Privacy

Last updated 3 November 2026

NOD is a head tracker for X-Plane 12, and a product of Design By, operated by Otium Creations (Pty) Ltd, a company registered in South Africa (2025/557746/07). This page explains exactly what the NOD iPhone app and NOD Desktop for Mac do with your camera and your data, and what happens to your email address if you join the launch waiting list on this website. It describes how both actually behave.

The short version

The camera

NOD uses Apple’s ARKit face tracking through the TrueDepth front camera to measure the position and angle of your head. NOD asks for camera permission the first time you set it up, and explains why on the same screen.

• Face tracking runs on your iPhone, inside Apple’s ARKit. NOD never accesses the camera images themselves; it reads only the head position and angle that ARKit measures from them, and whether a face is in view.
• NOD does not record, save or export photos, video, depth maps or a face model.
• No camera imagery reaches your Mac, and none reaches us.
• NOD tracks one face and does not attempt to identify anyone.

Face data

The only face data NOD uses is where your head is, which way it is turned, and whether a face is in view: for each camera frame in which ARKit is tracking your face, three distances (left/right, up/down, forward/back) and three angles (yaw, pitch and roll). NOD does not read, store or send camera images, depth maps, a face mesh, facial expressions, eye data or any biometric template.

• Use. These six numbers are used only to move your view in X-Plane, to show your head position on NOD’s own screen, and for the CENTER entry in the diagnostic log described below. Whether a face is in view is also used to show tracking status, to allow CENTER, and to count tracking time against the free allowance. None of this is used for advertising, marketing or analytics.
• Sharing. They travel only over your local network to the Mac running the NOD companion, measured from the neutral you set with CENTER. There, the NOD companion for X-Plane applies the latest values to X-Plane’s view and keeps only those latest values in memory; it does not save or log them. The stream of head positions is never sent to us or to any third party.
• Storage and retention. On your iPhone the values are kept in memory only: each is replaced by the next measurement, and the neutral set with CENTER is kept until you press CENTER again, turn the phone to another orientation, or quit NOD. The one exception is that when you press CENTER, the three head angles at that moment are written to NOD’s on-device diagnostic log, described below. That log is never transmitted and keeps at most the current and previous sessions. Deleting NOD deletes it from your iPhone.

What NOD sends to your Mac

NOD finds the NOD companion for X-Plane on your local network using Bonjour, then sends it small messages over your local network. Each message contains only:

• your head position as three distances (left/right, up/down, forward/back), measured as a difference from the neutral you set with CENTER;
• your head angle as three rotations (yaw, pitch, roll), measured the same way;
• housekeeping values: a message counter, a timestamp and a flag saying whether a face is currently visible.

That is the whole message. There is no image, no audio and nothing that identifies you or your device beyond the network address your Mac already sees.

What your Mac sends back

The NOD companion replies with flight information from X-Plane — airspeed, altitude, heading, vertical speed and the simulated aircraft’s position — so the app can show instruments and a moving map. This is simulated flight data from X-Plane. NOD does not use your iPhone’s location services, and the map shows where your aircraft is in the simulator, not where you are.

The companion version that works with NOD Pro also sends the simulated aircraft’s tail number and ICAO type code, whether it is on the ground, its height above the ground, its g-load, the simulator’s clock, and whether X-Plane is paused or replaying. NOD uses these to record your flights when you have NOD Pro. Like the rest, this is simulator data. It stays between your Mac and your iPhone, except for what the optional AI Debrief sends, described below: the aircraft type code and a few measurements derived from the flight.

Your local network

NOD needs Local Network permission because your iPhone and your Mac talk to each other directly. iOS asks for this the first time NOD looks for your computer. This traffic stays on your network: it goes to the Mac running X-Plane and nowhere else. If you refuse the permission, NOD cannot find your Mac.

What NOD stores on your iPhone

NOD keeps a very small amount of information on the device itself, and nowhere else:

• whether you have completed setup;
• your tracking-feel preference and which instrument panel you last viewed;
• how many seconds of successful tracking you have used against the free allowance;
• a plain-text diagnostic log of app events — connection and face-tracking states, timings, errors, your Mac’s local network address and the three head angles captured each time you press CENTER — stored inside the app, keeping at most the current and previous tracking sessions. It contains no images, and it is not transmitted anywhere;
• with NOD Pro, a recording of each flight: the measurements X-Plane reported while you flew, so Flight Review, Flight History, Pilot Progress and Landing Progression can read them back afterwards. You can delete any flight from Flight History;
• the debrief written for each flight, and whether you have turned AI Debrief on.

Deleting NOD removes all of it.

Purchases

NOD Core is a one-time purchase handled entirely by Apple through the App Store. Apple processes the payment; NOD never sees or stores your payment details. The app asks Apple whether this Apple Account owns NOD Core and unlocks accordingly. That check works offline, because it reads what Apple has already placed on the device.

