Privacy Policy

Last updated: July 2, 2026

This Privacy Policy explains how Smog Report ("we", "us") handles your information across two distinct surfaces: the Smog Report iOS app ("the App") and the smogreport.com website ("the Website"). Privacy practices differ between the two. Starting with App version 2.5.1, the App displays a small number of native advertisements (described below); a later version added anonymous usage analytics and crash reporting (also described below); the Website has used Google Analytics since launch. Both surfaces are described in detail below.

Legal Bases for Processing (EU / UK GDPR)

Where the GDPR or UK GDPR applies, we rely on the following legal bases under Article 6(1):

  • App usage analytics (Google Analytics for Firebase) and crash reporting (Firebase Crashlytics) — your consent (Art. 6(1)(a)), collected and managed region-aware through the Google User Messaging Platform (UMP) / IAB TCF consent flow in the EEA, UK, and Switzerland. Both ship disabled and are only enabled at runtime after consent is known.
  • In-app advertising (Google AdMob) — your consent (Art. 6(1)(a)), collected through the same UMP / IAB TCF consent flow.
  • Location lookup (nearest air-quality monitor) — performance of a contract / provision of the App's core functionality (Art. 6(1)(b)); the lookup is what the App is for.
  • Tip Jar purchases and ad removal (StoreKit in-app purchases) — performance of a contract (Art. 6(1)(b)).
  • Website analytics (Google Analytics 4) — your consent (Art. 6(1)(a)).
  • Server / hosting request logs — our legitimate interests (Art. 6(1)(f)) in operating, securing, and maintaining the Website.

Providing personal data is optional. You are under no statutory or contractual obligation to provide it, and the only consequence of declining is that the relevant optional feature (for example, personalized ads or usage analytics) will not be available to you.

Part A — The iOS App

Data the App Collects

Location. The App requests access to your device's precise location to find the nearest reference-grade air quality monitor and retrieve readings for that monitor. Your location is used only for that lookup.

How location is used. Your latitude and longitude (or, when you choose, a ZIP code you enter) are sent to one of three reference-grade air-quality data sources depending on your location: EPA AirNow for the United States, OpenAQ (operated by Open AQ Inc.) for ~100 other countries, and Singapore NEA's data.gov.sg API for Singapore. The request is made directly from your device to the relevant service. Your location is not sent to Google or any advertising service.

Advertising (App version 2.5.1 and later)

Starting with version 2.5.1, the App displays native advertisements served by Google Mobile Ads (AdMob) in two locations: at the bottom of the main air-quality scroll, and at the bottom of the About screen. Ads are never shown on watchOS, in widgets, or in Live Activities.

To serve these ads, the AdMob SDK may collect and process the following data on Google's behalf:

This data is collected and processed by Google. We do not link it to your real-world identity, and we do not receive a copy of the underlying identifiers from Google. Google's advertising-related privacy practices are described at policies.google.com/technologies/ads. You can control how Google personalizes ads to you, including turning off personalization entirely, at adssettings.google.com.

App Tracking Transparency

iOS will prompt you to allow or deny tracking the first time an ad is about to display in the App (typically after several launches, since ads are suppressed during onboarding). You can change your answer at any time in iOS Settings → Privacy & Security → Tracking → Smog Report. Denying tracking does not stop ads from appearing in the App; it only prevents Google from using your IDFA to personalize them.

EEA / UK Consent

If you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or Switzerland, the App presents a Google User Messaging Platform (UMP) consent form the first time an ad is about to display. Your choices in this form are stored on-device by the UMP SDK and govern whether personalized advertising is shown to you. Declining required purposes will hide ads in your region. You can re-open the consent form at any time from in-app settings (where available).

How to Remove Ads

Leave a tip from the in-app Tip Jar (Settings → Tip Jar). Tips remove ads for a window proportional to the tier: a small tip grants 30 ad-free days, the largest tier grants 450 days, and tips stack additively across multiple purchases. Ads are also automatically suppressed when AQI is at Unhealthy or worse, during your first three cold launches of the App, when VoiceOver / Reduce Motion / Reduce Transparency is enabled, when your device is offline, when you decline EEA consent, and when we remotely disable ads via the kill switch described below.

Analytics & Crash Reporting

To understand which features people actually use and to diagnose crashes, the App uses two Google Firebase services: Google Analytics for Firebase (anonymous, aggregated usage analytics) and Firebase Crashlytics (crash and stability diagnostics). These help us decide what to improve and fix bugs faster.

This data is not linked to your real-world identity and does not use the iOS advertising identifier (IDFA). Firebase assigns a pseudonymous, resettable app-instance identifier. The usage data is limited to in-app events — for example, which screens you open, whether you tap the cross-promotion to our companion app, and tip-jar interactions — together with a coarse, country-level signal of the locations you choose to monitor (derived from your location search, never from device GPS). Crash reports contain diagnostic information such as the device model, OS version, and a symbolicated stack trace; they contain no personal information.

Your control. You can turn usage analytics off at any time in the App's Settings, under Privacy → "Share anonymous usage data." Outside the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland, crash reporting stays on to keep the App stable. Inside the EEA, UK, and Switzerland, both usage analytics and crash reporting follow your Google UMP consent choice described above — declining consent there disables both.

Data the App Does Not Collect

Local Storage

The App stores your saved locations and preferences locally on your device using standard iOS storage. This data is not transmitted off your device and is removed when you delete the App.

