Privacy Policy
TailGrab is a plane-spotting game: you photograph a real aircraft near you, it joins your fleet, and it earns points as it really flies. This page explains what the game collects, why, who else handles it, and how to delete it. There are no ads, we don't sell your data, and the app has no third-party analytics or tracking code.
What we collect and why
| What | Why | Who can see it |
|---|---|---|
| Pilot name, plus crew, league and friend list | Your identity in the game | Other players (names show on leaderboards, the feed and steal alerts) |
| Sign-in cookie and, if you save one, a passkey (public key only) | Keeping you signed in; signing in on another device | Nobody. We never receive your passkey's private key, fingerprint or face data. |
| Your location when you snap or grab a plane (GPS coordinates, accuracy and altitude) | Checking you're really near the plane, finding planes around you, the nearest airport, and the window-seat bonus | Not shown to other players. Stored with that grab so the game can check later grabs for impossible travel. |
| Proof photos you take, plus a small fingerprint of each photo | Proof of the sighting, reading the tail number, spotting special paint jobs, and stopping reused or fake photos | The latest photo of a plane shows on that plane's card to all players while you hold it |
| Game activity: planes grabbed and stolen, points, streaks, badges, miles flown by your planes | Running the game, leaderboards and seasons | Other players |
| Device description: app or browser, phone model, OS version, screen size, country (from your connection) and how often you open the app | Fixing bugs and making the game work well on every phone | Only the developer |
| Time zone offset | Counting daily streaks in your own time | Nobody |
| Notification subscription (only if you turn alerts on) | Telling you when a plane is stolen, or about friend and crew activity | Nobody |
| Reports, blocks and feedback: who you report or block and why, and feedback you send | Keeping the game safe and fixing problems | Only the developer. Pilots you block aren't told. |
| Refused grabs: the tail number, time and the message you saw | Tuning the anti-cheat checks so they don't block honest players | Only the developer |
We don't collect your email, phone number, contacts or real name, and we don't track your location in the background. Location is only read while you're using the app to snap or grab a plane.
Anti-cheat checks
To keep the game fair, each grab is checked: your GPS position against the plane's live position, your GPS against the rough area of your internet connection (to catch faked locations and VPNs), how far you've moved since your last grab, how many grabs you've made recently, and whether the photo really shows an aircraft. A grab that fails a check is refused and logged as described above. The rough connection area is used for the check only; we don't store your IP address.
Services that handle your data
- Cloudflare hosts the game, its database and its servers. Every request passes through Cloudflare, which sees your IP address and may keep short-lived logs. Cloudflare's privacy policy.
- Anthropic (Claude) receives your proof photos to read the tail number, check that a real aircraft is in the photo and spot special paint jobs. It also receives pilot, crew and league names to screen out offensive ones. Anthropic's privacy policy.
- adsb.lol receives your rough position (rounded to about 1 km) when the app looks up planes around you. adsb.lol, airplanes.live and adsb.fi receive tail numbers when we check where a plane is. adsbdb.com and hexdb.io receive tail numbers or transponder codes to look up a plane's type and owner. None of them receive your name or photos.
- OpenStreetMap serves the map pictures, and Google Fonts serves the lettering. Your device loads these directly, so those services see your IP address.
- Apple, Google or your browser's push service deliver notifications if you turn them on.
We don't share your data with anyone else, except where the law requires it.
On your device
The app saves a few settings on your phone (for example which tab you last opened, whether you've seen the how-to-play screens, and which league you're viewing). They stay on your device.
How long we keep it
- Your account and game history stay until you delete your account.
- A plane's photo is replaced whenever someone grabs it with a newer photo, and removed when you delete your account.
- Sign-in and device-link codes expire within minutes. Notification subscriptions are removed when you turn alerts off or they stop working.
Deleting your account
In the app, tap Change next to your pilot name, then Delete my account. This permanently removes your pilot, sign-in, passkeys, notification subscriptions, device records, friends and requests, crew and league memberships, streak bonuses and grab history. Planes you held go back to unowned, without your photo. Crews and leagues you started pass to their longest-standing member. Leaderboard positions that were already decided for past months stay in the record, without your name.
If you can't get into the app, email us and we'll delete it for you.
Your choices
- Location and camera access are asked for by your phone and can be turned off in its settings. The game needs both to grab planes.
- Notifications are off unless you turn them on, and can be turned off any time.
- You can change your pilot name at any time.
- You can report a pilot or a photo, and block a pilot so you no longer see their name or photos.
- You can ask us what we hold about you, or to correct or delete it, by emailing us.
Children
TailGrab isn't directed at children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect data from them. If you think a child has made an account, email us and we'll delete it.
Changes
If we change what we collect, we'll update this page and the date at the top. Big changes will also be announced in the app.
Contact
Questions, or requests to see or delete your data: contact@josephallen.tv