Privacy Policy — Weather

App: Weather · Developer: The App Tower Inc.
Effective: 31 August 2026

The short version

Weather sends your location to Apple to fetch your forecast, and collects anonymous crash and usage data so the app can be fixed and improved. The free version shows ads. By default they are non-personalised — not chosen using a profile of you. After you have been using the app for a while it asks, once, whether it may use your device’s advertising identifier to make ads more relevant; if you decline, or simply never answer, nothing changes. You can remove every ad with a one-time purchase. There are no accounts to sign up for, and nothing you can be identified by ever leaves your device.

What we collect

Precise location. When you allow it, your coordinates are sent to Apple’s WeatherKit service to retrieve the forecast for where you are. This happens only to answer that request. Your location is not stored on our servers — we do not operate any — and it is never sent to our analytics, crash-reporting or advertising providers. If you prefer, you can decline the permission and search for a city instead; the app works the same way.

Crash data and diagnostics. If the app crashes or hits an error, Firebase Crashlytics (Google) receives the crash report along with your device model, OS version, and non-identifying context such as which visual theme was active, which weather source responded, and whether notifications were enabled.

Product interaction. Firebase Analytics (Google) records anonymous events about how the app is used — for example that a theme was chosen, a feed card was hidden, or a forecast screen was opened. These events never include a place name, a coordinate, or anything you have typed.

Device identifier. Firebase Analytics generates a random, app-specific installation identifier so one install can be told apart from another. It is not the advertising identifier, it is not shared for advertising, and it is reset if you delete the app.

Advertising

The free version of the app shows ads supplied by Google AdMob. They appear as cards inside the feed, occasionally as a full-screen ad when you re-open the app or leave a detail screen, and never over a severe-weather warning.

Ads are non-personalised unless you allow otherwise. By default every request the app makes is tagged “non-personalised” (npa=1), which means Google may not use a profile of your interests or your past behaviour to choose which ad to show. Ads are selected from context and coarse signals only. This is what happens unless you explicitly allow tracking, as described next.

Asking permission to track. The app presents Apple’s App Tracking Transparency prompt once. It appears only after you have opened the app on several separate occasions — never during first-run setup, and never at all if you have bought Remove Ads. There is no screen of our own beforehand asking you to say yes, and nothing is offered in return for allowing it.

  • If you choose Allow, the app may read your device’s advertising identifier (IDFA) so that Google can choose more relevant ads. Because that is advertising personalisation, it counts as tracking under Apple’s definition, and the app accordingly declares NSPrivacyTracking = YES.

  • If you choose Ask App Not to Track, or never answer at all, ad requests stay tagged non-personalised exactly as before and no advertising identifier is read.

You can change this whenever you like in iOS Settings → Privacy & Security → Tracking; switching it off stops the app using the identifier from that point on. Firebase Analytics never reads the advertising identifier in either case — the app links Google’s no-advertising-identifier build of it, and that does not change based on your answer.

Why we ask. A personalised ad is worth more per view than a non-personalised one, so the app can cover its costs while showing fewer of them. The forecast is identical either way and nothing is withheld if you decline.

What Google still receives. Serving any ad requires some data. For non-personalised ads that is the device and app information needed to deliver and render the ad, an approximate location derived from your IP address (country or city level — not the precise coordinates the forecast uses), and whether an ad was shown, viewed or tapped. Google uses it to deliver the ad, cap how often you see the same one, prevent fraud, and report aggregate performance. Google’s own description of this is at developers.google.com/admob/ios/data-disclosure, and its handling is covered by Google’s privacy policy.

Install attribution. iOS’s SKAdNetwork may tell an advertiser, in a form Apple designed to be non-identifying, that an install followed one of their ads. This is run by Apple, not by us, and it involves no identifier of you.

Ads you choose to watch. Some visual themes can be unlocked by watching a short video ad. This is entirely optional: no part of the forecast is behind it, one is never shown unless you tap to watch it, and the Remove Ads purchase unlocks every theme without watching anything.

If you are in the EEA or the UK. Before any ad is requested, the app shows Google’s consent form asking how your data may be used for advertising, and no ad is requested until you have answered it. You can reopen that form at any time from Settings → Privacy in the app to change or withdraw what you chose. This is separate from the tracking prompt above and comes first.

Removing the ads. A one-time in-app purchase removes every ad in the app permanently — see Purchases below. Removing ads also stops the ad requests.

Purchases

The app offers one optional non-consumable in-app purchase, Remove Ads. It is processed entirely by Apple. We never see or receive your payment details, card number, or Apple Account. The app asks Apple whether this device is entitled to the purchase and stores nothing about you beyond that answer. “Restore purchase” in Settings re-checks that entitlement with Apple, which is how the purchase follows you to a new device or a reinstall.

What we do not collect

  • No advertising identifier, unless you allowed it. Firebase links Google’s no-advertising-identifier build with ad personalisation signals disabled, and never reads the IDFA. AdMob reads it only if you chose Allow at the tracking prompt; if you did not, ad requests stay non-personalised.

  • No tracking across apps or websites, unless you allowed it — and no sharing with data brokers in any case. If you declined the tracking prompt or never answered it, nothing collected is used to build a profile of you across other companies’ apps or websites.

  • No accounts, no sign-up, no email address, no name, no contacts.

  • No payment information — Apple handles the purchase and does not pass it to us.

  • Your precise location is never sent to advertisers or to analytics. It goes to Apple’s WeatherKit, and nowhere else.

  • Nothing you type. Saved places, feed arrangement, unit preferences and puzzle progress stay on your device and are not transmitted anywhere.

Notifications

Severe-weather alerts are delivered as local notifications, generated on your device from forecast data. There is no push server and no device token is registered with us. You control whether they appear, and whether you receive all severe alerts or only extreme ones, in Settings.

The app can also send one daily forecast message in the morning. It is off for everyone until you switch it on with the bell beside the hourly forecast (or in Settings) — there is no default-on, and allowing notifications for warnings does not opt you into it. It is capped at four a week, sent only on days there is rain or snow worth naming, and suppressed entirely while a severe alert is active so it can never arrive on top of a warning. Like the alerts, it is generated on your device; nothing about it is sent anywhere.

Background activity

With Background App Refresh enabled, the app may check the forecast while closed so a severe warning can reach you in time, and so the daily message describes today rather than yesterday. This uses the same location and weather services described above and collects nothing further.

Children

Weather is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect information from them.

Your choices

  • Revoke location access at any time in iOS Settings.

  • Turn notifications off entirely, or limit them to extreme alerts, in the app.

  • Remove all advertising with the one-time Remove Ads purchase in Settings.

  • Change or withdraw tracking permission at any time in iOS Settings → Privacy & Security → Tracking.

  • In the EEA and the UK, reopen Google’s ad-consent form from Settings → Privacy in the app.

  • Deleting the app removes everything stored on your device and disconnects the anonymous installation identifier.

  • For any question or request about your data, email privacy@theapptower.com.

Third parties

  • Apple WeatherKit — provides the forecast. Apple’s handling of that request is covered by Apple’s own privacy policy.

  • Google Firebase (Crashlytics and Analytics) — crash reporting and anonymous usage analytics, covered by Google’s privacy policy.

  • Google AdMob — advertising, covered by Google’s privacy policy. Non-personalised by default; personalised only if you allowed tracking. Google’s User Messaging Platform provides the EEA/UK consent form. See the Advertising section above for what it receives.

  • Apple (In-App Purchase) — processes the optional Remove Ads purchase.

Changes

If this policy changes, the effective date above will change with it, and material changes will be noted in the app’s release notes.