Skip to main content
Snow Day Predictor Canada

Privacy

Privacy Policy

Last updated: May 27, 2026

This policy explains what personal information Snow Day Predictor Canada collects, how we use it, and your rights under Canadian and international privacy law. We have written it in plain English because the people using a snow day predictor deserve a policy they can actually read in a single sitting.

In short: the predictor runs entirely in your browser, we do not sell personal information, we do not run behavioural advertising of our own, and the only data that ever leaves your device goes to named third-party weather and geocoding services so we can return a forecast. The detail follows.

Section 1

About Snow Day Predictor Canada

Snow Day Predictor Canada is an editorial and tooling website that publishes a free overnight snow day forecast for every Canadian postal code, plus a set of practical winter guides. We are a small Canadian team of writers and software developers; we are not a school board, a transportation consortium, a government agency, or a weather provider. We operate the site from Canada and are subject to Canadian federal privacy law.

For the purposes of the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), Snow Day Predictor Canada is the organization responsible for any personal information processed through this website. For European Economic Area and United Kingdom visitors, we act as the data controller for the limited information described below.

Contact for privacy questions: admin@snowdaypredictorcanada.com. Suggested subject line: Privacy: [your question]. We aim to respond within thirty days, which is the timeline PIPEDA expects for access requests.

Section 2

Information we collect — the minimum

The predictor itself is a client-side application: when you type a postal code or city, the forecast is computed by JavaScript running in your browser. We do not log the queries you make against the predictor, and there is no server-side database of users, sessions, or accounts on our end.

The only information we receive directly is:

  • Standard server logs generated by our hosting provider when your browser requests a page. These logs include your IP address, browser user-agent string, the referring URL, the page you requested, and a timestamp. Logs are retained for up to thirty days and are used only to investigate abuse, debug outages, and meet our legal obligations.
  • Email you choose to send us — for example a question, a correction, or a privacy request sent to admin@snowdaypredictorcanada.com. We keep email correspondence as long as the editorial record needs it (typically several years) so we can answer follow-ups and track corrections we have made to the site.

The postal codes, city names, and coordinates you enter into the predictor are sent only to our named weather data providers and geocoder (listed in Section 5) so that they can return forecast and location data. We do not store, log, or correlate those queries on our own servers.

Section 3

What we do not collect

We have built this site deliberately to minimise the personal information it touches. Specifically:

  • We do not store the search queries you run through the predictor. Your postal code, city, or coordinates are not written to any database we control.
  • We do not track which city or region you predicted for, link predictions to your IP address, or build any kind of behavioural profile of you.
  • We do not operate a user accounts system. There is no sign-up, no login, no password, and no email subscription required to use the predictor.
  • We do not sell personal information. We have never sold personal information and we have no intention of doing so. We also do not rent, trade, or share personal information for another organization’s direct-marketing purposes.
  • We do not run remarketing, retargeting, or behavioural advertising of our own. We do not place advertising pixels or conversion trackers from social networks (Meta, TikTok, X, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc.) on this site.
  • We do not place location-tracking beacons, fingerprinting scripts, or session-replay tools on the site.

Section 4

Cookies and similar technologies

A cookie is a small text file a website asks your browser to store. We use cookies sparingly and transparently:

Essential cookies

Snow Day Predictor Canada does not set any essential cookies of its own. The predictor uses your browser’s local storage in some cases to remember the last postal code you typed so you don’t have to re-enter it, but that information stays on your device and is never transmitted to us.

Analytics cookies

We may enable Google Analytics 4 to understand aggregate site usage — for example, which province pages are most read and whether the predictor is loading correctly across browsers. When Google Analytics is enabled, Google sets cookies typically named _ga and _ga_<container-id> in your browser. These cookies have a default retention of two years. Google Analytics is configured with IP-anonymisation where supported, and we do not use the Google Signals advertising-feature extension. You can opt out at any time by installing Google’s official Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on or by blocking cookies for our domain in your browser settings.

