This policy explains what the SDRSowa apps for Windows and Android do with data, and covers this website (sdrsowa.com). Where the two apps differ, it says so. Questions: [email protected].
Who is responsible
The data controller for SDRSowa and this website is the SDRSowa developer. You can reach us at [email protected] for any question about your data or to use your rights below.
In short
- SDRSowa has no account and no advertising. We do not sell any data. SDRSowa collects no usage statistics and sends no crash reports. After a crash you may send a report yourself by e-mail; the report opens in your own mail program for you to read first.
- Radio audio, recordings, transcripts and translations are processed on your device and never uploaded by SDRSowa. Speech recognition and translation run on your device.
- Some features fetch public data from other services over the Internet. Those services see your IP address and the request, as described below. A few of them start on their own when you use a page; they are listed under "What starts on its own".
- On Android, the usage information Google's ML Kit (language detection and translation) would send to Google is switched off. See "Google on Android".
- Setting Data mode to Offline only stops everything that goes online, except what you send yourself to devices on your own network.
Data kept on your device
SDRSowa stores the following only on your device. On Windows that is your user folders (%APPDATA%\SDRSowa, %LOCALAPPDATA%\SDRSowa and Documents\SDRSowa); on Android it is the app's own storage on the phone.
- Settings, including the antenna location if you enter one, favourites, scan ranges and blocked or muted channels.
- The Library: recordings, transcripts, translations, and the history of what you listened to and decoded (frequencies, stations, callsigns, flights and short messages). History is kept for 30 days unless you choose otherwise; in Settings > Privacy you can switch it off, change how long it is kept or clear it.
- Downloaded data: speech and translation models, map tiles, the aircraft database, satellite data and the other lists named below.
- The keys of private mesh channels you add, sealed for your Windows account or by the phone's secure key store. They are never shown, logged, exported or sent.
- A diagnostic log, only if you switch it on (Settings > Diagnostics). It records receiver and app events, such as frequencies, receiver errors and the IDs of mesh nodes heard, but not audio or decoded messages. It stays on your device unless you send it to us, and is deleted after 7 days.
Recordings are protected and can only be played in SDRSowa. To make a copied recording traceable, each recording contains an identifier of the device that made it and an inaudible watermark in the audio; on Windows the identifier comes from Windows' machine ID (recordings made before 4 November 2026 also contain the network adapter address). A recording can be played in SDRSowa on other devices unless you turn that off in Settings; no other program can open it. SDRSowa never sends these anywhere. They stay inside the recording file, so if you give a recording to someone, that information goes with it.
You can delete any of this data at any time: in the app (Library, Settings), by deleting the folders above, or on Android by clearing the app's storage. Uninstalling SDRSowa for Windows does not delete your recordings in Documents\SDRSowa.
Online features
SDRSowa contacts these services when you use the features that need them. Each one receives your IP address and the request below, and handles it under its own privacy policy. Every request names the app ("SDRSowa", its version and Windows or Android) and nothing more about you or your device.
| Service | When | What is sent |
|---|---|---|
| sdrsowa.com, then the original host (Hugging Face, GitHub) | You download a speech, translation or sound model. The file comes from our website first, and from where its makers publish it when our copy is not there. | A request for that file |
| GitHub, sdrsowa.com | The aircraft database and airline names are downloaded or updated | A request for that file |
| api.adsbdb.com, api.planespotters.net (Windows); api.adsbdb.com, airport-data.com (Android) | Windows: for aircraft you receive while ADS-B runs. Android: when you open an aircraft's details. | The aircraft's ICAO address and callsign, to show its route and a photo. Answers are kept for hours, so most aircraft are asked only once. |
| OpenStreetMap (tile.openstreetmap.org) | You view the street map | Map tile coordinates (the area you look at) |
| EOX (tiles.maps.eox.at), sdrsowa.com, NASA GIBS | You view the satellite map | Map tile coordinates |
| sdrsowa.com, OurAirports (davidmegginson.github.io) | You show airports on the map, or tune a VOR or NDB | A request for the public airport and navaid lists |
| country-files.com, supercheckpartial.com (Windows) | The callsign country list is updated (every 14 days); the first callsign is confirmed, then weekly | A request for public callsign lists (nothing you received) |
| www.eibispace.de | The shortwave schedule for station names is updated (weekly; a copy comes with SDRSowa) | A request for the public schedule file (nothing about you or what you hear) |
| CelesTrak, SatNOGS DB, sdrsowa.com | Satellite data is updated | A request for public orbit and transmitter data, and for our daily list of which satellites are on the air (built from SatNOGS observations) |
| SatNOGS Network | You select a satellite | The satellite's catalogue number, to show when it was last heard |
| Google (Android only) | You install a translation language | The request for that language's model, through Google Play services. Over Wi-Fi only. |
| GitHub (Windows) | You download the USB driver tool | A request for that file |
Links such as Flightradar24, ADS-B Exchange, MarineTraffic and VesselFinder open in your web browser only when you click them. From then on, that website's own policy applies.
