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Ubuntu Weather

Privacy Policy

Effective: 1 May 2026.

This policy describes what data Ubuntu Weather (the "app") collects, why, and how it's handled. We follow the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA, South Africa) and Apple's App Store privacy guidelines. We don't sell your data and we don't track you across other apps or websites.

What we collect

Location. When you grant the app location permission, we read your device's GPS coordinates (latitude / longitude). We send these to our backend (ubuntuweather.co.za) and to weather data providers (WeatherAPI.com, Open-Meteo, Mapbox) only to fetch the weather, satellite imagery, and tide predictions for your area. Coordinates are not stored on our backend except in a short-lived (10-minute) cache to reduce upstream API calls.

Push notification token (Premium subscribers only). If you subscribe to Premium and grant notification permission, Apple issues your device an APNs token. We store this token on our backend alongside your last reported coordinates so we can deliver SAWS severe weather alerts that affect your location. We also store a per-device identifier (Apple's identifierForVendor) so re-installing the app doesn't create duplicate registrations. Tokens are removed automatically when Apple reports them as invalid (uninstall, expired, etc.) or when you cancel Premium.

Subscription status. Premium subscriptions are processed by Apple via the App Store. RevenueCat (our subscription management provider) receives the receipt from Apple to verify your subscription is active. We do not see, store, or process your payment details.

Search queries. When you search for a city in the location sheet, the query is sent to Mapbox to return matching place names. Mapbox temporarily logs queries for service operation. We do not link queries to your account or device.

Diagnostics. The app does not include a third-party analytics SDK. Server-side, we keep standard request logs (IP, request path, response code, timestamp) for 7 days for operational debugging. We do not associate these logs with any persistent identifier.

What we do NOT collect

• Names, email addresses, phone numbers, or contact information.
• Your address book, photos, microphone, camera, calendar, or HealthKit data.
• Cross-app advertising identifiers (we don't request NSUserTrackingUsageDescription).
• Cookies or web tracking beacons.

Third parties

The app integrates the following services. Each has its own privacy policy.

• Apple — iOS, App Store, Push Notifications. Apple Privacy
• RevenueCat — subscription management. RevenueCat Privacy
• Google AdMob — banner ads shown to free (non-Premium) users. AdMob may use a non-tracking advertising identifier to serve relevant non-personalised ads. Google Privacy
• Mapbox — geocoding (city search) and map tiles. Mapbox Privacy
• WeatherAPI.com — primary weather forecast data. WeatherAPI Privacy
• Open-Meteo — secondary weather data used to cross-check WeatherAPI.
• EUMETSAT — satellite imagery (no PII transmitted).
• OpenStreetMap — base map tiles (no PII transmitted).
• South African Weather Service (SAWS) — public-source severe weather warnings (scraped from weathersa.co.za; no user data sent).

How we secure data

All connections between the app and our backend use TLS 1.3. The push notification key (.p8 from Apple) is stored on our server with file permissions restricted to the system root user. Device tokens and subscription state are stored in SQLite on a server hosted in Cape Town (af-south-1).

Data retention

• Location requests: 10-minute cache then deleted.
• Push notification tokens: retained while you are a Premium subscriber. Removed when Apple reports them invalid, when you cancel Premium, or on request.
• Server access logs: 7 days.

Your rights under POPIA

• You can ask what data we hold about you.
• You can ask us to delete your data.
• You can object to specific processing.

Email privacy@ubuntuweather.co.za for any of the above. We respond within 30 days. To delete your push notification registration immediately, uninstall the app or cancel your Premium subscription.

Children

The app is not directed to children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect data from children.

Changes to this policy

If we materially change what we collect, we'll update this page and post a notice in the app on next launch. The "Effective" date at the top will reflect the most recent revision.

Contact

Privacy questions: privacy@ubuntuweather.co.za
General support: support@ubuntuweather.co.za