IFATC Companion — Privacy Policy

Effective date: June 29, 2026

Last updated: July 18, 2026

Applies to: the IFATC Companion iOS application ("the App", "we", "us", "our").

This Privacy Policy explains what information the App accesses, how it is used, the limited circumstances in which any information leaves your device, and the third-party services the App relies on. We have written it to meet the requirements of the Apple App Store, including Apple's App Store Review Guidelines and App Privacy ("nutrition label") requirements.

1. Who we are

IFATC Companion is published by H3 Consulting Partners LLC ("the developer"). If you have any questions about this policy or your privacy, contact us at the address in the Contact section below.

IFATC Companion is an independent companion app. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Infinite Flight Corporation, the Infinite Flight Air Traffic Control (IFATC) program, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the OpenStreetMap Foundation, EUMETNET, NASA, the vATIS project / datis.clowd.io, or Apple Inc.

2. Summary of data practices

3. Information the App accesses and how it is handled

3.1 Flight and aircraft data from Infinite Flight (local network only)

When you use Live mode, the App connects to Infinite Flight running on another device on the same local Wi-Fi network using the Infinite Flight Connect API v2 over a direct TCP connection. Over this local connection the App reads your simulated flight data — for example aircraft position, altitude, heading, speed, vertical speed, ground state, flight phase, and your filed flight plan (departure, destination, route fixes, and procedures).

This is simulated flight data, not real-world location or travel data. It is exchanged only between your devices on your local network and is never sent to us or to any internet server. To discover Infinite Flight on the network the App uses Bonjour (_infiniteflight._tcp) and a local UDP discovery listener; these operate on your local network only.

3.2 Microphone and speech recognition (push-to-talk)

The App offers an optional push-to-talk feature so you can speak ATC readbacks and requests instead of tapping buttons. When you hold the push-to-talk control, the App captures microphone audio and uses Apple's Speech framework to transcribe it into text, which is then matched to an action by deterministic, on-device keyword rules.

• The App requests on-device speech recognition whenever the device supports it, so that audio is processed locally and is not sent over the network.
• On devices or locales where on-device recognition is not available, Apple's Speech framework may process the audio using Apple's servers, subject to Apple's Privacy Policy. The developer does not receive this audio or its transcription.
• The App does not record, save, or transmit your microphone audio to the developer, and the recognized text is used transiently to drive the ATC conversation.

The microphone is used only while you actively hold push-to-talk. You can decline or revoke microphone and speech-recognition permissions at any time in iOS Settings; the App remains fully usable with button-based input.

3.3 Weather data requests (internet)

The Weather features fetch aviation weather (METAR, TAF, PIREP, and SIGMET reports) from the NOAA Aviation Weather Center public service at aviationweather.gov. These requests require no API key and no account. To request relevant reports, the App includes airport/station identifiers and, for route weather, route-related parameters derived from your simulated flight plan.

• The requests contain aviation identifiers and simulated route information only — no name, email, account, device identifier, or personal contact information.
• Like any internet request, NOAA may receive your device's IP address and standard request metadata as part of normal network operation. Your use of NOAA's service is subject to NOAA's own policies.
• Weather results are cached on your device so the App can show recent data and reduce requests.

To display precipitation on the weather map, the App may also request radar and satellite precipitation imagery for the map area you are viewing from the following public services:

• NOAA / U.S. National Weather Service (NWS) — radar base-reflectivity precipitation, used in NOAA-covered radar regions (contiguous U.S., Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico approximations) and served from mapservices.weather.noaa.gov. Radar precipitation data: NOAA/NWS.
• EUMETNET OPERA — European radar precipitation composites (produced by the CIRRUS production, successor to ODYSSEY), used where OPERA radar coverage is available (Europe). The App reads the latest composite anonymously (no account, no API key, no credentials — the AWS "no-sign-request" equivalent) from the public EUMETNET Open Radar Data (ORD) 24-hour cache served from s3.waw3-1.cloudferro.com. Radar precipitation data: EUMETNET OPERA / CIRRUS composite (CC BY 4.0).
• NASA Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS) — a global satellite precipitation estimate (part of NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System, using GPM IMERG where applicable), used as a fallback outside NOAA and OPERA coverage.

• These requests contain only the geographic area (map bounding box) being displayed — no name, email, account, device identifier, or personal contact information.
• Like any internet request, these providers may receive your device's IP address and standard request metadata as part of normal network operation. Your use of each service is subject to that provider's own policies.
• These services require no API key and no account.

