any connection, the server sees the IP address. The orbital elements are cached on the device and used for up to two weeks.

iCloud for Apple Vision Pro

So that Solar on Apple Vision Pro computes for the same place, the iPhone app writes the selected place and the saved places into the iCloud key-value storage of your own Apple Account. The Vision Pro only reads them.

• Your own location goes out rounded to two decimal places, the elevation rounded to ten metres, and without its name, since that is often a street address.
• Places you created go out as created: name, coordinates, elevation and time zone.

The data lives in the iCloud account of the person using Solar and is managed by Apple. The developer has no access to it. If iCloud is off, nothing is transferred. Deleted places also disappear from iCloud with the next sync.

On the Vision Pro itself, Solar does not request a location, and there is no place search. Weather outlook, maps, light map and satellite orbits work there as described above, for the place from the iPhone.

What stays on the device

• Reminders are notifications that Solar schedules on the device. No server sends them.
• Live Activity and widgets are updated on the device, without a push service.
• Calendar: an event is created in Apple’s own calendar window, which Solar opens pre-filled. Solar needs no permission for this and cannot see the calendar. Nothing is saved until “Add” is tapped in that window.
• Cameras: for the photo tips, Solar reads the technical data of the built-in cameras, such as focal length, aperture and resolution. The camera is not switched on and no image is taken.
• Compass: the device heading is used only on the device.
• Cache: weather data, cloud data, map tiles and orbital elements are kept on the device so they are available offline. In the app under Settings, “Clear cache” deletes them.

This storage on the device is strictly necessary for the function chosen (§ 25(2) no. 2 TDDDG).

Apple Watch

The Apple Watch app determines the location itself, to about one kilometre, and keeps it on the watch for its complications. The “Sky Brightness” complication loads one tile of the light pollution map as described above. Nothing else leaves the watch.

Crash reports

Solar sends no crash reports of its own. Anyone who allows sharing analytics with app developers in the device settings lets Apple pass crash reports to the developer without reference to the person. This is controlled by Apple alone and can be switched off there at any time.

Tip jar (in-app purchases)

In the settings, Solar can be supported with a voluntary tip (“coffee”). Purchase and payment are handled entirely by Apple through the App Store; Apple’s terms and privacy policy apply. Neither Solar nor the developer receives payment details, a name or an email address. The app only learns from Apple whether a purchase succeeded. To show a checkmark, it reads from Apple’s purchase history on the device whether a coffee has been bought before. The developer only sees Apple’s aggregated sales figures, with no reference to any person.

Legal basis

The requests to the services named are needed to provide the function opened in the app (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR). Where the IP address is processed, this is based on the legitimate interest in a working connection (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR).

This website

The pages at apps.mick2605.de are served without cookies, without analytics and without embedded third-party content. The server keeps no access log. The IP address is processed only for the duration of the connection in order to deliver the page (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR).

The server is rented from Unesty. Unesty processes the data on the server as a processor under a contract according to Art. 28 GDPR.

Rights

There is a right of access (Art. 15 GDPR), rectification (Art. 16), erasure (Art. 17), restriction of processing (Art. 18), data portability (Art. 20) and objection to processing based on legitimate interests (Art. 21). Since the developer receives no data from the app, there is usually none on file. Requests go to the email address above.

There is also a right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority (Art. 77 GDPR). The competent authority is:

Children

Solar is meant for all age groups and asks for no personal details.

Changes

If anything in this information changes, this page is updated with a new date.