NOD Pro is a monthly subscription, also handled entirely by Apple. The same applies: Apple processes the payment, NOD never sees or stores your payment details, and the app only asks Apple whether this Apple Account has an active subscription.

Apple’s own handling of your purchase is covered by Apple’s privacy policy.

The optional AI debrief

NOD Pro writes a short debrief of each flight — what changed since your last comparable flight, and what to work on next. NOD works all of that out on your iPhone, and writes the words there too. The debrief does not need the internet.

If you switch on AI Debrief, NOD also sends a small set of derived measurements to a relay we operate, which passes them to DeepSeek’s API so it can phrase that same debrief in more natural language. It changes the wording, never the conclusions: NOD renders every figure itself.

It is off until you turn it on. The first time NOD would send anything, it explains what would be sent and asks. You can change your mind at any time in the app’s Settings under AI Debrief. While it is off, nothing is sent and the debrief still works.

When it is on, this is everything that is sent — the same eleven items the app lists before you turn it on:

• your aircraft type code, such as SF50;
• how firmly you touched down;
• the same figure from your previous landing in that type;
• whether that landing was firmer or gentler;
• how much the steadiness of your approach changed;
• whether your approach got steadier or less steady;
• whether a bounce was detected;
• whether the recording was incomplete;
• which area NOD chose to focus on;
• a version number for the message;
• whether the flight counts toward your Pilot Rating, and if not, why.

That is the whole message. It does not include your name, your email, your Apple Account, any device identifier, your aircraft’s tail number, your location, your route, the airports you used, the date or time of the flight, or any identifier for the flight itself. Nothing in it can be traced back to you by us or by anyone receiving it.

Our relay holds the key to the model service and does nothing else: it does not store the message, does not log it and keeps no record that it happened.

DeepSeek is operated by Hangzhou DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence Co., Ltd., and that processing takes place in the People’s Republic of China. DeepSeek’s published policies do not state how long material submitted through their developer API is kept, or whether it is used to improve their models, so we cannot state either on their behalf. Their open platform terms and privacy policy are the authoritative source. If that uncertainty matters to you, leave AI Debrief off — NOD is complete without it.

What the NOD iPhone app does not do

• No accounts, sign-in or profiles.
• No cloud storage, no database and no account of yours on anything we run for the app. The only service the app talks to that we operate is the debrief relay described above, and it keeps nothing. The website’s launch waiting list, described below, is separate.
• No analytics, crash reporting or usage tracking.
• No advertising, advertising identifiers or third-party tracking software.
• No third-party code libraries of any kind in the app.

Apart from your local network, Apple’s own App Store services, and the debrief relay when you have switched AI Debrief on, the NOD app makes no network connections.

The launch waiting list

The NOD website has an optional form to get an email when NOD launches. It is separate from the app, and joining it has nothing to do with using NOD. You give us one thing: your email address, with your tick agreeing to one welcome email about NOD now and one email when NOD launches.

• What it is for. Only to send you one welcome email that confirms your signup and introduces NOD, and one email when NOD launches. We do not add you to any other list, and we do not sell your address or give it to anyone to use for their own purposes.
• Where it is kept. The list is stored by Netlify, the company that hosts this website, as form submissions in our Netlify account in the United States. With each signup Netlify also stores the IP address it came from, your browser’s user agent, the time, and which version of the consent wording you agreed to. Netlify’s privacy policy covers their handling.
• Spam screening. Netlify checks every submission for spam using Akismet, a service run by Automattic in the United States, which receives the submission and keeps it for a limited time under its own privacy policy. A signup Akismet flags is kept separately in our Netlify account rather than discarded.
• Notification emails. For each new signup that passes spam screening, Netlify emails a copy to admin@otiumcreations.com, our mailbox, which is hosted by Namecheap Private Email.
• Welcome email. The welcome email is sent for us by Resend (Plus Five Five, Inc., a United States company) from nod@designbystudio.online, under its data processing addendum. Resend receives your address and the message in order to deliver them, and keeps both in its sending logs for a limited period. Replies go to admin@otiumcreations.com. A signup Akismet flags as spam gets no welcome email, and neither does one made before the welcome email existed.
• Not twice. So that signing up again does not send a second welcome email, Netlify keeps a SHA-256 hash of each address we have welcomed, rather than the address itself, with the date it was sent. Anyone who already knows an address could match it to its hash, so we treat the hash as your personal information and delete it along with the rest.
• In your browser. This browser remembers the addresses it has signed up, so the form can tell you if you try again. Clearing this site’s data in your browser removes them.
• How long. We keep your address until the launch email has been sent, or until you ask us to remove it, whichever comes first, and then delete it from the list, from our notification emails and from the welcome-email record. The copies Akismet and Resend received follow their own retention periods.
• Your rights. You can ask to see, correct or delete your address, or object to our use of it, by writing to admin@otiumcreations.com. You can also complain to South Africa’s Information Regulator at inforegulator.org.za.
• Outside South Africa. Netlify, Akismet, Resend and Namecheap (which hosts our mailbox) are United States companies, and your address is processed in the United States; Resend sends the welcome email from its European Union region in Ireland. The tick box says your address goes to US-based service providers, and ticking it is your agreement to that transfer.

