Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy describes Our policies and procedures on the collection, use and disclosure of Your information when You use the Service and tells You about Your privacy rights and how the law protects You.

We use Your Personal data to provide and improve the Service. By using the Service, You agree to the collection and use of information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

This document describes Our practices at a high level. Depending on where You live and which features You use, We may also show You additional notices or request consent when We collect certain information in the Service itself. Those in-product disclosures are part of how We inform You and may apply together with this Privacy Policy.

What We collect. Through the Service, We collect the following kinds of data: (1) usage, diagnostic, and crash data—such as device information, screens and features used, timestamps, and related events sent to Our analytics and crash-reporting tools—which help Us operate and improve the Service; (2) account data and content You save within the Service—such as sign-in details, preferences, and saved locations—which We store so You can recover and sync Your data across devices; (3) in Our mobile applications, precise location when You grant permission and use a location-based feature, push notification registration data, and purchase and subscription records from the app store. Each is described in the table and sections below. We do not collect categories of personal data beyond what is described in this Privacy Policy, and We do not sell Your Personal Data.

What We Collect, How We Collect It, and How We Use It

The table below summarizes the main categories of information tied to Our websites and mobile applications, how We obtain them, what We use them for, and which types of third parties may receive them. Not every row applies to every product; the "Mobile Applications" section below says which apply to Snow Days. Other sections of this Privacy Policy provide additional detail.

Third-party AI and automated processing

Certain features of the Service use Google LLC ("Google," via the Gemini API and/or Vertex AI) and OpenAI, LLC ("OpenAI") as third-party AI providers. When You use an AI-powered feature, the content You submit (for example text prompts or other user-generated input) is sent to one or both providers' APIs for inference so that the Service can return a response to You. We transmit only the content necessary to fulfill the specific feature request; We do not send Your account credentials, payment information, or other unrelated personal data to these providers.

Under Google's API terms of service, customer data sent to the Gemini API or Vertex AI is not used by Google to train or improve its models outside of the customer's own project. Google may process inputs and outputs to provide and maintain the service, enforce its acceptable use policies, and comply with applicable law. You can review Google's AI-specific terms at ai.google.dev/gemini-api/terms and cloud.google.com/terms/service-terms.

Under OpenAI's API data usage policy, content submitted through the API is not used by OpenAI to train or improve its models. OpenAI may retain API inputs and outputs for up to 30 days solely for abuse and misuse monitoring, after which they are deleted, unless a longer retention period is required by law. You can review OpenAI's policies at openai.com/policies/row-privacy-policy.

If We add or change third-party AI or machine-learning providers that process personal data, We will update this Privacy Policy—including what is shared, with whom, and for what purposes—and We will provide any additional in-product disclosures or consent mechanisms required by law or platform rules.

The Snow Days mobile application does not currently offer AI-powered features and does not send any of Your data to OpenAI or to Google's Gemini API or Vertex AI.

Mobile Applications (Snow Days)

This section describes how the Snow Days app for iOS and Android, and the snowdays.app website, handle Your data. Where it is more specific than the rest of this Privacy Policy, it governs for Snow Days.

Anonymous accounts

The first time You open Snow Days it creates an anonymous Account for Your Device using Firebase Authentication. That Account is a randomly generated identifier; it contains no name, email address, or other information about You. It exists so that Your preferences, saved locations, time zone (as reported by Your Device or chosen by You, so that notifications arrive at a sensible local hour), and any purchase can be remembered on that Device. You can use every feature of the app, including purchasing a subscription, without ever providing any personal information.

If You choose to link Your Account with Sign in with Apple or Google, We receive the email address, name (if shared), and provider identifier that the provider sends Us, and store them with Your Account so that it can be recovered on another Device. Apple lets You hide Your real email address; if You do, We receive only the relay address. Linking is optional and is only ever offered, never required.

Location

Snow Days asks for location permission ("while using the app" only) so that it can sort ski areas by distance from You. If You grant it, Your Device's coordinates are sent to Our servers with the request for that list and are used only to compute the order and distances returned. We do not store Your coordinates with Your Account, build a location history, or use Your location for advertising. Coordinates may be present in Our hosting provider's standard server request logs, which are retained for a short period for security and debugging. Location is never collected in the background, and You can revoke permission at any time in Your Device's settings; the app then falls back to lists that do not depend on where You are.

Push notifications

Snow Days registers Your Device with Mailman, a push notification service that the Company operates, so that We can send You notifications such as snowfall and conditions updates. Registration records a push token issued by Apple or Google, whether You have allowed notifications, Your Device model and operating system version, the app version, Your time zone, and the language You use the app in, all linked to Your anonymous Account identifier. Registration happens whether or not You allow notifications, so that We know not to send to Devices that have declined; no notification is ever delivered to a Device that has not allowed them. You can turn notifications off at any time in Your Device's settings.

