No ads or tracking
Last updated: 9 September 2026 · applies to version 2.0 and later
The short version. Earth Explorer never asks who your child is. There are no accounts, no adverts, no analytics and no third-party trackers, and we do not build a profile of anyone. Much of the atlas works on your iPad. Online features include maps, imagery, purchase verification, the narrator's voice, which fetches spoken versions of the app's own sentences, and Ask Kore, an optional feature switched off until a grown-up turns it on — and even then your child's questions are never stored, by us or on the device. These services are described below.
Version 2.0 added features that need the internet — flying down to real places, sharper satellite imagery, yesterday's real clouds, and the optional Ask Kore guide. This policy replaces the earlier one, which described the fully offline version 1.
All of this is stored only on the device, is never uploaded, and is deleted with the app:
The app reads place names and facts aloud in a natural voice. Most of those lines are recorded and shipped inside the app. For eligible original Pass owners and subscribers, when the app needs to speak a line it has no recording for, it sends that line of the app's own text — for example "Brazil holds most of the giant Amazon Rainforest inside its borders" — to our server to be turned into speech, and keeps the audio on the iPad so it is never fetched again. This is the app's own writing, not anything your child said or did, and it happens whether or not Ask Kore is switched on. Turning off "Natural narrator voice" in Settings stops it entirely; the app then uses the voice built into iPadOS. New sample Pass owners use bundled or on-device narration outside their sample answers. Ask Kore Essential uses text answers and optional on-device read-aloud; it does not generate cloud audio.
Ask Kore is off by default and can only be switched on by a grown-up who passes an arithmetic gate. When a child asks a question, the following is sent to our server and on to Google's Vertex AI so that an answer can be generated:
We do not keep the questions or the answers. They pass through our server in order to be answered.
If your child speaks a question, the app uses the microphone. The recording is turned into text on the iPad using Apple's on-device speech recognition. Where a device cannot do that on-device, the app offers typing instead rather than sending the recording anywhere. Audio is never stored and never sent to us. iOS will ask your permission before the microphone is used, and the feature works only while Ask Kore is switched on.
Answers from Kore are generated by Google's Gemini model running on Google Cloud Vertex AI. Under the Google Cloud Service Specific Terms, content sent to Vertex AI is not used to train Google's models. Google may retain content for a limited period for abuse monitoring. We deliberately chose Vertex AI over the consumer Gemini service because of this difference in data handling.
We do not build, train or host the model, and we cannot inspect or change how it produces a particular answer. Google's Generative AI Prohibited Use Policy also governs what the service may be used for. If Google changes either of these, the change applies to Ask Kore too and we will update this page.
Answers are produced by a machine, are not reviewed by a person before your child sees them, and can occasionally be wrong. Please see the Terms of Use.
Flying down to a place uses Apple Maps. The sharper ground you see when zooming in, and the "today's clouds" layer, come from NASA's public satellite imagery. Our server runs on Cloudflare. Requests to Apple, NASA and Cloudflare are subject to their own privacy practices; we send them nothing about your child. Without an internet connection the globe, the levels, the quiz, the passport and the narration all still work.
Purchases are handled entirely by Apple. We never see card numbers, billing details or your Apple ID — only Apple's confirmation that a purchase is valid. Starting with version 2.0.1 build 14, the new Explorer Pass includes five one-time Ask Kore samples. The app sends Apple's signed purchase transaction to our Cloudflare server to verify eligibility. The server keeps a hash of the original purchase identifier, sample-use counters, request identifiers and answer/voice hashes. It does not persist the signed transaction, question text, answer text or audio in this ledger. Purchase records are used only to provide the feature and enforce the purchased allowance, never for advertising or tracking. They are not sent to Google. The allowance record remains for the lifetime of the purchase so restoring or reinstalling cannot reset it. Contact us about access or deletion; deleting local app data does not delete this server record or cancel purchases.
Ask Kore Essential also sends a signed Apple subscription transaction to our proxy. The service checks validity and keeps a hashed purchase identifier, monthly period, request identifiers and usage count to share the 300-question monthly balance across your devices. It also receives signed Apple refund and revocation notifications and retains hashed transaction status to prevent refunded purchases from continuing to use the service. It does not persist question or answer text in this ledger. These records are used only for subscription access and billing integrity, never advertising or tracking.
Earth Explorer is made for children and is built to collect as little as possible. We do not ask children for names, contact details or profiles. We process the limited question, technical and purchase data described above to provide the app. A child cannot enter their name, create a profile, message anyone, or see content from other users. Purchases and the Ask Kore switch both sit behind a gate intended for grown-ups. We believe this is consistent with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and Apple's Kids Category requirements.
If this policy changes, the updated version is posted here with a new date above.
Questions about privacy? Email revanwabale@gmail.com.