Advertising cookies

We may enable Google AdSense in the future to display advertising on selected pages. If AdSense is active, Google may set cookies such as _gads, NID, or __gpi in your browser to deliver and measure ads. These cookies are operated by Google under Google’s own privacy policy. You can review Google’s advertising practices and opt out of personalised advertising by visiting Google’s Ads Settings or the industry-wide opt-out at YourAdChoices.ca (Digital Advertising Alliance of Canada).

You can also block, delete, or limit any cookies through your browser’s privacy settings. Doing so will not break the predictor — the forecast is computed client-side and does not depend on analytics or advertising cookies to function.

Section 5

Third-party services we use

To compute the forecast and run the site, we rely on a small number of named third-party services. Each is described below along with the role it plays and the data it receives:

  • Open-Meteo
    open-meteo.com

    Role: Multi-model weather forecast data (including Canadian Meteorological Centre GEM, ECMWF, NOAA GFS, and DWD ICON).

    Data shared: Receives latitude and longitude for your chosen location and returns forecast variables. No name, email, or account is associated with the request.

  • WeatherAPI.com
    www.weatherapi.com

    Role: A cross-check weather forecast queried through a server-side PHP proxy we operate on Cloudways.

    Data shared: Our proxy forwards latitude and longitude to WeatherAPI. The proxy does not store personally identifying data; standard hosting logs at Cloudways are governed by Cloudways’ own privacy policy.

  • zippopotam.us
    api.zippopotam.us

    Role: Open postal-code geocoding for Canadian Forward Sortation Areas.

    Data shared: Receives the Canadian postal code you typed (e.g. M5H, V6B, H2X) and returns the centroid latitude and longitude. The lookup is anonymous and not linked to any identifier.

  • Google Analytics 4
    policies.google.com/privacy

    Role: Aggregate usage measurement, if enabled.

    Data shared: Pageviews, device class, browser type, referring URL, and truncated IP address. Governed by Google’s privacy policy.

  • Google AdSense
    policies.google.com/technologies/ads

    Role: Display advertising, if enabled in the future.

    Data shared: Standard advertising cookies described in Section 4. Governed by Google’s advertising policies.

  • Cloudways (DigitalOcean hosting)
    www.cloudways.com/en/privacy-policy.php

    Role: Hosts the PHP proxy and produces standard server logs.

    Data shared: IP address, user-agent, and request metadata, retained for up to thirty days for abuse and outage investigation.

We do not authorise any of these providers to use the data we send them for their own marketing purposes. Each provider operates under its own published privacy policy, linked above where applicable.

Section 6

Your rights under PIPEDA, GDPR, and provincial law

Under the federal Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), and under substantially similar provincial laws including Alberta’s Personal Information Protection Act, British Columbia’s Personal Information Protection Act, and Quebec’s Act respecting the protection of personal information in the private sector (Law 25), you have the following rights regarding personal information about you that we hold:

  • Right of access. You may ask us whether we hold personal information about you and, if so, receive a copy.
  • Right to correction. If information we hold about you is inaccurate or incomplete, you may ask us to correct it.
  • Right to erasure. You may ask us to delete personal information about you, subject to lawful exceptions (for example, if we are required to retain it for legal, accounting, or security-investigation reasons).
  • Right to withdraw consent. Where we rely on consent to process information, you may withdraw that consent at any time, subject to legal or contractual restrictions and reasonable notice.
  • Right to file a complaint. If you are not satisfied with how we have handled your information or request, you may file a complaint with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (priv.gc.ca) or with your provincial privacy commissioner where applicable.

For visitors in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the UK GDPR give you equivalent and additional rights, including the right to data portability, the right to object to processing, and the right to lodge a complaint with your national data protection supervisory authority. The lawful basis for the limited processing we carry out is our legitimate interest in operating, securing, and improving a free editorial website (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR), and your consent for any analytics or advertising cookies (Article 6(1)(a) GDPR).

To exercise any of these rights, email admin@snowdaypredictorcanada.com. Please include enough detail for us to find the records you are asking about. We may need to verify your identity before acting on a request that involves disclosure or deletion of information.