Purchases and subscriptions

Payment is taken by Apple or Google, never by Us, and We never receive Your card or bank details. When You buy, restore, or renew a subscription, We receive from the app store the transaction and subscription identifiers, the product, price, currency, and store country, and the subscription's status and expiry date. We verify that information with the store and record the resulting entitlement against Your Account so that premium features unlock on Your Device and can be restored on Your other Devices. Purchase screens and verification are provided by Paygate, a service that the Company operates. New purchases are also reported to Google Analytics as a purchase event with the price and currency, for aggregate revenue reporting; that report is tied to an analytics identifier, not to Your name or email.

Analytics and crash reporting

Snow Days uses Firebase Analytics to understand how the app is used (for example which screens and features are opened) and Firebase Crashlytics to receive crash reports. Analytics collection is enabled only in builds installed from the App Store or Google Play. Both services assign Your app installation an identifier and receive Device information such as model, operating system version, app version, country, and language. We use this data to improve the app, not for advertising, and We do not share it with advertisers. The snowdays.app website uses Google Analytics for the same purpose.

Weather and map data

Forecasts are fetched by Our servers from Open-Meteo for the coordinates of each ski area, not for Your location, and ski-area and parking information is derived from OpenStreetMap. No data about You is sent to either provider.

Deleting Your data

You can delete Your Account from within Snow Days under Settings. Doing so deletes Your Account, any linked sign-in, Your saved locations, Your time zone, and Your entitlement record from Our systems, and detaches Your Device from push notifications so that nothing further is sent to it. It does not cancel a subscription, which is held by Apple or Google and must be cancelled in Your app store account, and it does not remove the records that Apple or Google keep of Your purchases. We also keep the store's transaction record for any subscription You bought, unlinked from Your deleted Account but noting which Account identifiers it was previously linked to, so that the purchase can be restored if You sign in again. If You reinstall the app, a new anonymous Account is created.

Interpretation and Definitions

Interpretation

The words of which the initial letter is capitalized have meanings defined under the following conditions. The following definitions shall have the same meaning regardless of whether they appear in singular or in plural.

Definitions

For the purposes of this Privacy Policy:

• Account means a unique account created for You to access our Service or parts of our Service.
• Affiliate means an entity that controls, is controlled by or is under common control with a party, where "control" means ownership of 50% or more of the shares, equity interest or other securities entitled to vote for election of directors or other managing authority.
• Application refers to Build Context websites, web applications, mobile applications, and related software provided by the Company, including the Snow Days mobile application for iOS and Android and the snowdays.app website.
• Company (referred to as either "the Company", "We", "Us" or "Our" in this Agreement) refers to Build Context.
• Country refers to: New York, United States
• Device means any device that can access the Service such as a computer, a cellphone or a digital tablet.
• Personal Data is any information that relates to an identified or identifiable individual.
• Service refers to the Application.
• Service Provider means any natural or legal person who processes the data on behalf of the Company.
• Usage Data refers to data collected automatically, either generated by the use of the Service or from the Service infrastructure itself.
• You means the individual accessing or using the Service, or the company, or other legal entity on behalf of which such individual is accessing or using the Service, as applicable.

Collecting and Using Your Personal Data

Types of Data Collected

Personal Data

While using Our Service, We may ask You to provide Us with certain personally identifiable information that can be used to contact or identify You. Personally identifiable information may include, but is not limited to:

• Account information You provide when creating or updating an account (for example an email address, username, or profile details)
• User-generated content and preferences You save within the Service, which are stored so You can recover and access Your data across devices
• Your Device's precise location, when You grant permission and use a location-based feature of a mobile application
• Push notification registration data and purchase and subscription records, as described under "Mobile Applications" above
• Any other information You choose to include in messages or forms You send to Us

Usage Data

Usage Data is collected automatically when using the Service.

Usage Data may include information such as Your Device's Internet Protocol address (e.g. IP address), browser type, browser version, the pages of our Service that You visit, the time and date of Your visit, the time spent on those pages, unique device identifiers and other diagnostic data.

When You access the Service by or through a mobile device, We may collect certain information automatically, including, but not limited to, the type of mobile device You use, Your mobile device unique ID, the IP address of Your mobile device, Your mobile operating system, the type of mobile Internet browser You use, unique device identifiers and other diagnostic data.

We may also collect information that Your browser sends whenever You visit our Service or when You access the Service by or through a mobile device.

