Privacy Policy

AusGuard for iOS. This page is written against the shipping code; where the code and a nice-sounding promise disagree, the code wins. Last reviewed 20 October 2026, app version 1.4.0.

1. Short version

No subscription is needed to use the app, and you never have to create an account.
We do collect a stable per-device identifier, and we do store it in a database.
Precise map coordinates are sent to our server and on to weather data providers when you use nearby features. They are not stored unless you turn on location-based alerts.
We do not run ads, and we do not sell or rent your data. Nobody else gets it.

2. What we collect and why

Data	Why	Where it lives
Device identifier (Apple's vendor ID, or a generated ID if unavailable)	Rate-limiting abuse and binding AI request quotas to one install	Sent on every API call as `X-Device-Id`; stored in the `sessions` and `users` tables
iOS version, device model, app version, language, timezone	Crash triage and knowing which builds to support	Request headers; stored per device in `users`
IP address and the path you requested	Abuse and error diagnosis	Stored per device (`users.last_ip`, `users.last_path`) and in `analytics_events`
Approximate first-seen and last-seen timestamps, request count	Counting real users so a solo developer knows whether to keep going	Stored in `users`
Map coordinates (latitude, longitude)	Fetching weather, air quality, UV, tides, beaches and nearby places for your area	Passed in the request URL per call. Forwarded to the data providers below. Not written to a database, except in the two cases below.
Coordinates and suburb you choose, if you enable push alerts	Delivering warnings for your area	Stored in the `subscriptions` table until you turn alerts off or delete your data
Apple push token, if you enable notifications	Delivering pushes via Apple	Stored in `subscriptions` / `push_log`
Email from Hide My Email, or your real email, if you sign in with Apple	Optional account: syncs preferences and supports deletion requests	Stored in `users` after Apple Sign-In. Never requested otherwise.

Because the same per-device identifier is attached to your requests across sessions, Apple's privacy label treats this app as data that is linked to your identity. It is still not used to track you across other apps or websites, and there are no third-party analytics or advertising SDKs in the binary.

3. Who else sees your data

Our server asks other services on your behalf. They receive the minimum needed for the answer: usually coordinates or a state name. Outbound calls carry no device identifier.

Provider	Gets	Provides
Cloudflare (hosting)	Everything above, as our server and database host	Running the API and the D1 database
Cloudflare Workers AI, then Zhipu AI (GLM-4-Flash)	The text of your AI question plus the local weather context needed to answer it	Only when you use an AI feature: natural-language questions, itinerary and meetup suggestions
Open-Meteo	Coordinates	Forecasts, UV, air quality, and marine wave conditions for surf and beach screens
Australian Bureau of Meteorology	Nothing about you	Warnings, radar, fire danger
USGS	Nothing about you	Earthquake catalog
Apple	Push tokens; email if you sign in	Notifications, Sign in with Apple, payments
State transport and emergency agencies	Nothing about you	Closures, transit, hazard feeds

Weather and hazard answers may be cached at the edge for 5 to 60 minutes, keyed by a coordinate grid rather than by you.

4. What we do not do

No advertising, no ad networks, no SDKs that phone home about you.
No sale, rental, or brokering of any data.
No location history tracking, no movement path, no background location collection.
No data collected from children; the app asks for no age or personal profile.

5. Your rights

Delete. In the app, open Travel → Social & Meetups → My Profile and choose Delete Account; that removes your account, sessions, and the rows tied to your device identifier, plus the push subscription when notifications are on. It needs a signed-in session, so if you never signed in, email us and we will delete the rows for your device identifier.
Refuse. Deny location and pick a city manually; every feature still works from a town-level choice.
Stop pushes. Turn alerts off in the app, or in iOS Settings. The stored coordinates and push token are cleared on the next unsubscribe.
Uninstall. Deleting the app discards local data. The device identifier iOS hands us is reset on reinstall.

6. Retention and security

Device rows persist while the app is in use and are not purged on any automatic schedule; they go when you delete the account or ask us to. Sessions expire automatically, and push delivery logs are pruned after 7 days. Requests are served over HTTPS with HTTP Strict Transport Security enabled, and the API rejects calls that omit a valid application proof.

7. Contact

AusGuard is made by one independent developer in Australia. Questions, deletion requests, or complaints: cczusyh@gmail.com. If you ask, we will tell you exactly what rows your device identifier has.

8. Changes

We will update this page when the code changes and put the review date at the top. Continued use after an update means you have read the new version.