Privacy Policy
Last updated August 15, 2026
IOTA Hub is a volunteer-run, citizen-science system for collecting and reviewing asteroid occultation observations for the International Occultation Timing Association (IOTA) in North America. Questions about this policy: admin@iota-hub.com.
What is collected
- Account: name, email address, and username when you sign up.
- Observations: the files you upload. Report spreadsheets may include your phone number, mailing address, and observing-site coordinates. Phone number and mailing address are not required; only an email address is requested.
- Technical: IP address, browser type, and error reports, kept up to 180 days for security and troubleshooting.
How it is used and shared
- IOTA volunteer reviewers see your submitted files and contact details in order to review your observation.
- Reviewed results — including observer names, prediction images, and ground-track maps — are published on the NA Results page. Reviewed observation data files (OBS.xml, VizieR) are made available to scientific archives such as the Minor Planet Center. Full report spreadsheets are not published publicly.
- When an event in IOTA Hub is linked to Occult Watcher Cloud (OWC), the email addresses of observers signed up for that event are shared privately with IOTA Hub to enable workflow automation and to allow reviewers to follow up with observers about their data. Emails are shared for all signed-up observers regardless of their public OWC email-sharing preference, and are visible only to IOTA Hub reviewers.
- Data is not sold or used for advertising.
Service providers
Amazon Web Services (hosting), Sentry (error reporting), and GitHub.
Cookies
None. Browser storage is used to keep you signed in and remember preferences.
Retention and your choices
Observations form a permanent scientific record and are kept indefinitely. You may delete an observation before it is reviewed. To correct your details, or to deactivate your account and request removal of personal data, email admin@iota-hub.com.