Pilot Dives Privacy Policy

Effective October 30, 2026

Pilot Dives is an iPhone and iPad app for pilots, cabin crew and other flight crew on layovers. It helps crew members save and share the hotels, restaurants and things to do they like near airports, plan their stay, keep their trip paperwork, and stay in touch with other crew. This policy explains what information the app and this website handle, where it goes, and the choices you have.

Pilot Dives is provided by Pilot Dives LLC, a Texas limited liability company, United States (“Pilot Dives”, “we”, “us”). Questions about this policy: hello@pilotdives.app.

The short version

• We do not sell your information, show advertising, or track you across other companies’ apps or websites.
• Your exact location stays on your phone. A check-in records only the airport.
• What you save is kept with your account, so it is the same on every iPhone and iPad you sign in on.
• Apple’s on-device AI does its work on your phone. What it reads is not sent to us or to any AI company.
• You can delete your account, and what it holds, at any time from the bottom of Profile.

An account is needed

Pilot Dives is used signed in. You sign in with Apple. Apple gives us a unique account identifier and, if you allow it, your name and an email address (which may be Apple’s private relay address that forwards to you). Pilot Dives is for adults 18 and older. When you sign in, the app asks Apple whether you are an adult (Apple’s Declared Age Range); we keep only the answer, how it was given, when, and which version of the Terms you agreed to.

Kept with your account, visible only to you

These are stored on our servers (Google Firebase) with your account, so they appear on every device you sign in on and are not lost with your phone. A copy is also kept on your phone so the app works without signal.

• Saved places and ratings. The places you keep in My Dives, your star ratings and detailed grades, and your private notes. Private notes are never shown to anyone else.
• Trips. Airports, dates and times, flights from trip sheets you share, your hotel, bookings you add (including confirmation numbers), time you block off (for example training hours), and the plan for your stay.
• Receipts and expenses. Each receipt’s amount, date, place and trip, and its photo or PDF. Receipt pictures are kept in a private storage folder with your account. No other member can open them, and we do not look at them except when needed to keep the service running or when the law requires.
• Planner preferences. The foods and kinds of places you like, hotel brands, the times you are usually up and back in your room, workout and breakfast habits, and what the planner has learned from the changes you make to your plans. This is used only to make your own plans.
• Settings. Home airport (never shown to others), hotel and rental-car programs, appearance, distance units, notification choices and similar.
• An email address for sending receipts, if you enter one (for example your company’s expense system or your accountant).
• Your age check and Terms record, as described above.
• Your real name, if you choose to enter one. It is shown only to the people you choose: nobody, your friends, or everyone.

Information other members can see

• Profile. The call sign you choose (the name other members see and can find you by), your profile photo if you add one, your role (pilot or cabin crew), your aircraft type if you choose to show it, and a “Founding Pilot” badge if you hold that subscription.
• Ratings and tips. For places you rate: your star rating, grades, whether you would return, and any tip you write. These are shown to other members without your name or call sign; members on your friends list see your call sign on them. A rating made within about 30 miles of your home airport (60 in small towns and the mountains) is marked “Local pilot”. Your home airport itself is never shared, and you can turn the mark off in Profile.
• Check-ins. The airport you are checked in at, when, and when the check-in ends, with your role and aircraft if you allow it. Never your position. You choose who can see each check-in: everyone, your friends, people you have messaged, or nobody. A check-in lasts as long as your trip on the Schedule. If you choose to be checked in automatically (off until you say yes), you are checked in when you arrive at a trip’s airport. A check-in stops showing to others when your phone has left the area or has not been seen there for about a day.
• Friends and messages. The members you are friends with and friend requests; messages you send to other members; posts on an airport’s board; places and trips you choose to send or show to friends (a shared trip shows the airport and dates only).
• Crews. When you set up or join a crew for a trip, the members of that crew see, for that trip only: the name you give your crew, your profile photo, your seat, your hotel’s name, where you fly in from and on to and your arrival and leaving times (from your own Schedule), whether you have landed, the crew chat, the lobby and crew shuttle times and who has answered them, the crew’s dinner picks and meet-ups, and bills split within the crew. If you add them to your crew card, your crew also sees your phone number and email address, so they can call, text or email you. They are optional, and you can change or remove them at any time. Crew members never see your confirmation numbers, receipts or invoices. A crew has a join code; anyone with the code can ask to join, and the crew’s organizer decides whether to accept them. When someone asks to join, we keep their call sign and the request until it is accepted or declined. The crew link ends with the trip.
• Blocks and reports. The members you block, and reports you send. Reports are seen by us so we can review them.

What is used on your phone only

Location. With “While Using” permission, your location is used on your phone to find the nearest airport, show you on the map, suggest a check-in, ask whether you are staying near an airport tonight, and end a check-in when you leave. It is not sent to our servers. A check-in stores the airport, not your position.

“Always” location, only if you allow it, for example by turning on Tell Me When I Land. The phone’s low-power location services wake the app after a long move, or when you leave the area around the airport of a trip you are on, so it can notice that you have arrived (and check you in, if you chose that), or that you have left while your Schedule says you are staying, and ask you once about it. No history of your positions is kept, and nothing about it is sent to us. You can turn it off in Profile or in the iPhone’s Settings.

