Skip to content
My Current Elevation

Privacy policy

Last updated

This policy covers mycurrentelevation.org. It explains what happens to information when you use the elevation tools and read the pages.

Your location

When you press a "use my location" button, your browser asks for permission. If you allow it, your device's coordinates are sent to our server only to look up the elevation, address, county, ZIP area or time zone for that point. We do not attach them to an account (there are no accounts) and we do not use them for advertising.

To answer the request our server passes the coordinates, or the address you typed, to these public services:

  • U.S. Geological Survey Elevation Point Query Service (elevation in the US);
  • Terrain Tiles on Amazon Web Services (elevation outside the US);
  • U.S. Census Bureau Geocoder (address search, county and ZIP area);
  • OpenStreetMap Nominatim (street address for a point);
  • Photon by komoot (place suggestions as you type in the radius map tool, sent from your browser);
  • OpenStreetMap and USGS The National Map (map images on tools that show a map, loaded by your browser).

Our server keeps the answer for each point or search text for up to 90 days so repeat lookups are fast. These cached answers are stored without your IP address or any other identifier.

The topographic map on our pages is loaded by your browser directly from the USGS National Map, so USGS receives your IP address and the map area you view, as with any website.

Server logs and abuse protection

To stop automated overuse, the server counts requests per visitor for about a minute using a one-way hash of the IP address, then discards the count. Like most websites, our hosting provider may also keep standard access logs (IP address, page requested, time, browser type) for security and troubleshooting.

Cookies and local storage

The tools work without cookies. If you switch between light and dark mode, the choice is saved in your browser's local storage and never sent to us. Analytics and advertising cookies are described below and in thecookie policy.

Advertising

The public site is supported by Google AdSense ads. Google and its partners may use cookies or similar identifiers to show ads, limit how often you see them and measure them, and, where allowed, to personalize them based on your visits to this and other websites.

In the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, a consent message from Google asks for your choice before any advertising cookies are used or ads are personalized. The message is run by Google through AdSense Privacy & messaging, a consent management platform certified under the IAB Transparency and Consent Framework; we do not run a consent banner of our own. Your choice is stored by Google, and you can change it later from the privacy settings link the message adds to the page. You can manage personalized ads at Google Ad Settings, and read how Google uses data at How Google uses information from sites that use its services.

Analytics

We use Google Analytics 4 to count visits and see which pages and tools are used. It records the pages you view, how you reached them, your device and browser type, and an approximate location (city or region) that Google derives from your IP address; Google states that Google Analytics 4 does not log or store IP addresses. It sets first-party cookies (described in the cookie policy). We do not send Google Analytics your coordinates, the addresses you search for, or anything that identifies you by name.

In the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, Google Analytics starts with consent mode set to "denied": until you accept in Google's consent message it sets no cookies and sends only cookieless signals without identifiers. Elsewhere you can block it with the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on. See Google Analytics data privacy in the EU, Switzerland and UK.

Children

The site is for a general audience and does not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13.

Your choices and rights

  • You can use every tool without sharing your location by typing an address or coordinates instead.
  • You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings.
  • Depending on where you live (for example under the GDPR or California law), you may have rights to access or delete personal data. Because we do not link lookups to people, we usually hold nothing that identifies you; write to us and we will check.

Changes

We update this page when what the site does changes, and change the date at the top.

Contact

Questions about privacy: support@mycurrentelevation.org.