Privacy Policy

Fire Nearby (firenearby.com) is an independent wildfire information site that aggregates official government and agency data for the United States and Canada. For anything in this policy, contact us at firenearbysupport@gmail.com.

Analytics. In production we use Google Analytics 4 to understand aggregate usage: which pages are visited, how visitors arrive, and general device and browser information. Google Analytics sets its own cookies (such as _ga) and derives an approximate location from your IP address. We use this only to understand what content is useful. See Google’s privacy policy for how Google processes this data.

Location you choose to share. Some features (such as “fires near me”) can use your device location, but only after you explicitly allow it through your browser’s permission prompt. When you do, your coordinates are sent to our own server to look up the nearest place name and build your local report. We do not save your precise coordinates, and nothing links a location lookup to you.

Place searches. When you type a city or place into the history search, we keep an aggregate, city-level counter (for example, “Boise, Idaho: searched 42 times”) to power the “most searched places” list. These counters contain a place name, its coordinates, and a count. They contain no IP addresses, no identifiers, and nothing about who searched. Searches made via “use my location” are excluded from these counters entirely.

Browser storage. The site sets one session-storage flag (fn-near-logged) so a repeated search in the same tab is not double-counted in the aggregate counters. It stores no personal information and is deleted when you close the tab. We set no cookies of our own.

Server logs. Like nearly every website, our hosting infrastructure may keep short-lived technical logs (including IP addresses) for security and reliability. We do not use these logs to identify or profile visitors.

No accounts or passwords, no names, no email lists, no payment information, no advertising identifiers, no cross-site tracking, and no stored history of your precise location. There is no mechanism on this site that ties activity to an identifiable person. The iOS app is different because alerts require knowing where to send them; the next section covers exactly what it stores.

The FireNearby app for iPhone offers the same free live map plus a paid alert subscription. Alerts cannot work without a small amount of stored data, and this is all of it:

• An account identifier. The app creates an anonymous account (via Google Firebase) at first launch; no name or email is required. If you choose Sign in with Apple, we additionally store the email your Apple ID shares (which can be Apple’s private relay address).
• Saved places and alert settings. The place names, coordinates, radii, and alert types you configure. These are the coordinates you chose to save, stored so we can match fires against them; we do not track or store your device’s live location.
• A push token. The device token Apple issues for delivering notifications, and a log of the alerts we sent you (visible in the app as your alert history).
• Subscription status. Purchases run through Apple and RevenueCat; we store only whether your subscription is active, never payment details.

Alert emails (optional) go through Resend, our email delivery processor, using the address on your account. Deleting your account from the app’s settings, or emailing us, removes your places, preferences, tokens, and alert history.

The FireNearby app can deliver emergency wildfire alerts by SMS text message and automated voice call. You opt in inside the app by entering your mobile number and enabling “Calls & texts”; we never enroll a number that was not explicitly provided and confirmed in the app. Household circle members you invite receive a single invitation text and get alerts only after they confirm.

Messages include evacuation orders and warnings affecting your saved places, newly reported fires nearby, and test messages you request. Message frequency varies with wildfire activity near your saved places. Message and data rates may apply. Reply STOP at any time to opt out of texts, or HELP for help. You can also turn off calls and texts in the app at any time.

No mobile information will be shared with third parties or affiliates for marketing or promotional purposes. We do not sell or share your SMS opt-in data or personal information with third parties for marketing purposes. Text messaging originator opt-in data and consent are not shared with any third party. Your number is used solely to deliver the alerts described above, via Twilio, our messaging and voice delivery processor.

When you use the site, your browser connects to a small number of services:

• Google Analytics (analytics, as described above).
• OpenFreeMap serves the basemap tiles behind our fire maps. Like any web request, tile requests include your IP address. Basemap data is © OpenFreeMap, OpenMapTiles, and OpenStreetMap contributors.

On the server side, we use a few processors on your behalf: when you search for a place or share your location, our server queries geocoding services (the US Census Geocoder, Photon by Komoot, and Open-Meteo Geocoding) with the place text or coordinates only, never with anything identifying you. Aggregate search counters are stored with Supabase. Wildfire, weather, and air-quality data shown on the site come from government and public sources and involve no visitor data at all.

The iOS app additionally uses Google Firebase (account identity), RevenueCat (subscription management), Apple Push Notification service (alert delivery), Resend (optional alert email), and Supabase (alert settings storage). Each receives only what its function requires.

Analytics data is retained according to Google Analytics settings. Aggregate, city-level search counters are kept indefinitely because they contain nothing personal. Session storage clears when you close the tab. Transient infrastructure logs rotate automatically.

• Decline the browser location prompt: every feature still works with a typed place name.
• Block analytics with your browser’s tracking protection, a content blocker, or Google’s opt-out browser add-on. The site works fully without analytics.
• Clear cookies and site data at any time through your browser settings.

Because we hold no personal data about you, there is generally nothing for us to access, correct, or delete, but if you believe we hold something about you, email us and we will investigate.

The site is a general-audience information service and is not directed to children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children.

The site is operated from the United States and data is processed there. By using the site you understand that your information (such as analytics data) is processed in the United States.

If our practices change, we will update this page and its effective date. The current version always lives at firenearby.com/privacy.

Fire Nearby is operated by JBL Group LLC. Questions about privacy: firenearbysupport@gmail.com. See also our Terms of Service.