Privacy policy

Effective date: July 9, 2026

This Privacy Policy describes how Lightning Tracker (the “App”), provided by Kurt Higa (“we”, “us”), handles your information. We built the App to be privacy-respecting: it has no user accounts, shows no ads, and does not ask for your name, email, or other personal identity information.

Information we use

  • Location. With your permission, the App uses your location to show how far away lightning is striking and to determine when strikes are close enough to alert you. Your location is stored on your device and, if you enable alerts, sent to our servers solely to match lightning strikes to your alert radius. You can disable location access at any time in iOS Settings.
  • Watch locations. Places you choose to watch, for example “Home” or “Lakeside Cabin”, are stored on your device along with their coordinates, the name you give them, and their alert radius. They are sent to our servers to power alerts for those places.
  • Push notification token. If you enable alerts, Apple issues a device push token that we store on our servers to deliver lightning notifications. It is not linked to your identity.
  • Purchase status. Subscriptions are processed by Apple and managed via RevenueCat. We do not receive or store your payment information.

Lightning and weather data

Lightning, radar, and severe-storm outlook information shown in the App comes from public sources, including NOAA’s GOES satellites (Geostationary Lightning Mapper), NOAA MRMS precipitation radar, and the NOAA Storm Prediction Center. We do not send any of your personal information to these sources.

Third-party services

We rely on the following service providers:

  • Apple. App Store, push notifications, in-app purchases.
  • Mapbox. The map inside the App. Mapbox may collect device and usage telemetry to operate and improve its map service.
  • RevenueCat. Subscription management.
  • Amazon Web Services (AWS). Hosting for our lightning-data and alert backend.

Each provider handles data under its own privacy policy. We encourage you to review Apple’s and Mapbox’s policies regarding device data.

This website

lightningmap.app uses PostHog to count page views and taps on the App Store links, so we can tell which parts of the page are useful. It is configured without session recording and without autocapture, and we do not use advertising cookies.

Data retention

We keep your push token, watch locations, and alert preferences only while you have the App installed and alerts enabled. If notifications stop working (for example, you uninstall the App), the associated token and its settings are removed. Lightning event data is public information and is retained only on a short rolling basis.

Your choices

  • Turn location access on or off in iOS Settings.
  • Turn notifications on or off in iOS Settings or in the App.
  • Delete watch locations at any time in the App’s Alerts tab.

Children

The App is not directed to children under 13 and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children.

Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Material changes will be reflected by updating the effective date above.

Contact

Questions about this policy? Contact us at founder+support@raintotal.app.