Terms, disclaimer and privacy

Wildfire Watch is a public-information and decision-support tool, provided by WhatLabs. It brings together satellite heat detections, weather data and editorial verification onto one map, and offers optional email alerts for activity near a place you choose.

WhatLabs is not affiliated with, and does not speak for, any fire and rescue service or government body. Nothing on this site is issued or endorsed by an official emergency authority.

Signing up uses double opt-in: no email is sent to an address until it has clicked the confirmation link in the first message. After that, alerts are sent as a digest, at most once every 6 hours, for qualifying activity within the radius you chose.

Delivery is not guaranteed. Emails can be delayed, filtered as spam, or fail to arrive for reasons outside our control. Every alert and every confirmation email carries a one-click unsubscribe link, and unsubscribing takes effect immediately.

You can optionally limit alerts to fires the current wind is carrying toward you rather than any fire within your radius; formally declared major incidents always alert regardless of that setting.

The service is provided "as is", without warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, including as to accuracy, availability or fitness for a particular purpose.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, WhatLabs accepts no liability for loss or damage arising from use of, reliance on, or inability to use the service, including missed, delayed or inaccurate alerts.

Nothing in these terms excludes or limits liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited.

For anyone who signs up for email alerts, we store:

• the email address supplied;
• the chosen location, as a point and, where given, a place label;
• the chosen alert radius and alert level;
• the chosen wind filter (any fire in range, or only fires the wind is currently carrying toward your location);
• timestamps: when consent was given, when the subscription was confirmed, and when the last alert was sent.

Purpose: this data is used solely to send the alerts requested, and for nothing else.

Lawful basis: consent, given at signup and withdrawable at any time by unsubscribing.

Delivery processor: alert and confirmation emails are sent through Mailtrap Inc, currently from the address alerts@spill.org. spill.org is operated by the same team as WhatLabs.

Retention: subscription records are deleted within 30 days of unsubscribing. Delivery logs (which emails were sent, and when) are kept for up to 90 days for abuse prevention, then deleted.

We do not sell or share alert subscriber addresses with any third party.

Beyond alert subscriptions, the site itself keeps standard web server logs, used only for operating and securing the service.

WhatLabs may change, suspend or withdraw this service, or any part of it, including the email alerts feature, at any time.

Contact WhatLabs at hello@whatlabs.org, or reply to any alert email. To stop receiving alerts, use the unsubscribe link included in every alert and confirmation email.