Overview
Raccoon Weather is an independently operated weather service available through the raccoonwx.com website, its installable web application, and official mobile applications and related features such as widgets.
Raccoon Weather is designed to collect as little information about its users as reasonably possible. Raccoon Weather does not require user accounts, does not build user profiles, does not use analytics or advertising trackers, does not display targeted advertising, and does not sell personal information.
Certain information is nevertheless processed as necessary to operate the service. This includes ordinary web-server access logs and, when you request location-based weather information, geographic coordinates that may be transmitted to weather, mapping, or platform services necessary to provide the requested feature.
This Privacy Policy explains what information is processed, why it is processed, where it may be sent, how long it is retained, and the choices available to you.
Scope
This Privacy Policy applies to Raccoon Weather, including the raccoonwx.com website, the Raccoon Weather progressive web application (PWA), official Raccoon Weather mobile applications, widgets, and other Raccoon Weather features that link to this policy.
It does not govern third-party websites or services that you choose to visit through external links.
Information Raccoon Weather Processes
Web Server Access Logs
Like most websites, raccoonwx.com maintains standard web-server access logs for operational and security purposes.
These logs may contain your Internet Protocol (IP) address, the date and time of a request, the resource requested, the amount of data transferred, and the HTTP response status code.
These logs are not combined with user profiles, advertising data, analytics data, or other information for the purpose of identifying or tracking individual users.
Raccoon Weather uses these logs only as reasonably necessary to operate, troubleshoot, secure, and maintain the service.
Active web-server access logs are ordinarily retained for 14 days. Because server backups are retained for 30 days, an access-log record may remain in a backup for up to approximately 44 days from the date of the original request. Backup copies are retained for disaster recovery and are not used for analytics or user profiling. They expire through the normal backup-retention process.
Location Information
Raccoon Weather can use your location to provide weather information relevant to where you are.
On supported devices, you may choose to grant the website or mobile application permission to access your device's location. Location access is used to determine the geographic coordinates for which weather information should be requested.
You may also use Raccoon Weather without granting device-location permission by searching for a city or other supported location manually.
When location-based weather features are used, latitude and longitude coordinates may be transmitted to weather and mapping services such as Open-Meteo and the National Weather Service because those coordinates are necessary to retrieve weather information for the requested location.
Raccoon Weather does not maintain a server-side database of users' location histories and does not use location information to track users, build profiles, serve advertising, or determine users' movements for marketing purposes.
Mobile applications or widgets may retain the most recently used location on the device so that weather information can be displayed and refreshed. This local information is not a Raccoon Weather user account and is not used for tracking.
Location Searches
When you manually search for a location, the search text may be sent to a geocoding provider, currently Open-Meteo, in order to find matching geographic locations.
Raccoon Weather does not use location-search queries for advertising, profiling, or analytics.
Information Stored on Your Device
Raccoon Weather uses local device and browser storage to provide functionality such as remembering your last location, preferences, display settings, and cached weather information.
On the web and PWA, this may include technologies such as browser local storage, IndexedDB, and service-worker caches.
In official mobile applications, information may also be stored using operating-system-provided application storage. For example, the iOS application and widget may share a locally stored weather snapshot containing the currently selected location and current weather information.
This information is intended to remain on your device except when particular information, such as coordinates, must be transmitted to a weather or mapping service to perform a requested feature.
Cached data may be automatically replaced or removed as it ages. You can also remove locally stored information by clearing the site's browser data or uninstalling the application.
Raccoon Weather does not use locally stored data for behavioral advertising or cross-site tracking.
Communications With Raccoon Weather
If you contact Raccoon Weather using a contact form or email, Raccoon Weather will receive the information that you voluntarily provide, which may include your name, email address, message, and any other information you choose to include.
This information is used only to respond to your inquiry, investigate a problem you report, maintain necessary correspondence, or address security, abuse, privacy, or legal matters.
Contact messages may be stored using Raccoon Weather's email provider, currently Fastmail.
Ordinary contact correspondence may be retained for up to 12 months after the most recent correspondence and then deleted when no longer needed. Messages may be retained longer where reasonably necessary for security, abuse prevention, legal obligations, or another legitimate recordkeeping requirement.
You may request deletion of correspondence you have sent to Raccoon Weather by using the contact method described at the end of this policy.
Third-Party Services
Raccoon Weather relies on several third-party services to provide weather, mapping, location, and communications functionality. Depending on the feature being used, these services may receive information necessary to service a request, such as an IP address, geographic coordinates, location-search text, map requests, browser or device information, or other ordinary network-request information.
Open-Meteo. Raccoon Weather uses Open-Meteo for weather forecasts, current weather data, air-quality information, geocoding, and related weather data. Weather requests may contain latitude and longitude coordinates. Open-Meteo maintains its own privacy and retention practices.
NOAA and the National Weather Service. Raccoon Weather uses services operated by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and National Weather Service for forecasts, observations, alerts, radar, forecast discussions, climatological products, and other official weather information. Some requests may contain geographic coordinates or other location-specific identifiers. NOAA and NWS maintain their own logging, security, and retention practices.
Aviation Weather Center. Raccoon Weather may retrieve METAR and other aviation-weather information from NOAA's Aviation Weather Center. Requests to these government systems are subject to the applicable U.S. government privacy and system-use policies.
Esri / ArcGIS. Raccoon Weather uses Esri's ArcGIS technology for interactive mapping and radar presentation. Your device may communicate with Esri or ArcGIS services while interactive maps are being used. Esri may process network and technical information in accordance with its privacy policies.
