Privacy policy

Who we are

Open Earth (openearth.live) is an automated service that tracks earthquakes, volcanoes, other natural hazards and events in space using public data from official agencies. You can contact us about anything in this policy at datafix@openearth.live.

Browsing without an account

You can use the whole site without signing up. We do not ask for your name, and we do not build a profile of you.

Our hosting provider keeps short-lived technical logs (such as IP address and browser type) to keep the site secure and working. These are not used to identify you.

Your location

If you allow it, your browser shares your approximate position so we can show hazards and launches near you. Your position is saved only in your own browser. It is sent to our servers only to work out what is nearby and is never linked to you or your account. The only thing we keep is a cached weather report for a broad map area, shared by everyone in that area.

You can turn this off at any time in your browser settings, or switch to Global mode in the menu at the top of the page.

Accounts and community posts

If you create an account we store your email address, a securely scrambled version of your password, and the display name you choose. Your email is never shown to other visitors.

Comments and felt reports you post are public, together with your display name and the time you posted. You can delete your own posts at any time. Posts reported by other members may be hidden and reviewed by our moderators.

To delete your account and everything linked to it, email datafix@openearth.live from the address you signed up with.

Cookies and browser storage

We use your browser storage to remember your sign-in, your light or dark theme, and your Near me settings. These are needed for the site to work and are not used for tracking.

Advertising

Some pages show ads served by Google. Google and its partners may use cookies to show ads based on your previous visits to this and other websites. Visitors in the UK and European Economic Area are asked for consent before personalised ads are shown.

You can learn how Google uses this information, and opt out of personalised advertising, at policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites and adssettings.google.com.

Who we share data with

We do not sell your data. We use trusted providers to run the site: a database and sign-in provider, a web host, and Google for advertising. They process data only to provide those services.

Hazard and space data comes from public agencies, listed on our data sources page. None of your data is sent to them.

Your rights

You can ask for a copy of the data we hold about you, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete it. Email datafix@openearth.live and we will reply within 30 days.