VeraCast Privacy Policy

VeraCast has no ads, no tracking, no accounts, and no analytics. To return a forecast, though, a weather app has to ask a weather service about a place, so your location is sent to the weather providers below to get your forecast. And to write your daily briefing and horoscope, some of that weather data is, in certain cases, sent to an AI provider, as described under "AI features" below. This policy explains exactly what is sent, when, and to whom, in plain language.

Short version

• We do not run analytics. We have no idea how you use the app.
• VeraCast has no user accounts. We never ask for your name, email, or phone number.
• Your saved locations, settings, display name, and pet name live on your device, not on our servers.
• To get a forecast, your location (latitude and longitude, or a place you search) is sent to the weather providers listed below. It is used only to return weather data, never to identify or track you.
• On iPhone, the AI daily briefing is written on your device with Apple Intelligence when your iPhone supports it. On iPhones that do not, VeraCast writes it using Google's Gemini AI in the cloud instead.
• On Android, every AI feature (the daily briefing, "Ask Vera", and the horoscope) runs on your device, with Gemini Nano or a small language model VeraCast downloads once. Nothing about your weather or your personalization is sent to a cloud AI model on Android.
• On iPhone, the Premium Astro-Weather Horoscope is written using Google's Gemini AI in the cloud. When the cloud AI is used, your location's name, the relevant weather, and any personalization you set (your display name and pet name) are sent to Google only to generate that text. Details under "AI features" below.
• We never sell or share your personal information.

Location

With your permission, VeraCast uses your device location to show weather for where you are. You can also search for places manually instead. Your coordinates, or the place you search, are sent to the weather data providers below so they can return the forecast, radar, alerts, and related data for that spot. The providers receive a location and return weather; they are not given your name, contacts, or an account, because VeraCast has none. You can change or revoke location access at any time in iOS Settings, Privacy & Security, Location Services, or in Android Settings, Apps, VeraCast, Permissions.

Weather data providers

VeraCast sends your location to the following services solely to fetch weather data. Each is governed by its own privacy policy:

• Apple WeatherKit, the primary forecast source on iPhone. Location handling is covered by Apple's privacy terms.
• Open-Meteo, the primary forecast source on Android (forecast, place search, air quality, marine, and historical data), and a backup source on iPhone.
• RainViewer, used to load the animated precipitation radar for your map area.
• National Weather Service (NWS), used for US severe weather watches and warnings, and, on Android, for the Storm Prediction Center outlook and NOAA tide stations.
• USGS, used for earthquake information near your area.
• Google Pollen API, used to return the pollen forecast for your location. On Android the request passes through a small relay we run on Cloudflare so the app never carries a Google API key; the relay forwards only the coordinates and keeps no log of them.
• OpenFreeMap and MapLibre (Android only), which serve the base map tiles under the radar. Tile requests reveal the map area you are viewing, nothing else.
• OSRM (Android only), used to compute the driving route when you check weather along a trip; the request contains the start and end points you entered.

These requests contain a location and the weather data needed to answer it. They do not include your name, contacts, or any account identifier, and VeraCast does not attach advertising or tracking identifiers to them.

AI features

VeraCast turns your forecast into a plain language daily briefing, and, for Premium subscribers, an Astro-Weather Horoscope. Here is exactly how each is generated and what leaves your device.

Daily briefing. When your iPhone supports Apple Intelligence, the briefing is written entirely on your device. Nothing about your weather or your personalization is sent to any cloud AI model, and we never see prompts or outputs. When your iPhone does not support Apple Intelligence, VeraCast writes the briefing using Google's Gemini API instead, so the feature still works on those devices. In that cloud case, the request sent to Google contains your location's name (the city or place, not your precise coordinates), the current and upcoming weather used for the summary, and any personalization you have set in the app, which can include your display name and your pet's name. It does not include your contacts, photos, messages, or any account, because VeraCast has none.

Astro-Weather Horoscope (Premium). On iPhone, the horoscope is written using Google's Gemini API. The request contains your zodiac sign and the weather context used to theme the reading, and is sent only to generate the horoscope text.