Apple platform services. On Apple devices, Raccoon Weather may use Apple-provided services such as Core Location and MapKit to obtain a device location or convert geographic coordinates into a human-readable location. Information processed independently by Apple is governed by Apple's privacy practices.
Fastmail. Fastmail is used as Raccoon Weather's email service provider. If you contact Raccoon Weather, your correspondence may be processed and stored through Fastmail as necessary to deliver and manage that communication.
Raccoon Weather uses third-party services only where their functionality is necessary or useful to provide Raccoon Weather features and where their published privacy practices provide protections appropriate to the information involved. Information transmitted for Raccoon Weather functionality is not provided by Raccoon Weather to these services for Raccoon Weather advertising, user profiling, or sale of personal information.
Third-party providers maintain their own privacy policies and retention schedules, which may differ from Raccoon Weather's own retention practices.
Optional Financial Support
Raccoon Weather may provide links to third-party platforms through which users can voluntarily support the project, such as Buy Me a Coffee, Ko-fi, or similar services.
Payments are processed by those third-party services and their payment processors. Raccoon Weather does not receive or store your complete payment-card information.
Depending on the platform and the way you choose to provide support, the platform may make information available to Raccoon Weather such as a display name, email address, support or membership level, transaction information, or a message you choose to provide.
Such information will be used only as reasonably necessary to administer the support, provide any associated benefit, respond to the supporter, meet accounting or legal obligations, or address transaction-related issues. It will not be added to an advertising profile or sold.
Your interaction with a financial-support platform is also governed by that platform's own privacy policy.
No Analytics, Advertising, or User Profiling
Raccoon Weather does not use web analytics services, advertising networks, advertising SDKs, tracking pixels, or similar technologies to monitor how individual users use the service.
Raccoon Weather does not sell or rent personal information.
Raccoon Weather does not use personal information for targeted advertising.
Raccoon Weather does not attempt to track users across unrelated websites or applications.
Raccoon Weather does not create behavioral or marketing profiles of its users.
Cookies and Similar Technologies
Raccoon Weather itself does not use cookies for advertising or analytics.
Raccoon Weather does use browser and device storage technologies where necessary to provide application functionality, remember preferences, support offline operation, and cache weather information.
Third-party services used by Raccoon Weather may independently use cookies or similar technologies when their services are loaded or when you visit their websites. Their use of those technologies is governed by their respective privacy policies.
Your Choices and Control
Location access is optional. You can decline location permission and manually search for a location instead.
You can revoke Raccoon Weather's location permission at any time through your browser or device settings.
You may remove locally stored Raccoon Weather information by clearing the website's stored data in your browser or by uninstalling the mobile application.
Because Raccoon Weather does not maintain user accounts or centralized user profiles, in many cases Raccoon Weather has no user-specific server-side record that can be accessed or deleted.
If you have contacted Raccoon Weather or otherwise believe Raccoon Weather maintains personal information about you, you may request access to or deletion of that information using the contact method described below. Raccoon Weather will honor applicable privacy rights where reasonably able to identify the information involved and where retention is not otherwise required by law or a legitimate security or recordkeeping need.
Data Retention and Deletion
Raccoon Weather retains information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purpose for which it was processed.
Web-server access logs are ordinarily retained for 14 days and may remain in disaster-recovery backups for up to approximately 44 days from the original request.
Locally cached weather and preference information remains on the user's device subject to automatic cache expiration, replacement, browser storage controls, or application removal.
Contact correspondence is ordinarily retained for no more than 12 months after the most recent correspondence unless a longer period is reasonably necessary for security, abuse prevention, financial recordkeeping, legal obligations, or another legitimate need.
Third-party providers retain information according to their own policies and legal requirements.
Security
Raccoon Weather takes reasonable technical and administrative measures to protect the limited information under its control.
The Raccoon Weather website is provided using encrypted HTTPS connections. Administrative access to Raccoon Weather's server and systems is restricted.
No method of transmission or electronic storage can be guaranteed to be completely secure, and Raccoon Weather cannot guarantee absolute security.
Children's Privacy
Raccoon Weather is a general-audience weather service and is not directed specifically toward children.
Raccoon Weather does not knowingly seek to collect personal information from children for advertising, profiling, or marketing purposes.
If a parent or guardian believes that a child has voluntarily submitted personal information to Raccoon Weather and would like it removed, they may contact Raccoon Weather using the method described below.
External Links
Raccoon Weather may contain links to weather agencies, educational resources, financial-support platforms, and other third-party websites.
When you follow an external link, you leave Raccoon Weather and become subject to the privacy practices of the destination site. Raccoon Weather is not responsible for the privacy practices of unrelated third-party websites.
Privacy Rights
Depending on where you live, applicable law may provide rights concerning personal information, such as rights to access, correct, delete, restrict, or object to certain processing.
Raccoon Weather maintains very little centralized personal information and does not maintain user accounts or behavioral profiles. As a result, Raccoon Weather may have no user-specific information to provide in response to a request.
Where Raccoon Weather does hold identifiable information, such as correspondence submitted through the contact form, you may contact Raccoon Weather to exercise any rights that apply to you.
Raccoon Weather does not discriminate against users for exercising applicable privacy rights.
Changes to This Privacy Policy
Raccoon Weather may update this Privacy Policy when features, service providers, legal requirements, or privacy practices change.
The current version will always be published on the Raccoon Weather website, and the "Last updated" date at the top of this policy will be revised when material changes are made.
Contact
For questions about this Privacy Policy, requests concerning personal information, or other privacy matters, please use the Raccoon Weather contact form and select Privacy / Data Request.
No user account is required to submit a privacy inquiry.