Privacy Policy
Last updated: 10 September 2026
stormpast.com publishes historical tropical cyclone records computed from public NOAA data. It is a set of static pages: no account, no newsletter, no comment box. This page explains the small amount of data the site handles anyway, and the larger amount handled by the advertising that pays for it.
Who is responsible for this site
stormpast.com is run by one individual, not a company, on a server he rents and administers himself. For the purposes of the EU and UK General Data Protection Regulation the data controller is Lokesh Rathore, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India. A full postal address is available on request to contact@stormpast.com. Questions about this policy, and requests about data held about you, go to contact@stormpast.com.
What the site itself records
Like every web server, this one writes an access log. For each request it stores:
- the IP address the request came from;
- the browser's user agent string;
- the date and time;
- the URL requested, the response code and the bytes sent;
- the referring URL, when your browser sends one.
That log serves three purposes: delivering the page you asked for, keeping the server secure (blocking scrapers, brute-force attempts and abusive traffic), and measuring roughly how much traffic the site gets. It is not used to profile you, not sold, and not combined with data from anywhere else. Access logs are kept for no more than 30 days and then deleted.
If you email the address above, your message sits in an ordinary mailbox for as long as the matter takes, normally no more than twelve months.
Cookies from this site
The site's own pages set no cookies and use no local storage. Any cookie or device identifier you pick up while reading comes from advertising, described next.
Advertising
This site is funded by Google AdSense. In plain terms:
- Google, as a third-party vendor, uses cookies to serve ads on this site.
- Google's use of advertising cookies lets it and its partners serve ads to you based on your visit to this site and to other sites on the internet.
- Third-party vendors and ad networks other than Google may also serve ads here and set their own cookies and device identifiers.
- These vendors may process your IP address, approximate location, device and browser characteristics, the pages you view here and your ad interactions.
You can opt out of personalized advertising by Google at google.com/settings/ads. How Google uses data on its partners' sites is described at policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites. For other vendors see optout.aboutads.info, youronlinechoices.eu or optout.networkadvertising.org. Opting out stops personalized ads, not ads.
The operator does not receive what these vendors collect. He sees Google's aggregate reporting — impressions, clicks, earnings — and nothing in it identifies a reader.
Analytics
This site runs no Google Analytics and no other third-party analytics script. Traffic figures come from the server's access logs and the aggregate reports in Google Search Console and AdSense. If an analytics tool is added later, this section will name it before it goes live.
Children
This is a historical weather reference. It is not directed at children under 13, and the operator does not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 13. If you believe a child has sent personal information to the address above, write and it will be deleted.
Where the data goes
The server is in Mumbai, India, so a request from anywhere is logged there. Advertising vendors process data on their own infrastructure under their own privacy policies. If you are in the EEA or the UK, visiting this site means your IP address is handled outside your own country.
If you are in the EU or the UK
The legal basis for keeping short-lived access logs is legitimate interest — running and defending the server — under Article 6(1)(f). Where advertising cookies require consent, the basis is your consent, which you can withdraw at any time.
You have the right to ask for access to your personal data, correction, erasure, restriction, and portability; to object to processing based on legitimate interest; and to complain to your national data protection authority or, in the UK, the Information Commissioner's Office.
An honest limitation: the access log holds an IP address and a user agent and nothing else. Usually the operator cannot tell which log lines belong to which person, and under Article 11 he is not required to collect extra data purely to identify you. To have a request acted on, send the exact IP address and a time window. Requests about data held by Google go to Google, a separate controller for its advertising.
If you are in California
The categories of personal information involved are internet and network activity — IP address, user agent, pages viewed, timestamps — plus whatever inferences advertising vendors draw for targeting. The operator does not sell personal information for money. Serving third-party advertising cookies may still count as "sharing" for cross-context behavioral advertising under the CCPA as amended by the CPRA, so treat it as such: opt out through Google's ad settings above, or with a Global Privacy Control signal, which participating vendors honor.
You have the right to know what is collected, to delete it, to correct it, to opt out of sale or sharing, to limit the use of sensitive personal information, and not to be treated differently for exercising any of these. Requests go to the same address, subject to the same limit: server logs contain no names.
Your own controls
Blocking or clearing cookies, private browsing, an ad blocker, or a Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control signal all work here. These pages are plain HTML; blocking ad scripts will not break them.
Changes to this policy
The date at the top changes whenever the policy does. There is no mailing list, so a significant change — a new analytics tool, a new class of advertising partner — will be named in a line under that date for at least 90 days.
Contact
contact@stormpast.com. Replies are normally sent within 30 days.