Privacy Policy

Location Data

When you grant location permission, we access your device's GPS to determine your nearest island and provide local weather forecasts. Location is used only while the app is open (foreground). We do not track your location in the background or store location history.

If you submit a voluntary weather observation (rain report), your coordinates are included in the report and coarsened to approximately 1 km precision before storage on our servers.

You can use the app without granting location permission by selecting an island manually.

Device Identifier

When you submit a weather observation, we collect your device's vendor identifier (IDFV on iOS, Android ID on Android). This is used solely to prevent duplicate submissions and enforce rate limits. We do not use advertising identifiers (IDFA or Google Advertising ID) and do not track you across apps.

Push Notification Token

If you enable weather alerts, we collect your device's push notification token and an anonymous, randomly generated user ID. These are stored securely and used only to deliver weather alerts you have opted into. The user ID is not linked to any personal information.

Weather Observations (Rain Reports)

You may voluntarily submit weather observations to help improve forecast accuracy. These reports contain: whether it is raining, optional intensity rating, optional notes, your approximate location, and your device identifier. Rain reports are anonymous and not linked to any personal identity.

• Name, email address, phone number, or any personal contact information
• Account credentials or passwords (there are no user accounts)
• Advertising identifiers (IDFA, Google Advertising ID)
• Photos, camera, microphone, contacts, or calendar data
• Browsing history or activity outside the app
• Health, fitness, financial, or biometric data
• Background location or location history
• Usage analytics or behavioural profiling

• Location — to determine your nearest island and display relevant weather forecasts, marine conditions, and alerts
• Push token — to deliver severe weather warnings and rain alerts you have enabled
• Device identifier — to prevent duplicate rain report submissions and enforce fair usage limits
• Rain reports — to validate and improve the accuracy of our AI-powered nowcast model for all users across the Maldives

Push notification tokens and user IDs are stored in your device's encrypted keychain (iOS Keychain / Android Keystore) using Expo SecureStore.

Server-side data is stored on encrypted, managed infrastructure hosted by DigitalOcean in the SGP1 (Singapore) region. All communication between your device and our servers uses HTTPS encryption.

Rain report coordinates are coarsened to 2 decimal places (~1.1 km) and device identifiers are hashed (SHA-256) before storage, minimising the precision of any stored location data.

We use the following services to provide weather data. Your device does not contact these services directly — all requests are proxied through our backend servers. Each service has their own privacy policy:

• OpenWeatherMap — weather forecasts and atmospheric data (privacy policy)
• Open-Meteo — marine forecasts, ocean conditions, and air quality (terms)
• EUMETSAT — satellite imagery for precipitation nowcasting (data policy)
• Blitzortung — real-time lightning detection network (website)

The following services are contacted directly by your device:

• Mapbox — base map tiles for the map screen (privacy policy)
• Expo (EAS Updates) — over-the-air app updates (privacy policy)
• Apple Push Notification service / Firebase Cloud Messaging — push notification delivery

We do not use any analytics, advertising, or tracking SDKs. There is no Firebase Analytics, Google Analytics, Facebook SDK, Amplitude, Mixpanel, Sentry, or any similar service in the app.

We do not sell, rent, or share your personal data with any third party for marketing, advertising, or profiling purposes.

Aggregated, anonymised weather observation data (rain reports) may be used to publish public research on precipitation patterns in the Maldives. No individual reports or device identifiers would be included in any published data.

• Weather observations — retained on our servers for forecast model validation. No expiration.
• Push notification tokens — retained while your alerts are active. Tokens are removed when you disable alerts or uninstall the app.
• Cached weather data — stored on your device for up to 24 hours for offline access. You can clear this from the app settings.

• Location permission — you can deny or revoke location access at any time in your device settings. The app works without it (select an island manually).
• Push notifications — you can disable alerts in the app settings or revoke notification permission in your device settings.
• Rain reports — submission is entirely voluntary. You are never required to submit observations.
• Data deletion — to request deletion of any data associated with your device, contact us at hello@reefcast.io. We will process deletion requests within 30 days.
• Offline data — you can clear all cached data from the app's settings screen.

ReefCast does not knowingly collect data from children under 13. The app does not require an account, does not collect personal information, and does not contain advertising or in-app purchases.

We may update this privacy policy from time to time. Changes will be posted on this page with an updated effective date. Continued use of the app after changes constitutes acceptance of the revised policy.