Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy describes how SDS Weather Inc. ("we," "us," or "our") handles the information collected through WeatherStudioPRO (the "Platform"), including our desktop application, our website, and the account services at account.weatherstudiopro.com. We've written it to be read, not endured — so it says plainly what we collect, why we collect it, and what we don't.
01 Information We Do Not Collect
We want to be clear and transparent up front about what we do not collect or store. We do not build advertising profiles, and we do not sell your personal information to anyone. Specifically, we do not collect:
- Your full payment card number, expiry or security code — payments are handled entirely by our payment processor and card details never touch our servers.
- Your contact list, calendar, files, or anything else on your computer outside the application's own configuration.
- Continuous background location, or any tracking of your physical movements.
- A record of which storms, products, layers or areas you look at for advertising or profiling purposes.
- Advertising identifiers or cross-site tracking data — we do not run third-party ad networks or behavioural advertising on the Platform.
We do not sell your data
We have never sold personal information and we do not share it for cross-context behavioural advertising. The data we hold exists to run your subscription and make the software work.
02 Information We Collect
WeatherStudioPRO is a subscription product, so unlike a free anonymous app it does require an account. The information below is what we collect and the reason each item exists.
| What | Why we collect it | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Email address | To create and identify your account, send your setup link, deliver password resets and important service notices, and communicate about your subscription. | You |
| Password | To secure your account. Stored only as a salted one-way hash — we cannot read or recover your password. | You |
| Name / display name | Optional. Used to personalise the account portal and support correspondence. | You |
| Subscription & licence status | Your plan, licence key, renewal state and entitlements — required to unlock the features you paid for. | You & payment processor |
| Billing metadata | Customer and subscription references from our payment processor, plus invoice status. Used to keep your access in sync with your payments. | Payment processor |
| Device activations | A device identifier, an optional device name and platform (e.g. Windows/macOS), and last-seen time — used solely to enforce the device limit included in your plan and to let you free a slot. | Application |
| Application settings | Your WeatherStudioPRO configuration — layouts, panes, colour tables, custom locations and preferences — so it can be backed up and, on eligible plans, synced between your own devices. | You |
| Support tickets | The subject, messages and any attachments you send us, plus technical context you choose to include (app version, operating system, plan) so we can actually solve the problem. | You |
| Server & security logs | Standard access logs — IP address, timestamp, requested endpoint, user agent — kept for security, abuse prevention, rate limiting and debugging. | Automatic |
| Audit records | A record of significant account actions (such as licence changes or administrative updates) for security and accountability. | Automatic |
We use authentication tokens to keep you signed in. These are functional and strictly necessary — they exist to maintain your session, not to track you across the web. We do not use third-party advertising or behavioural-tracking cookies on the Platform.
03 Location Information
WeatherStudioPRO is a map-driven application, and where you point the map is your business. The map view, the radar site you select, and the areas you monitor are handled on your own machine as part of your configuration — we do not log them as a browsing history and we do not use them to profile you.
If you connect a GPS receiver for mobile or field operations, that position data is read and rendered locally by the application on your device to orient your map. It is not transmitted to us as a location-tracking feed and it is not stored on our servers for that purpose. If you choose to save a place as a custom location, it is stored as part of your settings — because you asked us to keep it — and, on plans that include Cloud Sync, it syncs to your other devices along with the rest of your configuration.
Approximate location may be inferred from your IP address in our standard server logs, as it is with any internet service. We use that only for security, abuse prevention and diagnostics.
04 How We Use Your Information
We use the information described above to:
- Provide the Platform — authenticate you, apply your plan's entitlements, manage device activations and deliver the features you subscribed to.
- Process your subscription — take payment through our processor, handle renewals, upgrades, downgrades, cancellations and refunds.
- Communicate with you — send account setup links, password resets, receipts, renewal notices, security alerts and important changes to the service.
- Provide support — investigate and resolve the issues you report to us.
- Keep the Platform secure and reliable — detect and prevent abuse, credential sharing beyond plan limits, fraud and technical faults.
- Improve the product — understand aggregate, non-identifying usage patterns such as which platforms and application versions are in active use, so we know what to support and fix.
- Meet legal obligations — including tax, accounting and lawful requests.
We will only send you marketing email if you have opted in, and every marketing message includes an unsubscribe link. Transactional messages — receipts, security notices and service-critical announcements — are part of running your account and are sent regardless, because you need them.
05 Cloud Sync & Your Settings
Cloud Sync stores your WeatherStudioPRO configuration on our servers so it can be restored after a reinstall and carried between the devices on your own account. Availability depends on your plan.