3.4 Real-world ATIS (D-ATIS) requests (internet)

The ATC features can play the current real-world ATIS (Automatic Terminal Information Service) for your departure and arrival airports. When you tune ATIS, the App fetches the airport's FAA Digital ATIS (D-ATIS) text from the free, public, keyless community endpoint at datis.clowd.io (built and maintained by the vATIS project and sourced from the FAA's SWIM system). This request requires no API key and no account.

• The request contains only the airport identifier (for example KLAX) — no name, email, account, device identifier, or personal contact information.
• Like any internet request, the ATIS service may receive your device's IP address and standard request metadata as part of normal network operation. Your use of that service is subject to its own policies.
• Coverage is limited to U.S. airports that publish D-ATIS. Where a field has no D-ATIS, the feature simply does not appear and nothing is fabricated. Results are cached briefly on your device to reduce requests.

3.5 Airport surface data (OpenStreetMap / Overpass) (internet)

The taxi map, taxi routing, and runway-crossing features use airport movement-surface geometry (runways, taxiways, holding positions, gates, and aprons) derived from OpenStreetMap (OSM). The App fetches a small, airport-sized extract for the active airport from a public Overpass API endpoint (overpass-api.de, with overpass.kumi.systems as a failover). These requests require no API key and no account.

• Each request contains only a small geographic bounding box (roughly a few kilometers) around the airport you are flying to or from — no name, email, account, device identifier, or personal contact information.
• Like any internet request, the Overpass operator may receive your device's IP address and standard request metadata as part of normal network operation. Your use of that service is subject to its own policies.
• Extracts are cached locally on your device and refreshed infrequently (about every 75 days), so the App is not on the network during taxi. OSM data is © OpenStreetMap contributors and is licensed under the Open Database License (ODbL) 1.0.

3.6 Maps

The Weather tab can display a route/weather map overlay using Apple's MapKit. Rendering maps may involve communication with Apple's mapping services to retrieve map tiles and related data, subject to Apple's Privacy Policy. The developer does not receive any data through this feature.

3.7 Text-to-speech

Spoken ATC and pilot calls are generated on-device using Apple's AVSpeechSynthesizer. This text-to-speech runs fully offline and sends nothing to the developer or any server.

3.8 Settings and on-device storage

Your preferences and in-progress session data are stored locally on your device (using iOS UserDefaults) and are not transmitted to us. This includes, for example:

• Connection settings (the host/IP address and port you enter for Infinite Flight, auto-discovery, and the weather service URL).
• Preferences such as selected voices, phraseology and unit settings, and keep-screen-awake.
• User-created phraseology profiles (custom call templates and airline call names), which you can optionally export as JSON to share — sharing happens only if and when you choose to export and send a file.
• A session snapshot and ATC conversation transcript used to resume an in-progress flight after a reconnect, stored locally.
• Locally cached responses from the public services above — recent aviation weather, radar/satellite imagery, ATIS reports, and OpenStreetMap airport-surface extracts — kept only to show recent data and reduce repeat requests. These caches are bounded and can be cleared in the App (Settings → Data Sources).

This data remains on your device and is removed when you delete the App, and can be cleared from within the App (for example by resetting app data or clearing a flight).

4. When data leaves your device — summary table

Activity	Where it goes	What is shared	Goes to the developer?
Infinite Flight Connect (Live mode)	Another device on your local Wi-Fi network (not the internet)	Simulated flight/aircraft state, flight plan	No
Aviation weather	NOAA Aviation Weather Center (aviationweather.gov) over the internet	Airport/station identifiers and simulated route parameters; IP/request metadata	No
Precipitation radar / satellite imagery	NOAA / U.S. National Weather Service (mapservices.weather.noaa.gov), EUMETNET OPERA / CIRRUS composite (anonymous public ORD cache at s3.waw3-1.cloudferro.com), or NASA Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS) over the internet	Only the map area (bounding box) being displayed; IP/request metadata	No
Real-world ATIS (D-ATIS)	Public D-ATIS service (datis.clowd.io) over the internet	Airport identifier only; IP/request metadata	No
Airport surface data (taxi map/routing)	Public OpenStreetMap Overpass API (overpass-api.de, overpass.kumi.systems) over the internet	Only a small airport bounding box; IP/request metadata	No
Speech recognition (only if on-device is unavailable)	Apple Speech services	Microphone audio for transcription, handled by Apple	No
Maps	Apple MapKit services	Standard map-tile/region requests, handled by Apple	No
Exporting a phraseology profile	Wherever you choose to send the exported JSON file	Only the profile content you export	No

5. Third-party services and integrations

The App relies on the following external or platform services. We do not share your personal information with them, and we receive no data back from them.

