What the feeder client sends
The feeder client sends only what it receives from your local ADS-B decoder (readsb, dump1090, or ultrafeeder). That means:
- Aircraft states - ICAO24 hex code, callsign, latitude, longitude, altitude, speed, heading, squawk code, and aircraft category. These are unencrypted radio broadcasts that any receiver in range can hear.
- Aggregate stats - a count of messages received and unique aircraft seen, sent once per minute. Used to show your feeder as "healthy" in the portal dashboard.
- Heartbeat - a lightweight ping every 60 seconds so the dashboard shows your feeder as online.
The client does not send: device info, crash reports, analytics, browser fingerprints, or any data beyond what comes from your decoder. The feeder client is open source (MIT) - you can read every line before running it.
What we store and for how long
- Raw aircraft states - kept for 30 days, then purged. We don't archive individual position histories indefinitely.
- Aggregated coverage statistics - counts and geographic summaries (not individual positions) are retained indefinitely to show network coverage over time.
- Feeder metadata - your feeder name, UUID, optional coordinates, and last-seen timestamp. Retained while your feeder is registered; deleted on request.
How we use the data
- Live map and API - aircraft positions power the public live map and the Fly Overhead API product.
- Aviation research and safety - we may use aggregated, anonymized flight data for aviation research and safety applications (for example, weather and turbulence analysis). Individual tracks are never sold or attributed to your feeder or account.
What we don't do
- We don't sell your feeder location or personal data to third parties.
- We don't block or filter aircraft at the request of commercial partners. Every aircraft your decoder hears appears on the map.
- We don't require exclusivity. Feed Fly Overhead alongside Flightradar24, adsb.fi, airplanes.live, or any other network simultaneously - we actively encourage it.
- We don't use your account email or personal data to train machine learning models.
Who can see what
Aircraft positions are public - they appear on the live map and are available via the API. Your feeder UUID, name, and coordinates (if provided) are visible only to you in the portal. We do not expose individual feeder identities in public coverage maps.
Our infrastructure sub-processors (Fly.io for hosting, Timescale Cloud for the time-series database) handle feeder data as part of normal service operation under data processing agreements.
Your rights
You can delete your feeder registration and all associated data at any time from the portal or by emailing [email protected]. Anonymous feeders (never paired to an account) can be removed by contacting us with your feeder UUID.