Privacy Policy

1. About this policy

This Privacy Policy explains what information the CloudCast weather app ("the App") collects, what it does with it and who else sees it. CloudCast ("we", "our" or "us") provides weather forecasts, forecast charts, rain radar, weather warnings and related notifications. It applies whether you installed the App from TestFlight or from the App Store.

The App has no accounts, no adverts and no tracking. It adds up how often each screen and chart is opened, in a way that cannot be traced to you or your iPhone, and you can switch that off. We collect as little as we can, and the App works without most of it.

Data controller: CloudCast

Contact email: privacy@met4castuk.app

2. Where your information goes

In short:

• Your location is used to show the weather where you are. It is sent to Apple to find the name of the place and to our own server to get the forecast. If you switch on rain or warning notifications, your place is also sent to our server, which rounds it to about 2 km before it stores it. It is never used for advertising.
• Charts, radar and warnings are downloaded without sending your location to anyone.
• Notifications are off until you switch them on. The daily summary is made on your iPhone.
• A key for each copy of the App is a random code our server gives your copy so that it can tell the App from anything else. It is not your name or any identifier of your iPhone, and it is not linked to your place or to anything you send us.
• Feedback is sent only when you press Send.
• Usage counts are anonymous totals of which screens and charts are opened. They carry nothing that identifies you or your iPhone, and you can switch them off in Settings > Privacy.
• Nothing is sold or shared for advertising, and the App does not track you across other apps or websites.

3. Information we process

Your location

Location is optional. You can search for a place by name instead, or decline permission in your iPhone's Settings; the App still works.

If you allow it, the App asks iOS for your approximate position (accuracy of about a kilometre) while the App is in use. The widgets can do the same when you put them on your Home Screen. The App uses it to:

• work out a place name, using Apple's location services;
• show the forecast for that place: its coordinates, rounded to four decimal places (about 10 metres), are sent to our server, which reads the forecast there;
• mark the place on the charts and radar and work out whether you are inside a weather warning or the radar's range (this happens on your iPhone and nothing is sent);
• if you switch on rain or warning notifications, send your place to our server (see Notifications below).

The place you pick, and any places you save, are stored on your iPhone and may be included in your iPhone's backups. We do not keep a history of where you have been, and your location is not tied to an account, because there are no accounts.

Place searches by name are handled by Apple's maps and geocoding service. Apple may process what you type and the area you are looking at.

If you switch on Journey, Apple's maps service is also asked for the driving route from your place to the place you pick: the coordinates of the two places are sent to Apple, which sends back the road and how long the drive takes. The towns along the road are named by asking Apple for the name of the place at a handful of points on it.

Notifications

All notifications are off until you switch them on in Settings > Notifications. The daily summary is written on your iPhone from the forecast already stored there; nothing is sent to us for it.

Rain in the next hour, severe weather warnings and forecast discussion alerts are sent from our server through Apple's Push Notification service. For each iPhone that has switched at least one of them on, our server stores:

• the notification address Apple gives this iPhone (it is not your name, Apple ID or any other device identifier);
• which of these notifications you chose, and the lowest warning level you chose;
• for rain and warning notifications only, your marked place with its name, so the notification can say where it is for. Our server rounds the position to about 2 km before it stores it. The forecast discussion alert needs only the address.

It is used only to decide whether to send you a notification and to send it. It is not used for advertising or profiling and is not shared with anyone except Apple, which delivers the notification. Switching these notifications off tells our server to delete it. An address that Apple reports as no longer valid, or that has not been seen for about four months, is deleted too.

Feedback you send

If you send a bug report or idea from Settings, our server stores what you write, a screenshot if you add one, and your email address if you give one (only so we can reply). Unless you switch it off on the form, it also includes the App's version, your iOS version, your iPhone model, the type of connection (Wi-Fi or mobile) and the chart you were looking at. It never includes your location. A screenshot is shrunk before it is sent, which also removes any location stored in the photo.

Only we read reports. We keep them until they are dealt with and then delete them, and we delete one sooner if you ask.

A key for each copy of the App

So that our server answers copies of the App and not just anyone, and so that one copy that misbehaves can be turned away without affecting anybody else, the first time the App needs our server it asks for a key of its own: a long random code. The key is kept in your iPhone's Keychain and sent with each request the App makes to our server. The home-screen widgets ask for a key of their own.

Our server stores only a scrambled version of the key (a one-way hash), whether the key belongs to the App or its widgets, the App's version number, when the key was made and last used, and how many requests it has made. The key is not your name, is not worked out from your iPhone or your Apple ID, and is not linked to your place, your notifications, your feedback or anything else you send. Because it is a random code kept in the Keychain, iOS may keep it after the App is deleted, and an App installed again may find and use it. Our server forgets a key that has not been used for over a year, and we can turn a key away at any time.

