Thank you for visiting FlightAware. FlightAware is committed to honoring the privacy of our members and visitors.

What this policy covers

This Privacy Policy is applicable to FlightAware, LLC and its respective subsidiaries and affiliates (collectively “FlightAware,” “we,” “us,” or “our”). We operate flightaware.com and discussions.flightaware.com (the “Websites”). This Privacy Policy covers the information we collect about you when you use our products or services. This policy also explains your choices about how we use information about you. Your choices include how you can object to certain uses of information about you and how you can access and update certain information about you. If you do not agree with this policy, then do not access or use our services or interact with any other aspect of our business.

This Privacy Policy is subject to any agreements, including the Terms and Conditions that govern your use of the Services. This Privacy Policy applies regardless of the means used to access or provide information through the Services.

Definitions

“Account Information” means Personal Information that we may collect during registration for a Service that we provide or the purchase of a product, including names, e-mail addresses, e-mail preferences, account passwords, mailing addresses, and billing addresses. In cases where service subscriptions relate to aeronautical usage, we will also request information about the aircraft, including the registration number, country of registry, manufacturer, model and serial/fuselage/airframe number of the aircraft.

“Anonymous Information” means information that we do not link to Personal Information and does not enable contact with any identifiable person.

“Data Protection Laws” means laws relating to data protection, privacy, and/or information security, including all such laws governing use of Personal Information.

“Personal Information” is any information relating to an identified or identifiable individual, such as your name, address, email address, telephone number, job title, job industry, company/organization name, and any other information you voluntarily provide or any other non-public information that we associate with your contact information and that can identify you as an individual.

User Acknowledgements

By using our Services, you acknowledge that you have read and understand this Privacy Policy. FlightAware provides the Services principally from the United States, but may also provide the Services in other jurisdictions, as necessary. Be advised that, through your use of our Services, which are governed by United States law and applicable Data Protection Laws of other jurisdictions, this Privacy Policy, and our Terms and Conditions, you are transferring your Personal Information to the United States (or other jurisdictions as necessary for us to provide the Services), and you consent to that transfer.

Additionally, you acknowledge by your use of our Services that you understand your Personal Information may be processed in countries (including the United States) where Data Protection Laws may be different or less stringent than in your home jurisdiction.

Finally, you acknowledge that your Personal Information may become accessible as permitted by law in the United States, including to law enforcement and/or national security authorities.

Our Commitment to Maintaining Your Privacy

We employ reasonable physical, technical, and organizational measures designed to safeguard the confidentiality, integrity, availability, and resilience of your Personal Information, whether stored electronically or in paper format. Information is maintained in secure facilities, protected from unauthorized access, and retained only as long as is reasonably required. Electronic files are backed up for redundancy and password-protected to ensure access only by authorized employees. We encrypt Personal Information where we deem appropriate, and we periodically test, assess, and evaluate the effectiveness of our safeguards.

Personal Information You Provide to Us

We collect information about you when you input it into the services we provide or otherwise provide it directly to us.

• Account and Profile Information: We collect information about you when you register for an account, create or modify your profile, set preferences, sign-up for or make purchases.
• Content you provide through our products: You may provide content through our products, such as "Squawk" posts, comments on "Squawks," discussion forum posts, photos, or comments on photos. The content includes any information about you that you may choose to include. Content also includes the files and links you upload.
• Information you provide through our support channels: You may choose to submit information regarding a problem you are experiencing or questions about our services.
• Payment Information We collect certain payment and billing information when you register for certain paid services.

This information lets us provide personalized services and communicate separately with you. We also use aggregated information about the use of our services to evaluate our users' preferences and improve our products. In addition, depending on the Services used, we may collect flying preference information, including the type of aircraft on which FlightAware products or Services are provided, and passenger-specific details, including departure and arrival locations.

When you contact us to inquire about certain products or Services, you must provide your certain Personal Information, including your name, email address, phone number, and other information necessary for us to respond to your inquiry. Likewise, when you leave us feedback, we collect any information that is contained in your feedback. When you contact us by sending us an e-mail, fax, or letter, we will collect your address, fax number, or e-mail address and any Personal Information contained in the e-mail, fax, or letter you send us.

Personal Information Collected via Technology

We collect information about you when you use our services, including browsing our websites and taking certain actions within the Services.

