Privacy
Last reviewed .
What this site collects
- Nothing you have to give it
- There is no sign-up, no newsletter and no contact form. Accounts are not enabled on this deployment, so everything here runs in guest mode.
- Searches are used, not kept
- A place you search for is sent to this site’s own API so it can fetch the forecast and hazards for that point. It is not written to a database and not passed to anyone else.
- Your location, only when you ask
- “Locate me” and “show distance from me” use your browser’s location, and only after you click. Your browser asks permission first, and the coordinates are used for that request and then discarded. Refusing costs you nothing but typing a place name instead.
- A short-lived note of your IP address
- Requests to this site’s API are rate limited, which means the server holds an identifier derived from your IP address in memory for a rolling one-minute window. It is not stored in a database and not used for anything else. The hosting provider keeps its own server logs, as every host does.
What stays in your browser
Your browser stores these on your own device. They are never sent to this site’s server, and clearing your site data removes them permanently.
- gww:theme
- Light or dark theme, so the site opens the way you left it.
- gww:last-location
- The last place you looked up, so the home page opens on it next time.
- gww:locations
- Locations you saved. Without an account these exist only in this browser.
- gww:alert-prefs
- Which alert types you chose to see.
The site also installs a service worker so recently viewed pages still open when your connection drops, which is the situation this site exists for. It caches pages and responses on your device and reports nothing back.
Analytics
This site uses Google Analytics 4 to count visits and see which pages earn their place. It sets cookies in your browser and reports your page views, an approximate location derived from your IP address, and basic device and browser information to Google. It is not given your saved locations or anything you type.
If you would rather not be counted, browser tracking protection and content blockers stop it, and Google publishes a browser opt-out add-on. What Google then does with that data is covered by its privacy policy. Analytics is the only thing on this site that sets a cookie.
Who else sees a request
Almost every data feed is fetched by this site’s server, so the source sees the server rather than you. The exceptions are below: files your browser loads directly, which means those hosts see your IP address and the usual request headers, as any web request does.
- CARTO
- Basemap tiles for the interactive map. See CARTO’s privacy notice.
- Esri
- Tiles for the still epicentre map on earthquake pages. See Esri’s privacy statement.
- RainViewer
- Radar imagery tiles on the radar and map pages.
- Windy
- Webcam thumbnails and the embedded player on the live cameras page. Opening a camera loads a third-party player, which may set its own cookies. See Windy’s privacy policy.
- Analytics, as described above.
Every source behind the numbers on this site is listed, with its licence, on the sources page.
What this site never does
- It does not sell or share your data with data brokers or advertisers.
- It carries no advertising and no third-party ad or tracking pixels.
- It does not build a profile of you or follow you across other sites.
- It does not email you. There is no mailing list to be on.
- It does not ask for a name, an address, or a payment method.
Changes and questions
If what this site collects changes, this page changes with it and the review date above moves. That date is the honest signal: it says when this wording was last checked against what the code actually does.
See also the terms of use, which cover what this site is and is not, and where the data comes from.