Analytics (Firebase / Google)

We use Google Firebase Analytics and Google Analytics on Our websites and in Our mobile applications to measure traffic and usage (for example page views, screens opened, and related events). Data processed through Firebase may be handled by Google as described in Google's policies and Our agreements with those services. You can learn more about how Google uses data from sites that use its services at policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.

Use of Your Personal Data

The Company may use Personal Data for the following purposes:

• To provide and maintain our Service, including to monitor the usage of our Service and to store and sync Your data so You can recover it across devices.
• To manage Your Account: to manage Your registration as a user of the Service. The Personal Data You provide can give You access to different functionalities of the Service that are available to You as a registered user.
• For the performance of a contract: the development, compliance and undertaking of the purchase contract for the products, items or services You have purchased or of any other contract with Us through the Service.
• To contact You: To contact You by email, telephone calls, SMS, or other equivalent forms of electronic communication, such as a mobile application's push notifications regarding updates or informative communications related to the functionalities, products or contracted services, including the security updates, when necessary or reasonable for their implementation.
• To provide You with news, special offers and general information about other goods, services and events which we offer that are similar to those that you have already purchased or enquired about unless You have opted not to receive such information.
• To manage Your requests: To attend and manage Your requests to Us.
• For business transfers: We may use Your information to evaluate or conduct a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, or other sale or transfer of some or all of Our assets.
• For other purposes: We may use Your information for other purposes, such as data analysis, identifying usage trends, determining the effectiveness of our promotional campaigns and to evaluate and improve our Service, products, services, marketing and your experience.

Retention of Your Personal Data

The Company will retain Your Personal Data only for as long as is necessary for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy. We will retain and use Your Personal Data to the extent necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our legal agreements and policies.

The Company will also retain Usage Data for internal analysis purposes. Usage Data is generally retained for a shorter period of time, except when this data is used to strengthen the security or to improve the functionality of Our Service, or We are legally obligated to retain this data for longer time periods.

Transfer of Your Personal Data

Your information, including Personal Data, is processed at the Company's operating offices and in any other places where the parties involved in the processing are located. It means that this information may be transferred to — and maintained on — computers located outside of Your state, province, country or other governmental jurisdiction where the data protection laws may differ than those from Your jurisdiction.

Your consent to this Privacy Policy followed by Your submission of such information represents Your agreement to that transfer.

The Company will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that Your data is treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy Policy and no transfer of Your Personal Data will take place to an organization or a country unless there are adequate controls in place including the security of Your data and other personal information.

Delete Your Personal Data

You have the right to delete or request that We assist in deleting the Personal Data that We have collected about You.

Where the Service supports it, You may delete Your personal data directly within the app (for example through account settings or a "Delete Account" option). If the app or service You are using does not offer an in-app deletion feature, You may request deletion by emailing Us at mike@buildcontext.com. We will process Your request and confirm deletion within a reasonable timeframe.

Please note, however, that We may need to retain certain information when we have a legal obligation or lawful basis to do so.

Disclosure of Your Personal Data

Service providers and analytics

We may share Personal Data with vendors and service providers who perform services on Our behalf, such as hosting, analytics, measurement, email delivery, AI inference, and security. These parties are authorized to use Your Personal Data only as necessary to provide those services to Us and in line with this Privacy Policy (including the summary table under "What We Collect, How We Collect It, and How We Use It").

Third-party data protection standards

We require every third party that receives Personal Data from Us to provide a level of data protection that is the same as, or equivalent to, the protections described in this Privacy Policy. We enforce this through contractual data processing agreements, vendor security assessments, and ongoing review of each provider's published privacy and security commitments. The following providers are specifically identified:

• Google LLC (Firebase Analytics, Google Analytics, Firebase Crashlytics, Firebase Cloud Firestore, Firebase Authentication, Firebase Cloud Messaging, Google Sign-In, Google Play, Gemini API / Vertex AI, and related Google Cloud hosting services) — Google processes data under Our data processing terms, which require Google to process Personal Data only on Our instructions and to apply technical and organizational security measures that meet or exceed industry standards. For AI processing specifically, Google's API terms prohibit using customer data submitted to the Gemini API or Vertex AI to train or improve Google's foundation models outside of the customer's own project. Google's infrastructure is certified under ISO 27001, SOC 2/3, and other frameworks. You can review Google's commitments at firebase.google.com/support/privacy, ai.google.dev/gemini-api/terms, and policies.google.com/privacy.
• OpenAI, LLC (API-based AI inference) — OpenAI processes data submitted through its API under terms that prohibit using API inputs and outputs to train or improve OpenAI's models. API data may be retained for up to 30 days for abuse monitoring and is then deleted. OpenAI maintains SOC 2 Type II certification and applies encryption in transit and at rest. You can review OpenAI's commitments at openai.com/policies/row-privacy-policy and openai.com/enterprise-privacy.
• Apple Inc. (App Store, Sign in with Apple, and Apple Push Notification service) — Apple processes payments for in-app purchases on iOS, acts as the identity provider when You choose Sign in with Apple, and delivers push notifications to iOS Devices. Apple's handling of that data is governed by Apple's own privacy policy at apple.com/legal/privacy.
• Mailman and Paygate (push notifications and purchase verification) — these are services built and operated by the Company itself, hosted on Google Cloud, not independent third parties. Data they hold is Our data, covered by this Privacy Policy and by the same retention, deletion, and security commitments as the rest of the Service.