• Infinite Flight Connect API v2 (Infinite Flight Corporation) — local-network connection to the flight simulator. See Infinite Flight's privacy policy.
• NOAA Aviation Weather Center (U.S. National Weather Service / aviationweather.gov) — public aviation weather data.
• NOAA / U.S. National Weather Service radar (mapservices.weather.noaa.gov) — public radar precipitation imagery for NOAA-covered regions.
• EUMETNET OPERA — European radar precipitation composites, produced by the CIRRUS production and read anonymously from the public EUMETNET Open Radar Data (ORD) cache (s3.waw3-1.cloudferro.com). Radar precipitation data: EUMETNET OPERA / CIRRUS composite (CC BY 4.0).
• NASA Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS) — global satellite precipitation estimate imagery (part of NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System, using GPM IMERG where applicable).
• D-ATIS service (datis.clowd.io, the vATIS project) — free, public, keyless real-world FAA Digital ATIS (D-ATIS) text for U.S. airports, sourced from the FAA SWIM system.
• OpenStreetMap / Overpass API (overpass-api.de, overpass.kumi.systems) — free, public, keyless airport-surface geometry used for the taxi map, taxi routing, and runway crossings. OpenStreetMap data is © OpenStreetMap contributors, licensed under the Open Database License (ODbL) 1.0. See OpenStreetMap's copyright and license page.
• Apple frameworks — Speech (speech recognition), MapKit (maps), and AVSpeechSynthesizer (text-to-speech), provided by Apple Inc. See Apple's Privacy Policy.

The App contains no third-party advertising, analytics, attribution, crash-reporting, or social-media SDKs, and no third-party software development kits that collect data.

6. How we use information

Because the App does not transmit your data to us, we do not use your personal information for any purpose. On-device, the data described above is used solely to:

• generate simulated, procedural ATC and pilot phraseology for your flight;
• display your flight state, flight plan, and route weather;
• render the airport taxi map, taxi routing, and runway-crossing guidance from OpenStreetMap data, and play real-world ATIS for your departure and arrival airports;
• recognize your spoken push-to-talk input to drive the conversation; and
• remember your preferences and resume an in-progress session.

We do not sell, rent, or share personal information, and we do not use your data for advertising or for tracking you across apps or websites.

7. Data retention and deletion

All preferences, profiles, session snapshots, and transcripts are stored only on your device. You can:

• clear in-app data using the App's reset / clear-flight controls;
• revoke microphone, speech-recognition, or local-network permissions in iOS Settings; and
• delete all locally stored data by deleting the App from your device.

We retain no copy of your data because we never receive it.

8. Children's privacy

The App is a flight-simulation companion intended for a general audience and is not directed to children under 13. The App does not knowingly collect personal information from children, and it contains no accounts, advertising, social features, or in-app purchases. If you believe a child has provided personal information through any feature, please contact us so we can address it.

9. Your privacy rights

Depending on where you live, you may have rights under privacy laws such as the EU/UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) or the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA/CPRA), including rights to access, correct, delete, or port personal data, and to opt out of the "sale" or "sharing" of personal data. Because IFATC Companion does not collect or transmit personal information to us and does not sell or share personal information, there is no developer-held personal data to access, correct, delete, or opt out of. You can exercise full control over the App's on-device data using the deletion steps in Section 7. If you have questions about your rights, contact us using the details below.

10. Security

The App minimizes privacy risk by design: it keeps data on your device, uses local-network connections for Infinite Flight, and relies on Apple's platform protections for on-device storage. Connections to Infinite Flight occur on your own local network; you control that network's security. No method of electronic storage or transmission is 100% secure, but because we do not collect or store your data on any server, there is no central repository of your information to be exposed.

11. International users

The App can be used worldwide. The public services it contacts are operated by their respective providers — for example NOAA and NASA (U.S. government services), the vATIS project's D-ATIS service, OpenStreetMap Overpass operators, and Apple. Using these services may involve processing in the United States or other countries under those providers' own policies. The developer does not transfer your personal data internationally because the developer does not receive it.

12. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time, for example to reflect new features or legal requirements. When we do, we will revise the "Last updated" date above and post the updated policy at this URL. Material changes will be reflected here; your continued use of the App after an update constitutes acceptance of the revised policy.

13. Contact us

If you have questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or your privacy, contact:

• Developer: H3 Consulting Partners LLC
• App: IFATC Companion
• Email: bill@h3consultingpartners.com