SmartScopeClubCommunity Hub

Privacy Policy

Last updated: August 9, 2026.

SmartScopeClub ("we", "us") runs the website and app at smartscope.club, and the Dark-Sky Engine behind them. We collect as little personal information as we can, and we never sell it. We serve no adverts. We do use the Meta pixel, and only if you agree to it, so that we can tell whether a post about an eclipse reached anyone; Section 2 says exactly what that means and Section 7 says what we still will not do. The site is paid for by affiliate commission on the lodging map on park pages, which is explained in full in Section 11. We use Google Analytics to measure how the site is used, but only for visitors who agree to it, and nothing loads until you do. This policy explains exactly what we collect, why, who can see it, and how to get it removed.

The Service now includes accounts, saved observing places, clubs, star parties, live chat, and photo galleries, so there is more to explain than there used to be. Privacy questions and requests: privacy@smartscope.club.

1. Information you give us

Account. To create an account we collect your email address, a display name you choose, and a password (stored only as a salted cryptographic hash, never in readable form). Your email is used to sign you in, to send account and safety messages, and to send alerts you have asked for.

Profile. Optionally: a short bio, an avatar image, your telescope or scope model, and a home location (a label and coordinates). All of these are optional and you can edit or clear them at any time.

Saved places. When you save an observing place we store the name you give it, its latitude and longitude, any notes you write, whether it is your home site, and whether you want clear-night alerts for it. Saved places are private to your account and are not shown to other members.

Clubs. If you create a club we store its name, description, location label, and visibility setting. If you apply to join a club we store your membership status and any application message you write, and we show them to that club's owner.

Star parties. If you host a party we store its title, description, target list, mode (virtual, in person, or hybrid), start and end times, capacity, cover image, and, for in-person parties, the location label and coordinates you enter. If you join a party we store your attendance, your role, and your target votes. If you invite someone by email, we store that email address in order to deliver and validate the invite.

Chat. Messages you send in a star party's live chat are stored on our servers with your user account and a timestamp, and remain available in that party's transcript.

Photos. Photos you upload to a party gallery, and their captions, are stored on our servers along with a generated thumbnail. Photo files can contain embedded metadata such as GPS coordinates, capture time, and equipment details. We do not currently strip that metadata, so please remove it yourself before uploading if you do not want it shared.

Photo submissions on the main site. If you submit a photo through the community form we collect the name you choose to be credited by, your email address, the photo, and the description you write. We use them to review, publish, and credit your submission and to contact you about it.

Newsletter. If you subscribe we collect your email address and use it only to send the newsletter. Every issue has an unsubscribe link. Subscriptions are managed through beehiiv.

2. Information collected automatically

Session cookie. Signing in sets a signed session cookie so the app knows it is you between pages. It is essential to the Service and is not used for tracking or advertising.

The Meta pixel, and only if you agree. If you allow it, we load Meta's advertising pixel. It tells Meta that a browser viewed a page on this site, and it sets Meta's own cookies under their privacy policy. We use it for one thing: to be able to show a follow-up about an eclipse to people who already read about that eclipse here, rather than paying to guess. It does not load until you allow it, on the same single question as Analytics below, and declining costs you nothing. We do not send it your email address, your name, your account or your saved places, and we do not use it to build or buy audience data about you.

Analytics, and only if you agree. We use Google Analytics 4 to understand which guides are read, how people arrive, and what breaks. It does not load until you allow it. On your first visit you are asked; until you answer, and forever if you decline, no analytics script is loaded, no analytics cookie is set, and no request is made to Google at all. This is not a banner that announces tracking already underway.

If you allow it, Analytics sets its own cookies and receives the page you are viewing, the page you came from, your approximate location derived from your IP address, and general device and browser information. Google does not give us your IP address itself, and we have not enabled Google Signals, advertising features, or any linking of analytics data to an advertising profile. We use it to decide what to write next, not to identify you.

Your answer is stored in your browser's local storage, not in a cookie, and is never sent to us. You can change it at any time from the Cookie choices link in the footer of every page. Declining costs you nothing: the site behaves identically either way. Google's own browser add-on (tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout) and any content blocker will also stop it.

Our own page counts. Separately from Analytics, and whatever you decide about it, our server counts the pages requested from it. This is how we know which guides are worth writing more of. For each request we store the path, the website you arrived from (the site's name only, never the full address), whether the request looked automated, and, if you are signed in, your account. We do not store your IP address: it is combined with a secret that changes every day and turned into a one-way code, which lets us count people rather than clicks within a single day and cannot be linked back to you or joined up across days. There is no cookie involved and nothing is sent to anyone else.

Server logs. Our servers keep standard technical logs (IP address, browser user-agent, pages requested, timestamps, error traces) for security, abuse prevention, and troubleshooting. They are rotated routinely and are not used to build a profile of you.

