Terms of Use

1. Acceptance and eligibility

These Terms of Use (“Terms”) are an agreement between you and the operator of GlobalAirData (“GlobalAirData,” “we,” “us,” or “our”). By accessing or using the GlobalAirData service—including its websites, subdomains, public map, account dashboard, APIs, feeder software, receiver services, and mobile applications (collectively, the “Service”)—you agree to these Terms and our Privacy Notice. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

You must be at least 13 years old to create an account or submit personal information. If you are under the age of legal majority where you live, you may use an account or operate a feeder only with permission and supervision from a parent or legal guardian. If you use the Service for an organization, you represent that you may bind that organization to these Terms.

2. The Service

GlobalAirData receives observations from community-operated aviation receivers and combines them with public, open, licensed, or third-party aviation, mapping, weather, airport, imagery, and aircraft information. Features may include live and historical aircraft displays, coverage and receiver analytics, feeder configuration and remote commands, alerts, research outputs, and optional VHF listening, recording, and transcription.

Features, coverage, data sources, access levels, retention, and availability may change. We may impose reasonable technical limits, rate limits, or access controls to protect the Service, data providers, and users.

3. Accounts and security

• Provide accurate account and feeder information and keep it reasonably current.
• Keep passwords, verification codes, recovery codes, session tokens, claim codes, API credentials, and feeder secrets confidential.
• Use multi-factor authentication when required and promptly report suspected unauthorized access.
• You are responsible for activity performed through your account or claimed feeders until you notify us of unauthorized use.

We may require email or recent identity verification for sensitive actions. You may delete your account through supported account settings. Account deletion releases claimed feeders; it does not necessarily delete aircraft observations that have been aggregated, de-identified, independently received from other feeders, or retained for a lawful operational or research purpose.

4. Aviation, weather, and map data warning

Aircraft, receiver, MLAT, weather, airport, airspace, advisory, report, imagery, and map information can be delayed, incomplete, inaccurate, duplicated, stale, misidentified, or unavailable. Coverage varies with receiver location, radio propagation, equipment, network connectivity, source systems, filtering, and processing. Aircraft callsigns, types, registrations, positions, and photos can be wrong or mismatched.

GlobalAirData does not replace FAA, ATC, flight-service, dispatch, charting, navigation, meteorological, emergency, or other authoritative sources. Consult the applicable official and current sources for every operational or safety decision. More detail appears in Data Sources & Aviation Disclaimers.

5. Feeders, receiver control, and contributed data

You are responsible for equipment you own or control, including safe antenna installation, radio and network configuration, power, backups, system access, and compliance with local law. The feeder installer may require administrator privileges, install system services, check for or apply software updates, and allow commands requested through an authorized account. Review the installation instructions before running it.

You retain any ownership you have in information, audio, text, notes, or other material you submit or cause a feeder to transmit (“Contributed Data”). You grant GlobalAirData a worldwide, nonexclusive, royalty-free, transferable, and sublicensable license to receive, host, store, reproduce, format, combine, analyze, create derived data from, display, publish, distribute, and otherwise use Contributed Data to operate, secure, improve, document, and promote the Service; provide public features; and support aviation, operational, safety, environmental, and other research. This license continues for material already incorporated into aggregated, de-identified, public, backup, or research datasets to the extent technically or legally necessary.

You represent that you have the rights and authority needed to provide Contributed Data and grant this license. If you enable VHF or other radio features, you are solely responsible for determining whether reception, streaming, recording, transcription, retention, and disclosure are lawful in your location and for the frequencies and communications involved. Do not submit encrypted, private, privileged, or unlawfully intercepted communications.

6. Acceptable use

You may not:

• use the Service unlawfully or to harm, stalk, harass, discriminate against, or invade the privacy of another person;
• use aircraft, feeder, location, radio, or account data for unlawful surveillance or as the sole basis for an adverse decision about a person;
• interfere with, overload, probe, scan, or disrupt the Service or another user’s equipment, or bypass authentication, access controls, rate limits, or safety controls;
• introduce malware, falsify data, impersonate another person or feeder, claim equipment without authorization, or attempt to obtain credentials or nonpublic information;
• bulk scrape, harvest, mirror, republish, resell, or build a competing database from the Service except through an expressly authorized API, download, or written license;
• remove attribution, copyright, trademark, data-source, or safety notices; or
• use the Service in a way that violates a third-party data license, provider term, radio rule, export rule, privacy right, or intellectual-property right.

