EM Snow: Privacy Policy

Effective 15 October 2026 · Extreme Media (extreme-media.co.uk)

This one page covers everything EM Snow makes: the website, the iPhone app, the Apple Watch app, our three Garmin apps and the EM-Snow Studio desktop app. The first section applies to all of them. Each later section only adds what is different for that app.

Contents

1. For every EM Snow app and the website
2. The iPhone app
3. Ski stats you share
4. Apple Health
5. The Apple Watch app
6. The Garmin apps
7. The website and the flyby
8. EM-Snow Studio (desktop app)

1. For every EM Snow app and the website

Who we are

EM Snow is made by Extreme Media (extreme-media.co.uk). Extreme Media is not a company: it is the name one independent developer uses for hobby projects, and that developer decides how the data described here is used (in data protection terms, the "controller"). There is no office or postal address for these projects; email is the way to reach us, and we answer every privacy request. Questions, requests and complaints: [email protected].

The short version

• No accounts. There is no sign-up and no login. We never ask for your name to use any app.
• No adverts and no advertising IDs. None of our apps or pages show ads or read your phone's advertising identifier.
• We do not sell your data, and we do not share it with anyone for their own purposes.
• Your recorded tracks stay on your device unless you choose to publish or sync a day.

Finding your resort

Most of our apps need to know which resort you are at so they can show its snow, lifts and pistes. Where we can, this is worked out on your own device. When a position does have to be sent to our server, it is used to find the nearest resort. Each app section below says exactly what is sent and how precisely.

Some requests carry your position in the web address itself. That means it also appears in the security log described below, together with your IP address, for about two weeks.

What our server keeps, and for how long

Other records (alerts, published days, shared ski stats, synced watch days, purchases) are described with the feature they belong to.

Why we use your data, and on what legal basis

UK law calls the reason we are allowed to use data a "lawful basis". Ours are: your consent (you switched it on, and can switch it off); providing the service you asked for (the feature cannot work without it, or you bought something); and our legitimate interests (a fair reason of our own that we have weighed against your privacy).

Data sent outside the UK

Some of the companies below (Cloudflare, Google and Stripe) may handle data outside the UK, including in the United States. Where they do, they rely on safeguards recognised under UK law, such as UK adequacy regulations or the UK International Data Transfer Agreement or Addendum. Ask us if you would like more detail.

Other companies involved

• Cloudflare sits in front of our website and our server (snow.extreme-media.co.uk and snow.0-21.co.uk). Every request passes through it, so it sees your IP address and the address asked for. Cloudflare keeps its own logs under its own terms.
• Google Firebase is used in the iPhone app only, and only for two things you switch on yourself: anonymous analytics (if you tap Allow) and push alerts (if you turn alerts on). See the iPhone app.
• Google Analytics is used on the website only after you choose Allow. See the website.
• Map and imagery services. When a page shows a map or a 3D view, your browser fetches map pictures straight from the map provider, so that provider sees your IP address and which area of map is being shown. Depending on the view this is Esri (satellite imagery), EOX (Sentinel-2 imagery), OpenTopoMap, Thunderforest or OpenSnowMap (maps), or a national mapping service such as the Swiss federal geoportal (geo.admin.ch), basemap.at (Austria) or IGN Géoplateforme (France). Map layers on the resort page also come from Waymarked Trails (trails), Amazon Web Services (terrain shading tiles), NASA GIBS (snow cover pictures) and RainViewer (rain radar), each only when that layer is shown. Resort photos load from Wikimedia, and some pages load webcam views from Windy.
• Code hosts. A few page libraries load from a public code host (unpkg), which sees your IP address like any website.
• Garmin. Our Garmin apps reach the internet through the Garmin Connect app on your phone.
• Stripe handles payment when you buy a Pro code or an API key. Stripe receives your card details and email address; we never see your card. Stripe tells us your email address, what you bought, the amount and a payment reference. We send the code to you by email. A copy of each sale (email address, product and code) goes to our own private alerts channel, for us only, so we can send it, and we keep a list of the latest 500 sales.

Companies that handle data for us are bound to protect it at least as well as this policy does.

Your rights

Under UK data protection law (UK GDPR) you can:

• ask for a copy of the data we hold about you,
• ask us to correct it or delete it,
• withdraw your consent at any time, for anything you switched on (ski stats, analytics, alerts, day sync). Withdrawing does not affect what was done before,
• object to how we use your data where we rely on legitimate interests,
• ask us to restrict (pause) using your data, for example while we check a concern you raised,
• ask for data you gave us in a common computer format, to take elsewhere (data portability). This applies where we use it with your consent or to provide a service you asked for,
• complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk. We would like the chance to put things right first, so please contact us too.

