Effective: 4 November 2026.
This policy describes what data Ubuntu Weather (the "app", on iPhone/iPad and Android) collects, why, and how it's handled. We follow the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA, South Africa), Apple's App Store privacy guidelines and Google Play's User Data policy. We don't sell your data and we don't track you across other apps or websites.
Location. When you grant location permission, the app reads your device's coordinates (latitude / longitude). On Android these come from Google Play services' location provider. We send them to our backend (ubuntuweather.co.za), which uses them to fetch weather, tides, satellite imagery and solar forecasts for your area from the providers listed below. Coordinates used for forecasts are only kept in a short-lived (10-minute) cache.
Alerts registration. If you allow notifications, your device receives a push token — from Apple Push Notification service on iOS, or Firebase Cloud Messaging (Google) on Android. We store this token on our backend together with your last reported coordinates, your lightning-alert and morning-briefing settings (whether the briefing is on and the time you chose), your device's time-zone offset (so the briefing arrives at your local time), whether you have Premium, and a per-device identifier (Apple's identifierForVendor on iOS, the app-scoped ANDROID_ID on Android) so reinstalling doesn't create duplicate registrations. This lets us send severe-weather and lightning alerts for where you are, and the daily morning briefing — a short forecast for your area, sent at the time you choose. The briefing is on by default when you allow notifications; you can turn it off or change its time in the app under Settings → Morning briefing. If you allow background location ("Always" on iOS), the app updates these coordinates when you move a significant distance so alerts follow you. Tokens are removed when Apple or Google reports them invalid (e.g. after uninstalling), or on request. If you turn on alerts for a saved place, we store its name, coordinates, radius and alert hours with your alert registration, until you turn them off.
Subscriptions. Premium is purchased through the App Store (iOS) or Google Play Billing (Android). RevenueCat, our subscription provider, receives the purchase receipt or token from Apple or Google to confirm your subscription is active. We never see or store your payment details.
Search queries. City searches are sent through our backend to Mapbox to return matching places. Mapbox may temporarily log queries to operate its service. We don't link queries to you or your device.
Suggestions you send us. If you use Suggestions in the app menu, we receive your message, the email address you choose to give (optional), a screenshot you choose to attach (optional), the place shown in the app, and your app version, device model and operating system version. We store this on our server and email it to ourselves so we can read and reply to it; the email is delivered via Resend. To prevent spam we also keep a one-way hash of your IP address with the submission. Nothing is sent unless you tap Send.
Data that stays on your device. Altitude (from GPS and, where your phone has one, its barometer — on iPhone this uses the Motion & Fitness permission), your saved places, solar panel settings and display preferences are kept on your device. Solar panel settings are sent with solar-forecast requests but not stored on our server.
Sharing weather. When you share today's weather, the picture is created on your device and handed to your phone's share sheet; it goes only to the app and people you pick. Nothing about what you share, or who you share it with, is sent to us.
Diagnostics. The app has no third-party analytics or crash-reporting SDK. Our server keeps standard request logs (IP address, request path, response code, timestamp) for operational debugging; these are not linked to any persistent identifier.
Free (non-Premium) users see ads served by Google AdMob. AdMob may use your device's advertising identifier (the Android Advertising ID, or Apple's IDFA only if you allow tracking — the app does not ask for tracking permission) and coarse information about your device to serve and measure ads. You can reset or delete the Android Advertising ID, or opt out of ad personalisation, in your Android settings under Google → Ads. Premium removes ads.
The app uses the following services. Each has its own privacy policy.
All connections between the app and our backend are encrypted (HTTPS/TLS). Alert registrations and suggestions are stored on our server in South Africa (Johannesburg), which runs the service under a restricted account; push-service credentials and email keys are only readable by the server's administrator account and the service itself.
Email privacy@ubuntuweather.co.za for any of the above. We respond within 30 days. To stop the morning briefing, switch it off in Settings → Morning briefing. To stop all alerts and remove your registration, turn off notifications for the app or uninstall it.
The app is not directed to children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect data from children.
If we materially change what we collect, we'll update this page and the "Effective" date above, and tell you in the app.
Privacy questions: privacy@ubuntuweather.co.za
General support: support@ubuntuweather.co.za