Summary

We don't sell your personal information.
No account is required. Most features work without identifying you.
You control permissions. You can disable Location and Notifications at any time in iOS or your browser settings.
Community posts are public. If you choose to post in discussions, your message (and any name/location you provide) may be visible to others.

Information We Collect

Location Data

Bay Tremor may collect your device's location (with your permission) to:

Show earthquakes near your location
Calculate distances to seismic events
Send location-based earthquake alerts (iOS app only)

Website: location is typically used in your browser and not stored by us. iOS app: location may be used on-device for nearby views and distance calculations. If you enable push notifications and choose to use radius-based alerts, the app may send latitude/longitude to our servers to evaluate alert radius.

Device Identifiers

If you enable push notifications on our iOS app, we store an APNs device token and notification preferences (like minimum magnitude and radius) to deliver alerts. This token is not intended to identify you personally, but it is a device identifier used to deliver notifications.

Usage Data

We may collect anonymous usage statistics to improve the app experience. This data cannot identify you personally.

Information You Provide (Community & Support)

When you choose to participate in community discussions or submit feedback, you may provide:

Name/display name you type (not an account)
Message content and any optional location text you include
Optional “I felt it” indicator

Saved Addresses (My Neighborhood)

If you use “My Neighborhood” features on the website, we may store addresses you submit (and derived latitude/longitude) associated with an anonymous visitor identifier. We also log basic request metadata (like user agent) and a hashed representation of IP address for analytics/abuse prevention.

How We Use Your Information

Displaying nearby earthquakes
Calculating distances to seismic events
Delivering push notifications for significant earthquakes
Improving app performance and features
Operating community discussions and moderating abuse/spam

Data Sources

Earthquake data is sourced from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and is publicly available information. We do not claim ownership of this data.

Data Sharing

We do not sell your personal information. We share limited data with service providers to run Bay Tremor:

Analytics (e.g., Google Analytics) to understand site/app usage
Advertising (e.g., Google AdSense) to support the service
Infrastructure (hosting, databases) to store and serve content
Real-time messaging for community features (when enabled)
AI services for optional summaries (when enabled)

Data Retention

Device tokens are retained only while you have notifications enabled
Location data is typically used in real-time only; if you enable radius-based push alerts, coordinates may be stored with your notification preferences
App preferences are stored locally on your device
Website preferences (selected city) are stored in your browser's local storage
Community posts and saved addresses are retained until deleted or removed (for example, for moderation, maintenance, or upon request)

Cookies and Tracking

Our website may use:

Google Analytics - To understand how visitors use our site
Google AdSense - To display relevant advertisements
Datadog RUM - To monitor performance and errors
Local Storage - To save your preferences (selected city, etc.)

You can disable cookies in your browser settings, though some features may not work properly.

Third-Party Services

Bay Tremor integrates with third-party services to provide functionality and improve reliability. Depending on your usage and enabled features, we may use:

USGS (earthquake data)
Google Analytics (analytics)
Google AdSense (advertising)
Datadog (performance/error monitoring)
Pusher (real-time updates for community features when configured)
OpenAI (optional AI summaries when configured)
MongoDB (data storage for comments, devices, and other features when configured)
Netlify (hosting and delivery)

Your Rights

You can:

Disable location access in your browser or iOS Settings
Disable notifications at any time
Clear your browser's local storage to remove saved preferences
Delete the iOS app to remove all local data
Request access to, correction of, or deletion of data we may have collected

Children's Privacy

Bay Tremor does not knowingly collect information from children under 13. Our services are intended for general audiences interested in earthquake information.

Contact Us

For privacy questions or concerns, please contact us at: privacy@baytremor.com

For support issues, visit Support.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this privacy policy from time to time. We will notify you of any changes by posting the new policy on this page with an updated revision date. Continued use of Bay Tremor after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

Privacy Policy