Met Office At a glance Beta test app Privacy Policy

The Met Office takes the privacy of its customers very seriously. This privacy policy applies to your use of the Met Office Android or iOS mobile application software (“App”) and explains how we use any personal information we collect about you. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children below the age of 13. Do not use the App if you are below the age of 13 without obtaining parental consent. 

The Data Controller is the Met Office, FitzRoy Road, Exeter, Devon, EX1 3PB on behalf of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (DSIT).  

The Met Office is an Executive Agency of DSIT and is registered with the Supervisory Authority (in the name of DSIT), Registration No. ZB546218. 

The right to lodge a complaint with the Supervisory Authority:  

If you have any concerns relating to the handling of your personal information, you may refer the matter to the Supervisory Authority, the Information Commissioner’s Office, who can be contacted at: Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF https://ico.org.uk/.  Telephone: 0303 123 1113. 

The data we collect about you 

We may collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of personal information about you as follows:

• Contact Data
• Transaction Data
• Device Data
• Content Data
• Profile Data
• Usage Data
• Marketing and Communications Data
• Location Data

These categories of data are explained further below. 

We also collect, use and share aggregated data such as statistical or demographic data to provide us with insight into users experience within the App. Our analytics help us understand how our products are being used to improve user experience. We also use analytics to identify when

there is a problem with the App. For example, we may aggregate your usage data to calculate the percentage of users accessing a specific App feature. You have the ability within the App to switch your analytics preferences to “off” if you wish. You can do this within the settings menu in the app.

We do not collect any special categories of personal information about you (this includes details about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, information about your health, and genetic and biometric data). Nor do we collect any information about criminal convictions and offences.

How is your personal information collected? 

We will collect and process the following data about you:

• Information you give us. This is information (including Identity, Contact, and Marketing and Communications Data) you consent to giving us about you. It can include information you provide when you download or register an App, search for an App, enter a competition, promotion or survey, and when you report a problem with an App
• If you contact us, we will keep a record of that correspondence
• Information we collect about you and your device. With your consent, each time you use our App we will automatically collect personal information including Device, Content and Usage Data. We collect this data using App storage technology
• Location Data: We also use device GPS to determine your current location, both for analytics purposes (crash reporting) and to deliver you location-specific weather forecasts. Some of our location-enabled services require your personal information for the feature to work. You can withdraw your consent at any time by disabling Location Data in your device settings, or disabling analytics (crash reporting) within the settings page on the test app
• Unique application numbers. When you want to install or uninstall a service containing a unique application number or when such a service searches for automatic updates, that number and information about your installation, for example, the type of operating system, may be sent to us.

Tracking technologies 

We use App data to distinguish you from other users of the App on the distribution platform (Google Play store or Apple App Store) to remember your preferences. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you use the App and also allows us to improve the App. 

Google Analytics Advertising Features

The Met Office use Google Analytics Advertising features to collect anonymised aggregated demographic data such as age, gender and interests from users who have consented to sharing demographic information. This data can be accessed and/or deleted by visiting my activity.

Purposes for which we will use your personal information 

We will only use your personal information when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal information in the following circumstances:

• To install the App and register you as a new App user (Consent)
• To manage our relationship with you including notifying you of changes to the App or any services and to deliver our services (Consent, Contractual Necessity, Legitimate Interests)
• To enable you to participate in a prize draw, competition or complete a survey (Consent, Legitimate Interests)
• To measure and analyse the effectiveness of the advertising we serve you and to monitor trends so we can improve the App (Consent, Legitimate Interests).
• To administer and protect our business and this App including troubleshooting, data analysis and system testing (Legitimate Interests)
• Where we need to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation (compliance with legal obligations)
• To deliver content and advertisements (including personalised advertisements) to you (Consent, Legitimate Interests).

The Met Office app participates in the IAB Europe Transparency & Consent Framework and complies with its Specifications and Policies. The app uses the Consent Management Platform provided by OneTrust, with the identification number 28.

With your consent (provided through the App) we will process your personal information to deliver you adverts more relevant to you. Personalised advertising within the App adheres to the IAB Transparency and Consent Framework (TCF). You can choose your consent options through the settings menu by selecting ‘Manage your privacy settings’ and then ‘Manage preferences’. You can also object to the use of legitimate interests here if you wish. You can find details of the Transparency and Consent Framework at https://iabeurope.eu/iab-europe-transparency-consent-framework-policies/

You should also note that you may also see personalised adverts that rely on your consent given through another App not related to the Met Office if that App uses the same platform to deliver adverts as the Met Office.

