Privacy and data handling

Interactions in your browser

Planet Classrooms: Teacher planning sequences, bookmarks, lesson progress and optional planning notes are saved locally in your browser. Public lesson exports never contain these notes. A separately downloaded private backup may contain them and is not encrypted; review it before sharing. Student identities and grades are not requested.

Earth History Timeline: Milestone bookmarks, which events you have explored, optional written research notes, historical-event comparisons and your personal quiz score are saved locally in your browser. The public timeline CSV and JSON contain only the original curated historical events and do not include your notes or progress. A separate private backup includes your personal history data.

Earth Research Missions: Saved research mission progress, bookmarks and optional written evidence are stored in this browser only. Marking a mission complete is a personal learning record, not scientific verification. Backups may contain personal notes and must be reviewed before sharing.

Planet Earth Systems Library: Study progress, favorites and optional research notes are saved locally in your browser, not transmitted to a PlanetHeartbeat server. You may export or restore a backup file. Planet Field Notes: User-created notes, approximate locations, expedition stops and mission progress are saved in this browser’s local storage. Data is not sent to PlanetHeartbeat servers. Users can explicitly export or import backups, and should avoid putting personal or sensitive details in publicly shared files.

Search, map controls, filters and other interactive features are designed to run client-side. Some preferences or saved items may be stored in your browser storage. Your browser settings can clear local site data.

Website Performance Lens: On-demand browser timing measurements, available 3D globe status and existing scientific-source status indicators are shown only in your browser. The optional Lightweight Interface setting is stored locally under a browser preference. Downloaded diagnostic JSON contains timings, source availability, a UTC timestamp and basic 3D readiness only; it deliberately excludes saved research notes, student data, query strings, precise location, IP address and browser fingerprint fields. The diagnostic report is generated and downloaded locally, never uploaded by this feature.

Third-party connections

To display Earth data and the globe, your browser may contact public data services such as USGS, NASA, NOAA, a Three.js content delivery network, Google Fonts, and Earth texture hosts. Those services may receive standard request information, including IP address, subject to their own privacy terms.

No webcam auto-play

The Earth Cameras page does not automatically stream, embed or proxy external video. Any optional destination link opens a separate site with its own policies.

What not to submit

Please do not enter sensitive personal information into search fields. This experience is intended for educational exploration, not personal monitoring.

Updates

This notice describes the public V3.6.3 site as of 27 October 2026. Functionality and external providers can change as the project evolves.