Section 7

International transfers of information

Some of the third-party services listed in Section 5 process information outside Canada. Open-Meteo is operated from Europe, Google operates global infrastructure, and WeatherAPI runs on international cloud infrastructure. When you use the predictor, minimal request metadata (such as your IP address and the latitude and longitude of your chosen location) may therefore be processed in a country other than Canada.

We rely on those providers’ published privacy commitments, standard contractual clauses, and — where applicable — their GDPR Article 46 transfer safeguards. We do not transfer information to any provider whose published privacy posture is materially weaker than what PIPEDA requires.

If you would prefer that no information about you leaves Canada, please do not use the predictor — the forecast cannot be produced without a request to at least one international weather data provider.

Section 8

Children’s privacy

Snow Day Predictor Canada is a general-audience website. The predictor is most useful to parents, teachers, school administrators, and bus drivers — although students of any age are welcome to use it too. The site is not directed at children under the age of thirteen, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children.

If you are a parent or guardian and you believe a child has sent us personal information through email or any other channel, please contact us at admin@snowdaypredictorcanada.com and we will delete it promptly. Because the predictor itself does not collect personal information from anyone, the practical risk to children using this site is very low.

Section 9

How long we keep information

We keep personal information only for as long as we have a legitimate reason to keep it. Specifically:

  • Server logs — up to thirty days, then deleted. Logs older than thirty days are retained only if they are part of an active abuse or security investigation.
  • Email correspondence — kept for the lifetime of the editorial record (typically several years), so that we can answer follow-up questions, audit corrections, and document policy changes.
  • Analytics data — aggregated and retained according to Google Analytics’ default retention policy. We configure individual-user retention to the shortest practical period offered by GA4 (currently fourteen months).
  • Advertising data — handled by Google AdSense under Google’s retention policies.

Section 10

How we protect information

No system is perfectly secure, but the architecture of this site is deliberately designed to minimise risk:

  • All traffic between your browser and snowdaypredictorcanada.com is served over HTTPS with modern TLS, so requests cannot be read or tampered with in transit by an attacker on the same network.
  • The site is published as a static export, which means there is no application database to compromise. There are no user records, password hashes, payment details, or personal profiles stored on our infrastructure because we do not collect any of those things.
  • The PHP proxy on Cloudways forwards anonymous latitude and longitude requests to WeatherAPI; it does not receive personal identifiers, account details, or payment information.
  • Administrative access to our hosting, domain registrar, and analytics consoles is protected by strong, unique passwords and multi-factor authentication.

Section 11

Breach notification

In the unlikely event of a breach of security safeguards involving personal information under our control that creates a real risk of significant harm to an individual, we will notify the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada and any affected individuals as soon as feasible, in line with our obligations under PIPEDA’s Breach of Security Safeguards Regulations. Where GDPR applies, we will also notify the appropriate supervisory authority within seventy-two hours of becoming aware of a qualifying breach. We maintain an internal record of any breach incidents, even those that do not require notification, as PIPEDA requires.

Section 12

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, our use of third-party services, or applicable law. The “Last updated” date at the top of the page always reflects the most recent revision. Older versions are not archived publicly, but we are happy to provide a previous version on request — email admin@snowdaypredictorcanada.com.

When a change to this policy is material — for example, if we begin using a new category of third-party service, change the lawful basis for processing, or revise our retention periods meaningfully — we will highlight that change in a banner at the top of this page for at least thirty days following the revision.

Section 13

Contact us about privacy

For any question, concern, or formal request related to this policy or to the personal information Snow Day Predictor Canada may hold about you, please contact us by email:

admin@snowdaypredictorcanada.com

Suggested subject line: Privacy: [your question]. We read every privacy email and aim to respond within thirty days. If you are filing a formal request under PIPEDA or GDPR, please say so explicitly in your message so that we can apply the correct response timelines.

You may also reach the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada directly at priv.gc.ca or by phone at 1-800-282-1376.

For non-privacy questions — corrections to forecast methodology, editorial feedback, partnership enquiries — see the contact page.

A predictor that doesn’t track you

Type a postal code, get a forecast, close the tab. No accounts, no profiles, no behavioural advertising of our own.

Run the predictor →