Privacy Policy — Weather Lair

Weather Lair is designed with privacy as a core principle. Your weather data is stored locally on your Mac. We do not operate servers, collect analytics, or track your usage.

1. Information We Collect

1.1 Location Data

Weather Lair may request access to your device's approximate (coarse) location to auto-detect your nearest city during initial setup. This is entirely optional — you can skip location detection and add cities manually. Location data is used only on-device to identify nearby cities and is never transmitted to our servers (we do not operate any).

1.2 Weather Data

The app fetches weather data from third-party providers on your behalf:

National Weather Service (NOAA) — for US cities. Your city's geographic coordinates are sent to api.weather.gov to retrieve weather data. No personal information is included.
Apple WeatherKit / Open-Meteo — for international cities. Geographic coordinates are sent to retrieve forecasts.
EPA AirNow — for US air quality data. Your city's coordinates and your optional API key are sent to the AirNow API.
Aviation Weather Center (AWC) — for aviation weather (METAR, TAF, PIREPs). Airport identifiers (ICAO codes) are sent to aviationweather.gov.
FAA NOTAM API — for aviation notices. Airport identifiers are sent to retrieve active NOTAMs.
RainViewer — for weather radar imagery. Map tile requests include geographic coordinates.

All weather data retrieved is stored locally on your Mac in a SwiftData database. This data is never sent to us or any third party.

1.3 API Keys

Certain optional features (AirNow AQI, FAA NOTAMs) require free API keys that you obtain directly from those services. These keys are stored securely in your Mac's Keychain and are only sent to their respective APIs. We never have access to your API keys.

1.4 iCloud Sync

If you have iCloud enabled, Weather Lair syncs your city list, favorite preferences, tracked airports, and custom alert settings across your Macs using Apple's CloudKit. This sync is handled entirely by Apple's infrastructure under Apple's privacy policy. Historical weather data (snapshots, forecasts, flight logs) is never synced — it stays local to each Mac.

2. Information We Do Not Collect

We do not collect, store, or transmit:

Personal identifying information (name, email, phone)
Device identifiers or hardware information
Usage analytics or behavioral data
Crash reports (unless you opt in via macOS system preferences)
Advertising identifiers
Browsing or search history
Contacts, calendars, or other personal data

3. Data Storage

All weather data is stored in a local SwiftData database on your Mac. You have full control over this data:

Export: You can export your entire weather database as JSON at any time from Settings.
Delete: Removing a city deletes all associated weather history. Uninstalling the app removes all data.
Compaction: The app automatically compacts older data to manage database size (full resolution for 7 days, then hourly, then 4-hourly, then daily summaries).

4. Third-Party Services

Weather Lair communicates with the following third-party services solely to fetch weather data. Each service has its own privacy policy:

Service	Purpose	Data Sent
National Weather Service	US weather data	City coordinates
Apple WeatherKit	International weather	City coordinates
Open-Meteo	International fallback	City coordinates
EPA AirNow	US air quality	Coordinates, API key
Aviation Weather Center	METAR, TAF, PIREPs	ICAO airport codes
FAA NOTAM API	Aviation notices	ICAO codes, API key
RainViewer	Radar imagery	Map tile coordinates
OurAirports	Runway data (bundled)	None (offline CSV)

We do not use any advertising networks, analytics SDKs, or tracking frameworks. The app contains zero third-party SDKs.

5. Children's Privacy

Weather Lair does not knowingly collect any information from children under 13. The app does not require an account, does not collect personal information, and is suitable for all ages.

6. Security

API keys are stored in the macOS Keychain, which provides hardware-backed encryption. All network requests to weather APIs use HTTPS. Weather data stored locally is protected by macOS file-system encryption (FileVault) if enabled on your Mac.

7. Your Rights

Since we do not collect or store any personal data on our servers, there is no personal data for us to access, modify, or delete. All your weather data is stored locally on your device and is fully under your control. You can export or delete it at any time through the app's Settings.

8. Changes to This Policy

If we update this privacy policy, we will post the revised version at this URL and update the effective date. Significant changes will be noted in the app's release notes on the Mac App Store.

9. Contact

If you have questions about this privacy policy or Weather Lair's data practices, contact us at:

weatherlair.app@gmail.com