Privacy Policy
Effective Date: May 27, 2026
Thank you for using "Aurora Forecast" ("the App"). Your privacy is important to us. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, store, and protect information when you use the App to receive aurora visibility forecasts on iOS and Android devices.
1. Information We Collect
The App does not require account registration, sign-in, or social authentication, and we do not maintain a server-side customer database. Depending on how you use the App, the following information may be processed on your device:
- Approximate or precise location (when you grant location permission). Used only to compute the aurora visibility verdict, the local OVATION probability, the viewline distance, and the hourly cloud cover for your current position. You can revoke this permission at any time in your operating system settings.
- Locally stored preferences. The App saves your selected UI language, theme (System / Light / Dark), units (distance, time format), favourite locations, the active selected location, and an internal onboarding-completion flag. This data is written to on-device storage and never leaves the device.
- Cached responses from public space weather and meteorological APIs (see Section 3). These caches contain no personal information and are stored locally so the App can continue to function with intermittent connectivity.
The App does not collect personal contact information, advertising identifiers, push-notification tokens, analytics events, or crash telemetry. The App does not request push-notification permission.
2. How We Use Your Information
We use information only to provide and improve the App's features. Specifically, we use it to:
- Compute the plain-language verdict and the 0–100 visibility score shown on the home screen for your active location.
- Render the hemisphere map centred on your location with the OVATION probability overlay and the tonight and tomorrow viewlines.
- Display 24-hour, 3-day, and 27-day geomagnetic and cloud-cover forecasts.
- Remember your favourite locations, your selected language, your theme and unit preferences, and whether you have completed first-launch onboarding.
- Fall back to a built-in demo location (Apple Park, Cupertino) when location permission has been denied and no favourite is saved, so that the home screen never renders empty on first launch.
We do not use your data for advertising, profiling, behavioural targeting, or resale.
3. Third-Party Services
The App fetches data from a small number of public, read-only services. Each of these services receives only the standard network request metadata (IP address, request headers) needed to deliver a response; we do not pass identifiers, account names, or location coordinates beyond what is strictly required by the endpoint.
- NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center (services.swpc.noaa.gov): used for Kp index, solar wind readings, OVATION aurora probability grid, and the official text forecasts.
- Open-Meteo (api.open-meteo.com): used for cloud cover, sunrise and sunset times, and astronomical-darkness windows at the requested coordinates.
- Apple Maps (iOS) and Google Maps Platform (Android): used by the embedded map component (Expo Maps) to render the base map tiles for the Map tab.
- Apple App Store and Google Play Store: handle App distribution and any future in-app purchases per their own privacy policies.
- Expo (Expo Application Services): provides the runtime, build tooling, and over-the-air update channel used to deliver and run the App. Expo does not collect personally identifiable information from the App at runtime.
We do not use third-party analytics SDKs, crash-reporting SDKs, advertising SDKs, or social login providers.
4. Data Storage
All preferences, favourite locations, and cached forecast data are stored locally on your device using on-device key-value storage (AsyncStorage). The App does not operate a backend server, does not synchronise your data to the cloud, and does not associate any of this data with an identifier that could be linked to you. Uninstalling the App removes all locally stored data.
5. Data Security
We follow industry-standard practices to protect the limited information processed by the App:
- All network requests to public APIs are made over HTTPS.
- No personal data is transmitted to our servers because we do not operate any.
- Location data never leaves your device beyond the coordinate parameter required to fetch a localised forecast from the public APIs listed in Section 3.
- In-app purchases, when introduced, are handled entirely by Apple or Google. We never see your payment details.
Despite our efforts, no method of electronic storage or transmission is fully secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.
6. Children's Privacy
The App is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has used the App in a way that resulted in the processing of their personal data, please contact us at the email address in Section 9 and we will take appropriate steps.
7. Your Rights
Because the App does not maintain a server-side database of users, most data-subject rights are exercised directly on your device:
- Right to access: all data the App holds about you resides on your device and is visible through the App's UI (favourites, preferences, cached data).
- Right to deletion: uninstalling the App permanently removes all on-device data.
- Right to withdraw consent: you can revoke location permission at any time in your operating system settings; the App will fall back to a saved favourite or to the demo location.
- Right to object or rectify: contact us at zia.omar.84@icloud.com and we will respond promptly.
8. Changes to This Privacy Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes to the App, to the third-party services it uses, or to applicable laws. When we make material changes, we will update the Effective Date at the top of this document and surface the updated policy inside the App's About section. Your continued use of the App after such updates constitutes acceptance of the revised Privacy Policy.
9. Contact Us
If you have questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or your data, please contact us:
- Email: zia.omar.84@icloud.com
We aim to respond to all reasonable inquiries within 30 days.
By using the App, you agree to the terms outlined in this Privacy Policy.