Privacy Policy

Information used for a storm lookup

When you tap Scan storm, StormDistance sends your current latitude, longitude, compass bearing, and selected distance limit to the StormDistance service. Those values are used only to perform the immediate weather lookup and return matched storm information and local lightning and weather-alert information. An independent local safety refresh uses your location without camera imagery or a compass reading.

Scan range and the historical radar appearance preference are saved only on your device. Current storm and safety results are snapshots rather than a stored account or scan history.

StormDistance does not retain those coordinates or bearings after the request, associate them with an account, or use them for advertising or tracking.

Camera

Camera access lets you aim the app at a visible storm. The camera image stays on your iPhone. StormDistance does not upload, store, or analyze photos or video.

Service providers

StormDistance uses infrastructure providers to securely deliver the service and Vaisala Xweather to perform weather lookups. They receive only the information needed to complete a request and are required to protect it. StormDistance does not sell personal information.

National radar browsing uses Apple Maps for maps and place searches, NOAA/NWS for radar mosaic tiles, and Unidata’s public NOAA NEXRAD archive for radar volume downloads. Place searches and requested map tile areas are sent to their respective providers. Radar site and file requests are sent to Unidata; selected storm coordinates are used on the device to crop the downloaded radar. Browsing does not require device-location or camera permission. Providers also receive ordinary network request metadata, such as IP address.

Radar files are downloaded temporarily for processing and removed after decoding. The historical radar example is bundled in the app. Educational fictional scenes and decorative cloud or lightning effects do not query live weather or represent measured cloud boundaries or strikes.

You can review the Vaisala Xweather privacy policy for information about its practices.

Your choices and deletion

Camera and location access can be changed at any time in iPhone Settings. If location access is disabled, StormDistance cannot perform a storm lookup. Because StormDistance does not create an account or retain your lookup data, there is no stored user profile or lookup history to delete.

Changes to this policy

This page will be updated if StormDistance's data practices change. The effective date above identifies the current version.

Questions

Privacy questions can be submitted using the App Support contact method on StormDistance's App Store product page.