Apple’s on-device AI (Apple Intelligence). When it is available on your phone, Pilot Dives uses Apple’s built-in on-device model to: read the amount, place and date from a receipt you share; read the flights from a trip sheet or schedule screenshot you share so your trips can be added; sort shared paperwork into bookings or receipts; understand what you type in search; choose places for your plan; write a short summary of what several pilots said about a place; and check a tip, post or message for abuse before it is shared. This runs on your phone. What it reads is not sent to Pilot Dives, to Apple’s servers, or to any other AI company. If the check finds abuse, the item is not shared and you are told.

Reading words in pictures and PDFs (Apple’s Vision text recognition) and translation (Apple’s Translate) also run on your phone. Copies of places you looked up in Apple Maps are kept on your phone only.

Camera, photos and files

The app uses the camera or your photo library only when you choose to: take a receipt photo, add a profile photo, or make a check-in card to share. You can also send items into the app with Apple’s Share button (booking confirmations, receipts, trip sheets). A profile photo is stored with your account so other members can see it. Receipt photos and PDFs are stored privately with your account. A check-in card is made on your phone and goes only where you send it.

Sending your receipts

If you enter an address for receipts and tap Send, the app opens your phone’s own Mail with the receipts attached. The email is sent from your own email account, to the address you chose. Pilot Dives does not send it, does not receive a copy, and does not see the email. If a direct connection to an expense service is added later, this section will be updated before it is switched on.

Notifications

If you allow notifications, we store an address for your device that lets us deliver them (through Firebase Cloud Messaging and Apple), your phone’s language, and which kinds you have switched on. We use these only to tell you about messages, friend and crew requests, crew updates (such as a new crew shuttle time or dinner plan), new posts on the board at the airport you are checked in at, places sent to you, and reminders (such as your crew’s lobby or shuttle time). The address is removed when you sign out or delete your account.

Subscriptions

Paid plans are bought through Apple’s In-App Purchase. Apple handles payment, your card, sales tax, the free trial and refunds; we never see your card details. Apple tells the app which plan your Apple ID has, and the app keeps that with your account. If you take the Founding Pilot price, we count how many Founding Pilot places have been taken and mark your account as a Founding Pilot so the badge can be shown.

Services we use

• Google Firebase (Google LLC): sign-in, the database and private file storage for your account, App Check (which protects our servers from fake apps), and delivering notifications.
• Apple: Sign in with Apple, Declared Age Range, In-App Purchase, Maps and place search, Look Around street view, Weather, notifications, Siri and Shortcuts, and the on-device features above. Place searches send Apple the area being searched.
• Our places server (places.pilotdives.app, hosted by Cloudflare): sends the app open map data for an area. The request names only a map square, never you or your position.
• Aviation Weather Center (aviationweather.gov, US government): airport weather reports, requested by airport code.
• Ticketmaster: events near an airport. A request includes the airport’s area and your trip dates.
• Wikimedia Commons and Unsplash: pictures of places and cities, shown with the photographer’s name and licence.
• Hotel and rental-car websites and apps you choose to open from Pilot Dives. We do not send them your information.

These companies handle information under their own privacy policies. As with any internet service, they receive your device’s IP address when the app contacts them. We do not use Firebase Analytics or any other analytics or advertising service.

This website and the waitlist

If you join the waitlist on pilotdives.app or by email, we keep your email address and the date you joined, stored with Google Firebase, so we can tell you when Pilot Dives is available. We use it for nothing else and do not share it. To be removed, reply to any message from us or write to hello@pilotdives.app. A crew invite link (pilotdives.app/crew) only shows the crew code to the person who opens it; the code is not stored by the website.

What we do not do

• We do not sell or rent your information, or share it for advertising.
• We do not show advertising.
• We do not track you across other companies’ apps or websites.
• We do not use what you save, write or share to train AI models.

Keeping and deleting information

Information stored with your account is kept while your account exists. If your free trial or subscription ends, your information stays with your account, locked, and is there again when you subscribe; your ratings of places keep counting in the scores other members see. If an account has had no subscription and no sign-in for 12 months, we delete it and what it holds, as if you had deleted it yourself. Check-ins end on the time you set. Crew links end with the trip. You can delete your account at any time from the bottom of Profile. This removes your profile, call sign, photo, saved places, ratings, tips, private notes, settings, preferences, trips, receipts and their pictures, friends, check-ins, board posts, crew membership and crew card, block list, shared places and the messages you sent. Reports you sent, and records we need to keep to protect other members or meet the law, may be kept. Apple keeps its own records of your purchases. To ask about anything else, write to hello@pilotdives.app.

Your choices and rights

You can see and change most of your information in the app, and switch location, camera, photos and notifications on or off in the iPhone’s Settings. You can ask us for a copy of your information, to correct it, or to delete it, by writing to hello@pilotdives.app. Depending on where you live, you may have further rights under local law.

Security

Your information is sent over encrypted connections and stored with Google Firebase. Our server rules allow each account to read only what it is allowed to see. No system is perfectly secure; if we learn of a breach that affects you, we will tell you as the law requires.

Children

Pilot Dives is for adults 18 and older and is not directed to children. Accounts found to belong to anyone under 18 are closed and their information deleted.

Where information is kept

Pilot Dives is run from the United States, and information is stored on servers in the United States.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, the new version will be posted at pilotdives.app/privacy with a new effective date. If the change is significant, the app will tell you before it takes effect.

Contact

Email us at hello@pilotdives.app.