SpaceWise privacy policy

Last updated: 4 November 2026

This policy explains what happens to information in SpaceWise: The Real Solar System ("the app") on a Meta Quest headset. The app is made by David Lee ("we", "us"). We wrote it for parents, carers and teachers. There is a short version for young people at the end.

The short answer

The app does not collect, store or send any personal information about you or your child. At start-up it gets two items from the Meta account on the headset, the user ID and the age group. It uses them on the headset only, keeps neither and sends neither (see "Information from your Meta account"). The app keeps each player's progress and settings on the headset only (see "What the app keeps on the headset"). "How to ask us to delete your data" says how to ask us to delete data. It has no accounts of its own, no chat, no advertising, no analytics and no in-app purchases. Our own code never connects to the internet unless a grown-up turns on "Live space data" (it is off until a grown-up turns it on). Even then it only downloads public science data and sends nothing about you.

Information from your Meta account

When the app starts, the Meta Platform SDK (Meta's software library inside the app) gives the app access to two items from the Meta account that is signed in on the headset. Meta calls them "User ID" and "User Age Group". The app asks Meta for these two items and no others. It does not get the account's name, photo, email address, friends or date of birth.

User ID

• What it is: Meta's number for the signed-in Meta account. It is not a name and does not tell us who you are.
• Why the app uses it: to get the age group of the account that is signed in. Meta gives the age group only together with the user ID: the Meta Platform SDK uses the user ID to ask Meta for the age group of that account. "User Age Group" below says what the app does with the age group. The app uses the user ID for nothing else. The check that the account owns the app (the entitlement check) does not need it, because Meta's software makes that check on its own.
• Where it is processed: on the headset, inside the Meta Platform SDK, which uses it to ask for the age group. Our own code never reads, shows, copies or keeps the number.
• How long it is kept: the app does not store it. It is gone when the app closes.
• Who receives it: we never send it, share it or receive it. It is never used for advertising, analytics or profiling. To answer the age group request, the Meta system software on the headset may contact Meta, under Meta's own privacy policy.
• How to delete it: the app keeps no copy, so nothing of it is left on the headset after the app closes. You can still ask us to delete your data: see "How to ask us to delete your data".

User Age Group

• What it is: Meta's age group for the signed-in account: child (10 to 12), teen (13 to 17), adult, or unknown. It is not a date of birth or an age.
• Why the app uses it: to give each account an experience that suits its age group, as Meta's rules for apps that serve both children and adults ("Mixed Ages" apps) ask. Meta requires such an app to read the age group with Meta's Get Age Category service. On an account for ages 10 to 12, or when Meta gives no age group, the app keeps "Live space data" off and nobody can turn it on. The app's own code then makes no internet requests at all. The app uses the age group for nothing else.
• Where it is processed: on the headset only.
• How long it is kept: the app does not store it. It is gone when the app closes.
• Who receives it: we never send it, share it or receive it.
• How to delete it: the app keeps no copy, so nothing of it is left on the headset after the app closes. You can still ask us to delete your data: see "How to ask us to delete your data".

We never use either item for advertising, analytics or profiling, and we never combine them with other information.

What the app keeps on the headset

The app saves one save file on the headset, so that each player can carry on where they stopped. One file holds every explorer. Each save also keeps a backup copy of the save before it, in case the newest one is damaged. Up to six players can share the headset as "explorers". An explorer is only a picture of a planet or moon and a colour: the app never asks for a name. For each explorer the file holds:

• the picture and the colour, the time the explorer was made and the time it last played
• the chosen reading depth and settings (for example comfort, subtitles, narration and handedness, and the town chosen for eclipses)
• the logbook, with the time of each line: places visited, rocks collected, photos taken, Journeys watched and pages explored
• quiz and check answers (the question, the first answer chosen and the number of tries), badges with the time each one was earned, mission progress, the places visited with the time of the first visit, and the Science Lab results (experiment runs and the best jumps)

The file also holds the grown-ups' break reminder and the Journeys that a grown-up hid. These are kept once for the whole headset, so a new explorer or "Reset progress" does not change them.

The file does not hold a name, a photo of a person, a voice recording, the headset's location or any other personal information. It stays in the app's private storage on the headset. We never receive it. If several people use the same headset with their own Meta accounts, each account has its own file.

Your place for eclipses. On the Time page you can choose a town or city from a list. The app then shows when the next eclipse is seen from there. The app keeps only the name of that place (an entry of the app's own list). It keeps it in your explorer's settings on the headset. The app never uses GPS or your location. It never sends the place anywhere. "Reset progress" in the Grown-ups settings deletes it. Removing the explorer or uninstalling the app deletes it too.

The in-app photo mode takes pictures of the virtual scene only, never the real room or the people in it. Each photo is saved on the headset as a picture and a small thumbnail, and the explorer's logbook names it. The album keeps the newest 60 photos. Nobody else receives them.

The app also keeps a few small files for the whole headset:

• the grown-ups' time limit, the time played against it, the date and the last time the app was in use (so that a real break starts a new sitting)
• the picture quality
• the Live space data switch, the time of the last try to download space weather data and, while Live space data is on, the newest public asteroid list (see below)
• the school mode and kiosk mode settings (see below)

None of these hold personal information.

School mode and kiosk mode keep their settings on the headset only, in two small files. The files hold whether the mode is on and the teacher or staff PIN as a salted hash, never the PIN itself. They also hold the last lesson a teacher started and the kiosk choices: the experience, the visit length, the idle time, the reading depth and the ids of the explorer pictures it uses. In kiosk mode, each visitor plays on a temporary explorer picture. At the end of the visit, the app deletes it with any photos. Nothing about a pupil or a visitor is sent anywhere.

