Data Retention
What stays, and for how long.
Almost everything Dreadcast saves lives on your device, under your control. This page lists what is kept, for how long, and how to remove it. It supplements our Privacy Policy.
Retention at a glance
Scroll the table sideways on smaller screens to read all columns. Keyboard users can focus the table area and use the arrow keys.
| Data | Where and how long | How to remove it |
|---|---|---|
| Location choice, ZIP code, last rounded coordinate and city/state label | On your device, until you change it or delete the app’s data. The coordinate is replaced each time your location updates. | Switch location mode in Settings, or delete the app’s data. |
| App preferences (units, radar, layers, themes, notification settings) | On your device, until you change them or delete the app’s data. | Change them in Settings, or delete the app’s data. |
| Delivered-notification history | On your device. Entries older than 90 days are removed automatically when the app next updates its history. | Delete the app’s data. |
| Weather responses and map images | Temporary caches in memory and in the app’s container, whose lifetime is managed by the operating system and each provider’s cache settings. | Quit the app, or delete the app’s data. |
| Purchase records | Apple keeps App Store purchase and subscription records. Dreadcast checks your subscription on your device; our service never receives receipts or transaction identifiers. | See Apple’s privacy controls at privacy.apple.com. |
| Radar image requests to our CDN (IP address, tile address) | We do not keep radar access logs. Our content-delivery provider processes these connections to deliver the images and protect its network. | Nothing to remove on our side. |
| Website server logs (IP address, browser, page, time) | Kept by our hosting provider for no more than 30 days, then deleted. | Deleted automatically. Email us to request earlier deletion. |
| Support emails | In our mailbox for up to 24 months after your last message, then deleted. | Email kevin@dreadcast.app to request earlier deletion. |
| Request logs at weather, map, and Apple services | Kept by each service under its own policy. We do not receive or control them. | Contact the service directly. |
Data on api.dreadcast.app
Dreadcast’s weather service keeps only the records below, and deletes them automatically once they are no longer needed. This applies to every copy we or our hosting provider keep.
Scroll sideways on smaller screens to read all columns.
| API data | How long we keep it | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Shared weather readings, cached by rounded coordinate | Until the reading is out of date, then deleted automatically. | Return weather quickly and show the last reading, marked with its age, during a provider outage. Shared by place; not linked to a person, device, or IP address. |
| Rate-limit counters based on a pseudonymized form of your IP address | Only briefly, then deleted automatically. | Prevent excessive requests. We still treat these counters as personal information. |
| Operational and security logs | For a limited period needed to run and secure the service, then deleted automatically, except a specific legal or security need described below. | Operation, troubleshooting, and abuse prevention. Logs exclude coordinates and weather responses; they may contain IP addresses, request details, and times. |
| Website analytics: pages viewed, links and buttons clicked, scroll depth and theme and look choices, the linking site, campaign tags, device type and screen size, browser and operating system names, a country from the time zone, and a daily visitor code | Two years, then deleted automatically. The random value behind each day’s visitor codes is deleted shortly after the day ends. | Understand how people find and use the site. Not stored with an IP address, browser details, or a cookie, and not linked across days. Open any page with ?count=off to stop your browser being counted. |
| Install tokens from the Dreadcast CLI: a fingerprint of the token, the kind of client, when it was created, and the last day it was used | Until the installation goes unused for a year, or until you turn the token off with dread config set install-token off, then deleted. | Give each CLI installation its own rate limits and stop one that abuses the service. Not stored with an IP address, location, or requests. |
| Aggregate usage totals | As needed for billing and capacity planning. | Service-wide counts with no IP addresses, coordinates, or user identifiers. |
Independent upstream services apply their own policies to records they control.
Remove local settings and caches
On iPhone and iPad, deleting the app removes its settings and caches: touch and hold Dreadcast on the Home Screen, tap Remove App, then tap Delete App.
On Mac, moving Dreadcast to the Trash removes the app but can leave its settings behind. To remove everything:
- Quit Dreadcast (⌘Q).
- In Finder, choose Go → Go to Folder, enter
~/Library/Containers/com.dreadcast.Dreadcast, and move that folder to the Trash. - Delete the Dreadcast app from your Applications folder.
Time Machine, iCloud Backup, or other backups may still contain copies until those backups expire.
Stop future requests
Switch to ZIP mode or turn off Location Services for Dreadcast to stop device-location access. Weather requests for the selected ZIP still continue. Disabling a map layer does not stop a separate enabled notification monitor that uses the same source; disable the related notifications as well. Quitting Dreadcast stops its requests. On iPhone and iPad, Dreadcast checks for alerts in the background only while its notifications are on. Existing local data, server records, and independent provider records follow their respective retention schedules.
Access and deletion requests
Email kevin@dreadcast.app to ask about information we control or request access, correction, or deletion. We respond within 30 days, subject to any shorter period or permitted extension under applicable law. We may ask for proportionate details to identify a record, such as the email address used for support or an approximate request time. Do not send passwords, API keys, or precise location history.
No app account is required, but request logs can still contain personal information. If we cannot reasonably identify a record as yours, we will explain the limitation rather than promise an individual deletion. Shared weather caches are not a personal account record. Removing local app data does not delete support messages, server logs, or Apple records.
We may preserve a limited record longer when required by law or reasonably necessary for a specific security incident or legal claim. Access is restricted, unrelated use is prohibited, and the record is deleted when that need ends. Independent providers handle requests for data they control.
Changes
We will update this policy and its effective date when what Dreadcast stores, or how long it keeps it, changes.