OZ Weather Privacy Policy

Effective date: November 11, 2026

OZ Weather is a Northwest Arkansas weather service run by Garrett Lewis from Rogers, Arkansas. It is a self-funded community hobby. This policy covers the OZ Weather iOS app and the website it shows (oz-weather.com, and nwaweather.com when that becomes the primary domain).

We do not sell your data. We do not show third-party ads. F1RSTNB appears as a community sponsor on some graphics and camera titles; that is branding, not ad targeting.

What the app is

The app is mainly a viewer of the OZ Weather homepage, plus native severe-weather push alerts. There is no account and no sign-in.

What we collect

Push notifications (OneSignal)

If you allow notifications, we use OneSignal and Apple Push Notification service to send storm alerts (and, if you opt in, “OZ Weather is on the air” stream alerts). Push alerts may still be in setup while the new app is rolled out; when they are on, they work as described here.

That involves:

A push token and a device / subscription identifier
Optional alert preferences you choose: which of our seven Arkansas counties to alert for (Benton, Washington, Madison, Crawford, Franklin, Sebastian & Logan), and whether you want “OZ Weather is on the air” stream alerts. Those preferences are stored as OneSignal tags (for example county_benton = 1) and on the device

We use this only to deliver the alerts you asked for.

Optional location (county picker)

The app can ask for location only when you tap “Use my location” on the county picker. It takes a one-time, coarse fix to match your county, then drops the coordinate. It is not tracked in the background, not stored, and not sent to our servers. You can always pick counties by hand instead.

Website analytics (WordPress.com)

The homepage is hosted on WordPress.com and may load Jetpack / WordPress.com stats (for example stats.wp.com). That is ordinary site usage data (roughly how many people open pages), not a profile of you by name. WordPress.com may set cookies as part of hosting. See Automattic’s privacy policy for how they handle that.

Radar, cameras, and radio (our server)

Radar images, F1RSTNB camera stills, radio forecast audio, and related status files are served from our own small server at media.oz-weather.com. Like most websites, that server keeps routine access logs (IP address, time, page or file requested, browser type) for security and operations. Those logs are not used to market to you.

Storm reports (optional, warnings only)

The storm-report form appears only while warnings are active. You may send a report at oz-weather.com/report/. If you do, we may collect:

Name and town (required). After Garrett approves the report, your name and town may be shown on the OZ Weather broadcast or stream with the report
Optional email address, if you give one so we can follow up on your report
Report type, optional short description, optional hail size
Optional photo (EXIF location data is stripped on upload)
Optional precise location only if you tap “Use my location” on the form
A hashed IP and browser type, for spam control

Reports sit in a pending queue until Garrett reviews them. Approved reports may appear on the OZ Weather stream (ticker and, if you checked the box, your photo with credit). This form is not for emergencies — call 911 if people or property are in danger.

Summary: what is linked to you

Linked to your report, only if you send a storm report: name, email address, photos or videos & other report details (town, report type, description). We use them to run the storm-report feature: to review your report, follow up & credit you on air.
Not linked to you: coarse location (used once to set your county alerts), device ID (to deliver push notifications) & product interaction (page-view analytics).
No tracking. We do not track you across other companies’ apps or websites, and we never sell your data.

What we do not collect

No account, password or sign-in. We get your name, email, photo & report details only if you send a storm report
No contacts, photos library access (except a photo you choose to attach to a storm report), microphone, or continuous GPS
No selling or sharing of personal data for advertising or tracking across other companies’ apps

Links that leave the app

Links outside oz-weather.com / nwaweather.com (and our sponsor site fnbnwa.com) open in Safari or another app. That includes National Weather Service pages, Benton County Alert signup (bcalert.bentoncountyar.gov), YouTube or Facebook when those buttons are on the site, and similar. Those sites have their own privacy policies. Radio Jon Deek audio plays from our server inside the page; it does not create a separate account with us.

Children’s privacy

OZ Weather is for a general audience and is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child sent us something they should not have, email us and we will delete it.

How long we keep data

Push subscription, county & stream-alert tags: until you turn off notifications, clear the tags in the app, or delete the app (OneSignal then ages out the inactive device)
Storm reports and photos: kept while useful for weather coverage and records; rejected or obsolete items can be removed
Server access logs: kept for a limited operational period, then rotated away
WordPress.com stats: subject to WordPress.com / Automattic retention

Your choices

Decline or later turn off notifications in iOS Settings
Change counties or stream alerts with the bell in the app
Skip “Use my location” and type a town or pick counties yourself
Not send a storm report, or ask us to remove a report or photo you submitted

Contact

Questions about privacy or this policy:
Garrett Lewis · OZ Weather
Email: garrett@oz-weather.com
Web: https://oz-weather.com/about-me/
Rogers, Arkansas

Changes

If we change this policy in a material way, we will update the effective date on this page. Continued use of the app or site after that date means you accept the updated policy.

Privacy Policy