Privacy policy
Aethopia collects only what is needed to show the weather and send storm alerts. This page lists each item, what it is used for, where it goes and how long it is kept.
Location
The app reads your device location only after you tap “Allow location” or turn on Location in Settings; it reads once each time the app opens or returns to the foreground and never tracks continuously.
Location is used only to show the weather where you are. Within 50 km of Hong Kong the app records nothing and shows Hong Kong only.
More than 50 km from Hong Kong, the device keeps the coordinates (four decimal places), time zone and place name in a cookie, which is sent with each request to our server to render the Current location page; the server then requests the forecast for those coordinates from Open-Meteo. The server does not log or store the coordinates; turning Location off clears the cookie.
The place name comes from the device’s system geocoder (Apple or Google), which receives the coordinates.
Push notifications
Only after you turn notifications on does the app register with our server the device push token (issued by Apple or Google), the platform, the language, the alert types you chose (tropical cyclone signals, storms within 500 km, new storms forming) and the hour of registration.
The token is used only to send those alerts. Turning notifications off in Settings, or the system revoking the token, deletes the registration on our server.
While a tropical cyclone warning signal is in force, the app registers a Live Activity update token with our server so that signal updates can be pushed to the Lock Screen and Dynamic Island; the token is deleted when the Live Activity ends or when you turn notifications off.
Crash reports
When the app crashes or hits an error, the stack trace, device model, OS version and app version are sent to Sentry (United States) so it can be fixed. Reports contain no location, push token or anything that identifies you; performance tracing is off.
Usage measurement
For each page served, the server records the path, language, date and the referring site’s host name; within the app three interactions (tab, timeline, replay) are also recorded. No IP address, browser or device identifier, or cookie is recorded; there is no visitor identifier, so returning visits cannot be recognised.
Third-party services
Our servers run on Cloudflare, which briefly processes connection data (including IP addresses) to deliver content and block attacks; Aethopia keeps none of it. Weather and storm data come from public sources including the Hong Kong Observatory, the Japan Meteorological Agency, the US National Hurricane Center and Open-Meteo (all listed under Sources and limits). When fetching that data the server passes on none of your data, except the coordinates needed for the Current location page (see above).
Your choices
Location and notifications can be turned off in Settings at any time and take effect immediately. Deleting the app removes all data on the device; the push registration is the only item on our server tied to you, and it is removed when you turn notifications off or delete the app.
The app is not directed at children under 13 and shows no targeted advertising.
Contact
For privacy questions, email support@aethopia.com. Changes to this policy are dated on this page.