Outbound click counts. When you click a "where to buy" link on the Scopes page we increment an anonymous counter so we can see which equipment interests readers. These are not affiliate links and we earn nothing from them.

The lodging map on park pages. Park pages carry a map of places to stay nearby, loaded in a frame from Stay22. Because your browser loads it directly, Stay22 receives your IP address, the park's coordinates, the dates shown, and general device and browser information, and may set its own cookies under its own privacy policy. It does not receive your name, your email address, your account, or your saved places. It loads only when you scroll to it, and any content blocker will stop it. If you book through the map we are paid a commission; see Section 11.

Push notification subscriptions. If you allow notifications, your browser or device gives us a push endpoint URL and two keys. We store them only to deliver the notifications you asked for, and delete them when you revoke permission or unsubscribe.

3. Location data, specifically

Location is the most sensitive thing this Service handles, so here is precisely how it works:

  • "Use my location" asks your browser for your coordinates and uses them for that lookup only. We do not store them as part of a profile, and we do not track you in the background or over time.
  • Places you save are stored on your account until you delete them, because that is the point of saving them. They are private to you.
  • Pins you drop and places you search are sent to a geocoding service to turn coordinates into a place name, and back (see Section 6).
  • In-person star party locations are shown to everyone who can see that party. If a party is public, its location is public. Do not enter your home address as a party location unless you intend to share it.
  • Your home location and club location label are only as precise as you make them. A city or region is enough for good forecasts, so please use one rather than a street address.

4. How we use information

  • To provide the Service: sign-in, saved places, sky and weather calculations for your chosen location, clubs, parties, chat, and galleries.
  • To send what you asked for: clear-night alerts, party and club notifications, the newsletter, and essential account or security messages.
  • To keep the Service safe: preventing abuse, moderating content, enforcing our Terms, and investigating security incidents.
  • To fix and improve things: diagnosing errors and understanding which features are used, in aggregate.
  • To comply with the law and respond to valid legal process.

We do not use your content or personal information to train machine-learning models, and we do not use it to build advertising profiles. Analytics is kept separate from your account: nothing it reports is joined to your saved places, your parties, or your identity here.

5. Who can see what

Much of the Service is social, so visibility is worth stating plainly:

  • Private to you: your email address, password, saved places and their notes, and your alert settings.
  • Visible to a club's owner: your display name, membership status, and any application message you wrote.
  • Visible to members of a party: your display name, avatar, chat messages, photos and captions, and target votes. Anyone who can open the party can also open its transcript.
  • Public on the internet: public clubs and their descriptions, public star parties including their location and time, and anything you post inside them. Unlisted parties are not listed publicly but are visible to anyone holding the invite link.
  • Your profile: your display name, avatar, bio, and scope model are visible to other members you share a club or party with.

6. Third parties we share data with

We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information, and we do not share it with anyone for their own marketing. We use a small number of services to make features work, and they receive only what that feature needs:

  • Hosting. Our servers and database are located in the United States.
  • Open-Meteo receives place coordinates to return a weather forecast. No account information is sent.
  • Photon (Komoot), built on OpenStreetMap data, receives your search text or a pin's coordinates to return a place name. No account information is sent.
  • Map tile providers (Stadia Maps, OpenMapTiles, OpenStreetMap, and, for weather and precipitation layers, RainViewer and OpenWeatherMap) receive requests from your browser for the map tiles you are viewing, which necessarily includes your IP address and the area of the map you are looking at, under their own privacy policies.
  • NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center provides aurora data. Requests are made by our server, not by you.
  • beehiiv processes newsletter subscriptions and receives your email address if you subscribe.
  • Browser and device push services (operated by Google, Apple, Mozilla, or Microsoft depending on your browser) deliver push notifications you have enabled. They receive the notification payload and your push endpoint.
  • YouTube (Google) serves embedded videos on some pages. Playing one may cause Google to set its own cookies under its own privacy policy.
  • Stay22 serves the lodging map on park pages. Your browser loads it directly, so Stay22 receives your IP address, the coordinates and dates the map is showing, and general device and browser information, under its own privacy policy. It receives nothing from your account. We send it no personal information ourselves.
  • Meta (Facebook), only if you have allowed it, receives the fact that a browser viewed a page on this site, along with your IP address and general browser information, under Meta's own privacy policy, and may match it to a Facebook or Instagram account it recognises. It receives nothing from your account here. If you have not agreed, Meta receives nothing from this site at all.
  • Google Analytics, only if you have allowed it, receives a record of the pages you view on this site, the page you arrived from, and general device and browser information, under Google's own privacy policy. Advertising features and Google Signals are switched off. If you have not agreed, Google receives nothing from this site.

We may also disclose information if we are legally required to, or where we believe in good faith that disclosure is necessary to protect someone's safety, investigate fraud or abuse, or defend our legal rights. If the Service is ever transferred to a new operator, accounts and content would transfer with it, and we would tell you first.