Because there are no accounts, we usually cannot tell which data is yours from your name or email. To help us find it, send whatever the app shows you: your rider code (iPhone app Settings), the link to a published day, a season code, or a Pro code. We will reply within one month.

Synced Garmin days can be deleted from a linked phone. If you have lost the keys on both your watch and your phone (for example after reinstalling both apps), we cannot pick your days out from anyone else's, so they are deleted automatically after a year. For anything else, ask us by email.

To ask for deletion, email [email protected]. Much of the data above also deletes itself on the timetable shown.

Changes

If we change what an app collects, we update this page first. The date at the top shows the latest version.

2. The iPhone app

Recording your day

The app uses your precise location only while you are recording, from the moment you tap Start until you tap Stop. It never starts by itself, and it does not use your location in the background at any other time. Your full track is kept on your phone.

Finding the resort for your day

The app carries its own list of resorts and finds your resort on the phone, so normally no position leaves it. The list is refreshed from our server at most once a day. Only when the list knows no resort within 15 km (for example, a resort newer than the list) does the app send one point to our server: the middle of your day's track, rounded to about 1 km. The same applies to the first position of a recording and to "Near me" in the resort picker. This happens for every saved day whatever your ski stats setting, because the app needs it to name your own runs.

Replaying a day in the flyby: when you open a saved day in the flyby, the app sends the middle of the day's track to our server to find the resort (rounded to about 1 km) and to look up the weather (rounded to about 110 m, with the date). These are not kept beyond the security log.

Piste Pilot: when you use Piste Pilot, the app sends your current position (as the phone has it, not rounded) to find the resort and to work out your route. It is not kept beyond the security log.

The resort-finding point is used only to find the resort. It is not kept with your days. Like every request, it appears in our security log with your IP address for about two weeks (see section 1). The request carries no rider code or app ID.

Publishing a day ("ghosts")

Nothing is published unless you tap Publish in the flyby replay and type a display name. The app tells you the day will be public. A published day holds up to 2,500 points of your track (position, height and time), a summary of each run (piste name, top speed, time, drop and the way the slope faces), the day's totals and the name you typed. We keep the top speeds but do not show them for a single published day.

It stays public until you delete it, and is deleted automatically 2 years after publishing. Deleting needs the delete key saved on your phone. If you delete the app or clear its data, that key is lost: email us the day's link and we will delete it. Publishing is a separate choice from sharing ski stats.

Ski stats

Shared only if you say yes. See Ski stats you share.

Alerts

Alerts are off until you turn them on. They are delivered through Google Firebase Cloud Messaging. For each phone with alerts on, our server keeps: the push token Firebase gives the app, the resorts you follow (up to 50), any trips you are watching (dates and the alerts you chose), a short description of the app and phone software (its user agent), and the time it last registered. It is deleted when you turn alerts off, when Firebase tells us the token no longer works, or 400 days after the app last registered, whichever comes first.

Anonymous analytics

Off unless you tap Allow on the first-run question or turn on "Anonymous analytics" in Settings. If on, Google Firebase Analytics records which screens and features are used. It never receives your movement data. There are no ads and no other analytics or crash tools in the app.

The Resort tab

The Resort tab shows our live website inside the app, so the website rules in section 7 apply there, including how it uses your location.

Try a sample day

The sample day is made up. It is never saved among your days and never uploaded.

Apple Health

See Apple Health.

3. Ski stats you share

Your runs, lift waits and the pistes you rode help everyone see queues and how the pistes are skiing. The app asks you once ("Share your ski stats?"). Nothing is shared until you say yes.

• Why we may use it: your consent. You can withdraw it at any time.
• Your rider code is a random code made on your phone. It links your shared days together until you change or delete it. It is not linked to your name, email or phone.
• How long the detail is kept: until the day is 30 days old, or a week after we receive it if that is later (for older files).
• Totals made from many riders cannot be traced back to anyone, and are kept for up to 3 seasons.
• Settings: "Share my ski stats" turns sharing on or off. "Delete my shared data" deletes everything you have shared (totals already made can't be traced to you and stay). "New rider code" starts a new code, and can delete what you shared first.
• If you lose your phone without a backup, the app can no longer prove which data is yours. Email us your rider code (shown in Settings) and we will delete it. If you don't have it, everything you shared is deleted automatically within 30 days anyway. (After that, a small receipt that a day was received keeps your rider code for up to 30 more days, so a late re-send is not stored twice. It holds no stats.)
• The resort for each day is found as described in the iPhone app section, whatever this setting.
• Our web server keeps normal access logs (IP address, time, page asked for, not what you sent) for about two weeks for security. Cloudflare handles our traffic and keeps its own logs.

