Privacy Policy
Dronecode Project, Inc. publishes Hawkeye (com.px4.hawkeye.android) as an open source project. It is provided at no cost and is intended for use as is.
This policy covers the Hawkeye Android app, the desktop builds for macOS, Linux, and Windows, and the browser replay.
Effective date: 2026-08-31
The short version
Hawkeye collects no personal data. It has no user accounts, no analytics, no crash reporting, no advertising, and no tracking of any kind. Nothing you open in Hawkeye is sent to Dronecode, to PX4, or to any third party, because there is no Hawkeye server to send it to.
What stays on your device
Everything Hawkeye works with stays on the device you run it on:
- Flight logs. ULog files you import are copied into the app's private storage so they can be replayed. Flight logs contain location data, including the vehicle's GPS coordinates and its home position, along with the times the flight took place.
- Your log library. A local database records each imported log's original file name, its size, and when you imported it.
- Settings. Your theme, unit preference, and the network port Hawkeye listens on.
This data is read and rendered on the device and is never uploaded. Hawkeye has no share, upload, or export feature.
Android's automatic backup is disabled for Hawkeye, so this data is not copied to Google Drive or transferred to a new device. That is a deliberate choice: flight logs contain location traces, and they should not leave your device without you moving them yourself.
You can delete any imported log from within the app, and uninstalling Hawkeye removes all of it.
Network activity
Hawkeye connects to a vehicle or simulator that you choose, over MAVLink on your local network. Two things are worth being precise about:
- Traffic flows in both directions. Hawkeye listens for telemetry, and when a vehicle first responds it sends a small number of telemetry-request commands back to it, asking for the position and attitude messages it needs to draw the scene. It sends no flight or arming commands.
- That traffic goes only to the address the telemetry came from, meaning your own vehicle or simulator. It never reaches a Dronecode or PX4 server.
While a live session is running, Hawkeye accepts telemetry on all of the device's network interfaces, not only the loopback interface, so that a vehicle elsewhere on your network can reach it. It listens only while you have started a live session.
Hawkeye does not check for updates, download maps, or contact any remote service.
Android permissions
The Android app declares these permissions:
| Permission | Why it is there |
|---|---|
INTERNET | Sending and receiving MAVLink telemetry on your local network. |
ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE | Not used by Hawkeye. Added by the AndroidX media library that plays the background video on the home screen. |
WAKE_LOCK | Not used by Hawkeye. Added by the same media library. |
DYNAMIC_RECEIVER_NOT_EXPORTED_PERMISSION | Not used by Hawkeye. Added by the AndroidX core library for its own internal messaging. It is signature level, so no other app can hold it. |
Hawkeye requests no permission that Android classes as dangerous. It does not ask for your location, your files, your contacts, your camera, or your microphone. The location data it displays comes from the flight logs you open and from the vehicle you connect to, not from the device's location services.
Desktop and browser builds
The desktop builds behave the same way: logs are read from the disk you point them at, telemetry stays on your local network, and nothing is uploaded.
The browser replay processes the file you select inside the page itself. The file is not uploaded to a server.
This website
These docs are published with GitHub Pages, and some pages load images and video from artifacts.px4.io. As with any website, those hosts receive standard request information such as your IP address and browser user agent in their server logs. The site sets no analytics or advertising cookies, and its search runs entirely in your browser.
Children's privacy
Hawkeye is not directed at children under 13, and it collects no personal information from anyone, including children.
Changes to this policy
If Hawkeye's behavior changes in a way that affects this policy, the policy will be updated here and the effective date above will change.
Contact
Questions about this policy can go to info@dronecode.org, or to an issue on GitHub.