Privacy Policy

Last updated: September 30, 2026

The short version. FrankWeather is free on desktop and mobile, requires no account for weather browsing, and includes no ads or behavioral analytics. Core saved locations and settings stay on your device. Live weather and update requests still reach public data providers, app stores, and FrankWeather services, which can receive ordinary network metadata such as your IP address. We do not sell your data.

1. Who we are

FrankWeather (the "app," "we," "us") is a weather application for Windows, macOS, iPhone, iPad, and Android operated by FrankWeather. You can reach us at support@frankweather.com.

2. What the app does with your data

FrankWeather is designed to keep core preferences on your device and minimize service data. Specifically:

Saved locations, layers, and settings are stored locally on your device (in the app's local storage and configuration files). They are not uploaded to us.
Weather and map data (radar, alerts, forecasts, satellite, lightning, etc.) are requested from public providers such as the National Weather Service (NWS), NOAA, the Storm Prediction Center, the National Hurricane Center, USGS, and others (the full list is below). Some platform or provider requests may use a FrankWeather proxy/cache service for compatibility and reliability. Requests can include the place, map area, station, or weather resource you ask to view and ordinary network metadata. Provider and hosting privacy practices apply.
Location precision. When the app asks a weather, alert, or air-quality provider about one of your places, it rounds the coordinates to three decimal places — about 100 meters (roughly a city block) — before they leave your device. National Weather Service forecasts resolve to a 2.5 km grid, so this does not change the forecast you see.
"Use my location" is optional. If you use it, the app asks your operating system for your approximate location to center the map and request local weather. If that is unavailable, it estimates a city-level location from your IP address using get.geojs.io, which receives your IP address. The app then looks up a place name for the location through OpenStreetMap Nominatim (coordinates rounded as above). The optional "Follow me" mode asks for a more precise fix about once a minute so alerts follow you while traveling; it stays on your device and is rounded like any other place before weather requests. The app does not build a location history, but the requested place or coordinates can be sent to the relevant weather provider or FrankWeather proxy/cache service to return that data.
Diagnostics are kept in local log files on your device to help you troubleshoot. Optional remote diagnostics are off by default and only send data if you explicitly turn them on and configure an endpoint.

Services the app contacts

Depending on the features you use, the app connects directly to these services. Each receives your IP address and ordinary request metadata along with what is listed.

National Weather Service (api.weather.gov, tgftp.nws.noaa.gov) — forecasts, current conditions, alerts, forecast discussions, and radar products, using rounded coordinates (~100 m) for your places.
NOAA map and radar services (mapservices.weather.noaa.gov, opengeo.ncep.noaa.gov, mrms.ncep.noaa.gov), the Storm Prediction Center (spc.noaa.gov), the National Hurricane Center (nhc.noaa.gov), and the Space Weather Prediction Center — nationwide outlooks, watches, storms, and radar layers. Tapping the radar to read a value sends the map point you tapped.
FrankWeather data service (api.frankweather.com/wx) — FrankWeather's own high-resolution radar mosaic, satellite and forecast-model map tiles, processed from NOAA and ECMWF open data. Like any tile service it sees which map area you are viewing; no account or location is sent.
Unidata NEXRAD Level III archive on Amazon Web Services (unidata-nexrad-level3.s3.amazonaws.com) — raw scans from the radar site nearest the map, decoded on your device for Site radar. It sees which radar site's data is requested.
Iowa Environmental Mesonet (mesonet.agron.iastate.edu) — radar and model map tiles, storm reports, and warning archives. RainViewer (rainviewer.com) — the animated radar loop. NASA GIBS — satellite imagery. Tile services see which map area you are viewing.
Open-Meteo (open-meteo.com) — hourly precipitation, air quality, marine, winter, sounding, climate, and model-comparison data, using rounded coordinates (~100 m).
AirNow (files.airnowtech.org) — a nationwide air-quality file; your location is not sent.
Aviation Weather Center (aviationweather.gov) — airport weather reports (METAR), requested by station identifier.
U.S. Geological Survey — river gauges (api.waterdata.usgs.gov, for an area around a rounded point) and earthquakes (earthquake.usgs.gov, nationwide feed).
Wildfire, drought, and county data — NIFC incident data via ArcGIS (services3.arcgis.com), the U.S. Drought Monitor (droughtmonitor.unl.edu), and U.S. Census TIGERweb county outlines for the map area you view.
Blitzortung.org — a live lightning-strike stream over a secure websocket; your location is not sent.
OpenStreetMap Nominatim (nominatim.openstreetmap.org) — the place names or addresses you search for, and rounded coordinates when naming your current location.
OSRM routing (router.project-osrm.org) — when you plan trip weather, the start and destination points of the route you request, so the route can be calculated.
get.geojs.io — only when precise location is unavailable, to estimate an approximate location from your IP address.
Map tiles — the basemap is served only from frankweather.com; there is no third-party fallback map service. Terrain shading uses public elevation tiles on Amazon Web Services (s3.amazonaws.com). These see which map area you are viewing.
ntfy — only if you enter an ntfy topic URL in Settings, safety notification titles and text (which can include place names) are posted to the ntfy server you chose.
FrankWeather (frankweather.com) — update checks and the basemap, plus the optional cloud notification service described below.

