Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

WeatherAlarm is an iOS and Android application that monitors locations you choose for severe weather alerts issued by the National Weather Service (NWS) and NOAA's Storm Prediction Center (SPC), and delivers push notifications to your device when a warning or dangerous outlook is issued.

For questions about this policy, contact us at contact@weatheralarm.net.

2. What we collect and why

We collect the minimum information necessary to deliver the service.

• Monitored locations. The addresses and coordinates of locations you manually add to the app (for example, a family member's home address). These are stored on our servers solely to check for weather alerts in those areas. We do not access your device's GPS or location services in the background.
• Push notification token. On iOS, Apple Push Notification service (APNs) provides your device with an anonymous token. On Android, Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) provides an equivalent token. We store this token to deliver weather alerts to your device. The token does not identify you personally.
• Anonymous account identifier. The app generates a random UUID on first launch. On iOS, this ID is synced through iCloud Key-Value Storage so your locations are shared across your Apple devices. On Android, it is persisted in Android Auto Backup so it survives reinstalls on the same Google account. This identifier is used to associate your locations with your devices. It contains no personal information and is never linked to your identity.

Data we access on-device but do not transmit. A few features read data on your device locally; none of it is sent to our servers unless you explicitly turn it into a monitored location:

• Contacts picker (optional). If you tap "Choose from Contacts" while adding a location, the app opens the system contact picker and reads only the single contact you pick, only to extract a postal address. We do not read, store, or upload your contact list. If you do not use this feature, we never request contacts permission.
• Map interactions. The "Add Location" map lets you tap or search for an address. Only the address or coordinate you confirm is saved — your map pans, zooms, and searches are not recorded.

We do not collect your name, email address, phone number, payment information, contact list, photos, browsing history, background location, or any other personal data.

3. How we use your information

The data listed above is used exclusively to provide the core functionality of WeatherAlarm:

• Checking your saved locations against active NWS alerts and SPC outlooks
• Sending push notifications to your device when severe weather is detected
• Synchronizing your saved locations across multiple devices you own

We do not use your information for advertising, profiling, or any purpose beyond operating the app.

4. Third-party sharing

We do not sell, rent, trade, or otherwise share your information with any third party.

The app communicates with the following external services as part of normal operation:

• Apple Push Notification service (APNs) — iOS only. Used to deliver notifications to your device. Apple's privacy policy applies.
• Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) — Android only. Used to deliver notifications to your device. Google's privacy policy applies. Only your FCM token is shared with Google; no monitored-location data is sent to FCM.
• Apple iCloud Key-Value Storage — iOS only. Used to sync your anonymous account identifier across your Apple devices. Apple's privacy policy applies.
• Android Auto Backup — Android only. Google's standard app-backup mechanism; used so your anonymous account identifier survives a reinstall. Google's privacy policy applies.
• Google Maps SDK and Google Places API — Android only. Used inside the app to render the map and to autocomplete addresses when you add a location. Queries you type into the address search are sent to Google to return suggestions. Google's privacy policy applies.
• Apple MapKit — iOS only. Used inside the app to render the map and to geocode addresses you type when adding a location. Apple's privacy policy applies.
• NOAA / National Weather Service APIs. Public U.S. government APIs used to fetch weather alert data, Storm Prediction Center outlooks, and forecasts for your saved locations. Your server-side account identifier is not sent to NOAA; only your saved coordinates are used to query alert zones.
• Apple / Google in-app billing (optional tip jar). If you choose to leave a tip, the transaction is handled entirely by Apple (StoreKit) or Google (Play Billing). WeatherAlarm never sees your payment details.

We have no advertising partners, analytics providers, or data brokers.

5. Data retention and deletion

Your locations and device token are retained on our servers for as long as the app is installed and in use. You can delete your data at any time:

• To delete a single location, open it in the app and tap Delete (swipe-left on iOS, long-press or use the menu on Android).
• To delete all data, remove all locations from the app. Once no locations remain, your account record is no longer used and will be purged from our servers.
• If you uninstall the app, your push notification token naturally becomes invalid. On iOS, Apple reports invalid tokens to us within minutes and we purge them automatically. On Android, FCM may take up to ~24 hours to report invalidation; your token is purged as soon as we receive that signal.

To request manual deletion of any data associated with your device, contact us at contact@weatheralarm.net.

6. Data security

All communication between the app and our servers is encrypted using HTTPS/TLS. Access to our backend is protected by a secret key embedded in the app. We do not store any sensitive personal information, which minimizes risk in the event of any unauthorized access.

7. Children's privacy

WeatherAlarm is not directed at children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect any information from children. Because we collect no personal information from any user, the app is inherently low-risk for users of all ages.

8. Changes to this policy

If we make material changes to this privacy policy, we will update the effective date at the top of this page. We encourage you to review this page periodically. Continued use of the app after any changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

9. Contact

If you have any questions or concerns about this privacy policy or how your data is handled, please contact us:

contact@weatheralarm.net