Usage counts

So that we can see which parts of the App are used and which are not, the App keeps a tally on your iPhone of how many times each tab and each chart has been opened, such as "Radar 7, Temperature chart 3", and sends the tally to our server about once a day. The tally is only names and numbers. It does not contain your location, the places you have saved, anything you typed, the time you used the App, or any number or code that identifies you or your iPhone, and our server does not keep the address it came from. Our server adds it to the day's totals for all iPhones, so we can tell that the Radar tab was opened a thousand times, but not by whom. You can switch this off in Settings > Privacy; the App then counts and sends nothing.

Photos

The App can save a chart to your photo library, but only when you tell it to. It never reads your photos.

IP addresses and server logs

Whenever your iPhone connects to any server, that server necessarily sees its IP address. Our own server does not switch on request logging, and it does not record IP addresses, query strings or user-agent strings in its operating statistics. It briefly holds addresses in memory to limit abuse (for example, too many feedback reports in an hour); this is not stored. To limit how many keys one address can ask for in a day, it also keeps a scrambled version of the address (a one-way hash made with a salt that changes every day, so the address cannot be worked out from it and the same address cannot be followed from one day to the next) for two days.

The companies that run our server (OVHcloud) and deliver our chart pictures (Cloudflare), and the networks in between, may see IP addresses as part of running the internet and may keep their own records; we cannot control those. We use this information only to deliver the service, keep it reliable and protect it from misuse.

Data stored on your iPhone

To load quickly and to work with a poor connection, the App stores on your iPhone: forecasts, chart pictures, radar frames, your places and your settings. A forecast stored for a place contains that place's coordinates. None of this is uploaded to us. You can remove stored charts at any time in Settings ("Delete all stored charts"), and deleting the App removes everything it stored, apart from any copy in your iPhone's backups and the App's key (see "A key for each copy of the App"), which iOS may keep in the Keychain.

If you turn on Background App Refresh in the App's settings, iOS may let the App download new chart pictures and the latest Met Office warnings while you are not using it. These downloads are the same ones the App makes when you open it, and none of them says where you are.

TestFlight

If you installed the App through Apple's TestFlight, Apple handles your tester sign-up. If you send feedback through TestFlight, or you have switched on "Share With App Developers" in your iPhone's Settings, Apple may pass us your feedback and crash reports. Those come from Apple, not from the App, and you control them in TestFlight and in your iPhone's Settings.

What we don't do

The App contains no advertising, no third-party analytics and no crash-reporting software; the only usage figures it produces are the anonymous counts described above, kept on our own server. It does not use the iPhone's advertising identifier, does not track you across other companies' apps or websites, and has no user accounts. Currently it also has no in-app purchases or subscriptions.

4. Other companies that handle your information

The App relies on these services. Each handles what it receives under its own terms and privacy policy, and we cannot control how long it keeps it.

Our weather server

The forecast on the Weather tab, the alternative forecasts and the "changes in the forecast" card are made by our own server from open weather data that it downloads from the Met Office and from NOAA; neither of them receives anything from you. Each request to our server contains the coordinates of the place being shown (to four decimal places) and, as with any internet request, your IP address. The server uses the coordinates to read the forecast at that place. For the places the App asks what earlier forecasts said, it remembers the 2 km grid square the place is in and when it was last asked, so that it can answer "what did yesterday's forecast say"; that square is not tied to you or your iPhone. The Home Screen widgets ask the server in the same way. If you switch on Tides in Settings > Features, the App also asks the server for the waves at the place the Tides card is showing - the first place you saved there, your own place, or one you search for in the card - and at points in the sea around it (their coordinates, to three decimal places). If you switch on Journey, it asks for the forecast at a handful of points along the road between your place and the place you pick (their coordinates, to three decimal places). If you switch on Sky Watch, it asks for the cloud forecast at your place (its coordinates, to four decimal places). Solar asks for that too, and for NOAA’s forecast of the Sun’s activity, which is the same for everyone and is asked for with nothing about you in it (our server reads it from NOAA, which receives nothing from you). If you switch on Is today normal?, it asks for the past 30 years of temperatures at your place (its coordinates, to three decimal places). If you switch on Hill forecast, it asks for the forecast at the hill you pick (the hill's own coordinates, not yours); the list of hills is put in order of how near they are to your place on the iPhone itself. If you switch on the Rain countdown, it uses the forecast the App already has for your place and sends nothing more: the countdown is drawn by the iPhone's Live Activities.

Apple

Apple provides your iPhone's location, place names, place search, driving routes for Journey, the notification service, TestFlight and the App Store. Apple handles it under its own privacy policy.

If you have switched on "Share With App Developers" in your iPhone's Settings, Apple gives us totals about how the App is used, such as downloads, sessions and crashes, in App Store Connect. Those totals come from Apple, not from the App, and they do not tell us who you are.

