AirGuard Privacy Policy

Last updated: September 4, 2026

This Privacy Policy explains how the AirGuard mobile app ("AirGuard", "the app", "we", "us") handles information. AirGuard is an independent air-quality, wildfire, and smoke app for iOS and Android. If anything here is unclear, email us at terrawarnlive@gmail.com.

1. No account, no server

AirGuard does not have user accounts, and we do not operate a backend that stores your data. The app runs entirely on your device and fetches environmental data directly from the public providers listed in section 4 (or, if the person who built your copy of the app configured one, through a self-hosted proxy that simply forwards those same requests). We do not receive, log, or retain your usage of the app.

2. Information the app handles

• Approximate or precise location (optional): If you grant permission, AirGuard uses your device's foreground location to show air quality, nearby wildfires, and smoke for where you are. Your coordinates are sent to the environmental data providers (or your configured proxy) only at the moment you request data, and are also reverse-geocoded to a place name on your device. AirGuard never requests background or always-on location, and keeps no history of your coordinates — it stores only the single place you are currently viewing. You can use the app without location by choosing "Continue without location" and searching for a city instead.
• Saved places: Cities or coordinates you choose to save, with an optional label (Home, Work, Family, or your own). Stored only in the app's local storage on your device.
• Alert settings: The thresholds and toggles you set for AQI alerts, nearby-fire alerts, smoke alerts, and the daily summary, plus a small record of what you were last alerted about so an alert fires on a change rather than on every refresh. Stored only on your device.
• Preferences: Your theme, language, units, and default map layers. Stored only on your device (theme preference in the operating system's secure storage).
• Offline cache: The most recent air-quality, wildfire, and forecast results are cached in an on-device SQLite database so the app works without a connection. Cached data is clearly labelled "Offline data" and is never presented as live. It is overwritten as new data arrives and cleared when you delete app data.

AirGuard does not collect your name, email address, contacts, photos, or health information, and contains no third-party analytics SDK. It does contain the Google AdMob advertising SDK — see section 3 for what that means for your data.

3. Advertising

AirGuard is free to use and includes ads served through Google AdMob— banner ads, native ads shown inline in lists, and occasional full-screen (interstitial) ads at natural transitions such as opening a wildfire's detail screen. Ads never appear during onboarding and are always clearly labelled "Ad".

• What AdMob can access: To select and measure ads, Google AdMob may access your device's advertising identifier (Android Advertising ID or Apple's IDFA), approximate IP-based location, and general device information. This is separate from, and not linked by AirGuard to, the foreground GPS location described in section 2.
• Consent (EEA, UK, Switzerland): If you're in a region where consent is required, Google's consent form (via the User Messaging Platform) appears the first time you open the app so you can choose whether ads are personalized. Change your choice any time in Settings → "Manage ad privacy options".
• App Tracking Transparency (iOS): On iOS, AirGuard requests App Tracking Transparency permission before requesting a personalized ad. If you decline, AirGuard still shows ads, but they are not personalized using cross-app tracking.
• Test devices: In development builds, AirGuard only ever requests Google's official test ads — never real ads — so a developer's device is never treated as invalid ad traffic.

Google acts as an independent controller for the data it collects to serve and measure ads. See Google's Privacy Policy and how Google uses information from sites and apps that use its services.

4. Notifications

If you enable alerts, AirGuard schedules local notifications on your device (for example, when the AQI crosses a threshold you chose, when a new wildfire is detected within your chosen radius, when smoke is mapped overhead, or a daily summary at a time you pick). AirGuard does not use push notifications, does not register a device push token, and sends nothing to a notification server. Full alert behaviour requires a development or store build of the app; in Expo Go the scheduling logic runs but the operating system does not deliver the notifications.

5. Environmental data providers

AirGuard requests environmental data from the following third parties. Each request contains only the map area or coordinates needed to answer it — never your name, a device identifier, or any account information (there is no account).

• Open-Meteo: Air-quality estimates (from the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service model), weather, and place-name search. Keyless and global. Every air-quality value in the app is labelled as a modelled estimate.
• NOAA / U.S. National Weather Service: Hazard Mapping System (HMS) smoke-plume analysis, served from a public ArcGIS map service. North America.
• National Interagency Fire Center (WFIGS): Confirmed U.S. wildfire incident locations and perimeters, served from public Esri ArcGIS feature services.
• NASA FIRMS: Satellite thermal fire detections. Only contacted if a FIRMS map key (or a proxy) has been configured for your copy of the app; otherwise this feature is disabled.
• Natural Resources Canada (CWFIS): Satellite fire hotspots and hotspot-cluster boundaries for Canada, served from a free, keyless public map service. Informational only, not a confirmed-incident record.
• OpenFreeMap: The base map on the Map screen is drawn with MapLibre from OpenFreeMap's free, keyless vector tiles (built from OpenStreetMap data). Only the tile coordinates for the area you are viewing are requested — no personal or device information, and no Google service is involved.
• Optional self-hosted proxy: Whoever builds AirGuard may set a proxy URL, in which case the requests above are sent to that server instead of directly to the providers. In the builds we publish, no proxy is configured.

Each provider processes requests under its own privacy policy and terms.

6. How this information is used

• To show air quality, wildfire, smoke, and weather for the place you are viewing.
• To let the app work offline by re-showing the last results, clearly marked as cached.
• To evaluate the alert rules you turned on and schedule local notifications.
• To remember your preferences and saved places between launches.
• To select, serve, and measure the ads described in section 3.

None of this data is used to build an advertising profile of you or sold by AirGuard itself. The only recipients are the environmental data providers named above and Google AdMob, each acting under its own privacy policy.

7. Permissions the app requests

• Location (when in use): Optional. Used only while the app is open, to fetch conditions for your position. You are asked during onboarding and can decline or revoke it at any time in your device settings.
• Notifications: Optional. Requested the first time you enable any alert category. Revoke it any time in your device settings.
• App Tracking Transparency (iOS): Optional. Requested before AirGuard would request a personalized ad. Declining does not affect any other app feature.

8. Retention & deletion

Everything AirGuard stores lives on your device until you clear it. The offline cache expires on its own after 24 hours and is continuously overwritten. To remove everything at once, open Settings → Data → "Delete all local app data", which wipes the cache, saved places, and alert settings and cancels any scheduled summary. Deleting the app also removes all of it. Because there is no server, there is nothing for us to delete on your behalf. Ad-consent and advertising-identifier data is retained and deleted according to Google's own policies, not AirGuard's local storage.

9. Children's privacy

AirGuard is a general-audience informational tool and is not directed at children under 13. It does not knowingly collect personal information from children, and does not knowingly serve personalized ads to users it knows to be children.

10. Independence & data limitations

AirGuard is an independent application. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, authorized by, or operated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, AirNow, the U.S. Forest Service, NOAA, or any other government agency. Environmental data may be delayed, incomplete, preliminary, or unavailable, and AirGuard does not replace official emergency alerts, evacuation orders, or public-health instructions. During an emergency, follow the instructions of your local authorities.

11. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as AirGuard changes. We will update the "Last updated" date above, and if a change is material we will make a reasonable effort to note it in the app or on this page.

12. Contact

Questions about this policy or the app — email terrawarnlive@gmail.com. See also the AirGuard Terms of Service and the AirGuard overview.