Data
Where the facts come from
Every fact on Together comes from a named, openly licensed source. I copy the data onto Together's own server, so your browser never contacts these providers, and Wikipedia never sees your visit.
Every source, at a glance
| Source | Licence | Used for |
|---|---|---|
| ADSB.lol | ODbL 1.0 | Where airline flights are right now Contains information from ADSB.lol, made available under the ODbL. Our filtered extract of airline flights is available under the ODbL too. |
| Beck et al. (2023) Köppen-Geiger maps | CC BY 4.0 | The type of climate each city has 1991-2020, 1 km; Scientific Data 10, 724 (2023) · copied 2026-09-25 |
| CEPII BACI | Etalab Open Licence 2.0 | Version 202601, 2024 trade in goods, US dollars; product names from the Harvard Growth Lab (CC0) · copied 2026-09-25 |
| ETOPO1 Global Relief Model (NOAA) | Public domain | The heights of mountains and hills in the 3D map, and the land of the last ice age Land heights every quarter degree, via NOAA ERDDAP |
| Eurostat | Reuse authorised with acknowledgement (Eurostat copyright notice) | Guests from one European country staying in another Source: Eurostat (tour_occ_arnraw). Arrivals at tourist accommodation by country of residence; rounded. · copied 2026-09-25 |
| FAOSTAT | CC BY 4.0 | The crops each country grows, and the foods that give it the most energy FAO. Crops and livestock products; Food Balances. FAOSTAT. · copied 2026-09-25 |
| Fintraffic / digitraffic.fi | CC 4.0 BY | Ships moving around Finland right now Ship positions for Finnish waters, rounded |
| GBIF | CC0 and CC BY 4.0 records only | The birds recorded most often in each country GBIF.org occurrence search, birds of Least Concern recorded since 2006; English names from Wikidata · copied 2026-09-25 |
| GeoNames | CC BY 4.0 | The places you can choose, their populations, heights, capitals, currencies and neighbours |
| Gerardus Mercator, Nova et aucta orbis terrae descriptio (1569) | Public domain | The old map in Then and now Bibliothèque nationale de France copy, composited on Wikimedia Commons |
| Global Energy Monitor, Global Gas Infrastructure Tracker | CC BY 4.0 | Operating and in-construction gas pipeline routes on the infrastructure layer Operating and in-construction gas pipeline routes, copied into a simplified local map file |
| Glottolog 5.3 | CC BY 4.0 | The families that languages belong to Hammarström, Forkel, Haspelmath & Bank; language families, matched to CLDR languages · copied 2026-09-25 |
| holidays (Python package) | MIT | Public holidays Version 0.105; national public holidays, 2026-2027; commemorations of conflict and sovereignty left out · copied 2026-09-25 |
| HydroBASINS (WWF HydroSHEDS) | HydroSHEDS licence (attribution) | Where the rain falling on each city ends up Lehner & Grill 2013; outlets named with Natural Earth marine areas (public domain) · copied 2026-09-25 |
| MET Norway (Norwegian Meteorological Institute) | CC BY 4.0 | The weather in two places right now Locationforecast 2.0, fetched by our server for coarse places and cached |
| NASA Earth Observatory: Blue Marble and Black Marble, via NASA GIBS | Public domain (CC0) | Satellite colour and night lights as you zoom in We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS). |
| NASA POWER | CC BY 4.0 | A year of temperatures, rainfall and cloud Climatology 2001-2020 (MERRA-2 and CERES SYN1deg), read from the POWER Zarr store · copied 2026-09-25 |
| Natural Earth | Public domain | Coastlines, lakes, rivers and glaciers on the map (to 1:10 million up close), the mountains and valleys layer, and the maps on share cards Land, lakes, rivers and country label points for the map; simplified geographic silhouettes identify regional chat rooms; no borders are drawn on the map |
| openfootball / football.json | CC0 1.0 | Football results and coming games for each place's clubs Results and fixtures for the top football leagues it covers, fetched by our server and cached |
| OpenInfraMap and OpenStreetMap contributors | Open Database Licence 1.0 | A dated, generalised low-zoom snapshot of mapped communication lines, including fibre where OpenStreetMap records the medium. Missing routes are not treated as absent infrastructure. |
| OpenStreetMap contributors | Open Database Licence 1.0 | Mapped submarine communications cables crossing oceans and seas on the infrastructure layer Dated, simplified snapshots of mapped submarine communications cables, landing stations and data centres. Community coverage is incomplete and is not suitable for navigation. |
| PB2002 plate model (Bird 2003) | ODC-By 1.0 | The tectonic plate beneath each city Peter Bird (2003); GIS conversion by Hugo Ahlenius, Nordpil · copied 2026-09-25 |
| Terrain Tiles (Mapzen, on AWS Open Data) | Open data from many sources, with attribution | Detailed mountains and valleys as you zoom in, on the flat map and the 3D globe ArcticDEM terrain data DEM(s) were created from DigitalGlobe, Inc., imagery and funded under National Science Foundation awards 1043681, 1559691, and 1542736; Australia terrain data © Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia) 2017; Austria terrain data © offene Daten Österreichs – Digitales Geländemodell (DGM) Österreich; Canada terrain data contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Canada; Europe terrain data produced using Copernicus data and information funded by the European Union - EU-DEM layers; Global ETOPO1 terrain data U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; Mexico terrain data source: INEGI, Continental relief, 2016; New Zealand terrain data Copyright 2011 Crown copyright (c) Land Information New Zealand and the New Zealand Government; Norway terrain data © Kartverket; United Kingdom terrain data © Environment Agency copyright and/or database right 2015; United States 3DEP (formerly NED) and global GMTED2010 and SRTM terrain data courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey. |
| Unicode CLDR | Unicode License v3 | Languages and how widely they are spoken, the working week, clocks, paper sizes and currency symbols Release 48.2.2 · copied 2026-09-25 |
| Virtual Radar Server standing data | CC0 1.0 | Where flights are going, and which aircraft fly them |
| Wikidata | CC0 1.0 | When places were founded, their rivers and seas, World Heritage Sites, photographs and Antarctic research stations |
| Wikidata | CC0 1.0 | Films shot and books set in each city; elements and minerals named after places · copied 2026-09-25 |
| Wikidata | CC0 1.0 | Twin towns, sports clubs and players, and companies Twin towns (current, with a suppression list), sports clubs and players by country, companies and products · copied 2026-09-25 |
| Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons | Text CC BY-SA 4.0; photographs under their own free licences, credited | Short introductions to each place, and photographs with their authors Fetched by our server when a place is first opened, and kept for 30 days |
| World Bank | CC BY 4.0 | Forest, farmland, towns, renewable electricity, visitors and yearly exchange rates World Development Indicators · copied 2026-09-25 |
| World Magnetic Model 2025 (NOAA/BGS) | Public domain | Which way a compass points, and how steeply the magnetic field dips |
How the gathering works
Each dataset is downloaded in bulk, checked against its terms, and turned into small files about each country and city. When you compare two places, your browser reads just those two files from Together's own server. Wikipedia introductions and photographs are fetched by the server the first time a place is opened, kept for 30 days, and shown only with their licence and credit. Nothing about you is ever sent to a provider.
What is on hold, and why
Some sources I looked at are only free for non-commercial use, or have terms I could not confirm, so they are not used yet: weather forecasts, music data and UNESCO's list of living heritage among them. Others carry a real risk of framing places politically, such as data about internet censorship, and are left out on purpose.
What Together will never use
People-search and data brokers, face recognition, scraped social media profiles, precise location from IP addresses, and anything that guesses a person's religion or ethnicity from their name. A public web address is not a licence.