Bell Weather (listed on the App Store as "Bell Weather: Climate Norms") is an app for iPhone and iPad that shows how current weather compares to the historical record for a given weather station. This policy explains what the app does and does not do with information. It covers the Bell Weather app and this website.
The short version
Bell Weather does not collect your personal information. There are no accounts, no analytics, no advertising, no tracking, and no third-party SDKs of any kind. Nothing you do in the app is sent to me or to anyone acting on my behalf.
Information stored on your device
The app saves the following locally on your device:
- The places you have saved, and the weather station used for each.
- Your display preferences, such as the comparison window and which baseline period you have chosen.
- Recently fetched climate data, cached so the app works quickly and can refresh in the background.
If you are signed in to iCloud, your list of saved places and their order are also kept in your iCloud account, so the same places appear on your other devices. That copy is stored by Apple and governed by Apple's privacy policy. I can't see it.
Otherwise this information never leaves your device except as part of an ordinary device backup, which is controlled by you and governed by Apple's privacy policy. Deleting the app removes this information from your device.
Information sent over the network
To show you historical comparisons, the app requests climate data from the Applied Climate Information System (ACIS), operated by the NOAA Regional Climate Centers, at data.rcc-acis.org.
Those requests contain the identifier of the weather station you are viewing and the range of dates being requested. When the app looks for stations near a place, the request also contains the approximate area around that place. They do not contain your name, your device identifiers, or anything else that identifies you. As with any internet request, the receiving server can observe the IP address the request came from. I have no control over and no access to what ACIS logs; their practices are their own.
Searching for a city, naming your current location, and drawing the national map use Apple's MapKit services, which receive the search text or the approximate coordinate involved. Apple handles that under its own privacy policy.
Location
Location access is optional. If you use the location button, the app asks for permission to use your location while the app is open. It requests only approximate, kilometer-level accuracy, rounds the result to about a kilometer (~0.6 miles), and uses it only to name the place and find nearby stations. The app does not track your location in the background or keep a history of where you have been. You can turn location access off at any time in Settings.
Information I receive
None. I operate no servers, no database, and no backend of any kind for this app. I have no ability to see who uses Bell Weather or how they use it.
If you email me, or send feedback through TestFlight, I will see whatever you choose to include in that message. TestFlight is operated by Apple and its data handling is governed by Apple's privacy policy.
Purchases
If you buy Bell Weather Unlimited, the purchase is handled entirely by Apple through the App Store. I don't receive your name, payment details, or anything else that identifies you; the app only checks with Apple whether the purchase has been made.
This website
bellweather.dev has no analytics, cookies, or tracking. It is hosted on GitHub Pages, which may log visitors' IP addresses for security purposes under GitHub's own privacy policy.
Children
Bell Weather does not collect personal information from anyone, including children under 13.
Changes to this policy
If this policy changes, the revised version will be posted at this address with an updated effective date. Because the app collects nothing, any change is far more likely to be a clarification than an expansion.
Contact
Questions about this policy can go to bellweather@jonathankizer.com.