Files you drop into the website's flyby will get their own, separate ask before any stats are shared. That is being built now. Until then, the website sends no ski stats at all.

4. Apple Health

• What the iPhone app reads: only downhill skiing and snowboarding workouts and their routes. For each workout: the type (ski or snowboard), start and end time, total distance, total energy burned (calories), which app saved it, its pauses and other workout events, and its extra details (for workouts from our Apple Watch app, the marks you added and turns per run). For each route point: the time, position, height, speed and direction of travel. It does not read heart rate, sleep, steps or any other workouts or health data. It asks your permission first, and you can change this in the Health app at any time.
• What the Apple Watch app writes: when you record on the watch and tap Save, it writes the ski or snowboard workout and its route to Apple Health, with your permission. That workout stays in Apple Health on your own devices.
• Health data never leaves your phone in raw form. Workouts and routes are turned into a ski day on your phone.
• What leaves the phone: only derived ski stats, and only if you share them (see Ski stats you share). Workouts without a route (for example from Garmin Connect or other apps) only make a day card on your phone; nothing from them is sent.
• Heart rate is never sent to us.
• To name a day made from a Health route, the resort is found the same way as for a recorded day: on the phone first, and only if needed, the middle of the route rounded to about 1 km.
• Health data is never used for advertising or marketing, never sold, and never shared with anyone else.

5. The Apple Watch app

• Its own random code. The watch app makes a random install code the first time it runs. It is sent with every request so we can count how many watches use the app. It is not linked to you, your Apple ID or your phone. See "Watches seen" in section 1.
• Conditions, lifts, sun, avalanche and plans are asked for using your chosen resort (set on the phone) and that resort's own position, not yours.
• Next lift: only while that page is open, and with the watch's own location permission, the watch sends your position (to about 1 metre) to find the nearest lifts. It sends again only after you have moved 150 m or more. The server does not store it as a position; it does appear in the security log (kept about two weeks).
• Get me down: when you ask for a route, your position at that moment is sent once so the route can be worked out. It is not stored; it does appear in the security log (kept about two weeks).
• Recording on the watch writes the workout and route to Apple Health (see Apple Health). The watch sends nothing of the recording to us. Your iPhone app then imports it like any other Health workout.

6. The Garmin apps

We make three Connect IQ apps: the EM-Snow Field data field, the LESnow widget and the EM-Snow watch app. They talk to our server (snow.0-21.co.uk) through the Garmin Connect app on your phone. None needs an account or a login, and none shows ads.

Data sent from our Connect IQ apps is submitted to us, Extreme Media, not to Garmin. Garmin has no responsibility or liability for it.

The watch's code

Each app sends an identifier Garmin creates for this app on your watch. It is not your Garmin account, your name or your email. We use it to count users and, for the watch app, for its optional features below. What we keep against it is listed under "Watches seen" and "Recent requests" in section 1 (deleted after 90 days).

EM-Snow Field (data field)

EM-Snow Field sends the following to the EM-Snow server (snow.0-21.co.uk) through your phone, to look up conditions for the nearest resort:

• your position. In the current version this is the watch's last GPS fix, as the watch has it (not rounded), sent in the background without asking. In the next version nothing about where you are is sent until you choose a location source (the watch's GPS, or the location your phone gives Garmin for weather); if you choose a resort instead, only its ID is sent;
• an identifier Garmin creates for this app on your watch (not your Garmin account or name);
• the app version;
• the resort ID, only if you set the resort override.

When you stop the activity timer, the current version also tries to send that day's total descent and maximum speed, with the same watch code and the ID of the resort it last looked up (no position). If it arrives, we keep it for 12 hours. FIT recording stays in your own activity on your Garmin Connect account; it is not sent to us.

LESnow (widget)

To show conditions for the nearest resort, the widget sends, when you open it (and in the background, if you set a refresh rate):

• a position, as the watch has it (not rounded). In the current version (1.8.3) this is, without asking, the location your phone gives Garmin for weather (unless you turn that setting off), otherwise the watch's GPS. In the next version nothing about where you are is sent until you choose: the weather location (then the watch's GPS if there is none), the watch's GPS, or a resort code (then no position is sent);
• the watch's code, the app version and the app's name;
• your resort override, only if you set one.

