Privacy Policy

Last updated: 3 August 2026

This Privacy Policy explains what personal data Air Child ("we", "us", "our") collects when you use this website and virtual airline platform (the "Service"), why we collect it, and what rights you have. Air Child is a private, non-commercial hobby project (virtual airline) in the flight simulation community; nothing on this site relates to a real-world airline, and no real currency or real-world flights are involved.

1. Who is responsible for your data

The data controller for this Service is:

Christopher Bennett
Rinderbüger Hauptstraße 55A
63654 Büdingen
Germany
Email: info@air-child.aero

See our Imprint for further details.

2. What personal data we collect

Depending on how you use the Service, we collect:

• Account data — name, email address, password (stored as a salted hash, never in plain text), and, if you choose to link it, your Discord username.
• Profile data — your VATSIM ID, IVAO ID, country, and home airport, if you choose to provide them.
• Flight activity — PIREPs (flight reports) you submit, including departure/arrival airports, aircraft, simulator, times, distance and points earned, and ACARS session telemetry (route/position data, network used) submitted by your flight tracking client while flying.
• Career & progression data — bids, tours/event assignments, type ratings, achievements, career exam results, promotion certificates, and virtual points/currency transactions.
• Content you create — news posts or other content you author, if you hold a staff role.
• API tokens — access tokens you generate to connect flight-tracking or flight-planning clients (e.g. our ACARS bridge, SimBrief).
• Technical data — your IP address and standard web server log data, used for security purposes such as login rate-limiting.
• Two-factor authentication secret — if you enable 2FA, we store the secret needed to verify your one-time codes. This is never included in your self-service data export, for your own security.

3. Why we process your data

We use your data to operate your pilot account, record and score your flight activity, run career progression (ranks, exams, achievements), communicate with you about your account and VA activity, and to keep the Service secure. Where processing relies on consent (such as linking your Discord account), you may withdraw that consent at any time.

4. Cookies & local storage

We use only strictly necessary cookies: a session cookie to keep you signed in, and a CSRF-protection cookie to secure form submissions. We do not use advertising, analytics, or cross-site tracking cookies.

Your browser's local storage is used to remember your display preferences (light/dark theme, sidebar layout). This information stays in your browser and is never sent to our servers.

5. Third parties who process data on our behalf

We share data with the following providers, only as needed to run the Service:

• Discord — if you choose to sign in or link your account with Discord, we receive your Discord identity and email via Discord's OAuth service (scopes: identify, email). Our staff may also receive automated notifications in our Discord server about VA activity.
• Amazon Web Services (Amazon SES, EU region) — sends transactional emails on our behalf (registration, password resets, notifications).
• SimBrief — if you provide your SimBrief Username, we use it to retrieve your flight plan (OFP) for bidded flights.
• SayIntentions — if you provide your SayIntentions API key, we push your crew/dispatcher/co-pilot context to SayIntentions to support that integration.
• Trucky — virtual trucking statistics are synced from Trucky's public API for our trucking stats page.
• SimVector Schedule Cloud — used to sync our flight schedules; this is operational route data, not personal data.
• VATSIM / IVAO — if you provide your network ID, it is stored on your profile and displayed alongside your flights. We do not otherwise share your data with these networks; any connection you make to them happens directly from your own flight simulator client.

We do not sell your personal data, and we do not use it for advertising.

6. Third-party content loaded in your browser

Some pages load resources directly from third-party servers, which may see your IP address and browser information when your browser requests them, independent of us:

• Bunny Fonts (fonts.bunny.net) — web fonts, loaded on most pages. Bunny Fonts is designed for privacy and does not set cookies or log IP addresses for tracking purposes.
• Mapbox (api.mapbox.com) — powers our live flight map.
• OpenStreetMap (tile.openstreetmap.org) and Leaflet.js (unpkg.com) — power our hub and flight-route maps.
• jsDelivr (cdn.jsdelivr.net) — hosts the Chart.js library used for statistics charts.
• flagcdn.com — hosts the country flag icons shown next to pilot and airport listings.
• Quill (cdn.quilljs.com) — a rich-text editor used only in the staff/admin area, not on public pages.

7. How long we keep your data

We keep your account and flight data for as long as your account is active, so your career progression and flight history remain intact. If you request account deletion, our staff will review and action the request; some records may be retained where we have a legitimate operational or legal reason to do so (e.g. fraud prevention).

8. Your rights

Depending on your location, you may have the right to access, correct, export, or delete your personal data, and to object to or restrict certain processing. In practice:

• You can review and correct most of your profile data yourself, in your account settings.
• You can download a copy of your personal data at any time from Settings → Data Export.
• You can request account deletion from Settings; a staff member will process your request.
• For any other request, or if you have questions about this policy, contact us using the details in Section 1.

9. Security

Passwords are stored as salted hashes, never in plain text. We support optional two-factor authentication for your account. Connections to the Service are encrypted (HTTPS), and our session cookies are marked secure.

10. Children

The Service is not directed at children under 16. If you believe a child has provided us with personal data without appropriate consent, please contact us and we will remove it.

11. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time as the Service changes. We will update the "last updated" date above when we do.