If We engage a new third-party provider that will receive Personal Data, We will confirm that it meets the same or equivalent data protection standard before sharing any data, and We will update this Privacy Policy to identify that provider.

We do not sell Your Personal Data, and We do not share it with third parties for their own advertising or marketing.

Business Transactions

If the Company is involved in a merger, acquisition or asset sale, Your Personal Data may be transferred. We will provide notice before Your Personal Data is transferred and becomes subject to a different Privacy Policy.

Law enforcement

Under certain circumstances, the Company may be required to disclose Your Personal Data if required to do so by law or in response to valid requests by public authorities (e.g. a court or a government agency).

Other legal requirements

The Company may disclose Your Personal Data in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to:

• Comply with a legal obligation
• Protect and defend the rights or property of the Company
• Prevent or investigate possible wrongdoing in connection with the Service
• Protect the personal safety of Users of the Service or the public
• Protect against legal liability

Legal Bases for Processing

Where the law of Your country (including the EU and UK GDPR) requires a legal basis for processing Your Personal Data, We rely on the following:

• Performance of a contract — to provide the Service You have asked for, including creating and maintaining Your Account, syncing Your saved content, and verifying and honouring Your purchases.
• Consent — for precise location and push notifications, which You grant through Your Device's permission prompts and can withdraw at any time in Your Device's settings, and for analytics where Your country requires consent.
• Legitimate interests — to secure the Service, prevent fraud and abuse, fix defects through crash reporting, understand how the Service is used, and improve it, where those interests are not overridden by Your rights.
• Legal obligation — where We must retain or disclose data to comply with the law.

Your Privacy Rights

Depending on where You live, You may have some or all of the following rights over Your Personal Data: to access it and receive a copy; to have inaccurate data corrected; to have it deleted; to receive it in a portable format; to restrict or object to certain processing; and to withdraw consent where processing is based on consent, without affecting processing that took place before withdrawal. Residents of the EU, the UK, and Switzerland also have the right to lodge a complaint with their data protection authority. California residents have the right to know what Personal Data We collect and how it is used and shared, to request deletion, and not to be discriminated against for exercising those rights; We do not sell Personal Data or share it for cross-context behavioural advertising.

You can exercise deletion directly in the app where a Delete Account option is offered, and withdraw location and notification consent in Your Device's settings. For any other request, email Us at mike@buildcontext.com. We may need to verify Your identity before acting, which for an anonymous Account may require You to make the request from the Device on which the Account exists. We will respond within the time required by applicable law.

Security of Your Personal Data

The security of Your Personal Data is important to Us, but remember that no method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage is 100% secure. While We strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect Your Personal Data, We cannot guarantee its absolute security.

Children's Privacy

Our Service does not address anyone under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from anyone under the age of 13. If You are a parent or guardian and You are aware that Your child has provided Us with Personal Data, please contact Us. If We become aware that We have collected Personal Data from anyone under the age of 13 without verification of parental consent, We take steps to remove that information from Our servers.

If We need to rely on consent as a legal basis for processing Your information and Your country requires consent from a parent, We may require Your parent's consent before We collect and use that information.

Links to Other Websites

Our Service may contain links to other websites that are not operated by Us. If You click on a third party link, You will be directed to that third party's site. We strongly advise You to review the Privacy Policy of every site You visit.

We have no control over and assume no responsibility for the content, privacy policies or practices of any third party sites or services.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update Our Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify You of any changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page.

We will let You know via email and/or a prominent notice on Our Service, prior to the change becoming effective and update the "Last updated" date at the top of this Privacy Policy.

You are advised to review this Privacy Policy periodically for any changes. Changes to this Privacy Policy are effective when they are posted on this page.

Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, You can contact us:

By email: mike@buildcontext.com

For Snow Days support: support@buildcontext.llc