Privacy

Last updated: 29 September 2026

DelayAhead checks flights and sends the alerts you ask for. This page explains what we keep, why, for how long, and what you can do about it, in plain words.

Who we are

DelayAhead is the service at delayahead.com. For anything about your data or this policy, email info@delayahead.com or use the contact page.

What we keep

• The flights you ask us to watch, and the alerts we sent about them.
• The email address you give for alerts, any extra emails you add for a driver or family member, and whether each address has been confirmed.
• If you use Telegram alerts, your Telegram chat ID so the bot can message you.
• If WhatsApp alerts are offered and you use them, the WhatsApp number you message us from, so we can send you the alerts. You never type it on our site: WhatsApp gives it to us when you send the START message.
• If text message (SMS) alerts are offered and you choose them, your mobile number and that you verified it with a code we texted you. If you are signed in, the numbers you verified are kept on your account, so you don't need a new code for each flight. We use your number only to text you about the flights you choose. We never use it for marketing and never share it for advertising.
• If you sign in, your name and email from Google, Facebook (where offered) or the email link, and when you last signed in. We never see or store your Google or Facebook password.
• If you tick the box for DelayAhead news, that you agreed, the exact wording you agreed to, and when.
• We keep a log of which flights are checked on the site and what the check showed, without anything that identifies the visitor, for 90 days, to improve the service.
• When you accept our Terms of use and Privacy policy, we keep the date and time, the versions you accepted and your IP address as a record of your agreement.
• If you answer "Was this useful?" under a flight result, or "Was our estimate right?" in an email, we keep your answer, any comment you write, the flight and what we showed you.
• If you use the contact page, your message, the topic, your name if you give one, your email address if you give one (it is optional for feedback and feature requests), the type of browser you used, and your account if you were signed in. To spot abuse we may also keep a one-way scrambled code made from your connection address. It can't easily be turned back into the address, but we still treat it as personal data.

Confirming your email

Before we send any alert by email, we send one short message asking you to confirm the address. Alerts start only after you press Confirm. If you ignore that message, the link expires after 48 hours and you get nothing more from us. Extra addresses you add for a driver or family member get their own confirmation message, and they only get alerts if they confirm. If you are signed in with the same email address you use for alerts, we already know it is yours, so there is no extra step.

If you have an account, you can add drivers and other contacts by email address or mobile number: each one gets a single invitation and receives flight updates only after they accept, and every update they get has a link to stop updates for that flight, from you, or from DelayAhead altogether.

Telegram alerts start when you press Start in our Telegram bot.

If text message alerts are offered, they start after you type the 6-digit code we text to your number, so nobody can sign up a number that isn't theirs. The code works for 10 minutes.

If WhatsApp alerts are offered, they start when you send the prepared START message from your own WhatsApp. Reply STOP at any time to turn them off.

What we use it for, and why we are allowed to

• Showing your flights, sending the alerts you asked for, and running your account. We need your details to provide the service you asked for. This includes the confirmation emails.
• Keeping the service safe and answering you. Technical logs, rate limits, the abuse code on contact messages, and replying to messages you send us. We do this because we have a legitimate interest in running a secure service and helping the people who use it.
• DelayAhead news, and analytics cookies. Only with your consent, which you can withdraw at any time. We don't send news emails yet.
• Records the law requires us to keep, if any apply to us.

We don't sell your details or share them for advertising. Agreeing to alerts is not agreeing to anything else. DelayAhead news is a separate choice: the box on the alert form is unticked, and your choice only counts once your email address is confirmed. You can change your mind at any time by writing to us through the contact page.

Who else handles your data

• Brevo sends our emails.
• Our SMS provider (Brevo, or Twilio if we switch) delivers text messages where they are offered. It receives your mobile number and the text of each message.
• Telegram delivers Telegram alerts, and Meta's WhatsApp Business Platform delivers WhatsApp alerts where they are offered.
• Google and Facebook handle your sign-in if you choose them.
• Google Analytics, only as described under Cookies and analytics below.
• Cloudflare Web Analytics counts visits without cookies, as described under Cookies and analytics below.
• Google Fonts: our pages load a typeface from Google, so Google receives your connection address when the font loads.
• DigitalOcean hosts our server.
• Our flight data providers receive the flight numbers and dates we look up, not your name or contact details.

Each gets only what it needs for its job. Some of them may process data outside your country, including in the United States.

All the above categories exclude text messaging originator opt-in data and consent; this information won’t be shared with any third parties.

Messages you send us

We keep contact messages so we can reply and follow up on what you asked. If you give your email address, we send you one short confirmation with the topic and a reference number. It never repeats your message. If you leave the email out (you can for feedback and feature requests), we send nothing. We don't add you to any list because you wrote to us, and we delete a message when you ask.

Flight checks without an account

You can check flights without signing in. Like most websites, our server keeps short technical logs (such as your connection address) to keep the service safe and stop abuse.

What people do on the site

To see how the site is used, our server notes the steps of each visit: the pages opened, the site you came from (its name only) or a campaign tag in the link, the country, whether you use a phone, tablet or computer, and actions such as checking a flight, setting up an alert or sharing. This uses no cookies and stores nothing in your browser, so there is nothing to accept. Instead of your IP address, each step carries an anonymous code made from your connection and browser mixed with a random value that changes every day and is then deleted, so the code is different every day and can't be turned back into your address. We never store your IP address or browser for this, and we delete these records after 90 days. The same daily code and the country are used to log sign-in attempts and requests that look like attacks, also for 90 days. To keep the site fast, we also record how long a flight took to show, as plain numbers with the page address and no code at all, and delete them after 90 days too.