The widget records nothing and sends no ski days.

EM-Snow (watch app)

• Conditions and safety: sends your position (as the watch has it) and your chosen resort, with the watch's code and version, to load the resort's conditions, avalanche danger and forecast. In the current alpha this happens without asking, including once an hour in the background. In the next version nothing about where you are is sent until you choose a location source.
• Choose resort: sends your position to list resorts nearby.
• Next lift: while that screen is open, sends your position (to about 1 metre) to find the nearest lifts.
• Get me down: sends your position once, when you ask for a route.
• Ski party: only if you join a party with its code, shows friends' positions shared on the website (see the website).
• Day sync. Days you record are kept on the watch. Nothing is sent until you open "Link phone" (or turn on "Sync days to phone"). In the current alpha, opening "Link phone" switches sync on as soon as the code appears, even if you never scan it, and the stored days are then sent. In the next version the watch asks you first. Once on, each saved day goes to our server so you can open it on your phone: its track, runs, lifts, totals, any marks you added, and the watch model name. Synced days are kept for 1 year, then deleted. The watch makes its own random secret key, sent privately (never in a web address); we keep only a scrambled version of it. A linked phone can delete a synced day; see Your rights if you have lost the keys.
• Run summaries (current alpha only). After you save a day, the current alpha sends a summary of each run (start time, length, height dropped, top speed and a smoothness score) with the resort, the date and the watch's code, without asking. It sends no track and no position. We keep these for 30 days. This is removed in the next version; Garmin days will only be shared if you say yes.
• Showing a QR code: to show a code you can scan with your phone, the watch fetches the QR picture through Garmin's image service, so Garmin sees that link. A code for opening your day on your phone lasts 24 hours.

Pro for the Garmin apps

Paid Pro features are not switched on yet. When they are, buying Pro will work like this: the watch shows a short code (valid for 30 minutes) that you take to our Pro page; you pay through Stripe (see section 1); we email you a purchase code; and you type it on up to 2 watches (6 app installs in all). We will keep the purchase (email address, payment references, which watch codes it is on, and a history of changes). Your email address is removed 1 year after your Pro ends, and the watch codes on a purchase are replaced with scrambled versions 90 days after it ends. We will update this page before Pro is switched on.

7. The website and the flyby

Analytics

The EM Snow website (snow.extreme-media.co.uk and snow.0-21.co.uk) asks before using Google Analytics to count page visits, so we can see which parts of the site get used. The page loads Google's analytics script so the tag can be verified. Loading it is a normal web request, so Google sees your IP address like any website you visit. Until you choose Allow, Consent Mode stops it recording anything: no analytics events and no cookies. Declining is remembered and the site works identically. Analytics, when allowed, cover page views only. They never see your GPS tracks, videos, or anything you do inside the flyby or the Studio app.

Change your analytics choice

Your location on the EM Snow website

The website never asks for your location when a page opens. Your browser only asks when you tap something that needs it, such as "near me", "Where am I" in the Snow Globe, or Piste Pilot's guidance. What is sent to our server is:

• If you have already allowed this site to know your location, the resort page sends your position, rounded to about 1 km, with each resort it loads. We use it to see roughly where our visitors are looking from (a map for us, not for anyone else). We never ask for your location for this: if you have not allowed it, nothing is sent and the resort's own position is used instead.
• When you ask for the resort nearest you ("near me"), your position (to about 10 metres) is sent so we can find it.
• When you ask for a route from where you are (Piste Pilot, or "From where I am" in the Snow Globe), that point is sent so the route can be worked out. It is not kept.

The positions that come with a resort request go into the recent requests list (the latest 5,000 requests, nothing older than 90 days) with the time and the resort asked about. That list does not hold your name, an account, your email or your IP address. Separately, like every request, the web address (and so any position in it) is in our security log, kept about two weeks, with your IP address (see section 1). The dot that shows where you are in the Snow Globe, and any track you replay there, stay on your phone or computer and are not sent to us. To stop your position being sent at all, take back the site's location permission in your browser's settings.

