Weather for Dads is built to need as little of your data as possible. There are no accounts, we never ask for your name or email, and we do not track you around the web. This page explains, plainly, what the app collects, why, who it is shared with, and how long it is kept.
Weather for Dads is run by Richard Jenkins, an individual based in the United Kingdom, who is the data controller for the personal data described on this page. It is not a registered company. If you have any question about this policy or about your data, email weatherfordads@gmail.com.
We do not collect your name, email address, phone number or any sign-in details. The app has no accounts and no log-in.
We rely on legitimate interests for most of this: running a free weather app that works, protecting it from misuse, and checking that its forecasts are accurate. Rain alerts and the optional analytics run only because you chose to turn them on, which is your consent, and you can withdraw it at any time.
To make your forecast, the app sends your rounded location, and nothing else about you, to these independent services. Each is a separate organisation whose own privacy terms govern what it does with the request:
These requests never include your name, email or session ID.
Notifications reach you through the service built into your device: Apple's push notification service on an iPhone, or your browser maker's push service (for example Google, Apple or Mozilla) in a browser. They carry the alert itself and nothing about where you are.
When you report what the weather is actually doing, other people nearby see it only as a count, for example "three dads within five kilometres say it is raining", never as a pin on a map or a precise position, and only for about an hour.
We keep a copy of each report to check how accurate each forecast was and to improve the forecast for everyone, and so we can compare seasons and years. The copy holds the report type, the rounded location, the time, your note and the session ID. After two years the location is rounded again, to about a kilometre, and the rest is kept. If you would like your reports deleted, contact us and we will remove them.
To check and improve the forecasts, the app reads public weather data from the Environment Agency, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, Natural Resources Wales, the Met Office, and Davis weather stations whose owners have chosen to share them with us. We also read the rain from public Netatmo weather stations (with Netatmo's permission) near people who have rain alerts turned on, to spot rain on its way. We use the readings and the positions of the stations, not who owns them, and we never show anything that identifies a private station or its owner. For Netatmo stations we store only a scrambled station code and a position rounded to about 1km, for up to 60 days, to check that each rain gauge agrees with its neighbours.
Separately from anything you do, the app keeps a record of what each forecast source predicted for a fixed set of places around the UK and what the weather actually did there, so we can measure accuracy over time. You can see the results on the accuracy page. These records are tied to those fixed places, not to you.
To know whether the app is useful, we count how often it is opened, roughly how long it stays on screen, and which of a few features get used, such as dragging the day graph, opening a day in the Week or sending a report. Each count is filed against a scrambled version of the anonymous session ID, which cannot be turned back into the ID itself. It holds no name, no location and no IP address, is kept on our own database, and is never shared with Google or anyone else. You can switch it off at any time under Other stuff, "Anonymous visit counts".
If you tap Accept on the cookie notice, we also use Google Analytics and Contentsquare to understand how the app is used, and they set their own cookies. If you tap Decline, or ignore the notice, they are never loaded.
The app does not use advertising cookies. The only tracking cookies are the analytics ones above, and only after you tap Accept. The app also uses your device's local storage to keep a few small things on your own device: your chosen location, the anonymous session ID, your settings, and whether you have dismissed hints and notices. You can remove them at any time by clearing the app's or browser's site data.
The app is hosted on Render, and its database is provided by Supabase. They store and process data on our behalf, on servers that may be outside the UK, under their standard data protection terms.
Weather for Dads is intended for adults. It is not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children.
You have the right to ask what personal data we hold about you, to have it corrected or deleted, to object to how we use it, and to withdraw any consent you have given. Because there are no accounts, the easiest way for us to find your data is by the anonymous ID on your device, so please include it in your email. Open this page on the phone or browser you use the app on and it is shown here:
Your anonymous ID on this device: not created yet (it is made the first time you open the app)
To make a request, or to raise a concern, email weatherfordads@gmail.com. If you are not satisfied with how a concern is handled, you can complain to the UK's data protection regulator, the Information Commissioner's Office, at ico.org.uk.
If this policy changes, the "last updated" date at the top of this page will change with it. Any significant change will be noted in the app.