• Your use of our products: We keep track of certain information about you when you visit and interact with any of our products. This information includes what features you use.
• Device and Connection Information: We collect information about the device(s) that you use to access our products. We also collect information through your device about your operating system, browser type, IP address, URLs of referring/exit pages, device identifiers, and crash data. We use your IP address and/or country preference in order to approximate your location to provide you with a better experience. How much of this information we collect depends on the type and settings of the device you use to access the products.
• Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies: FlightAware and our third-party partners, such as our advertising and analytics partners, use cookies and other tracking technologies (e.g., web beacons, device identifiers and pixels) to provide functionality and to recognize you across different products and devices.

Like most web sites, we use small bits of data called cookies stored on users' computers to simulate a continuous connection. Cookies let us remember information about your preferences and passwords and allow you to move within our service without reintroducing yourself. Web browsers let you easily see and control cookies. FlightAware and its advertisers may also use cookies to determine on which advertisements users have seen and how users responded to them. Similarly, FlightAware and its advertisers may use small pieces of code called "web beacons" or "clear gifs" to collect anonymous advertising metrics and to deliver cookies related to such advertisements.

Cookies, web beacons and similar tools allow us, our service providers, and other third parties to identify your device, track your interactions with other websites, and track activity over time and across websites by storing information locally on your device. We use both session Cookies (which expire once you close your web browser) and persistent Cookies (which stay on your computer or device until you delete them). If you register for a Service provided by us, we may include web beacons with the content and ads that we deliver to you as a part of that service, which we use to collect information regarding your interaction with such content and ads.

The information that these tools collect include your internet protocol address, unique device identification information, regional and language settings, browser type, and operating system, the network used to access our Website, and information about your use of our Website (such as how you navigate and move around the Website). Depending on applicable Data Protection Laws, this information may be considered Personal Information.

Information we receive from other sources

We may receive Personal Information about you from other third-party sources, including from other service users, our service providers, analytics providers (including Google Analytics), and our business partners. We may also receive data from third party services and from our business and channel partners. Other users of our products may provide information about you when they submit content through the products. For example, you may be mentioned by someone else on a "Squawk" comment or discussion forum post. Such information may include demographic information, itinerary details, dietary preferences, browsing preferences, language preferences, and other personal preferences. We may associate this information with the other Personal Information we have collected about you.

Legal Bases for Processing Personal Information

To the extent applicable under Data Protection Laws, we process Personal Information for, or based on, one or more of the following legal bases:

• Performance of a Contract. We may use Personal Information to enter into, or perform under, an agreement between us, including: to complete a purchase; process payment; ship or provide goods or Services; and provide customer support.
• Legitimate Interests. We may use Personal Information for our legitimate interests to the extent it does not infringe on any data subject’s fundamental rights and freedoms, including: improve our Services; providing information about our products and/or Services; to the extent necessary and proportionate for the purposes of ensuring network and information security; and for administrative, fraud detection, and legal compliance purposes.
• Compliance with Legal Obligations and Protection of Individuals. We may use Personal Information to comply with the law and our legal obligations, as well as to protect you and other individuals from certain harms.
• Your Consent. From time to time, and as required by applicable Data Protection Laws, we may seek your consent to collect and process your Personal Information, as well as communicate with you to provide information that may be useful or interesting.

How We Use Information That We Collect From You

How we use the information we collect depends in part on which products you use, how you use them, and any preferences you have communicated to us. Below are the specific purposes for which we use the information we collect about you.

• For relevant advertisements: We may use your information to display ads that are relevant to you.
• To provide the products and personalize your experience: We use information about you to provide the products to you, including to process transactions with you, authenticate you when you log in, provide customer support, and operate and maintain the products.
• For research and development: We are always looking for ways to make our products better and more useful to you. We use data collected about how users interact with our products and feedback provided directly to us to troubleshoot and to identify trends, usage, activity patterns and areas for integration and improvement, and to measure and improve the effectiveness of our products, Services, and marketing efforts.
• To communicate with you: We use your contact information to send transactional communications via e-mail and within our products, including confirming your purchases, reminding you of subscription expirations, responding to your comments, questions and requests, providing customer support, and sending you technical notices, updates, security alerts, and administrative messages. We may also use your information to in keeping records of our relationship designed to facilitate timely and accurate invoicing and to administer our billing and accounting systems; and to answer billing, account, or technical inquiries from you. Depending on your settings, we may send you e-mail notifications of certain events, e.g., flight tracking event notifications. You may opt-out of communications via the account preference setting in your profile or via "unsubscribe" links in specific e-mails.
• For safety and security: We use information about you and your use of our products to verify accounts and activity, to monitor suspicious or fraudulent activity and to identify violations of FlightAware policies.
• To protect our legitimate business interests and legal rights: Where required by law or where we believe it is necessary to protect our legal rights, interests and the interests of others, we use information about you in connection with legal claims, compliance, regulatory, and audit functions, and disclosures in connection with the acquisition, merger or sale of a business; as well as where necessary or appropriate to endeavor to protect our business partners’ rights, property, or safety, and the rights, property, and safety of our customers, users, and other third parties.
• For maintenance and improvement of goods and services: We use information about you to establish and maintain supplier relationships to support the acquisition of licenses, products and services required for the delivery and provision of FlightAware’s products and Services.
• To inform: We use information about you to communicate with you about additional FlightAware products and Services that may be of interest to you or to send other special interest customer communications; to provide you with accurate and high-quality customer service, including responding to customer inquiries and troubleshooting technical issues;
• With your consent: We use information about you where you have given us consent to do so for a specific purpose not listed above.

