Privacy Policy
Last updated: September 19, 2026
1. Who we are
StarryDex ("we", "us") operates the website starrydex.com, an educational archive of stars, planets and exoplanets. This policy explains what information is collected when you visit the site, why, and what control you have over it.
For privacy purposes, the data controller is the operator of StarryDex, reachable at [email protected].
2. What we collect
StarryDex has no user accounts, no login, and no newsletter. We do not ask you for your name, email address or any other personal detail in order to browse the site.
Information is nevertheless processed in two ways:
- Automatically by our web server. Like virtually all websites, the hosting server records standard request logs: IP address, browser user-agent, requested URL, referring page and timestamp. These logs are used for security and to diagnose faults.
- By third parties we embed — chiefly Google, for advertising and analytics. This is described in sections 4 and 5.
4. Advertising and Google AdSense
StarryDex is supported by advertising. The following disclosures are made in line with Google's requirements for publishers:
- Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits to this website or other websites.
- Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to you based on your visit to StarryDex and/or other sites on the Internet.
- You may opt out of personalised advertising by visiting Google Ads Settings.
- You can opt out of some third-party vendors' use of cookies for personalised advertising at aboutads.info/choices or, in Europe, at youronlinechoices.eu.
Visitors in the EEA, the UK and Switzerland
If you are located in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, a consent banner is presented before personalised advertising cookies are set. You can accept, refuse, or adjust your choices, and you can change your decision at any time through the same banner. Where you refuse consent, only non-personalised advertising is served.
Visitors in California
We do not sell personal information in the conventional sense. Depending on how "sale" and "sharing" are interpreted under the CCPA/CPRA, the use of advertising cookies may qualify. You can limit this using the opt-out links above.
5. Analytics
We use Google Analytics to understand which pages are useful and which are not. It reports aggregate figures — page views, approximate country, device type, how visitors arrived. We do not use it to identify individual people, and we do not combine it with any other data.
You can prevent Google Analytics from collecting your data with the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on.
6. Data stored in your browser
Some features save small amounts of data in your browser's local storage. This never leaves your device and is never sent to us:
- Quiz progress and scores on the Trivia page.
- Offline copies of pages you have visited, kept by the service worker so the site opens without a connection.
If you submit a score to the public Trivia leaderboard, the nickname you type and your score are stored on our server. Choose a nickname that does not identify you.
Clearing your browser data removes everything in this section.
7. Your rights
Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access, correct, delete, or restrict processing of your personal data, to object to processing, to data portability, and to withdraw consent at any time. Visitors in Turkey have equivalent rights under the KVKK (Law No. 6698).
Because StarryDex holds no accounts and no contact details, in most cases we simply do not hold personal data about you to retrieve or delete. Where a request concerns data held by Google as an independent controller — advertising and analytics data — it should be directed to Google. For anything we do hold, write to [email protected] and we will respond within 30 days.
You also have the right to complain to your local data protection authority.
8. Children's privacy
StarryDex is written to be readable by younger audiences, but it is not directed at children under 13 and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. If you believe a child has provided personal information through the Trivia leaderboard, contact us and we will remove it.
9. Third-party content and links
Astronomical imagery is served from third parties including Wikimedia Commons, NASA and Unsplash. Some pages load data or libraries from public CDNs, and the NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day page retrieves content from NASA's public API. These providers may see your IP address as a normal consequence of serving a file to your browser.
We link to external sites we do not control and are not responsible for their privacy practices.
10. Affiliate links
Some articles in the "Stargazing Guides & Gear" section contain links to Amazon. StarryDex is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising programme designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by linking to Amazon. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases, at no extra cost to you.
These links carry a tracking identifier so Amazon can attribute a purchase to us. Clicking one takes you to Amazon, where Amazon's own privacy policy applies; we never see your order, your payment details or your address. Affiliate links are marked rel="nofollow sponsored" and the relationship is disclosed on every page that contains them.
11. The Android app
The StarryDex Android app is a Trusted Web Activity: it displays this same website inside a Chrome-based container. There is no separate app database, no account, and no additional data collection. Everything described in this policy applies identically in the app.
The app requests no device permissions. It does not access your location, camera, microphone, contacts or files. Google Play collects its own installation and crash statistics as the app's distributor; that data is governed by Google's privacy policy, and any crash reports we can see are aggregated and contain no personal information.
12. Data deletion requests
This section covers StarryDex — the website at starrydex.com and the Android app StarryDex: Stars & Planets (package com.starrydex.app), both published by StarryDex.
How to request deletion
There is no account to delete: StarryDex never asks you to register, and we hold no name, e-mail address or password for you. To ask us to delete the only data we do store on our server, follow these two steps:
- Send an e-mail to [email protected] with the subject line Data deletion request, or use the form on our contact page.
- Tell us the exact nickname you submitted to the Trivia leaderboard, so we can find the entry. That nickname is the only thing that identifies the record.
We reply and delete within 30 days. There is no charge, and you do not need to give us any further personal information to make the request.
What gets deleted
| Data | What happens |
|---|---|
| Trivia leaderboard nickname and score | Deleted permanently from the leaderboard file, immediately on request. No backup copy is kept. |
| Favourites, quiz progress and interface preferences | Never leave your device. Clearing your browser data — or, in the app, Android's Clear storage for StarryDex — erases them instantly. We cannot see or delete them for you because we never receive them. |
| Anonymous analytics and advertising data | Collected by Google Analytics and Google AdSense as independent controllers, tied to a cookie or advertising identifier rather than to you by name. Requests concerning it must go to Google; we hold no copy to delete. Google's own retention limits apply. |
| Web server logs (IP address, page requested, timestamp) | Kept for up to 30 days for security and abuse prevention, then deleted automatically. They are not linked to a leaderboard entry, so we cannot isolate an individual visitor's rows on request. |
We retain nothing else. If a legal obligation ever required us to keep a record beyond these periods, we would tell you when we replied to your request.
13. Changes to this policy
This policy may be updated as the site changes. The "last updated" date at the top always reflects the current version. Material changes will be noted on this page.
14. Contact
Questions about this policy, or about your data, can be sent to [email protected]. See also our contact page.
