Privacy policy
Last updated: 12 October 2026
Cupola is an app for iPhone and Android that controls astronomy equipment through INDI servers. This policy explains what the app and this website, cupola.torresj.es, do with information about you. In short: Cupola has no accounts, no analytics, no advertising and no tracking, and nothing it keeps on your phone is sent to me.
Who is responsible
Cupola and this website are made and run by Jaime Torres, who is the data controller under the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). You can write to me at jtbenavente@gmail.com.
The app
What stays on your phone
Cupola keeps the following in its own storage on your device, and nowhere else:
| Data | What it's for |
|---|---|
| Saved servers and profiles | The names, addresses and ports you add, so you can connect again |
| Settings | Language, theme, night mode, notices and similar choices |
| Observing site | The latitude, longitude and elevation read from your mount or GPS, or typed in Settings, to work out where objects are in your sky |
| Images | The frames your cameras send, in the app's Documents folder. On iPhone you can see them in the Files app |
| Device snapshots | The last known state of each server's devices, kept for up to 12 hours to tell you what changed while you were away |
The message log is kept in memory only, and is cleared when the app closes.
None of this is sent to me or to anyone else. Deleting the app deletes all of it, and you can delete every saved image from Settings at any time.
Connections the app makes
- Your INDI servers. Cupola connects to the servers you add and sends them the commands you give. That traffic goes straight between your phone and your server.
- Finding servers. When you look for servers, Cupola reads your phone's Wi-Fi address, tries port 7624 on the other addresses of the same local network, and looks up the network names of the computers that answer. This is why iOS asks for local network access. None of it leaves your local network.
- Object previews. When you open the page of a star or a deep-sky object, Cupola downloads a preview picture from the hips2fits service of the Centre de Données astronomiques de Strasbourg (CDS, Université de Strasbourg and CNRS), at alasky.cds.unistra.fr. The request contains the object's sky coordinates and, like any internet request, your IP address. CDS handles it under its own terms. If you are offline, the page simply shows no picture.
- Links. Links in the app, such as the one to the dindi website, open in your browser.
Cupola contains no analytics, crash reporting or advertising code, and it doesn't use your phone's location services.
Permissions
- Local network (iPhone): to find and connect to INDI servers on your network.
- Add to Photos (iPhone), and storage on Android 9 or older: only used when you choose Save to Photos for an image. Cupola can't read your photo library.
- Internet, network state and Wi-Fi state (Android): to connect to servers and to find them on your Wi-Fi.
When you export a file, you choose where it goes with your phone's own file picker.
The website
- This website sets no cookies and has no analytics, advertising or third-party scripts. Its fonts are served from the site itself.
- If you pick a language, your browser remembers the choice in its local storage, on your device. It is never sent to the server.
- Like any web server, the one hosting this site receives your IP address, the page you ask for, the date and time, and your browser's identification, and keeps them in technical logs in order to deliver the site and keep it secure. They are not used to identify you or to build profiles, and are kept only as long as needed for that purpose. The legal basis is my legitimate interest in running a working, secure website (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR).
If you write to me
If you email me, I use your address and your message only to answer you, and delete them when they are no longer needed for that. The legal basis is my legitimate interest in replying to you.
App stores
Downloads, updates, ratings and reviews go through Apple's App Store or Google Play. Apple and Google process that data under their own privacy policies. I only see the aggregated, anonymous statistics they give every developer.
Children
Cupola isn't aimed at children, and it collects no personal data from anyone.
Your rights
Under the GDPR you can ask for access to your data, and for its rectification or erasure. You can also ask to restrict its processing, object to it, or have it ported. Write to jtbenavente@gmail.com. Because the app sends me no data, in most cases there will be nothing to hand over. You can also complain to the Spanish Data Protection Agency (Agencia Española de Protección de Datos) at aepd.es.
Changes
If this policy changes, the new version will be published on this page with a new date at the top.