Ordinary human use of the interactive map and reasonable use of expressly documented APIs are allowed. We may investigate violations and suspend or restrict access when reasonably necessary.

7. Third-party services and data

The Service can display or link to information and services operated by others. Third-party terms, licenses, attribution rules, usage policies, and privacy practices apply to their material and services. We do not control and are not responsible for their content, availability, accuracy, security, or practices. A reference to a provider does not imply endorsement by either party.

Map views may send requests directly to outside tile, imagery, geocoding, weather, or aviation providers. Do not use automated tools to download third-party map tiles or content unless the provider expressly permits it.

8. Ownership, licenses, and feedback

Except for Contributed Data and third-party material, GlobalAirData and its licensors own the Service, including its software, design, compilation, branding, and derived products. Subject to these Terms, we grant you a limited, revocable, nonexclusive, nontransferable license to use the Service for its intended purposes.

Open-source components remain governed by their applicable licenses. Public display of data does not by itself grant a license to extract or redistribute the underlying database. A separate API, dataset, download, or software release may include additional license terms; those terms control for that item if they conflict with these Terms.

If you provide suggestions or feedback, you allow us to use them without restriction or compensation, while you retain ownership of any rights you already hold.

9. Suspension, termination, and changes

You may stop using the Service at any time. We may suspend, limit, or terminate access; remove data; or stop part or all of the Service when reasonably necessary for security, maintenance, legal compliance, protection of users or providers, enforcement of these Terms, or product changes. When practical, we will provide notice for material changes affecting an account.

Provisions that by their nature should survive—such as licenses already granted, ownership, disclaimers, liability limits, indemnity, and dispute terms—survive termination.

10. Disclaimers

To the maximum extent permitted by law, the Service and all data, software, maps, audio, transcripts, alerts, and content are provided “as is” and “as available.” GlobalAirData disclaims all express or implied warranties, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, noninfringement, accuracy, completeness, timeliness, availability, and uninterrupted or error-free operation.

We do not warrant that an installer or feeder update will be compatible with every device or existing feeder stack. You are responsible for reviewing commands, maintaining backups, and restoring your equipment if needed. Some jurisdictions do not allow certain disclaimers, so some of this section may not apply to you.

11. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, GlobalAirData and its owners, personnel, affiliates, licensors, and service providers will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for lost profits, revenue, data, goodwill, use, business opportunity, or equipment, arising from or related to the Service—even if advised that such damages are possible.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, the total liability of the GlobalAirData parties for all claims arising from or related to the Service will not exceed the greater of US $100 or the amount you paid GlobalAirData for the Service during the 12 months before the event giving rise to the claim. These limits do not exclude liability that cannot lawfully be limited.

12. Indemnity

To the extent permitted by law, you will defend, indemnify, and hold harmless the GlobalAirData parties from third-party claims, damages, and reasonable costs arising from your unlawful use of the Service, your equipment or feeder operation, your Contributed Data, your violation of these Terms, or your infringement of another person’s rights. This obligation does not apply to the extent a claim was caused by GlobalAirData’s own unlawful conduct.

13. Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of California, United States, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. Before filing a formal claim, you and GlobalAirData agree to try in good faith for 30 days to resolve the dispute by written notice. Subject to any non-waivable consumer right, claims may be brought in the state or federal courts located in California, and each party consents to their jurisdiction. You may bring an eligible claim in small-claims court.

14. Mobile app and Apple

If you download the iOS app through Apple, your use is also subject to applicable Apple Media Services terms and the Apple standard licensed-application end-user license agreement unless another disclosed license applies. Apple is not responsible for operating or supporting the GlobalAirData Service except as its terms require.

15. General terms

These Terms, the Privacy Notice, and any item-specific license are the entire agreement about the Service. If a provision is unenforceable, it will be limited to the minimum extent necessary and the rest remains effective. A failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver. You may not assign these Terms without our consent; we may assign them as part of a business transfer. These Terms do not create an employment, agency, partnership, or joint-venture relationship.

We may update these Terms by posting a revised version and changing the date above. If a change materially affects existing account holders, we will provide additional notice when required. Continued use after the effective date means you accept the revised Terms.

16. Contact

Questions or legal notices about these Terms may be sent to privacy@globalairdata.com. Please include enough detail for us to understand and respond to the issue, but do not email passwords, authentication codes, or feeder secrets.