How long we keep it

• Flight sign-ups and the alerts we sent: until you delete your account or ask us to delete them. Details from FlightRadar24 that are saved with a sign-up (such as the aircraft) are removed 30 days after the flight was last checked.
• Email confirmation links: they stop working after 48 hours. Sign-in links sent by email stop working after 20 minutes and can be used once.
• Signed in: you stay signed in for up to 30 days, or until you sign out.
• Mobile numbers for text alerts: until you stop the alerts (the stop link in every text, or Stop alerts in My flights) or delete your account. Numbers that are never verified are deleted after 7 days. Codes are stored only as one-way codes. A log of the texts we sent, without your number or the message, is kept for 90 days to stop abuse.
• WhatsApp: a START code works for 24 hours; the ids of messages you send us are deleted after 7 days.
• Contact messages: kept after we reply, in case you write again, and deleted when you ask.
• News consent: kept as a record of what you agreed to, until you delete your account or ask us to delete it.
• Flight data from FlightRadar24: deleted 30 days after we receive it. It is about planes, not people.
• Visit steps, sign-in attempts and attack logs: deleted after 90 days.
• Your agreement to our terms: kept for as long as you have an account and for 3 years after, or 3 years from the day you agreed if you have no account.

Stopping alerts and deleting your data

• Stop alerts: every alert email has a link to stop the alerts for that flight. On Telegram, send /stop to our bot. On WhatsApp, reply STOP. Every text message has a short stop link. A message that was already on its way may still arrive.
• If you have an account: sign in, go to My flights and choose Delete my account. That removes your account, your flights, every alert we sent, your email confirmations, your saved mobile numbers and any news consent, straight away.
• Without an account: use the contact page, choose the topic Delete my data, and send it from the email address you used for alerts. We will delete your sign-ups, the alerts we sent, your email confirmations and any news consent, and reply to confirm.

Deleting data from Facebook sign-in

If you signed in with Facebook and want the data we got from Facebook deleted:

1. Sign in to DelayAhead with Facebook.
2. Go to My flights.
3. Choose Delete my account and confirm. Your name, your Facebook account ID and everything tied to your account are removed straight away.

If you can't sign in any more, use the contact page with the topic Delete my data and tell us the name on your Facebook account. We may ask a question or two to check the account is yours before we delete anything. We will delete the data and reply to confirm.

Your rights

You can ask us for a copy of your data, to correct it, to delete it, to send it to you in a format you can reuse, or to limit how we use it. You can object to how we use it for security and support, and you can say no to news emails at any time. Write to info@delayahead.com or use the contact page. We may need to check it's really you first. If you think we have handled your data badly, you can complain to the data protection authority where you live or work.

Cookies and analytics

If you sign in, we set one cookie that keeps you signed in for up to 30 days. It is needed for the account to work, so we don't ask for it. If you set up an alert without signing in, we set one more strictly necessary cookie, for up to 7 days, only to connect the alert you just set up to your account if you then sign in on the same browser. Your Appearance choice (Light or Dark) and your cookie choice are kept in your browser only.

We use Cloudflare Web Analytics to count visits and page views in aggregate. It does not use cookies or collect personal data, and it does not follow you across sites, so it is always on and there is nothing to accept or decline.

We may also use Google Analytics to see how the site is used, for example how many people check a flight or share one. When analytics is enabled, you see a short cookie notice at the bottom of the page the first time you visit. If analytics is not enabled, none of this applies and no analytics cookies are set.

• Your choice: Accept allows analytics cookies. Decline keeps them off. Choose lets you turn Analytics on or off. Declining doesn't change how the site works.
• No marketing or advertising cookies: we don't use any, so there is nothing to choose for them. The advertising settings that Google Analytics offers are always set to off.
• If you decline or haven't chosen yet: Google Analytics doesn't load at all, so it sets no cookies and Google receives nothing from it.
• If you accept analytics: Google Analytics sets its own cookies (names starting with _ga) to tell visits apart. It collects things like the pages you open, roughly where you are (country or city), your type of device and browser, and how you arrived at the site.
• What we send, only if you allow analytics: simple events such as "checked a flight", "opened alerts" or "shared, by WhatsApp". On a flight's own page these also include the flight number, the departure and arrival airports and the date shown: public facts about the flight, not about you.
• What we never send to Google: your name, email address, phone number, Telegram details, account or customer number, the names or labels of your contacts, or anything you type. The page address we send leaves out the flight details in shared links.
• Google's role: Google processes this data for us as our data processor under its terms for Google Analytics. Google may process it outside your country, including in the United States.
• How long it is kept: Google keeps analytics data for the period set in our Google Analytics settings, after which it is deleted automatically.
• Where your choice is kept: in your browser, with the date you made it. We ask again after 12 months, or sooner if we change what the cookies are for.
• Changing your mind: choose Cookie settings at the bottom of any page and pick again. You can also delete cookies in your browser settings.
• Privacy signals: if your browser sends Global Privacy Control or Do Not Track, we treat it as Decline: Google Analytics doesn't load and we don't show the notice. You can still turn analytics on from Cookie settings if you want to.

Keeping your data safe

The site only works over an encrypted connection. Sign-in links and email confirmation links are stored only as one-way codes, so a copy of our database can't be used to open them, and only our team can see your details. No online service is completely secure, so keep sign-in links to yourself, and don't put passwords, payment details or identity documents in a message to us. If you think someone got into your account, tell us straight away.

Children

DelayAhead is not directed at children under 16. If you are under the age required where you live, get permission from a parent or guardian before you use it.

Changes to this policy

When we change this policy, we update the date at the top of this page. If a change affects how we use your details, we will tell you on the site, and by email where it makes sense. A change never makes you agree to news emails or anything else you didn't choose. See also our Terms.