Privacy

Your liked stations, recently played stations, DX log, recordings of shortwave catches, how long you listened (for your weekly recap), alarm, theme, language and layout choices, equalizer settings, the broadcasters you follow for alerts, your leaderboard nickname and, if you turn on sync, your sync code. Clearing your browser’s site data removes all of it.

Your browser also keeps a random id (not linked to you) so a like can be taken back later.

• Plays: which station was played, counted at most once per listener per station per day (and once per hour for “Trending now”). Stored as totals per station.
• Shortwave listening: which scheduled broadcast you listened to for 10 seconds or more (station name and frequency), counted once a day, as totals, to rank “On air now”.
• Song titles: while you play a station, the app asks our server what that station is playing; the server reads it from the station’s own stream.
• Likes: the station and your browser’s random id, so the like counts once and can be removed.
• Reports (“this station is silent”): the station and the reason, stored as daily totals.
• Leaderboard: the nickname you type and the catch you submit (station, frequency, receiver, time). These are public on the weekly board.
• Sync (only if you turn it on): your likes and DX log, stored under a scrambled form of your sync code. Anyone with the code can read them, so keep it private.
• Messages: what you send through the contact or removal forms (including the email address you give, so we can reply), kept for up to 400 days. Your IP address is not stored with it.
• Error reports: when the app crashes in your browser, the error message, the app file and line number. Web addresses are removed from messages; never anything you typed.

To stop the same person counting twice and to block abuse, we use a salted, one-way hash of your IP address (the address itself is never stored). Song titles shown in the app are read by our server from the stations’ own streams, not from you.

Abuse-check hashes: up to 2 days, except the one attached to a like, which goes when the like is removed. Hourly listener counts: 2 days. Song history: 14 days. Error reports: 30 days. Reports: 60 days. Leaderboard catches: 400 days. Sync data: deleted after 400 days without use. Play and like totals per station are kept, since they contain nothing about you.

• Radio stations: many streams play straight from the station’s own server, which sees your IP address like any website does. Others go through our relay, so the station only sees ours.
• Shortwave receivers: live audio comes from public KiwiSDR receivers, through our relay on the website. The relay passes your IP address on to the receiver, as these receivers expect, so each owner’s per-listener limits apply to you rather than to everyone at once.
• Map: map images are loaded from Esri (ArcGIS Online).
• Station logos load from the stations’ own websites.
• Voice search (only when you tap the microphone): your browser’s own speech service turns what you say into text (in Chrome that is Google). Skywave DX only receives the text.
• Album covers: our server looks up the song title in Apple’s iTunes catalogue; your browser then loads the cover image from Apple.
• Hosting: the site and our server run on Cloudflare, which processes requests to deliver them.

If you allow notifications for alerts, they are shown by your own browser while Skywave DX is open. We don’t send push messages and keep no notification address.

Questions about privacy, or a request about data you sent us: support@skywavedx.com.

Unlike a station to remove your like. Turn off sync and clear your browser’s site data to remove everything kept on your device. Messages you sent us are deleted on request (email us). Nothing else on our server can be tied to you.