We may also use your Personal Information to create Anonymous Information by removing information that makes the information personally identifiable to you (such as your name or email address). We may use these records, and other Anonymous Information, to analyze usage patterns in order to enhance our Services and tailor them to your preferences.

How We Disclose Your Personal Information to Third Parties

• Sharing with other users

  When you use our products, we share certain information about you with other product users.

  • For collaboration: You can create content, e.g., "Squawk" posts, photos, or discussion forum posts, which may contain information about you, and you grant permission to others to see, share, edit, copy and download that content.

• Sharing with third parties

  We share Personal Information with third parties that help us operate, provide, improve, integrate, customize, support and market our products, or for other business purposes provided that disclosure is made on a confidential basis. Such third parties and purposes include:

  • Links to Third-Party Sites: Our products may include links that direct you to other web sites or services whose privacy practices may differ from ours. Your use of and any information you submit to any of those third-party sites is governed by their privacy policies, not this one.
  • Third-Party Widgets: Some of our products contain widgets and social media features, such as the Twitter "tweet" button. These widgets and features may collect your IP address, which page you are visiting, and/or set a cookie to enable the feature to function properly. Your interactions with these features are governed by the privacy policy of the company providing the underlying service.
  • With your consent: We share information about you with third parties when you give us specific consent to do so.
  • Compliance with Enforcement Requests and Applicable Laws; Enforcement of Our Rights: In exceptional circumstances, we may share information about you with a third party if we believe that sharing is reasonably necessary to (a) comply with any applicable law, regulation, legal process or governmental request, including to meet national security requirements, (b) enforce our agreements, policies and terms of service, (c) protect the security or integrity of our products and services, (d) protect FlightAware, our customers or the public from harm or illegal activities, or (e) respond to an emergency which we believe in good faith requires us to disclose information to assist in preventing the death or serious bodily injury of any person.
  • Third Party Content and Ads: If you register for a Service that we provide, we may enable certain third parties to deliver content and ads on our Website. These third parties may collect (via tracking technologies like cookies or web beacons as described in the section, Personal Information Collected via Technology) and use information regarding your interaction with the content or ads that they deliver and with which you interact.
  • Delivery of Goods and Services: We may share information about you with agents acting on behalf of FlightAware, such as our authorized FlightAware dealers or distributors, or companies hired to perform installation, maintenance, warranty work, or billing functions; any person who, in the reasonable judgment of FlightAware, is acting as an agent of a customer; other aviation service providers in order to provide efficient and effective aviation services (e.g., to arrange for efficient aircraft servicing and for passenger or crew related services at a fixed-base operator, including fueling, catering, ground transportation hotel services, and the like); companies providing services to aircraft, including the manufacturer, installation and repair centers (e.g., MRO facilities), and trip planners; shipping or other delivery companies in order to deliver our products or Services;
  • Service Improvement: We may share information about you with information technology or other professional consultants and service providers in order to improve our Services, systems, and processes;
  • Other companies and professional advisors in conjunction with an amalgamation or sale of corporate assets or interests; and

  
  We will use reasonable efforts, using contractual or—where applicable—other arrangements, to ensure that third parties use Personal Information in a manner that is consistent with this policy. Should a customer not wish us to disclose Personal Information to third parties, we may be unable to process an application or transaction, communicate with you about products or Services that may be of interest, or provide other benefits or Services. As well, there are special circumstances where we may disclose your Personal Information without prior consent or notice. These situations include: (1) where information is forwarded to a collection agency for the collection of past due bills; (2) where it would be reasonably in the best interest of an individual but where consent cannot be obtained in a timely manner; (3) where the life, health, or security of an individual is threatened or otherwise at risk; (4) where the purpose is related to the detection or prevention of fraud or for law enforcement; (5) where disclosure is to our legal counsel or other advisors; or (6) as may otherwise be required or permitted by law.