On Android. The daily briefing, "Ask Vera" questions, the spoken Now Brief, and the horoscope are all generated on your phone. VeraCast uses Gemini Nano through Google's AICore on phones that support it; on others, it offers to download a small open language model (Qwen 2.5, about 1.6 GB, fetched once from Hugging Face) that then runs entirely on the device. The download request carries no personal data. Your questions, your location, and your personalization never leave the phone for an AI service, and we never see them. The Now Brief is read aloud by Android's own text-to-speech.

Data sent to Google for these features is used solely to produce the briefing or horoscope and is handled under Google's privacy policy. We do not attach advertising or tracking identifiers to these requests, and we do not store the prompts or responses on any server of ours.

What stays on your device

Your saved locations, units and display settings, activity preferences, custom alert rules, storm log, packing lists, and the pet name you enter for the Pet Walk card are stored locally on your phone. The Pet Walk verdict and the activity outlooks are computed on your device from the forecast. Deleting VeraCast from your device removes this local data. On Android, the Wear OS watch app receives its forecast from your phone over Google's Wearable Data Layer, and Android Auto shows the same data on your car screen; both are local links between your own devices.

Notifications

If you enable severe weather, rain, storm, earthquake, or hurricane alerts, VeraCast uses your location to determine which alerts are relevant and delivers them as notifications. Enabling alerts may use background location so VeraCast can warn you about conditions where you are. You can turn alerts and background location off at any time in iOS or Android Settings.

On Android, alerts are checked on the phone itself about every half hour. To also deliver urgent National Weather Service warnings while the phone is idle, VeraCast may register with a small alerts relay we run on Cloudflare: it sends a push token issued by Google's Firebase Cloud Messaging together with the NWS forecast zone identifiers for your location (a county or zone code, not your coordinates), and the relay pushes a notification when a warning is issued for those zones. The relay stores only the token and zone list, uses them for nothing else, and drops them when the app re-registers or is uninstalled. Firebase is used solely to deliver that push; it is not used for analytics.

Subscriptions

VeraCast Premium is an auto-renewable subscription billed through Apple's App Store on iPhone and through Google Play on Android. Apple or Google handles the payment; we never see your card, Apple ID, or Google account. They give us a transaction record that we use only to verify your subscription is active. Subscription status is stored on your device. You can manage or cancel anytime in your Apple Account settings or in Google Play, Subscriptions.

What VeraCast does not collect

• We do not collect your name, email, phone number, or contacts.
• We do not use third-party analytics, advertising SDKs, or trackers.
• We do not build a profile of you or track you across apps or websites.
• We have no servers that store your location history or content. The only thing our alerts relay holds, and only if you enable push alerts on Android, is a push token and the NWS zone codes it should watch.

Diagnostic information

If you opt in via iOS Settings, Privacy & Security, Analytics & Improvements, Apple may send us anonymized crash reports and performance metrics. On Android, Google Play may do the same if you opted in to usage and diagnostics in your device settings. These reports do not contain your location history or identifiers we can link back to you. VeraCast itself includes no crash-reporting or analytics SDK.

Children

VeraCast is a general weather app and is not directed to children under 13. We do not knowingly collect any information from children.

Your rights

Because VeraCast stores your content on your device and we hold no account data, there is nothing for us to access, correct, or delete on our servers. To remove your data, delete your saved locations in the app or remove the app from your device. To control location access, use iOS Settings, Privacy & Security, Location Services, or Android Settings, Apps, VeraCast, Permissions. Turning push alerts off on Android, or uninstalling, removes your token and zones from our alerts relay.

If you are a California resident (CCPA / CPRA), a resident of the EU/UK (GDPR), or covered by a similar law, the same applies: we have no personal data of yours to provide or delete because we do not collect it. You may still contact us with any questions.

Data security

Because VeraCast data lives on your device, security depends primarily on your platform's protections, your device passcode, and biometrics. Requests to weather providers and to our alerts relay are made over encrypted connections. We recommend you enable two-factor authentication on your Apple ID or Google account and use a strong device passcode.

A note on weather and astro features

VeraCast's forecasts, activity outlooks, and alerts are provided for general information and can be incomplete, delayed, or wrong. For life-safety decisions, always rely on official sources such as the National Weather Service and local authorities. The Astro-Weather Horoscope is for entertainment.

Contact

Questions or requests: contact@jcmobileappstudio.com

Changes

If this policy ever changes, we will update the "Last updated" line above and post a new version at this URL.