Privacy policy overview
This privacy policy explains how Northern Lights Tonight handles location, analytics, and third-party data sources. Accounts are not offered. Personal information is not sold. This page is the full statement; marketing copy does not override it.
Who we are
Northern Lights Tonight is a US English aurora forecast site at https://aurora-tonight.com. Contact is email only. This same rules apply to the public website, including local forecast pages, guides, near me, and noindex live pins.
Location data
We request GPS only after you click Use my location. Your browser matches those coordinates to our US place list, then navigates to a local forecast page or to /view?lat=&lng=&name=. We do not write location into a user database, we do not store it in a cookie, and we do not use it for remarketing. A /view URL may include coordinates so the server can render that noindex reading once. Vercel or CDN access logs may retain query strings; this policy does not claim those logs are stripped.
What this page covers
Indexed pages, the near me form, GPS (only after a click), live pins under /view, and aggregate analytics if you have not opted out. The site also loads Google AdSense for account verification and possible ad delivery. NOAA, Open-Meteo, and Google services have their own rules.
Analytics
We use Vercel Web Analytics to understand aggregate site traffic. It reports anonymous page-view data: the page path without its query or hash, referrer, and coarse location and device categories. It uses no third-party cookies and does not store your IP address. We do not use it for advertising or remarketing. Browser Do Not Track is respected, and you can also save an analytics opt-out in this browser.
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Data sources
Aurora activity comes from public NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center products (OVATION and Kp). Cloud-cover data is adapted from Open-Meteo under CC BY 4.0. Your browser does not call NOAA or Open-Meteo directly.
Cookies, logs, and what we do not do
Google AdSense is a third-party advertising service. Its script may use advertising cookies, web beacons, or similar technologies and may receive request data such as your IP address, browser details, page URL, and ad interactions. Google may use that information to deliver, limit, personalize, and measure advertising, subject to your consent choices and applicable law. We do not sell, rent, or trade personal information ourselves.
This policy does not claim that Vercel platform logs are empty; hosting logs may include IP addresses and URLs as any HTTPS host does. Query strings on /view can appear in those logs.
If you opt out of analytics, we honor that flag in this browser. Clearing storage can reset it. Do Not Track is also respected. This page will be updated on this URL if that changes.
Children: the site is a weather-style tool, not directed at children, and it does not knowingly collect personal information from children. Email us if you believe we have done so.
Changes
If we add accounts or new processors, or materially change how ads work, the text on this URL will change. Material changes are not buried in a changelog you cannot find. The date is the page’s last deploy.
International visitors: the product is US English and US places. Hosting may still log a request from anywhere. v1 does not name a separate GDPR representative. Email us if you need a deletion of something you believe we hold; for GPS we hold nothing after the click-through match.
Processors and hosting
The site is hosted on Vercel. Vercel may process request metadata (IP, user agent, URL) as any HTTPS host does. Analytics, when enabled, is Vercel Web Analytics with the path sanitized. Google AdSense supplies the advertising script and may process data as described above. There is no customer database of names or emails except the messages you send to hello@aurora-tonight.com.
Snapshot files used for forecasts are geophysical data, not user data. They describe oval reach and clouds at place coordinates from public sources. They are not a profile of you.
Email you send to hello@aurora-tonight.com is ordinary mail. We keep it long enough to answer. Do not put passwords or government IDs in that inbox; we do not need them.
Do Not Track: if your browser sends DNT, analytics stays off. Opt-out stored in this browser is a local flag. Clearing site data can reset it. That is a browser fact, not a loophole.
GPS: the permission prompt is the control. No prompt, no read. After a successful match we navigate to a place page or a pin. The product does not keep a history of those clicks as an account trail.
/view pins: coordinates can appear in the URL so the server can render one noindex reading. Treat that URL as something you might share; it is not a secret. CDN logs may retain it.
Third parties: NOAA and Open-Meteo are data sources for the engine. Your browser does not call them. Opening their websites yourself is outside this product.
Children: this is a forecast tool, not a game aimed at children. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children.
California / other state laws: we do not sell personal information. There is no “do not sell” toggle because there is no sale. Email hello@aurora-tonight.com for an access or deletion request about mail you sent us.
Privacy policy vocabulary
Privacy, in this privacy policy, means we do not build a dossier of who you are. Policy, in this privacy policy, means the rules on this URL — not a banner that disagrees with the page. Location privacy is the GPS click. Analytics privacy is DNT plus the on-page opt-out. Source privacy is that your browser does not call NOAA or Open-Meteo.
The privacy policy is short because the product is short: no accounts, no customer database, and no child-directed game. The advertising processor is named above. If the product grows, the privacy policy grows on this same path so crawlers and humans find one document.
Retention: geophysical snapshots are not user records. Mail inhello@aurora-tonight.com is mail. Hosting logs are hosting logs. Policy here does not pretend those logs are empty. Privacy here does mean we will not sell them.
Requests: email is the channel. Say whether you want a copy of mail you sent, or a deletion of that mail. We cannot delete a GPS point we never stored. We cannot delete a NOAA grid. Privacy policy questions that are actually forecast questions belong on the methodology page instead.
Effective date: the last production deploy of this privacy policy. There is no separate PDF. There is no version table. The HTML on https://aurora-tonight.com/privacy is the privacy policy.
Security: transport is HTTPS. There is no login form to steal. There is no password reset. If you see a page asking for a password on this hostname, it is not this product. Emailhello@aurora-tonight.com if something looks forged.
Policy on this privacy page covers GPS. Policy on this privacy page covers analytics. Policy on this privacy page covers mail you send to hello@aurora-tonight.com. Three sentences, one URL, no separate PDF.
Contact
Questions about this privacy policy: hello@aurora-tonight.com.