• Sharing with affiliated companies

  We share information we collect with affiliated companies and, in some cases, with prospective affiliates. Affiliated companies are companies owned or operated by FlightAware, including FlightAware Asia Pacific Pte Ltd. The protections of this privacy policy apply to the information we share in these circumstances.

  • FlightAware Companies: We share information we have about you with FlightAware corporate affiliates in order to operate and improve products and services and to offer other FlightAware affiliated services to you.
  • Business transfers: We may share or transfer information we collect under this privacy policy in connection with any merger, sale of company assets, financing, or acquisition of all or a portion of the FlightAware businesses to another company. You will be notified via e-mail and/or a prominent notice on our products if a transaction takes place, as well as any choices you may have regarding your information.

Your Choices Regarding Your Personal Information

You have a variety of legal rights regarding the collection and processing of your Personal Information. You may exercise these rights, to the extent they apply to you under applicable Data Protection Laws, by contacting us as provided in the section, Contact Us.

You may request deletion of your Account Information or Personal Information by us, but please note that we may be required (by law or otherwise) to keep this information and not delete it (or to keep this information for a certain time, in which case we will comply with your deletion request only after we have fulfilled such requirements). When we delete Personal Information, we will delete it from our active databases but the information may remain in our archives or disaster recovery systems.

Note, however, that we may request certain reasonable, additional information (that may include Personal Information) to help us authenticate your request and/or to clarify or understand the scope of such requests. These rights vary depending on applicable Data Protection Law, but may include:

• The right to know whether, and for what purposes, we process Personal Information about you;
• The right to be informed about the Personal Information we collect and/or process about you;
• The right to learn the source of Personal Information about you that we process, and whether we obtain that Personal Information from a source other than you.
• The right to access, modify, and correct Personal Information about you (as set forth in more detail below under the section, Accessing, Modifying, Rectifying, and Correcting Collected Personal Information).
• The right to know with whom we have shared Personal Information about you, for what purpose, and what Personal Information has been shared (including whether Personal Information was disclosed to third parties for their own direct marketing purposes);
• Where processing of Personal Information about you is based on consent, the right to withdraw your consent to such processing; and
• The right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority located in the jurisdiction of your habitual residence, place of work, or where an alleged violation of law occurred.

For additional information about specific legal rights, please reference the following sections: Your California Privacy Rights, Your European Union Privacy Rights, and Your Canadian Privacy Rights.

Accessing, Modifying, Rectifying, and Correcting Collected Personal Information

We strive to maintain the accuracy of any Personal Information collected from you, and will use commercially reasonable efforts to respond promptly to update our records when you tell us your information is not accurate. However, we must rely on you to ensure that the information you provide to us is complete, accurate, and up-to-date, and to inform us of any changes. Please review all of your information carefully before submitting it to us, and notify us as soon as possible of any updates or corrections as outlined in the section, Contact Us. In accordance with applicable Data Protection Laws, you may obtain from us certain Personal Information in our records. If you wish to access, review, or make any changes to Personal Information we hold about you, you may contact us as provided below in the section, Contact Us, or—for certain information—through your account on the Services. Please note, however, that we reserve the right to deny access as permitted or required by applicable Data Protection Laws.

Your California Privacy Rights

California Civil Code Section 1798.83, known as the “Shine the Light” law, permits our users who are California residents to request and obtain from us a list of what Personal Information (if any) we have disclosed to third parties for their own direct marketing purposes in the preceding calendar year and the names and addresses of those third parties. Requests may be made only once per year per person, must be sent to the email address in the section, Contact Us, and are free of charge.

Notwithstanding this right, we do not disclose Personal Information to third parties for their own direct marketing purposes.

Your European Union Privacy Rights

In addition to the above-listed rights, European Union privacy law provides individuals with enhanced rights with respect to their Personal Information. Depending on the circumstances surrounding the processing of Personal Information, these rights may include:

• The right to object to decisions based on profiling or automated decision-making that produce legal or similarly significant effects on you;
• The right to request restriction of processing of Personal Information or object to processing of Personal Information carried out pursuant to (i) a legitimate interest or (ii) performance of a task in the public interest (including, but not limited to, processing for direct marketing purposes);
• In certain circumstances, the right to data portability (which means that you can request that we provide certain Personal Information we hold about you in a machine-readable format); and
• In certain circumstances, the right to erasure and/or the right to be forgotten (which means that you can request deletion or removal of certain Personal Information we process about you).

