Powder Scope is a snow-forecast application operated by Aptura Pty Ltd (ABN 27 671 918 479), Western Australia. We collect as little information as possible: enough to provide you with an account if you sign up. We don't run advertising, we don't use tracking cookies, our analytics identifies no individual, and we don't sell or share your data.
What we collect
- Account details. Your email address, an optional display name, and a securely hashed password. We never store your password itself. If you arrived from a link we posted somewhere (a forum, a community group), we also keep the name of that channel against your account so we know where to say thanks.
- Your favourites. The resorts you star, so they follow you between devices.
- Anonymous usage statistics. Our hosting provider's privacy-preserving analytics counts page views. It sets no cookies and stores no IP address; instead it derives a temporary hash from your connection that is discarded daily, so visits can't be linked to you or followed across days or sites. What we see is aggregate: which pages were viewed, the referring site, country, and browser and device type.
- Contact form messages. If you write to us, the name, email address and message you enter are sent to us through a form-delivery service, and the form is protected from spam by an anti-bot check.
- Ordinary server logs. Our host records requests (IP address, timestamp, page, browser) for security and debugging. These are short-lived and not used to build a profile of you.
- Payment information. We don't currently take payments. If we did, we wouldn't store or process your payment information — it would all be handled by a PCI-compliant payment processor.
There is no advertising network and no tracking pixel on this site. The only cookie we set is the one that keeps you signed in.
Why we use the information
To sign you in and keep you signed in; to show your starred resorts; to send account emails you asked for (email verification and password resets); to tell founding accounts, once, when subscriptions launch; to reply when you contact us; and to understand, in aggregate, which parts of the site people use. We don't send marketing email beyond that one message.
Who processes your data
We use a small number of service providers, each for one purpose: hosting and content delivery (including the aggregate analytics described above), a managed database for accounts and favourites (hosted in Sydney, Australia), transactional email delivery for account emails, and form delivery with spam protection for the contact form.
These providers operate internationally, so your data may be processed outside Australia. We share data with them only so they can perform these services, and with nobody else — except where we're legally required to.
Forecast data is fetched from Open-Meteo by our servers, not by your browser. Requesting a forecast doesn't send anything about you to them.
Your data, your call
You can ask us to show you the data we hold about you, correct it, or delete your account and everything attached to it. Use the contact form (topic “Privacy or data request”) and we'll action deletion requests within 30 days. Deleting your account removes your account record and favourites.
We keep your data for as long as your account exists. Server logs are retained only briefly by our host, and aggregate usage statistics are kept only for a limited period.
Security
All traffic is encrypted (HTTPS) and passwords are stored only as hashes, never in plain text. If a data breach ever affects your information we'll notify you, and the regulator where the law requires it.
Changes
We may update this policy from time to time. The date at the top shows when it last changed, and the current version is always the one published here.
Contact
Questions or requests: use the contact form. See also our Terms of Service.