Privacy Policy

Who We Are

Fish Forecaster helps anglers check real-time fishing conditions using local weather and environmental data. Our website address is https://fishforecaster.com. We are committed to providing accurate fishing forecasts while maintaining the highest standards of user privacy. Our service is designed to work entirely within your browser, ensuring that your personal information never leaves your device.

Information We Collect

We do not collect, store, or log any personal information. Fish Forecaster operates entirely in your browser and does not send any data to our servers. This privacy-first approach means you can use our service with complete confidence that your information remains private.

Location Processing: Your location is processed locally in your browser to provide accurate fishing forecasts. This includes:

• GPS coordinates (if you grant permission) - processed locally only, never transmitted
• IP-based location (city, region, country) - processed locally only, approximate location
• No data storage - location information is not saved, logged, or transmitted to our servers
• Browser-only processing - all calculations happen on your device in real-time

Third-party services: We use external APIs (weather data, IP geolocation) to fetch current conditions, but we do not store or log any of this information. When you request a forecast, your browser makes a direct request to these services, and the response is processed locally without any server-side storage or logging.

No user accounts: Fish Forecaster does not require registration or user accounts. There are no usernames, email addresses, passwords, or any other account information to collect or protect. This eliminates the risk of data breaches involving user credentials.

How We Use Your Information

We do not use, store, or process your information beyond what's necessary for the service.Every aspect of our service is designed to minimize data collection and maximize your privacy.

Your location data is used solely to:

• Provide accurate local weather and fishing forecasts based on your current location
• Determine your timezone for proper time displays in forecast results
• Calculate bite probability scores using location-specific environmental data
• No data is stored, logged, or transmitted to our servers at any point

Real-time processing only: All location-based calculations happen in real-time within your browser. Once you close the page or refresh, any location data used for that session is immediately discarded. We have no ability to track your location history or build profiles based on your usage patterns.

Third-Party Services

We use the following third-party services for functionality only. These services are necessary to provide accurate fishing forecasts, but we have no control over their data collection practices:

• ipinfo.io - For IP-based location detection (when GPS is unavailable). This service may log your IP address according to their privacy policy, but we do not receive or store this information.
• Open-Meteo - For weather data including temperature, pressure, wind, and humidity. This is an open-source weather API that does not require API keys or user identification.
• Nominatim/OpenStreetMap - For reverse geocoding to convert coordinates to city/state names. This service is provided by the OpenStreetMap Foundation and follows their privacy guidelines.

These services process your data according to their own privacy policies, but we do not store or log any of this information. When your browser makes requests to these services, the requests come directly from your device, not from our servers. We act as a pass-through and never intercept, store, or analyze the data exchanged between your browser and these third-party services.

No data sharing: We do not share, sell, or rent any user information to third parties because we don't collect any information to share in the first place. Your privacy is protected by design.

Cookies & Affiliate Links

Fish Forecaster uses minimal cookies. We do not set any tracking cookies ourselves. However, some links on our site are affiliate links to products we believe may be useful to anglers.

Affiliate cookies: If you click an affiliate link, our partners (such as Amazon) may set a cookie in your browser to track the sale so we receive credit. These cookies contain no personal information and are standard practice for affiliate marketing. They simply indicate that a purchase originated from our site. You can block or clear these cookies in your browser settings at any time.

No tracking cookies: We do not use cookies to track your browsing behavior, build user profiles, or serve targeted advertisements. Our service works perfectly without any cookies, and the only cookies that may appear are from affiliate partners when you click their links.

Analytics: We use Google Analytics to understand aggregate site usage patterns, but this does not involve personal identification or location tracking. Google Analytics uses cookies according to their privacy policy, but you can opt out using browser extensions or privacy settings.

Children's Privacy

Fish Forecaster is not designed for children under 13 and we do not knowingly collect information from them. Since we don't collect any information from anyone, children's privacy is inherently protected. However, we comply with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and recommend that children under 13 use our service only with parental supervision.

Parents and guardians should be aware that while we don't collect data, third-party services we use (like weather APIs) may have their own policies regarding children's data. We encourage parents to review the privacy policies of any third-party services their children may interact with.

Your Choices

You have complete control over your privacy when using Fish Forecaster. Here are your options:

• Location Access: Deny browser location requests - the site will use IP-based location instead. You can change this permission at any time in your browser settings.
• Cookies: Block or clear cookies in your browser settings. Our service works without cookies, so blocking them won't affect functionality.
• No Data Collection: Since we don't collect data, there's nothing to delete or opt-out of. Your privacy is protected by default.
• Browser Privacy Settings: Use private/incognito browsing mode if you prefer not to leave any traces of your visit, though we don't track visits anyway.

Note: Some features may not work properly if you deny location access, but the site will still function using approximate IP-based location. Forecast accuracy may be reduced with IP-based location, but the service remains fully usable.

Data deletion: Since we don't collect or store any data, there's no data to delete. If you're concerned about third-party services, you can clear your browser cookies and cache, which will remove any affiliate tracking cookies that may have been set.

Data Security

Since Fish Forecaster doesn't collect or store any user data, there's no database of personal information that could be compromised in a security breach. This privacy-by-design approach eliminates the risk of data leaks, hacks, or unauthorized access to your information.

Browser security: All processing happens in your browser using standard web technologies. We recommend keeping your browser updated to the latest version to ensure you have the latest security patches and privacy features.

HTTPS encryption: All communication between your browser and our servers (and third-party APIs) is encrypted using HTTPS, ensuring that data in transit cannot be intercepted or read by third parties.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or for other operational, legal, or regulatory reasons. We will notify you of any material changes by updating the "Last updated" date at the top of this page. We encourage you to review this policy periodically to stay informed about how we protect your privacy.

If we make significant changes to how we handle privacy (though we don't anticipate this since we don't collect data), we will make reasonable efforts to notify users through a notice on our website.

Contact

Questions about this Privacy Policy or our privacy practices? Email support@fishforecaster.com and we'll be happy to help. We typically respond within 48 hours during business days.

We're committed to transparency about our privacy practices. If you have concerns or suggestions about how we can better protect your privacy, please don't hesitate to reach out.