Please note that we may need to request additional information from you to validate your request.

If you have any comments or questions, or if there are other things we can do to maximize the value of this website to you, please email [email protected]. If you wish to access, correct or update your personal information, or if you have questions about our privacy practices in general or a complaint, please email [email protected].

In the event that you are located in a country that will be governed by the General Data Protection Regulation and would like to contact the local Data Protection Officer, please note that in your email, and your inquiry will be directed to the appropriate person.

Your Canadian Privacy Rights

Residents of Canada can request and obtain from us information relating to the existence, use, and disclosure of their Personal Information, as well as access to that information (subject to certain exceptions pursuant to applicable Data Protection Laws). Without limiting the above, residents of Canada will, upon request:

• Be informed of whether we hold Personal Information about you;
• Be provided with an account of third parties to which we have disclosed your Personal Information;
• Be able to challenge the accuracy and completeness of your Personal Information and have it amended as appropriate; and
• Be provided with information about our policies and practices with respect to the management of Personal Information, including: the name, title, and address of the person who is accountable for our privacy policies and practices; the means of gaining access to Personal Information; a description of the type of Personal Information held by us, including a general account of its use; a copy of any brochures or other information that explain our policies, standards, or codes; and what Personal Information is made available to related organizations.

Our policy towards children

Our products are not directed to individuals under 16. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 16. If we become aware that a child under 16 has provided us with personal information, we will take steps to delete such information. If you become aware that a child has provided us with personal information, please contact our customer support team.

What about the privacy issues with tracking private aircraft?

Please see the privacy section of our FAQ.

Other Websites

Our provision of links to other websites or locations is for your convenience and does not signify our endorsement of such other websites or locations or their contents. We have no control over, do not review, and cannot be responsible for these outside websites or their content. Please be aware that the terms of our Privacy Policy do not apply to these outside websites.

Information storage and security

We use data hosting service providers in the United States to host the information we collect, and we use technical measures to secure your data. While we implement safeguards designed to protect your information, no security system is impenetrable and due to the inherent nature of the Internet, we cannot guarantee that data, during transmission through the Internet or while stored on our systems or otherwise in our care, is absolutely safe from intrusion by others.

How long we keep information

How long we keep information we collect about you depends on the type of information, as described in further detail below. After such time, we will either delete or anonymize your information or, if this is not possible (for example, because the information has been stored in backup archives), then we will securely store your information and isolate it from any further use until deletion is possible.

• Account information: We retain your account information until you delete your account. We also retain some of your information as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, to resolve disputes, to enforce our agreements, to support business operations and to continue to develop and improve our products. Where we retain information for product improvement and development, we take steps to eliminate information that directly identifies you, and we only use the information to uncover collective insights about the use of our products, not to specifically analyze personal characteristics about you.
• Marketing information: If you have elected to receive marketing emails from us, then we retain information about your marketing preferences unless you specifically ask us to delete such information.

Unless otherwise required by law or to the extent we reasonably deem necessary to protect our rights, property, or safety, and the rights, property, and safety of our users, we will delete Personal Information when: (1) it is no longer necessary in relation to the purposes for which it was collected or otherwise processed; (2) when you withdraw your consent (where lawfulness of processing was based on your consent) and there is no other legal ground for the processing; (3) when you object to the processing and there are no overriding legitimate grounds for the processing; and (4) when it is necessary to comply with legal obligations.

Do Not Track

We use analytics systems and providers that process Personal Information about your online activities over time and across third-party websites or online services, and these systems and providers may provide some of this information to us. We do not currently process or comply with any web browser’s “do not track” signal or similar mechanisms.

Contact Us

You may Contact Us for inquiries related to deletion of your Account Information or Personal Information (refer to Your Choices Regarding Your Personal Information for more details).

Should you have any questions, concerns, or complaints about this Privacy Policy, our practices, or any choices or rights you choose to exercise, please contact:

FlightAware LLC
Attn: Legal Department
11 Greenway Plaza, Suite 2900
Houston, TX 77046
E-mail: [email protected]

We will respond to your request or investigate your concern as quickly as possible.

Changes to This Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy replaces all previous disclosures we may have provided to you about our information practices with respect to our Services. To accommodate changes in our business, products, services, technology, and legal developments, we may add, change, or remove portions of this Privacy Policy as we feel it is appropriate to do so. Updated notices and disclosures will be posted to our Website. Please refer to the date on the policy and check back for updates.