To delete one explorer's photos, use Grown-ups > Photos (for the explorer who is playing). It deletes that explorer's photos and their logbook lines, and keeps the rest of that explorer's progress. To delete one explorer's data, use Grown-ups > Reset progress in the app (for the explorer who is playing) or Grown-ups > Explorers (to remove an explorer). Either one deletes that explorer's badges, logbook, quiz answers, mission progress, settings and photos from the headset at once. The app then writes the save file and its backup again, so no copy of the old progress stays. Other explorers keep theirs, and the grown-ups' settings stay. To delete everything, for every explorer, uninstall the app: that deletes the save file, all the photos and every other file the app keeps. There is no copy anywhere else.

Live space data (off unless a grown-up turns it on)

The app ships with real space weather data and asteroid data packed inside it, dated in the app, so it works fully without an internet connection. In Grown-ups > Live space data, a grown-up can let the app download newer public data while the Space weather page or the list of asteroids passing Earth is open. This setting is off when the app is installed, and no part of the app asks a child to turn it on. On a Meta account for ages 10 to 12, or when Meta gives no age group, the setting stays off and cannot be turned on (see "Information from your Meta account").

When it is on, the app asks for the latest public data files from:

• the space weather service of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA (services.swpc.noaa.gov), at most once every 30 minutes while the Space weather page is open (eight public files, about 7.5 MB in all), and
• the near-Earth object studies of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, JPL (ssd-api.jpl.nasa.gov), for the asteroids passing Earth in the next 60 days, at most once a day while that list is open. If a try fails (for example when the headset is offline), the app tries again 30 minutes later at the earliest.

The app keeps the time of its last try on the headset, so closing and opening the app does not make it ask sooner.

The requests carry no name, account, device identifier, location or usage data. The only thing the app adds is a fixed app name ("SpaceWise", the same on every headset) in place of the version details a request would otherwise carry. Like any internet request, the request reaches the server from the headset's internet address. These are US Government services, and their own privacy policies cover their server logs: NOAA privacy policy and NASA privacy policy. We never receive any of this information.

The newest asteroid list is kept on the headset, in the app's private storage, until the next download replaces it; it holds public NASA data only. If the headset is offline or a server does not answer, the app keeps using the data packed inside it. Turning the setting off stops all downloads.

What Meta does

The app runs on Meta's headset and store, so some things are handled by Meta, not by us:

• Purchase check and age group. The Meta Platform SDK checks that the account owns the app and reads the account's age group. "Information from your Meta account" above explains both.
• Hand tracking is off unless you turn it on. The headset works out where the hands are, and the app uses those positions to draw virtual hands. The app does not record or store them.
• Passthrough is used only in the optional "Space in your room" mode, where a model of the planets stands in your own room. The headset's system software shows your room behind the model. The app never receives the camera pictures, does not learn anything about your room and stores nothing about it. It asks for no camera permission. You place the model by pointing with a controller or your hand.
• The headset, the Meta account, purchases, crash reports and the store are Meta's responsibility. They are covered by the Meta Privacy Policy and the Supplemental Meta Platforms Technologies Privacy Policy, not by this policy.

Permissions the app asks for

Children

The app is made for young people aged 10 and over, their families and their teachers. Meta Quest is for ages 10 and up, and children aged 10 to 12 use a parent-managed Meta account. We do not collect personal information from anyone, including children. The app has no advertising and no way to contact other people.

We follow the UK Age Appropriate Design Code (the Children's Code) and the US Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), mainly by not collecting data at all. Privacy settings are high by default, because there is nothing to share.

How to ask us to delete your data

You can delete everything that the app keeps on the headset yourself: see "What the app keeps on the headset". Uninstalling the app also deletes it.

To ask us to delete your data, email us at lee_hantae@msn.com with the subject "Delete my data" and the name of the app. Anyone can ask, in any country, and it is free. We reply within 30 days. The app sends nothing to us, so we hold no data about you on any server. Our reply confirms this and tells you how to delete what the app keeps on the headset. A parent or carer can ask for a child.

Meta holds the data of your Meta account. To ask Meta to delete it, use your Meta account settings or Meta's privacy policy.

Your rights

Under UK and EU data protection law you have rights to access, correct and delete personal data. We hold no personal data about you, so there is nothing for us to send, correct or delete. The only saved data is on the headset, and you control it (see "What the app keeps on the headset").

If you have a question or a request, email us at lee_hantae@msn.com. We reply within 30 days. You also have the right to complain to the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk) or your local data protection authority.

Changes to this policy

If we change this policy, we change the date at the top and publish the new version at https://dhl84.github.io/spacewise/privacy.html. The version of 4 November 2026 says that the app uses the user ID only to get the age group, and adds "How to ask us to delete your data", the town chosen for eclipses, and the school mode and kiosk mode files. The version of 14 October 2026 added "Information from your Meta account", which names the user ID and the age group. Version of 4 October 2026 (draft for publication): lists everything the save file keeps (with its times) and the Grown-ups > Photos control. The version of 2 October 2026 added the optional, off-by-default Live space data download. We will not add any data collection without first updating this policy, the app's store listing and the Meta Data Use Checkup.

For young people

• The app does not ask for your name. It does not know who you are or where you live.
• Your badges, logbook, quiz answers and photos stay on the headset.
• Nobody can talk to you in the app, and there are no adverts.
• The app can show the newest space weather and asteroid data only if a grown-up switches it on. It never sends anything about you.
• If you choose a town for eclipses, the app keeps its name on the headset. It never uses GPS and never sends the town anywhere.
• If you have a question, or if you want us to delete your data, ask a grown-up to email us.