7. What we do not do

  • We do not sell or share your personal information, as those terms are defined by the California Consumer Privacy Act. We have never done so.
  • We serve no adverts on this site. There are no ad slots, no ad network, and nothing on a page here is paid placement.
  • We do not buy audience data about you, and we do not upload your email address, your account or anything you have given us to an advertising platform. The Meta pixel described in Section 2 reports that a page was viewed. It is not fed anything from your account, and it only runs if you agreed to it.
  • We do not put affiliate tracking on you. The lodging map is paid on the bookings it produces, not on who you are: nothing identifies you to us or to Stay22, and we receive no report naming an individual. See Section 11.
  • We do not use analytics to build a behavioral profile of you, and we do not link what Analytics reports to your account, your saved places, or anything else you have given us.
  • We do not track your location in the background or build a movement history.
  • We do not require you to identify yourself to read anything on the main site.

8. How long we keep things

Account information is kept while your account is open. Saved places, clubs, parties, chat messages, and photos are kept until you or the relevant owner deletes them, or until we delete your account. Deleting your account removes your saved places, profile, and the content that belongs to you; chat messages already quoted or replied to by others, and clubs or parties you created that other people depend on, may be retained in an anonymized form or transferred rather than deleted. Server logs are rotated on a short cycle. Backups persist for a limited period and are overwritten in the ordinary course.

9. Security

Passwords are stored only as salted hashes. Traffic is served over HTTPS. Access to the production database is restricted. No service can promise perfect security, so please use a unique password and tell us at privacy@smartscope.club if you suspect a problem with your account. If a breach affects your personal information, we will notify you and any regulator as required by law.

10. Your rights and choices

Whoever and wherever you are, you can ask us to:

  • Access a copy of the personal information we hold about you;
  • Correct anything inaccurate (most profile fields you can edit yourself);
  • Delete your account and personal information;
  • Export your content in a portable format;
  • Withdraw consent for alerts, push notifications, or the newsletter at any time;
  • Object to or restrict a particular use.

Email privacy@smartscope.club from the address on your account and we will act promptly, within 30 days at the latest. Self-serve account deletion is not yet built into the app, so deletion requests are handled by us by hand, and we will confirm when it is done. We will not treat you differently for exercising any of these rights.

If you are in the EU or UK: our legal bases are performance of our contract with you (running your account and the features you use), your consent (alerts, push, newsletter, optional profile details), our legitimate interests (keeping the Service secure and working), and legal obligation. You have the right to lodge a complaint with your local supervisory authority. Because our servers are in the United States, using the Service involves transferring your information there.

If you are in California: you have the right to know, delete, and correct your personal information, and to not be discriminated against for exercising those rights. Under the CCPA as amended, allowing the Meta pixel may count as "sharing" personal information for cross-context behavioural advertising. That is why it is off unless you switch it on, and why Cookie choices in the footer of every page lets you switch it off again at any time; that control is the opt-out. We do not sell personal information for money, and never have. You may use an authorized agent to make a request.

11. How the site is paid for

Most of SmartScopeClub is free, and something has to cover the servers. Here is the whole arrangement, in plain terms.

Park pages carry a lodging map, and we earn a commission on bookings made through it. The map is provided by Stay22 and shows hotels, cabins and campgrounds near the park you are reading about, for the nights you have chosen with the date controls above it. If you book something through it, the booking provider pays us a commission. You pay the same price you would have paid going direct. No part of the commission comes out of your pocket, and we never see your payment details, because the booking happens entirely on the provider's own site.

It does not change what you are shown. The map is centred on the park's published coordinates and shows what is genuinely near it. We do not order, filter, promote, or suppress results, and no property pays us for a better position. Nothing about our sky data, Bortle ratings, park write-ups, or equipment opinions is influenced by whether a place can be booked.

What it means for your privacy is set out in Sections 2 and 6: the map is a frame your browser loads from Stay22, so Stay22 sees your IP address and the coordinates and dates on screen, and nothing from your account. We are paid on completed bookings in aggregate. We do not receive, and do not want, a report telling us that a particular person booked a particular room.

The "where to buy" links on the Scopes page are not affiliate links and earn us nothing. If we ever add advertising or another paid arrangement, this section will say so before it goes live, and the page carrying it will disclose it in place.

11. Children

The Service is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect their personal information or allow them to create accounts. If you believe a child under 13 has given us information, email privacy@smartscope.club and we will delete it. Members between 13 and 18 should use the Service with a parent or guardian involved, particularly for in-person star parties.

12. Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, the new version will be posted here with an updated date. If a change is material, we will make a reasonable effort to notify you in the app or by email before it takes effect.

13. Contact

Privacy questions, data requests, and account deletion: privacy@smartscope.club. Legal notices and copyright complaints: legal@smartscope.club.