Terms and privacy

Terms of use

What you're buying

When you dedicate a star, you choose a real star from a public astronomical catalogue and give it a name and dedication on Named in Light. The dedication is a personal, symbolic gift. It is recorded in our registry and shown on your star's page and certificate.

It is not an official star name. Only the International Astronomical Union (IAU) assigns official names to stars, and it does not recognise names bought from any company. We will never tell you otherwise.

Each star can be dedicated only once on Named in Light.

Your content

You're responsible for the star name, message, photo and links you add. Don't add anything unlawful, hateful, or anything you don't have the right to share, such as someone else's photo without permission. We may remove content that breaks these rules.

You keep ownership of your content. You give us permission to store it and show it on your star's page, certificate and the messages we send for you.

Delivery

We send the dedication by email, and by text message if you add a mobile number, at the time you choose. Delivery depends on the details you give us being correct. You can update them and send again from My stars.

Payments and refunds

Prices are shown in US dollars before you pay. Payments are processed by Stripe. If something goes wrong with your order, contact us and we'll work with you to put it right.

Changes

We may update these terms. The date at the top shows when they last changed.

Privacy

What we collect

• Your account: name, email address, a securely hashed password (we can't read it), and optionally a mobile number.
• Your dedications: the star name, the recipient's name, email and optional mobile number, your message, any photo or video link, the delivery date and your time zone. If you set a message password, we store only a scrambled (hashed) version.
• Payments: handled entirely by Stripe. Your card details never reach our servers. We keep the payment reference and the amount.
• Messages: a record of the emails and texts we send, so we can see if delivery failed.

Photos you upload are resized, and their hidden location data (GPS) is removed before they're stored.

How we use it

We use this information to provide the service: delivering dedications, sending receipts and reminders, showing star pages and certificates, and helping when you contact us.

If you've agreed to receive them, we may also send occasional updates and offers. Every one includes an unsubscribe link, and you can switch them off in account settings. We never send marketing to the people you dedicate stars to.

Who we share it with

Only the services that help us run Named in Light, and only for that purpose:

• Stripe, for payments
• Resend, for sending email
• Twilio, for sending text messages
• our hosting, database and file-storage providers

We don't sell your personal information.

Star pages

A star page can be seen by anyone who has its link. It shows the star name, the recipient's first name as you entered it, your name and your message (unless you protect it with a password). Star pages are hidden from search engines.

Cookies

We use a cookie to keep you logged in. If you arrive through a partner link or from another website, we also set two small cookies for 30 days that record the referral code and the name of the site that sent you, so we know which partners bring customers. They're stored with your order and are never shared. We don't use advertising or cross-site tracking cookies.

Your choices and rights

You can view and change your details and dedications in My stars and account settings. To get a copy of your information, or to have your account deleted, contact us. Depending on where you live, you may have further rights under local law, such as the GDPR or CCPA.

Contact

Questions about these terms or your privacy? Get in touch.

Credits

Star positions, brightness, colour and names come from the HYG Database by David Nash (astronexus), which combines the Hipparcos, Yale Bright Star and Gliese catalogues. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. The sky map and star charts are drawn by Named in Light from that data.