Privacy Policy

Solar Path Tracker is prepared to use Google AdSense, but advertising is currently disabled while the site is in review mode. In this mode the site may publish an AdSense account-verification meta tag and ads.txt record, but it does not load the AdSense advertising script, create ad slots, or display ads.

Third-party vendors, including Google, may use cookies or similar identifiers to serve ads based on users' prior visits to this website or other websites. Google's use of advertising cookies enables Google and its partners to serve personalized ads where consent permits, and contextual, non-personalized, or limited ads where applicable.

Google-certified ad networks and other third-party ad vendors may also serve ads on eligible pages. Visitors can review Google's certified third-party vendors and use the opt-out controls offered by those vendors where available. Visitors can also review AboutAds opt-out information.

Users can manage or disable personalized advertising by visiting Google Ads Settings. Google advertising technologies may include the DoubleClick cookie where applicable to the user's region, consent choice, and current Google services.

AdSense Auto Ads are not used. When advertising is active, it is limited to manually placed responsive units after completed results or page-specific evidence, with no more than one unit per eligible page. The Guides index, an empty home result, About, Privacy, Terms, Contact, Methodology, not-found, loading, and error states do not load the AdSense script, create an empty slot, or display ads.

Where consent is required in the EEA, United Kingdom, or Switzerland, advertising is intended to use a Google-certified consent management platform with clear consent, non-consent, and settings choices. Available controls depend on region and the current advertising state.

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 Geoapify so we can return matching global addresses, places, streets, and administrative areas. If a starting location is available, its coordinates are also sent as a soft location preference; they do not restrict the search to that area.

Geoapify responses may be stored in a shared server cache for up to 24 hours; an empty result is cached for up to 5 minutes. If Geoapify is unavailable, or an explicit Search returns no match, the server may automatically retry through TomTom. TomTom responses are not stored in the shared results cache. Request metadata is used for shared rate limits, provider health protection, and rolling usage limits.

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.

• Google AdSense: is configured for account/site verification, but its advertising script and ad slots are disabled in review mode.
• Geoapify: powers primary global address and place search and may receive the search text and a soft location preference.
• TomTom: provides the automatically limited backup address search and may receive the same search text and soft location preference when a backup request is needed.
• Upstash Redis: stores temporary search-cache entries, rate-limit counters, provider health state, and rolling provider-usage counters.
• OpenStreetMap: provides map tiles and coordinate links.
• ip-api.com: provides approximate IP-based location lookup for the initial map suggestion.
• Vercel Analytics and Speed Insights: help us understand aggregated site usage and anonymous Web Vitals. Performance measurements may be grouped by route, device type, browser, and country so we can identify slow experiences without building individual visitor profiles.

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.

Vercel Speed Insights does not provide us with visitor IP addresses or a way to reconstruct an individual browsing session. Its measurements are used to improve page loading stability and interaction responsiveness.

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 our Contact page.