Background App Refresh (App version 2.5.3 and later)

Starting with version 2.5.3, the App registers a Background App Refresh task with iOS so it can fetch fresh air-quality data for your primary saved location periodically while the App is suspended. iOS controls the exact cadence (typically every few hours, with no guarantee). The handler does the same lookup the foreground App does — against whichever air-quality service serves your primary location (EPA AirNow, OpenAQ, or Singapore's NEA) — updates the on-device Live Activity if your air quality crosses the threshold, and writes the result to local on-device storage. No personal data is sent off-device beyond that air-quality lookup itself, and no third-party SDKs (advertising, analytics, or otherwise) run in the background path. You can disable Background App Refresh for Smog Report any time in iOS Settings → General → Background App Refresh.

CloudKit (Remote Configuration)

The App reads a single configuration record from a public iCloud database (record type AdConfig) at launch. This record holds the advertising kill switch, per-placement enable flags, and the tier-day values used to map tips to ad-free time. The fetch is read-only and anonymous — you do not need to be signed into iCloud for it to work, and no data is written from your device to iCloud.

Widgets, Live Activities, and the Apple Watch App

Home screen widgets, lock screen widgets, Live Activities, and the Apple Watch app use the same location data described above and do not collect any additional information. These surfaces contain no advertising, analytics, or crash-reporting code at all — the Google AdMob, Firebase, and UMP SDKs are not present in the watchOS or widget targets. They never display advertisements.

Third-Party Services Used by the App

Part B — The smogreport.com Website

The Website is a separate surface from the App and has different privacy practices. Using the Website (visiting any page on smogreport.com) involves the following data flows. Using the App does not.

Information Collected Automatically

Analytics — Google Analytics 4

The Website uses Google Analytics 4 (measurement ID G-3YLJRZ25ZP) to understand how visitors use the site. Google Analytics sets cookies in your browser and reports information including pages viewed, approximate geographic region (derived from IP), device type, browser, and the path you take through the site. We use this information in aggregate to improve the Website. We have not enabled Google Signals or cross-device user-ID linking.

You can opt out by installing the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on, by enabling "Do Not Track" or similar privacy settings in your browser, or by blocking the gtag.js script with a content blocker. More about Google Analytics privacy: policies.google.com/privacy.

Children

Neither the App nor the Website is directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13.

Part C — GDPR Disclosures (EEA, UK, and Switzerland)

Recipients, transfers, retention, rights & more

Recipients of Personal Data

We do not sell personal data. We share personal data only with the following processors and service providers, each acting under its own privacy policy:

The air-quality data sources (EPA AirNow, OpenAQ, Singapore NEA) described in Part A receive only the approximate location or ZIP code needed to return a reading, under their own policies.

International Transfers

Embay, LLC is based in the United States, and the providers above process data in the United States and other countries. Where personal data is transferred out of the EEA, UK, or Switzerland, these providers rely on their own safeguards, including the EU-US Data Privacy Framework and/or Standard Contractual Clauses.

Retention

We retain no personal data on our own servers. Analytics data is retained according to the retention period configured on our Google Analytics property and our Firebase project; crash reports are retained per Firebase's default retention. Website server logs are retained by Cloudflare under its own retention policy. Data stored on your device (saved locations, preferences) persists until you delete it or delete the App.

Your Rights

Depending on where you live, you may have rights under laws such as the EU GDPR, the UK GDPR, or the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA/CPRA), including the right to access, rectify, erase, restrict processing of, object to the processing of, and port personal data we hold about you, as well as the right to withdraw consent at any time (without affecting the lawfulness of processing before withdrawal).

You can exercise several of these controls directly:

  • In the App: turn usage analytics off under Settings → Privacy → "Share anonymous usage data," and re-open the Google UMP consent form (EEA/UK/Switzerland) from in-app settings to change or withdraw your advertising and analytics consent.
  • On the Website: use the Google Analytics opt-out described in Part B.

To exercise any right that you cannot action yourself, contact us at support@smogreport.com. Note that the third parties listed above (Google, Apple, Cloudflare) handle their own privacy operations under their own policies.

Right to Lodge a Complaint

If you are in the EEA and believe our processing of your personal data infringes the GDPR, you have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority (find yours via the European Data Protection Board members list). If you are in the UK, you may complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).

Automated Decision-Making and Profiling

We do not carry out automated decision-making, including profiling, that produces legal or similarly significant effects on you within the meaning of Article 22 GDPR.

Source of Data

We obtain personal data only directly from you (or from your device as you use the App and Website). We do not acquire personal data about you from third-party sources.

Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control

The Website does not respond differently to browser-level Do Not Track signals or Global Privacy Control headers, because the third-party services it loads (Google Analytics) handle these signals under their own controls described above.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The "Last updated" date at the top reflects the latest revision. Material changes will be reflected by an updated date and, where appropriate, additional notice on the Website.

Contact

Smog Report and the smogreport.com website are operated by Embay, LLC, a limited liability company registered in Florida, USA. For the purposes of the EU GDPR and the UK GDPR, Embay, LLC is the data controller for any personal data described in this policy. We have not appointed a Data Protection Officer, and given the scale and nature of our processing we are not required to.

Privacy questions, and requests to exercise your rights, can be sent to support@smogreport.com. Our postal address is:

Embay, LLC
7901 4th St N, Ste 300
St. Petersburg, FL 33702
United States