Although the Met Office cannot directly control your non-personalised advertising settings for you, there are some steps that you can take to further control these yourself:

Settings can apply differently across web browser and mobile platforms, if you are accessing Met Office services though the web browser on your mobile device, you should read our web privacy policy and follow the instructions given in our Cookie Policy. However, mobile applications use different technologies to recognise your device. To turn off your App usage data being used to target advertising within apps on your device generally you should follow the instructions below:

Google Android

1. Go to Settings
2. Select Google in the Accounts section
3. Select Ads in the Privacy section
4. Tick Opt out of interest based ads

Apple iOS

1. Go to Settings > Privacy
2. Please refer to Apple's support site for further information

 

Met Office third-party advertising partners

You can review the third-party advertising vendors and how this information is being used in our privacy consent screen, which is shown both on first downloading the app or at any time within the app by navigating to Settings -> Manage your privacy settings -> List of partners (Vendors).

If the privacy consent screen does not appear on first opening the app (for example if you have no network connection at that time) then your preferences will be defaulted to off, but we will still be using the ‘Strictly necessary’ SDKs. Software Development Kits (SDKs) are collections of software tools used by developers to provide specific aspects of app functionality, for example sending push notifications, or the video player which serves the latest presented forecast videos.

You can also customise your consent preferences for our tracking technologies within the privacy settings screen.

 

You can customise your consent preferences for our tracking technologies within the settings page of the test app.

 

Met Office Analytics partners

Analytics partner	Privacy Policy
Firebase Analytics and Crash Reporting:	https://firebase.google.com/support/privacy/
Microsoft Clarity	https://www.microsoft.com/privacy/privacystatement

We use firebase analytics and crash reporting in order to measure and improve the performance of the app. For example to identify trends and user behaviour.

The Met Office uses Microsoft Clarity to understand how people use the app, and identify areas that can be improved or removed. Microsoft Clarity stores information about how visitors interact with the app. This helps to provide an analysis report. The data collection includes the number of visitors and where they visit on the app. This is used to generate heatmaps and session recordings. This data is anonymised.

Firebase may share data with third-party subprocessors, more detail can be found here https://firebase.google.com/terms/data-processing-terms#11.-subprocessors

Strictly necessary SDKs 

Below is a list of the third party SDKs (Software Development Kits) deemed as strictly necessary in the Met Office app, and therefore those which are ‘Always on’.

• Amazon Pinpoint and Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) – This stores information such as device identifier and location tags on your device, and is used in order to enable push notifications for National Severe Weather Warnings. You can view the Amazon AWS Privacy Policy at https://aws.amazon.com/privacy/ You can view the Firebase Privacy Policy here https://aws.amazon.com/privacy/ - see the section on Firebase Cloud Messaging.

International transfers 

Please refer to the Privacy Policies of our third party adverting and analytics partners as detailed above.

Data security 

All information you provide to us is stored on our secure servers.

Any payment transactions relating to in App purchases will be carried out by Apple for iOS devices. Please see details on https://www.apple.com/uk/legal/privacy/en-ww/

Any payment transactions relating to in App purchases will be carried out by Google Play Store for Android devices. Please see details on https://policies.google.com/privacy

Once we have received your information, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent your personal information from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way. We will collect and store personal information on your Device using application data caches and other technology. Certain services include social networking features. Ensure when using these features that you do not submit any personal information that you do not want to be seen, collected or used by other users. We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected

personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator when we are legally required to do so.

Data retention 

In the event that you uninstall the App, information/technologies stored on your device will be deleted.

Please also refer to the Privacy Policies of our third party advertising and analytics providers as detailed above relating to the retention of your personal information.

Your legal rights 

Under certain circumstances you have the following rights under data protection legislation in relation to your personal data:

• The right to be informed
• The right of access
• The right to rectification
• The right to erasure
• The right to restrict processing
• The right to data portability
• The right to object
• The right to prevent automated decision making and profiling.

For further information in respect of your rights as a data subject, please see details on the Information Commissioner’s Office. To exercise any of the above rights, please contact [email protected]

Please note that we may require evidence of your identity in relation to your request.

Changes to our privacy policy

This privacy policy may occasionally be updated or amended therefore we advise you to revisit this page regularly. This privacy policy was last reviewed on 6th October 2025.

How to contact us 

If you have any questions about our privacy policy or information we hold about you, please contact us:

• by email to the Met Office Data Protection Practitioner to [email protected]; 
• or write to our Data Protection Practitioner at the address set out above.

You may also contact the Data Protection Officer at the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology:

By e-mail to [email protected] or; 

In writing, addressed to the “Data Protection Officer” at: 

DSIT Data Protection Officer   
Department for Science, Innovation &Technology   
22-26 Whitehall 
London 
London, SW1A 2EG