Apple's privacy policy: https://www.apple.com/legal/privacy/

Met Office radar data on Amazon Web Services

Rain radar pictures are downloaded from the Met Office's openly published data, which is stored on Amazon Web Services. The request names the radar frames only, not your place, but Amazon, like any server, sees your IP address. The radar widget does the same.

Met Office: https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/

AWS Privacy Notice: https://aws.amazon.com/privacy/

EUMETSAT satellite pictures

If you put a satellite picture under the Radar, the App downloads it from CloudCast's picture store, which copies the pictures from EUMETSAT's EUMETView map service every ten minutes. When that copy is not available the App asks EUMETView directly, and EUMETSAT, like any server, sees your IP address. Either way the request names the picture (which kind, and the time it was taken) and the area of Europe it covers, which is the same for everyone: not your place, and not the part of the map you are looking at.

EUMETSAT: https://www.eumetsat.int/

CloudCast's own server and its providers

The list of available charts, weather warnings, lightning strikes and the forecast discussion come from CloudCast's server, which is rented from OVHcloud and runs in a data centre in Canada. The chart pictures themselves are downloaded from CloudCast's picture store, which Cloudflare runs for us. None of these requests include your location, and the pictures and weather data contain nothing about you. The notification information and feedback described above are stored on our server itself.

OVHcloud: https://www.ovhcloud.com/en/terms-and-conditions/privacy-policy/

Cloudflare: https://www.cloudflare.com/privacypolicy/

Where these companies are

Some of these companies, and our server, are outside the UK: our server is in Canada, and Apple, Cloudflare and Amazon run services around the world. What each receives is described above, and we cannot control where they process it.

5. How we use information

We use information only to:

• show you the weather, charts, radar and warnings for your place;
• send the notifications you switch on;
• remember your places and settings, and load quickly;
• see which screens and charts are used, from anonymous counts, so we know what to improve;
• read and answer feedback you send;
• keep the service running, find faults and protect it from misuse;
• meet legal obligations.

We do not sell personal information, use it for advertising, or combine it with information from other companies' apps or websites to build a profile of you.

Our legal reasons

• Your consent for your location, for notifications and for feedback you send. You start each one yourself and can stop it at any time: with the switch in the App, or in your iPhone's Settings.
• Our legitimate interest in keeping the service running and protecting it from misuse, for example limiting how many requests one address can make. This is small, and it is not kept in a way that identifies you.
• Our legitimate interest in seeing which parts of the App are used, from counts that identify no one. You can switch them off in Settings > Privacy.

6. How long we keep information

• On your iPhone: until you change, replace or delete it, or delete the App.
• Notification details on our server: until you switch the notifications off, Apple reports the address as invalid, or it has not been seen for about four months.
• Feedback: until it has been dealt with, then deleted; sooner on request.
• The App's key on our server: the scrambled version, with the App's version and its counts of use, until the key has not been used for over a year, or we turn it away. The scrambled address used to limit how many keys one address can ask for is deleted after two days.
• Server statistics: short-lived counts about the service, kept without IP addresses or user identities. Operating metrics are cleared within about a day, and counts of which charts are requested (used to prepare popular charts in advance, with no link to you) after 30 days.
• Usage counts: only as daily totals for all iPhones, with nothing to say whose, kept for about 13 months. Counts waiting on your iPhone are deleted when you switch them off.
• Other companies: under their own policies.

7. Sharing and disclosure

We do not sell or rent personal information. It is handled by the companies named above only so the App can do what you ask: forecasts, place search, radar, notifications and hosting. We may also disclose it if the law requires, or where needed to protect the security or rights of the App and its users.

8. Security

Connections between the App and our server are encrypted (HTTPS). We collect as little as we can, keep it only as long as it is needed, and limit who can read it. No system is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee the security of other companies' services.

9. Your choices and rights

• Switch location off in this Privacy screen or in your iPhone's Settings at any time.
• Switch usage counts off in this Privacy screen.
• Switch notifications off in Settings > Notifications; our server then deletes the details it held for them.
• Delete stored charts in Settings, or delete the App to remove everything stored on your iPhone.

Depending on where you live, you may also have the right to ask what personal information we hold about you, to have it corrected or deleted, to object to or restrict how it is used, to withdraw consent, and to complain to a data protection authority. Because the App has no accounts, we can only find what we hold (for example, a feedback report) if you tell us enough to identify it, such as the email you gave. To make a request, contact us using the details in section 1. We will reply in line with the law.

In the United Kingdom you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office: https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/

10. Children

CloudCast is not aimed at children and does not knowingly collect personal information from them. It has no accounts and no advertising. If you think a child's information has reached us, contact us and we will delete it.

11. Changes to this policy

If the App starts to handle information differently, we will update this policy and its "Last updated" date before the change reaches you, and tell you in the App if the change matters to you.