Privacy & transparency

Privacy Policy

This policy explains how Solar Path Tracker handles location inputs, search requests, analytics, and advertising. We aim to keep the core solar calculations client-friendly while being transparent about the third-party services that help operate the site.

Advertising

Google AdSense, cookies, and ad personalization

This website uses Google AdSense to display advertisements. Google and its partners may use cookies based on a user's previous visits to this website or other websites in order to serve relevant ads. That may include the use of the DoubleClick cookie for ad personalization and measurement.

Users can manage or disable personalized advertising by visiting Google Ads Settings.

We do not enable AdSense Auto Ads on this site. When advertising is active, it is limited to manually placed slots so the interactive map and 3D solar tools remain readable and unobstructed.

Location handling

Search Location, Geolocation, and coordinate processing

If you choose the browser Geolocation option, your device shares coordinates only after you grant permission. Those coordinates are used to center the map and calculate solar data in the client experience. We do not persist your precise GPS coordinates in a user account database.

If you use Search Location, your query is sent through our `/api/geocode` endpoint to OpenStreetMap Nominatim so we can return matching places. Search responses may be cached in server memory for up to 24 hours to reduce repeated upstream lookups, and request metadata may be used for rate limiting.

On first load, the site may request an approximate location from our `/api/ip-geo` endpoint to suggest a starting map center. That lookup uses the visitor IP address and may cache a coarse city-level result in server memory for up to 1 hour. We keep this behavior to improve first-use convenience and disclose it here for transparency.

Services and retention

Third-party services used by the site

  • Google AdSense: provides advertising when enabled and may use cookies for ad delivery and measurement.
  • OpenStreetMap / Nominatim: powers place search and map verification links.
  • ip-api.com: provides approximate IP-based location lookup for the initial map suggestion.
  • Vercel Analytics: helps us understand aggregated site usage and performance trends.

We do not sell personal data. We use temporary caching and service-provider requests to deliver the search, approximate location, analytics, and advertising features that support the app.

Your choices

Controls, opt-out, and contact

You can decline browser geolocation permissions, skip Search Location, or manually enter coordinates instead. You can also manage ad personalization through Google Ads Settings.

If you have a privacy question or want clarification about this policy, contact us at solarpathtracker@gmail.com.