3. No required account or license activation

FrankWeather is free and requires no account or license key for weather browsing. Cloud notifications (alerts while the app is closed) are optional: they are used only on phones where you turn them on in Settings → Home & alerts. (Under our earlier paid model, license activation sent a license key, a hashed machine identifier, your IP, and the purchaser's name/email to our license server; that flow no longer runs. Historical license records from past purchases are retained only for support and can be deleted on request — see section 7.)

The desktop app's update check requests a small version file from frankweather.com; like any web request it exposes ordinary request metadata, including your IP address and requested file, to our host. Apple and Google store apps use their stores' update systems under those providers' privacy terms.

Optional cloud notifications

In builds that offer background notification enrollment, enabling it creates a notification account protected by a passkey. The server stores a random account and device identifier, your passkey public key (never the private key), session records, device/app details, push delivery token, selected sound and quiet hours, and the coordinates, county, and identifiers of monitored saved places. Coordinates are rounded to about 100 meters on your device before upload (devices enrolled with an earlier version are updated the next time the app syncs). This is optional; weather browsing works without enrollment. We do not continuously track the device while the app is closed. Saved-place changes sync when you open the app.

FrankWeather uses these records to match official weather notices to your places and deliver alerts. Apple Push Notification service and Google Firebase Cloud Messaging process device routing information and notification content to deliver messages. These services may receive ordinary network metadata. Notification tokens are encrypted at rest on our server, and connections use encryption in transit. Passkeys may sync through your chosen platform credential provider under its own privacy policy.

Use “Delete notification account and cloud data” in the background alert settings to request deletion. Once confirmed, monitoring coordinates are removed and notification routes and sessions are revoked. Remaining account records are deleted after a 30-day retention period; private database backups expire within a further seven days. Deleting a cloud account does not delete saved places on your device. Uninstalling alone does not request cloud-account deletion. You can also request deletion on this website.

4. What we do not do

No advertising and no ad networks.
No third-party analytics or behavioral tracking inside the app.
No selling or renting of your personal information. Service providers process the information needed to supply weather and optional notifications, as described here.

5. Donations

FrankWeather is supported by voluntary donations handled by PayPal under its own privacy policy. The app's and website's "Donate" links simply open PayPal's donation page in your browser. We never see or store your payment card details, and donating creates no account or link inside the app.

6. This website

frankweather.com does not set advertising or tracking cookies. Our web host may keep standard server logs (such as IP addresses and requested files) for security and reliability.

Contact form

When you contact us, we receive your email address, message type, subject and message, plus any name, device or app version you choose to provide. We use this information to respond, investigate bugs, and improve FrankWeather. Submissions are emailed to our support mailbox and stored privately on our server for up to 91 days (90 days plus up to 24 hours for scheduled deletion). Email correspondence is kept while needed to handle your request; you can ask us to delete it.

The contact form uses a necessary session cookie to protect submissions. For spam prevention, we keep a keyed hash of your IP address with submission times for up to 25 hours (a one-hour rate-limit window plus up to 24 hours for scheduled deletion); the form database does not store your raw IP address. Standard hosting logs may still contain IP addresses. Please do not include passwords, payment details, or sensitive personal information. Contact support@frankweather.com to request access, correction or deletion of your contact information.

7. Data retention

Historical license records from past purchases (key, hashed machine IDs, activation IP/region, name, email) are retained only for support and record-keeping now that the app is free — they no longer gate anything. You can ask us to delete your records at any time at support@frankweather.com.

8. Your choices and rights

Because most data stays on your device, you control it directly — clearing the app's data or uninstalling removes it. For license data we hold, you may request access, correction, or deletion by emailing us. Depending on where you live, you may have additional rights under laws such as the GDPR or CCPA; we will honor applicable requests.

9. Children

FrankWeather is intended for general audiences and is not directed to children under 13.

10. Changes

We may update this policy as the app evolves. Material changes will be reflected here with a new "last updated" date.

11. Contact

Questions? support@frankweather.com.