Privacy
Short version: mswx is a personal project that displays weather. The website uses Google Analytics to count visits (so mswx can tell whether anyone's reading). The iOS and Android apps collect nothing about you and contact no third parties — they just fetch weather from mswx.net over HTTPS. The Android app additionally has an in-app browser that loads mswx.net itself, so Analytics counts those visits the way it counts any browser visit. Nothing is sold, shared, or tied to a personal identity.
What the website does
mswx.net is served by a Cloudflare Worker. When you visit a page, Cloudflare's edge sees the request (their standard edge logging applies) and may record the URL and your IP for ordinary access and abuse-prevention logging.
The site loads Google Analytics 4 with IP anonymization enabled, so mswx can see things like "how many people looked at the pool page this week." Google sees the visit. No advertising network, no cross-site retargeting, no cookies beyond what GA itself sets. If you'd rather not be counted, any browser tracker-blocker (uBlock Origin, Brave Shields, Firefox's strict mode) blocks it cleanly — the site works fine without it.
What the apps do
The mswx iOS and Android apps render home-screen
widgets showing the current Monte Sano plateau temperature and other
readings. To do that, they make HTTPS requests to mswx.net's public
API (the /api/v1/* endpoints) on a periodic schedule
(roughly every 15 minutes) and when a widget is added or resized.
Neither app:
- Requests location, contacts, microphone, camera, or any other permission beyond Internet access
- Signs in to any account
- Includes any third-party SDK in the app code itself (no analytics SDK, no ad network, no crash reporter)
- Uses an advertising or device identifier (no Android Advertising ID, no iOS IDFV, no unique device ID)
- Stores anything on your device besides a small cache of the most recent weather payload, so the widgets keep working offline
The two apps differ only in plumbing. The iOS app
sends a versioned MSWX-iOS User-Agent, talks only to the
API over HTTPS, and uses no cookies or session tokens. The
Android app sends a generic Ktor/OkHttp User-Agent,
hits /api/v1/widget for its widgets, and also includes an
in-app browser that opens mswx.net itself — inside that browser the app
behaves like any browser visit, so Google Analytics counts it and the
same cookies mswx.net normally sets are stored.
What data is sent to the server
Each request includes only what any HTTPS request inherently
includes: your IP address (visible to Cloudflare and the origin),
the requested URL, and a generic User-Agent (MSWX-iOS,
or Ktor/OkHttp on Android). No device ID, no advertising ID, no IDFV,
no account identifier, no location data.
Children's privacy
The apps are general-audience and contain no user-generated content, social features, or in-app purchases. mswx does not knowingly collect data from anyone, including children under 13.
Third parties
Google Analytics 4 is covered above under "What the website does." The same disclosure applies whether you visit mswx.net in your regular browser or through the Android app's in-app browser — see how Google uses data when you visit a partner site.
Weather data sources. The forecasts and observations the site displays come from public sources (NWS, neighbors' Weather Underground stations, Open-Meteo, Pirate Weather, Iowa State's forecast archive). Those sources provide data to mswx; mswx does not send any data about you to them. No data about you flows in that direction.
Changes
If this policy changes, the date below changes. The git history of this page is public at github.com/sowoky/mswx.
Contact
Questions: support@mswx.net.
Last updated: 2026-06-07