Orbit Support for iPhone and Android — what the app handles, and what it does not.
The short version. Orbit Support is a support-desk app for people who already receive IT support from a provider that uses Orbit. It shows you your own support requests and lets you reply to them. It contains no advertising, no analytics SDK and no third-party tracking of any kind, and it does not track you across other apps or websites.
Orbit Support is not a consumer product and has no public sign-up. You can only sign in if your employer already has a support relationship with us and you are a listed contact on that account. Your employer's own privacy notice governs the support relationship itself; this notice covers what the app handles.
Two different organisations are involved, and which one to approach depends on what you are asking about:
| Who | Role | Ask them about |
|---|---|---|
| Data Cube Systems, Inc. | Develops and publishes the Orbit Support app and the Orbit platform it runs on, on behalf of the IT providers who use it | The app itself — how it works, a security question about it, or a privacy question you cannot place with your provider |
| Your IT provider | Holds your organisation's support relationship. Decides who is a support contact, and how long support records are kept | Your support requests and their history, your access to the app, and any request to see or delete your support records |
Your IT provider is the company your organisation buys IT support from — the app themes itself to them once you sign in. Providers currently using Orbit Support are listed at the foot of this page. If you are not sure which applies, contact your IT provider first; they will redirect you.
| Data | Why | Kept where |
|---|---|---|
| Your work email address | Identifies you as a support contact so we can show you your own requests and nobody else's | Orbit platform + our support system |
| Your name, as your IT provider holds it | So the app can greet you, and so the technician answering your request can see who they are speaking to. It comes from your provider's own contact records — the app never asks your device for it | Orbit platform + our support system |
| Your Microsoft work account identity, when you sign in with Microsoft | Proves it is you, without us handling a password. We record the account and tenant identifiers Microsoft returns, not your password | Orbit platform |
| Support request content: subject, messages, and any files or photos you attach | It is the support request. Your IT team reads and answers it | Our support system |
| A notification token from Apple (on iPhone) or Google (on Android), if you allow notifications | So we can tell you when your request is updated. Declining notifications leaves the rest of the app fully usable | Orbit platform |
| An installation identifier the app generates for itself | So signing out of one phone affects only that phone. It is a random value created by the app — not your device serial number, advertising identifier, Apple's vendor identifier, or the Android ID | On your device, and on the Orbit platform |
| App version, build, and your phone's operating-system version (iOS or Android) | Support diagnostics — so we can tell which version a problem came from | Orbit platform logs |
| Your device's IP address, each time the app contacts us | Security and abuse prevention — rate limiting, detecting attempts to sign in as someone else, and an audit record of who signed in and when. Every network service sees the IP of whoever connects to it; we record ours deliberately rather than incidentally | Orbit platform, and a tamper-evident security audit trail (see retention below) |
| A short list of changes to your requests and notifications, kept whether or not the app is open so it can catch up when you next open it | So the screen you are looking at updates by itself when your IT provider replies or changes a request's status, and is up to date when you come back to it. Each entry records the kind of change, when it happened, and — for a request that is yours — which request. When you made the change yourself in the app (replying, creating, closing or cancelling a request, reading a reply, or clearing a notification), it also records which of your devices made it, so that device is not told about its own change. When your IT provider asks you to confirm an account request (such as a password reset) on your phone, an entry notes that too. It never holds a message, a subject, or anyone's name | Orbit platform, for no more than 48 hours. Deleted when you remove your access |
The app asks for camera or photo access only at the moment you choose to attach something to a request, and uses it only for that. If you never attach anything, it never asks.
On iPhone, the optional Lock Orbit Support setting asks iOS to check your face or device passcode before opening the app. This happens entirely on your iPhone through Apple's system service. On Android, the app's optional lock asks Android to check your fingerprint, face or screen lock in the same way, entirely on your phone through Android's system service. Either way, no biometric data is ever sent to us, and we never receive or store it. The lock is a privacy curtain on a shared device, not a remote security control.
To do its job the app necessarily involves a small number of providers, each handling only what its function requires:
A notification passes through Apple or Google on its way to your phone. What passes through is what the notification shows — its title and text, such as a request's subject, the first name of whoever replied, and the request number — plus identifiers the app uses to open the right screen. The messages in your support conversations are never included in a notification.
Two different clocks, and the distinction is the important part:
In the app, open Account and choose Remove my access. This revokes the app's sessions and notification tokens on every device, deletes the short list of recent changes to your requests, and removes your app profile. You will be signed out, and you can sign in again later as a fresh profile. As above, your support request history stays with your IT provider, and the tamper-evident security audit records of past sign-ins (including their IP addresses) remain, because that trail is built so it cannot be selectively altered.
Traffic between the app and Orbit is encrypted in transit, and the app additionally pins the certificate authorities it will accept for the Orbit host, so it refuses to talk to an intercepted connection. Access tokens are held in the iOS Keychain on iPhone; on Android they are stored encrypted, with a key held in the Android Keystore. Files you have opened from a request are stored with iOS file protection on iPhone, or kept in the app's memory or private storage on Android, and are removed when you dismiss them or sign out.
Orbit Support is a workplace tool and is not directed to children.
You can decline notifications, decline camera and photo access, turn the app lock on or off, and remove your access — all from inside the app, without asking anyone.
For anything else, including a request to see or delete your personal data, use the routing in Who is responsible for what above: requests about your support records go to your IT provider (links at the foot of this page), because they hold those records and decide their retention. A request about the app itself, or one you cannot place with your provider, can go to Data Cube Systems, Inc. through the same links. Say that your request concerns the Orbit Support app so it reaches the right team.
If this notice changes materially we will update the effective date below and, where the change affects how the app works, surface it in the app.