WeatherZ

Privacy policy

The short version: we collect as little as possible, we don't run advertising or sell data, your precise location stays on your device, and launch-list emails are used for exactly one thing. The longer version follows, in plain English.

Updated 9 September 2026 · Applies to weatherz.uk

Who we are

WeatherZ ("we") operates weatherz.uk, a UK weather platform. For anything in this policy, contact us via the contact page.

The launch list

WeatherZ is now open to everyone, so the launch list is closed to new signups. For people who joined it before launch we still hold the email address given, when you consented, and which page you signed up from. We use it only to send occasional announcements about WeatherZ. The lawful basis is your consent, which you can withdraw at any time: every email includes a one-click unsubscribe link, and unsubscribing stops all of these emails immediately.

When you unsubscribe we keep your address flagged as unsubscribed rather than deleting it outright, so that a later mailing cannot accidentally reach you again. If you would prefer it erased completely, ask us via the contact page and we will delete it. We also keep a record of which announcements were sent to which address, so we can tell what was delivered. We never publish, sell or share launch-list addresses, and emails are delivered through Amazon Web Services (Amazon SES, acting as our processor).

Location

The WeatherZ platform asks your browser for your location so it can show local weather. Your precise coordinates are used in your browser to fetch forecasts and are stored on your own device (and, if you later create an account and enable it, synced to that account so your settings follow you). We do not publish precise locations: community weather reports display approximate locations only, and we strip precise coordinates from published report photos.

There is one place we store a location on our servers deliberately, and only if you ask us to: storm alerts. If you switch them on under Settings → Storm alerts you choose a location to watch, and we save it to about 100 m — rounded on purpose, because that is all an alert can use. To save you setting the same place twice, that page starts from whatever location your app is already set to; it is only a suggestion on screen until you switch storm alerts on, and if your app is still on our London default — because you never told it where you are — it is not offered at all. It is used for one thing only: checking, once a minute, whether a tracked storm cell is on course to reach it. Storm alerts are off until you turn them on, we will not let you enable them without a location, and switching them off or clearing the location removes it.

Cookies and similar storage

WeatherZ uses no advertising or cross-site tracking cookies. When you first visit, a consent notice asks whether you will allow optional first-party analytics. You can reject those analytics and still use the site. What we do use:

AI-assisted features

WeatherZ uses artificial intelligence to assist with moderation, community reporting, forecasting and other platform features. This can include reviewing or summarising weather and community information, but AI output may be wrong and is not an official warning or professional advice. We keep provider keys, prompts and private operational evidence on the server, and label or explain AI-assisted features where they appear.

Accounts and community content

Creating an account stores your email, username and a securely hashed password (we can't read it). Anything you deliberately publish - reports, photos, chat messages - is public by design and moderated per our community rules. You can ask us to delete your account and associated personal data at any time.

Notification emails

If someone mentions or quotes you in chat we can email you about it, and we email moderators when something needs reviewing. These are service messages about your own account activity rather than marketing, so they start switched on - you can turn them off at any time under Settings → Notifications, or with the one-click link at the bottom of any of these emails. To do that we store your preference, an unsubscribe token, and how recently we last emailed you (so we can keep the volume sensible); nothing about the message itself is kept beyond the notification already shown to you in the app. Password resets and account security emails are never affected by that switch — an account has to stay recoverable.

Storm alerts are separate and start switched off, because they need the location described above. When they are on we store that location, how severe a storm has to be before we tell you, any quiet hours you set, and when we last alerted you — the last of these so one storm cannot produce a stream of messages. We alert you at most once per storm cell.

Severe Outlook alerts sit in the same panel but start switched on, because unlike storm alerts they need no location: a convective outlook covers the whole country, so there is nothing about you involved in sending one. They are rare — only the most severe outlooks reach the threshold, and you get at most one email per outlook. We store your preference if you change it, and a record that we emailed you about a particular outlook — kept for 30 days, and only so the same outlook can never reach you twice. Turning them off under Settings → Storm alerts stops them, and so does the site-wide email switch above.

Browser notifications are optional and off until you switch them on and your browser asks your permission. If you enable them we store what your browser gives us for that device: an address supplied by your browser vendor's notification service, the keys needed to encrypt messages to it, and a short description of the browser so you can tell your devices apart. Message contents are encrypted so that the notification service relaying them cannot read them. Turning notifications off in Settings, or revoking the permission in your browser, deletes that record — and we delete it automatically as soon as a device stops accepting messages.

Game notifications work the same way, over the same devices. ChaserZ can tell you about season notices, weather worth chasing near your own instruments, a vehicle arriving or a build finishing, an operation you committed to, and milestones you reach. Which of those you want is stored with your account as a preference, so it follows you between browsers, and they start switched on for anyone who has already allowed notifications. Nothing about where you are is involved: a notification is about your own game and nothing else. You can switch any of them off inside the game, under the main menu's Notifications panel, at any time.

Who processes data for us

Our infrastructure providers process data on our behalf: DigitalOcean (hosting and database, London region), Cloudflare (CDN and security). Weather data lookups (for example fetching a forecast for coordinates) go to the providers listed on our data sources page from your browser; they receive the coordinates needed to answer the request, not your identity.

Your rights

Under UK GDPR you can ask us for a copy of your personal data, ask us to correct or delete it, object to or restrict processing, and withdraw consent. Contact us and we'll respond within one month. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office.

To delete your account specifically, see delete your account — it sets out how to ask, what is removed, and what we are required to keep.

Changes

We'll update this page as the platform grows (accounts, apps, notifications), and the "updated" date above will always tell you when. Material changes will be highlighted rather than slipped in.