What starts on its own
A few of the requests above start without a button, when you use the page that needs them. They are public lists or lookups and carry nothing about you beyond your IP address:
- the aircraft database, when it is missing (Windows at start; Android when you open the aircraft page, on Wi-Fi or another unmetered network);
- aircraft routes and photos on Windows, for aircraft you receive (see the table);
- the callsign lists, the shortwave schedule, the airport lists and satellite data, when they are due an update (Android waits for an unmetered network);
- on Windows, the setup can download public data lists (such as the list of aircraft radio beacons) in its last step, before the first start. You can skip it.
Google on Android
SDRSowa for Android uses Google's ML Kit to detect the language of a transcript and to translate it. Both run on the phone: the audio and the text never leave it. ML Kit would also send usage information about its features to Google (such as the ML Kit version, the device type and how long a task took); SDRSowa switches that upload off, so this information is deleted on the phone and not sent. Installing a translation language downloads that language's model through Google Play services (see the table above).
Your own network
These connect only to devices on your own network or to addresses you enter, and send nothing to us or to third parties:
- a receiver on the network (an RTL-SDR shared over rtl_tcp, or a PlutoSDR): tuning and gain commands. On Windows, "Find" for a PlutoSDR asks your local network (mDNS and the PlutoSDR's port on each address of your own network);
- on Windows, if you switch them on: sharing your receiver (rtl_tcp, port 1234, each new device asks you first), the audio stream (port 8000), ADS-B frames (port 30002), the data API (port 8090, this computer only unless you allow the network), the KISS TNC (port 8001) and audio or AIS sent to an address you enter. While switched on, anyone on your network can reach the stream, the ADS-B frames and, if allowed, the data API;
- the decoder audio output (port 7355, this device only), when you switch it on.
Update check and messages (Windows)
An installed copy of SDRSowa for Windows asks our website, sdrsowa.com, whether there is a new version and whether there is a message for users. It does this shortly after it starts and then once a day. It downloads two small files (/app/status.json and its signature /app/status.json.sig), and the new setup only when you click Update now; SDRSowa checks the setup against the size and checksum in the signed status file before it runs it. Each request is a plain download that carries only the SDRSowa version and "Windows" (in the User-Agent). It carries no ID, no account, no cookie and nothing about you, your computer, your settings or what you receive. Like any website, our server and Cloudflare (which delivers the website) see your IP address and the time of the request in their logs. We do not use these logs to follow or identify users.
The status file can show a message in the app, ask you to update an old version, or stop a version with a serious problem until it is updated. It is signed with our key, and SDRSowa ignores any file that is not. Without the Internet, SDRSowa keeps working; it never stops because it could not reach us. You can switch the automatic check off in Settings > About (Check for updates automatically). The Android app is updated through its store and makes no update check of its own.
Statistics and reports
SDRSowa collects no analytics. It sends no usage statistics, no crash reports and no hardware test reports, and it opens no connection for them. If SDRSowa crashed, Settings > Diagnostics shows a button that opens your own mail program with a short report (the kind of error and where in the program it happened; never the error text, and user names, folder names and addresses are removed) addressed to us. You read it, add what you were doing, and press Send in your mail program, or you close it and nothing is sent. You can also save the Diagnostics report or the hardware test report as a text file and send it yourself. These texts contain no audio, recordings, transcripts, received messages, frequencies or your location.
Offline only
Settings has a Data mode. In Offline only, SDRSowa goes online for nothing: no downloads, no lookups, no map tiles (maps show what is already kept), no update check and no sharing. What you set up on your own network keeps working.
This website
sdrsowa.com has no analytics: no tracking script, no cookies, and no count of visits. The web server keeps a short technical access log (IP address, time, page) to keep the site running and protect it from abuse.
The language you choose on the site is remembered in your browser only.
Contact
To report a bug, suggest an idea or ask a question, write to [email protected]. This website has no form and collects no personal data. We use your message and email address only to answer you, and keep them only as long as we need to for that.
Please do not send recordings, the content of messages you received over the air, or other people's personal data.
Your rights
SDRSowa sends us nothing about you on its own. We only receive what you choose to send yourself: an email you write to us, for example a crash report you send from your own mail program. Everything else SDRSowa stores is on your own device and under your control. You may ask us what we hold from you, and have it corrected or deleted, by writing to [email protected]. You can also complain to the data protection authority in your country.
Children
SDRSowa is not aimed at children and does not knowingly collect any data from anyone.
Changes
If this policy changes, the new version will be published on sdrsowa.com with a new date at the top.