Heliogram privacy

Effective 2026-11-02

Heliogram collects no personal data. It has no accounts, no analytics of our own, no advertising and no tracking, and we never learn who you are. This policy covers Heliogram for Mac, for iPhone and iPad, and for Android.

What leaves your device

To show the Sun, Heliogram downloads recent pictures and short videos of it from imagery.myheliograph.com, which is served by Cloudflare, or from Amazon Web Services when that server cannot be reached. The Mac version downloaded from this website also checks gilly.space, which is hosted by GitHub, once a day for a newer version of itself, and so does the Android version downloaded from this website. The Android version from Google Play does not; Google Play handles its updates.

Each of these requests carries what any web request carries: your IP address, along with the name and version of the app and of the operating system. We do not log these requests ourselves, and we never sell them, share them or combine them with anything else. Cloudflare, Amazon and GitHub keep their own routine server records under their own privacy policies.

On Android, the Cast button uses Google's Cast software, which sends Google anonymous logs about finding Cast devices and casting sessions, along with general information about your phone and the app. Google says these logs carry nothing that identifies you, are encrypted on the way, and are not shared with anyone else; neither you nor we can turn them off. Heliogram never sees them. The other apps do not use Cast.

On a Mac with Offline turned on (Kiosk turns it on), Heliogram itself makes no network requests at all.

What stays on your device

Your settings live in Heliogram's own preferences, and the pictures and videos it downloads are kept in the app's own cache. None of it is sent anywhere. On a phone, Save Video and Save Image add a file to your photo library only when you ask, and Heliogram never reads your photos. On Android, the widget, the lock screen picture and the live wallpaper download the same pictures and videos on a schedule while you use them.

Purchases

In the Mac App Store version, Kiosk is a monthly or yearly subscription sold by Apple. Apple handles the payment and the renewals, and Heliogram only checks whether the Apple ID signed in on this Mac has an active Kiosk subscription. We never see your name, your Apple ID or your payment details.

Links to the print store

A Heliogram screen can show a caption and QR code pointing to myheliogram.com, where prints of the Sun are sold. Following that link visits the My Heliogram website, which is separate from this app. The link tells that site only that the visit came from Heliogram and which picture of the Sun was on screen.

Changes and questions

If this policy changes, the new version will appear on this page with a new date. Questions go to support@myheliogram.com. Heliogram is made by Dr. Chris Gilbert.