Your choices

Camera and Local Network permissions are yours to grant or withdraw at any time in Settings › Privacy & Security or in NOD’s own entry in iOS Settings. NOD needs both to work; withdrawing either stops tracking and removes nothing else. On a Mac, NOD Desktop’s camera permission is in System Settings › Privacy & Security › Camera; switching it off stops tracking and removes nothing else.

NOD Desktop

NOD Desktop is NOD for the Mac on its own, using the Mac’s camera instead of an iPhone. What is said above about the iPhone app applies to it where it fits; where NOD Desktop differs, this section is what applies.

• The camera. Camera images are processed in memory on your Mac to follow your head, and are never stored or sent anywhere.
• What it sends to X-Plane. Head position goes to the NOD companion inside X-Plane on the same Mac, and nowhere else.
• Your NOD account. NOD Desktop needs a free NOD account, identified by your email address. Sign-in codes are emailed to you; there is no password. The account is held by Supabase, the service NOD uses to run accounts, in its European Union region (Ireland); sign-in emails are delivered by Resend.
• What the account keeps. Your email address and the standard sign-in records Supabase keeps, such as when you last signed in; how many of the 10 free minutes you have used; a random reference NOD adds to its checkout links, so a purchase made from the app reaches your account; and for each purchase: which product, Gumroad’s reference for the sale or subscription, its licence key, whether it is active and when it ends.
• Checking purchases with Gumroad. To find and check your purchases, NOD asks Gumroad about the sales made with your account’s email address and about your licence keys. Notices Gumroad sends NOD about sales are logged with Gumroad’s references for them, so that purchases can be checked.
• Purchases. NOD Core and NOD Pro for NOD Desktop are sold through Gumroad, which processes the payment. NOD never sees or stores your payment details. Gumroad’s own handling of your purchase is covered by Gumroad’s privacy policy, and you manage or cancel NOD Pro in your Gumroad account.
• On your Mac. Your sign-in session and NOD’s signed record of what you own are kept in your Mac’s keychain; settings in NOD Desktop’s preferences; recorded flights in NOD Desktop’s folder in your Library. Recorded flights never leave your Mac.
• Feedback you send. If you use Send Feedback, NOD keeps your message and its type, linked to your account. Your email address is added only if you ask for a reply. Diagnostics are added only if you tick to include them: the app’s version and build, the macOS version, the Mac’s processor type, whether you are on the free minutes, NOD Core or NOD Pro, and whether tracking and the X-Plane link are running. Feedback is stored with your account, read by us to answer you and improve NOD, and not shared or sold.
• Updates. With your permission, NOD Desktop checks this website once a day for a newer version. That request identifies the app and its version, as any download does; NOD Desktop does not send a profile of your Mac. The update check is the only third-party code in NOD Desktop: Sparkle, the standard open-source updater for Mac apps.
• How long, and your rights. We keep your account and its records until you ask us to delete them. Email admin@otiumcreations.com from the address you sign in with to see, correct or delete them; deleting removes your account, its purchases record and any feedback you sent. Gumroad keeps its own record of any purchase, and our log of Gumroad’s notices keeps Gumroad’s sale references, which no longer link to you. You can also complain to South Africa’s Information Regulator at inforegulator.org.za.
• Outside South Africa. Supabase processes your account in the European Union (Ireland); Resend, Gumroad and Netlify, which hosts this website and its updates, are United States companies.

Who is responsible

Otium Creations (Pty) Ltd operates NOD and is responsible for this policy. As a South African company we are subject to the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013. The app is built so that little of it arises in practice: the sensitive information NOD could produce — camera imagery — never leaves your iPhone or your Mac, and nothing we operate could receive it. The website’s launch waiting list, described above, does hold your email address, and so does a NOD Desktop account, as described under NOD Desktop.

If you have a question or a complaint about privacy, write to us at the address below and we will answer it.

Children

NOD is a flight-simulator accessory intended for a general audience. Apart from the optional AI Debrief message described above, the iPhone app does not knowingly collect information from anyone, of any age; the waiting list and NOD Desktop accounts hold only what is described above. NOD Desktop accounts are for people aged 18 or over. The waiting list is for people aged 18 or over, or who have a parent’s or guardian’s permission.

Changes

If NOD’s behaviour changes in a way that affects this page, we will update it and change the date at the top.

Contact

Questions about privacy: admin@otiumcreations.com

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