What this stores is your workspace — pane layouts, product and layer selections, colour tables, custom locations, display preferences and similar settings. It is a snapshot of how you have set the application up, not a log of what you viewed or when. Settings are associated with your account, and per-device settings are additionally keyed to the device they came from so the right configuration lands on the right machine.
If you would rather not store your configuration with us, you can simply not use Cloud Sync — the application works locally without it. Deleting your account removes your synced settings along with the rest of your account data.
06 Why We're Allowed to Process It
For users in the United Kingdom and European Economic Area, our legal bases for processing are: performance of a contract (running your account, licence and subscription — without this data there is no product to deliver); legitimate interests (securing the Platform, preventing abuse and fraud, improving the product, and responding to your support requests); consent (optional marketing email, which you can withdraw at any time); and legal obligation (tax, accounting and lawful requests).
07 How We Share Information
We do not sell, rent or trade your personal information. We share it only in these limited circumstances, and only with providers bound to protect it and to use it solely to deliver their service to us:
- Payment processing — to take payment, manage subscriptions and issue refunds. Our processor receives what it needs to bill you; we receive back only status and reference identifiers.
- Email delivery — to send account, transactional and support email.
- Hosting and infrastructure — the servers and services on which the Platform runs.
- Mapping and weather data providers — requests made by the application to render maps and data. These providers operate under their own privacy policies.
- Legal and safety — where required by law, court order or valid legal process, or to protect the rights, property or safety of our users, the public or us.
- Business transfers — if we are involved in a merger, acquisition or sale of assets, your information may transfer as part of that transaction. We will notify you and this policy will continue to apply until it is replaced.
08 How Long We Keep Information
We keep your account information for as long as your account is active. If you delete your account, we remove your personal information and synced settings within a reasonable period, except where we must retain certain records — such as billing and tax records — for the period required by law. Server and security logs are retained on a short rolling window appropriate to their purpose. Support tickets are retained after resolution for a limited period so we have context if you come back to us about the same issue. Backups containing your data are cycled out on their normal schedule.
09 How We Protect Your Information
We are committed to protecting the information we collect. All traffic between the application, our website and our servers is encrypted in transit using TLS. Passwords are stored only as salted one-way hashes. Access to production systems and to customer data is limited to the small number of people who need it to operate the service, and administrative actions are recorded. We apply rate limiting, request validation and standard hardening at the edge, and full card details never reach our infrastructure at all.
No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security. If a breach affecting your personal information occurs, we will notify affected users and the relevant authorities as required by applicable law and without undue delay. You can help by using a strong, unique password and telling us promptly if you suspect unauthorised access to your account.
10 Your Rights & Choices
You can review and update your profile, manage your devices, change your plan and cancel your subscription directly from your account portal at any time. Depending on where you live, you may also have the right to:
- Access a copy of the personal information we hold about you.
- Correct information that is inaccurate or incomplete.
- Delete your account and associated personal information, subject to records we are legally required to keep.
- Port your information to another service in a portable format.
- Object to or restrict certain processing based on our legitimate interests.
- Withdraw consent for optional marketing at any time, without affecting your service.
- Opt out of sale or sharing — noting that we do not sell or share personal information for cross-context behavioural advertising, so there is nothing to opt out of.
To exercise any of these rights, email support@weatherstudiopro.com. We will verify your request against your account and respond within the timeframe required by applicable law. We will never discriminate against you for exercising a privacy right. California residents may use an authorised agent to submit a request. If you are in the UK or EEA and are unhappy with our response, you have the right to complain to your local data protection authority.
We honour Global Privacy Control and Do Not Track signals to the extent they apply; as noted above, we do not conduct behavioural tracking or advertising on the Platform.
11 Children's Privacy
The Platform is a professional tool and is not directed to children. It is not intended for use by children under the age of 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If we learn that we have collected such information, we will delete it promptly. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, please contact us at support@weatherstudiopro.com.
12 International Users
We are based in the United States, and the information we collect is processed and stored on servers located in the United States. If you access the Platform from outside the United States, you understand that your information will be transferred to, stored in and processed in the United States, where data protection laws may differ from those in your country. Where required, we rely on appropriate safeguards — such as the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses — for those transfers.
13 Changes to This Privacy Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or for other operational, legal or regulatory reasons. We will notify you of any material changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page and updating the "Last Updated" date at the top, and where the change materially affects how we handle your information we will provide additional notice by email or in the application. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically.
14 Contact Us
If you have any questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy or how we handle your information, please contact us at: