Privacy Policy
planedata.io is a non-commercial, community-run ADS-B aggregator. This page explains what data we handle, why, and the choices you have. We keep it short and honest; if anything is unclear, ask us.
Last updated: 2 November 2026
1. In short
- No accounts, no cookies, no advertising and no analytics trackers on the website.
- Feeders’ IP addresses, exact locations and receiver IDs are never shown publicly.
- We never sell contributed data. We may share data with partners when it helps the flight-tracking and aviation community or helps us run a better, more secure service (see section 3).
2. Volunteer data feeders
If you voluntarily feed ADS-B or MLAT data from your receiver to planedata.io:
Telemetry received
Our ingestion pipeline processes the receiver messages your station sends (ADS-B and Mode S payloads, signal levels and timestamps), together with your station’s UUID, the station name you set for MLAT and, if you take part in MLAT, the receiver position you configure.
IP address and location
Your connection’s IP address is used to keep your feed and MLAT connections running, and to recognise your own station when you visit from the same network (“Am I feeding?”, your station map and the higher API allowance). That match happens in memory; the result isn’t stored and the address isn’t logged.
The receiver position you configure for MLAT is used for the timing calculations. Publicly, the contributors
page shows only your station name and country, worked out on our own server from that position;
no outside geolocation service is used. Adding --privacy to your MLAT settings hides both.
Use of contributed data
Contributed data is combined with other feeders’ to show live positions on the public map and to power flight pages, airport boards, traffic corridors, the API and research into flight tracking. Aircraft positions are recorded about once a minute and kept to build flight history.
To show you your own coverage, we keep your station’s reach (the furthest aircraft per compass direction) for 30 days, linked to your UUID, never your IP address.
Non-commercial commitment
We run planedata.io as a non-commercial community project. We do not sell, rent, lease or license contributed data for commercial gain.
3. Sharing with the community and partners
Flight tracking works because people share. From time to time we may share aircraft data with other community aggregators, researchers, open-source and non-profit aviation projects, or partners who help us improve our infrastructure, services and security, where it benefits the flight-tracking and aviation community. When we do:
- It’s aircraft data, the same kind of information shown on the public map.
- Your IP address, exact receiver location and UUID are not shared, except with service providers who run parts of our infrastructure for us and must protect them, or where the law requires it.
- It’s never sold for commercial gain.
4. Visitors to the website and API
- No accounts, cookies or tracking. The site doesn’t set cookies or use browser storage, and has no analytics or advertising.
- IP addresses are used in memory to apply the API’s fair-use limits (forgotten after about 10 minutes without requests) and to recognise feeders. Our application doesn’t keep access logs.
- Cloudflare delivers and protects the site, so your requests pass through it and are handled under its privacy policy.
- Things your browser loads from others: map tiles (OpenFreeMap), fonts (Google Fonts) and the map library (jsDelivr). Those services receive your IP address when your browser requests them.
5. Aircraft data
Aircraft broadcast ADS-B openly. We show what our feeders and partner networks (the OpenSky Network and adsb.lol) receive, with registration and type from open reference data. If you have a concern about how an aircraft is shown, contact us.
6. How long we keep data
| Data | Kept |
|---|---|
| Aircraft positions (about one a minute) and flights | For flight history and research |
| Traffic counts used for corridors | 25 hours |
| Your station’s coverage reach (by UUID) | 30 days |
| Live feeder status (rates, MLAT peers) | Only while connected; not stored |
| Visitor IP addresses for fair-use limits | In memory, about 10 minutes |
7. Your choices
- Use
--privacyto keep your station name and country off the contributors page. - Stop feeding at any time by removing planedata.io from your feeder’s settings.
- Ask us to delete data linked to your station (its name and coverage history), or ask what we hold about you. Include your UUID so we can find it.
8. Security
The site is served over HTTPS, the database isn’t reachable from the internet, and administration is password protected. No system is perfectly secure, but we work to keep yours and the community’s data safe.
9. Changes
If we change this policy, we’ll update it here with a new date, and highlight important changes on the feeding page.
10. Contact
Questions or requests: the contact address on this site (coming soon). See also our Terms of Service.