Privacy Policy

Privacy at a glance

Firecast does not require an account and does not ask visitors to identify themselves. We do not intentionally collect names, email addresses, phone numbers, payment information, or other account information.

Using the site can still involve location and ordinary internet-connection information, as explained below. Firecast does not sell personal information.

Information processed

• Precise location. If you choose “Use your exact location” and grant browser permission, the site processes the latitude and longitude supplied by your device.
• Approximate location. When precise location is unavailable, hosting infrastructure may estimate your city, region, latitude, and longitude from your IP address so the site can find nearby fires.
• Technical and usage information. Like most internet services, hosting infrastructure may process an IP address, browser and device type, requested pages, referring page, timestamps, and security or diagnostic events.

How location is used

Firecast uses location to find and display nearby wildfires, center location-based results, calculate distances, improve site functionality and accuracy, and analyze aggregated fire trends and website usage.

Firecast does not store precise coordinates in its database. Coordinates granted through the browser are sent with a nearby-fire request, processed temporarily to return results, and discarded when that request is complete. The browser may remember only that you chose to use precise location; it does not save the coordinates in Firecast’s browser storage.

Your location choices

Firecast requests precise location only after you select the location control and grant permission through your browser. You may deny the request. You may also revoke a previous grant in your browser or device settings. If permission is denied or revoked, Firecast can continue using an approximate location when that information is available from its hosting infrastructure.

Analytics, cookies, and similar technology

Firecast does not currently use a separate third-party analytics product. Cloudflare provides the site’s hosting, network, security, and database infrastructure and may receive the technical and usage information described above as part of providing those services. Cloudflare may use cookies or similar technologies when necessary for security, performance, or service delivery. See the Cloudflare Privacy Policy.

If Firecast adds an analytics provider, this policy will identify the provider, the information it receives, its use of cookies or similar technologies, and a link to its privacy policy before that collection is enabled.

Sharing and disclosure

Firecast does not sell personal information. Information may be disclosed only as reasonably necessary:

• to hosting, database, security, and other infrastructure providers that operate the site;
• to comply with law, legal process, or a valid government request;
• to protect Firecast, visitors, or the public, including investigating fraud, abuse, or security threats; or
• as part of a merger, acquisition, reorganization, or transfer of the site or its assets.

Retention

• Precise coordinates: processed for the request and discarded when the request is complete; not stored in the Firecast database.
• Approximate location and IP information: not stored by Firecast in its application database. Cloudflare may retain network and security logs under its own service settings and retention practices, generally for no more than 30 days unless a longer period is needed for security, abuse prevention, legal compliance, or service reliability.
• Firecast server logs: where generated, retained for up to 30 days, unless a longer period is reasonably needed to investigate security or abuse or comply with law.
• Analytics records: Firecast does not currently create separate third-party analytics records.
• Browser preference: the precise-location preference remains on your device until you revoke location access, clear site data, or remove it through browser settings.

Security

Firecast uses reasonable technical and organizational safeguards appropriate to the information it processes. No internet transmission, storage system, or online service can guarantee complete security.

Your privacy rights

Depending on where you live, you may have rights to access, correct, delete, or receive information about disclosures of personal information. Firecast does not maintain accounts or a profile that identifies you, and it may be unable to locate information that can be connected to you. You can delete the locally saved location preference by clearing Firecast site data in your browser, and you can control precise location through browser or device settings.

Children’s privacy

Firecast is a general-audience service and is not directed to children under 13. Firecast does not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13.

Changes to this policy

This policy may be updated as Firecast’s practices or legal obligations change. Material changes will be shown by revising the effective date at the top of this page.