01 Who this policy applies to
This Privacy Policy covers the Tower 5 iOS app (the "App") and the website at tower5.org (the "Site"), together referred to as "Tower 5", "we", "us", or "our". It applies to anyone who downloads the App or visits the Site.
Tower 5 surfaces public wildfire and weather data published by U.S. federal agencies. We do not require an account, we do not run advertising, and we do not sell anything inside the App.
02 Information we collect
We deliberately collect as little as possible. Here's the complete list of what we do receive — and the narrow technical reason for each.
Map tile requests
When the App or Site loads the map, your device requests vector and raster tiles from Mapbox and from our backend. These requests carry your IP address (necessary for the response to reach you) but no personally identifying information from us.
Search queries
If you type a place name into the search box, that text is sent to Mapbox's geocoding service to look up coordinates. We don't store the query on our side; Mapbox processes it under their privacy policy.
Crash reports
If the App crashes, iOS may send anonymous diagnostic reports to Apple, and we may receive an aggregated subset through Apple's developer dashboard. These reports describe what code path crashed; they don't contain your location, contacts, photos, or any personal content.
Web server logs
Like most websites, our server briefly logs the IP address, user-agent string, and URL of each request. We use this only to diagnose outages and detect abuse. Logs are rotated within 14 days.
03 Location data
The App has a "Geolocate" button that centers the map on your current location. iOS will ask your permission the first time you tap it. Here's exactly what happens when you do:
- iOS provides your device's coordinates to the App in memory.
- The App passes those coordinates to the Mapbox map view to recenter the camera.
- That's it. Your location is never transmitted to Tower 5 servers.
We use the NSLocationWhenInUseUsageDescription permission, meaning
location is only available while the App is open and visible. We do not request
background-location access.
You can revoke location permission at any time from Settings → Privacy & Security → Location Services → Tower 5. The App still works fine without it — you just won't be able to one-tap recenter.
04 Third-party services
Tower 5 uses a small number of third parties to deliver the maps and data. Each one is named here so you can read their privacy practices directly.
Mapbox
The App and Site embed the Mapbox SDK to render basemaps and to perform place-name search. Mapbox processes anonymous tile-request and search telemetry under its own privacy policy. We never share personal information with Mapbox because we don't have any to share.
Apple (App Store)
Distributing an iOS app necessarily involves Apple. When you install Tower 5 via the App Store, Apple processes your install under its privacy policy. We see only what Apple shows in App Store Connect: aggregate install counts, crash counts, and (if you opt in to share with developers) anonymous diagnostic data.
U.S. federal data agencies
Tower 5's wildfire and weather layers are sourced from public agency feeds — including NIFC, NASA FIRMS, NWS, NOAA HMS, USFS, USGS, FEMA, and the U.S. Drought Monitor. The App fetches pre-published tilesets from our backend rather than calling those agencies directly, so no information about you is sent to any government service.
Hosting infrastructure
The Site and our tile-building backend run on commodity cloud infrastructure (server logs as described above). Our hosting provider does not have access to anything beyond standard server-level diagnostics.
06 How long we keep data
- Web server logs: rotated within 14 days, then permanently deleted.
- Crash reports: retained for as long as the bug exists, typically a few weeks; deleted once resolved.
- Email correspondence (if you contact us): retained until the conversation is closed, then archived for up to 12 months for reference, then deleted.
- App data on your device: stays on your device. There's no Tower 5 cloud account where it could persist.
07 How we protect data
All traffic between the App, the Site, and our backend uses HTTPS with TLS 1.2 or higher. We follow standard infrastructure hardening practices on our servers (least-privilege access, automatic security updates, no shared accounts).
That said, no system is perfectly secure. If we ever detect or suspect a breach that affects user data, we'll publish a notice on this page within 72 hours of discovery and notify any affected users where contactable.
08 Your rights
Because we don't have an account system or any personal records associated with you, most data-subject rights are automatically satisfied — there's nothing on file to access, correct, or delete.
If you've emailed us and want that correspondence purged, just let us know. If you live in a jurisdiction with specific privacy rights (such as GDPR in the EU/UK or CCPA/CPRA in California), you have the right to:
- Know what personal information we have about you (answer: most likely none).
- Request deletion of any such information.
- Opt out of "sale" or "sharing" of personal information (we never sell or share).
- Lodge a complaint with your local data-protection authority.
To exercise any of these rights, email info@snoflo.org. We respond to verifiable requests within 30 days.
09 Children's privacy
Tower 5 is rated 4+ on the App Store and contains nothing inappropriate for children. That said, the App is designed as a wildfire-awareness tool for adults, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under the age of 13. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, please email info@snoflo.org and we will delete it promptly.
10 International users
Tower 5 is operated from the United States. The data layers in the App are U.S.-focused (the underlying agencies cover the U.S., its territories, and a global FIRMS satellite feed). If you use the App from outside the U.S., your tile and search requests will be routed to U.S.-based or Mapbox-region servers as required to deliver the maps.
Where required by local law, we rely on standard contractual clauses or equivalent mechanisms with our service providers to lawfully transfer the minimal data described in this policy.
11 Changes to this policy
If we update this Privacy Policy, we'll change the "Last updated" date at the top of this page. For material changes (e.g., a new third-party service, a new category of data collected), we'll surface a notice in the App on next launch and on the Site's homepage for at least 30 days.
We don't keep an email list, so we can't notify you directly — please bookmark this page if you'd like to track changes.
12 Contact us
Questions, complaints, or data-subject requests? Reach out at info@snoflo.org.
For general feedback about the App, you can also email info@snoflo.org or use the feedback button inside the App.
Still have a question?
We read every email. Replies usually come within a couple of business days.