Privacy Policy

What this covers

This policy covers the WeatherStory Radar apps for iPhone and Mac, and the weatherstory.io website. It does not cover the Weather Story e-ink instrument.

Location

The app asks for permission to use your location the first time you tap its location button. If you allow it, your position is used only on your device: to show where you are on the map, center the map there, and pick the nearest radar. The app reads your position only when you tap that button — never when it opens and never in the background.

Your location is never sent to us or to anyone else, is not included in any network request, and is not saved — it is held in memory only while the app is open. You can decline, and every other feature still works. You can change the permission at any time in Settings on iPhone or System Settings on Mac.

Network requests

To show weather data, the app downloads it over HTTPS directly from public government sources. We do not run these servers and receive nothing from them.

• NOAA / National Weather Service — watches and warnings, Storm Prediction Center outlooks, surface observations. (api.weather.gov, www.spc.noaa.gov, aviationweather.gov)
• NASA — GOES satellite imagery. (gibs.earthdata.nasa.gov)
• Amazon Web Services Open Data — public NOAA archives: NEXRAD Level II radar, MRMS, HRRR, GOES and VIIRS satellite data. (unidata-nexrad-level2-chunks, noaa-mrms-pds, noaa-hrrr-bdp-pds, noaa-goes19, noaa-nesdis-snpp-pds, noaa-nesdis-n20-pds, noaa-nesdis-n21-pds (all on s3.amazonaws.com))

These requests carry no account, no cookies, and no identifier for you or your device. They identify the app as WeatherStoryRadar/1.0 (+https://weatherstory.io). As with any internet request, the server receiving it sees your IP address and which data was requested — for example, which radar site you are viewing. Those operators handle their logs under their own policies.

Updates on Mac

The Mac app downloaded from weatherstory.io checks for updates automatically, and when you choose Check for Updates. It fetches an update list from weatherstory.io and downloads update files from GitHub. Those requests include your IP address and the app’s name and version, as any download does. The app does not send a system profile. The App Store version on iPhone is updated by Apple.

Stored on your device

Your settings and a cache of downloaded weather data are stored only on your device and are never uploaded. Deleting the app removes them. On Mac, the Report Dropped Frames command saves a performance report to a folder on your Desktop; it stays on your Mac unless you choose to send it to us.

Purchases

Paid versions are not on sale yet. When they are, purchases on iPhone will go through Apple, which processes the payment; we do not receive your payment details. Purchases on Mac will go through Paddle, which acts as the merchant of record and processes the payment under its own privacy policy; we do not receive your card details. Paddle will send us your name, email address and order details so we can issue your license key, email it to you, and resend it if you lose it. The license key is checked on your Mac without contacting a server.

The weatherstory.io website

• Analytics. The website uses Google Analytics, which sets cookies and records the pages you visit, your browser and device type, and an approximate location derived from your IP address. Google handles this data under its own privacy policy.
• Our own counts. On the Radar and instrument pages we also count visits and actions ourselves — landings, how far down the page people scroll, button clicks, sign-ups and purchases — as daily totals per page and per campaign. To count distinct visitors we use a one-way hash of your IP address and browser that changes every day; neither the hash nor your IP address is stored. No cookie is set for this.
• Campaign links. If you arrive through a link carrying campaign parameters (such as utm_source or an advertising click ID), your browser remembers them for up to 90 days so that a later sign-up or purchase can be credited to that link. They are sent with your sign-up or checkout and kept with that record; they identify the link, not you.
• Hosting. The site is hosted on Vercel, whose servers keep standard request logs, including IP address and browser type.
• Launch list. If you enter your email address on the WeatherStory Radar page, we store that address and the time you signed up, and use it only to email you when the app is available. We do not share it. Ask us and we will delete it.

Children

The apps collect no personal data from anyone, including children. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13.

Changes and contact

If this policy changes, we will post the new version here and update the effective date. Questions or deletion requests: support@weatherstory.io.

WeatherStory Radar support