Files you drop into the flyby

Track and video files you open in the flyby (GPX, FIT, TCX, KML and others) are read in your browser. The file itself is not uploaded, and your whole track only leaves your browser if you publish or share it (below). To build the replay, the page asks our server for a few things:

• the resort and the weather, using the middle of your track (rounded to about 1 km and about 110 m) and the date;
• sun and shade for each run, using up to 16 run middle points (rounded to about 110 m) with the sun's direction at the time, which stands for the time of each run;
• in the older GPX tool, the start and end point and start time of up to 60 runs, and the middle of your track, to add weather and piste names.

These are not stored, apart from the security log (for the requests that carry them in the web address) and a weather answer cached for 30 minutes.

Ski stats: the website sends no ski stats. The flyby, the older GPX tool and the browser recorder used to send piste speed summaries unless you opted out; that stopped on 15 October 2026, and older summaries are deleted after 30 days. A new, separate ask is being built (see Ski stats you share).

If you answer one of the one-tap questions about the snow on your day, your answer is kept with the resort, the date and the same browser code (the latest 200 answers per resort).

Publishing a day

Publishing a day from the flyby works as described for the iPhone app: only when you tap Publish, public until you delete it, deleted after 2 years. A published day is also stored with a random code kept in your browser, so one person cannot fill a leaderboard or a map check with many copies of the same day. It is never shown.

Map-only share (the older GPX tool): the older GPX tool offers a separate "share for the map" option. Only if you use it, up to 2,500 points of your track (position, height and time), your runs and speeds, the resort, the date and a random code kept in your browser are sent. It is never shown publicly; we use it to find runs missing from the map. It is deleted after 2 years.

Things you tell us

• Resort reports: your words, condition tags and a 1 to 5 rating are shown publicly on the resort page. We keep the latest 60 per resort.
• "What is off here?" notes in the 3D view: your words, what the note is about, and the spot you pointed at or were looking at (rounded). No IP address or device code. We keep the latest 500.
• Route answers in the Snow Globe: your answer about a route, any words you add, and the route asked about. We keep the latest 2,000. If you tick the box, after we have read it we may post it as a public note on OpenStreetMap, at that place.
• One-tap piste reports: if you tap how a piste is skiing (closed, icy, moguls, powder or groomed), we keep the resort, the piste, your answer and a random code kept in your browser (so one person counts once). They show as live piste conditions and help Piste Pilot avoid bad pistes. Kept for 30 days.
• Flags on published days: to count how many different people flagged a day, we keep a scrambled form of your IP address (mixed with a secret value so it cannot simply be looked up). It is deleted when the day is deleted.

Notes and route answers are also sent to our private alerts channel so we read them.

Favourites and season codes

Season codes: on My mountains you can save your favourite resorts and watched trips under a code, to get them back on another device. We keep the code with the resorts and trip dates and alert choices you saved. There is no time limit yet: email us the code and we will delete it.

Favourites sync (devices paired before October 2026): pairing new devices has closed, but devices that were already paired still share their favourites. We keep the favourites and the random codes of the paired devices for 1 year after they were last used. To let your browser get its favourites back if it clears its storage, our server sets one cookie (emsnow_did) that holds your device's random code. It lasts 1 year and is only sent to the favourites part of our server. It is not used for analytics or anything else.

Ski party

If you start or join a ski party, your chosen name and position are shared with everyone who has the party's code. A member who goes quiet for an hour is dropped, and the whole party is deleted within 20 hours.

Alerts in your browser

If you turn on alerts on the website, your browser's own push service delivers them. We keep the same details as for the app's alerts (see the iPhone app), for up to 400 days, or until you turn them off.

8. EM-Snow Studio (desktop app)

EM-Snow Studio is a desktop application for creating ski videos with telemetry overlays. It is designed so that your video files and your GPS/FIT track files are never uploaded from your computer. To build your overlay it does contact our own server, as described below. A further feature, "3D flyby transitions", is planned but not available in this version: its control is shown disabled and it makes no network requests today. This section describes what it will do when it ships.

What stays on your device

All video files, GPS/telemetry tracks, project files, and exported clips are processed and stored locally on your machine. The app does not upload your media files or your track files, and contains no analytics, tracking, or advertising.

What the app sends over the network

• Licence verification: when you enter a Pro code (and periodically to re-verify it), the app sends the code and a device code to our server at snow.0-21.co.uk. The device code is made from your computer's name and hardware ID with a one-way scramble. It cannot be turned back into those details, but it stays the same for your computer, so it identifies your machine to us. We keep it against your Pro code only to enforce the limit of 5 devices per code, and delete it when you deactivate the device.
• Weather and resort conditions (automatic): when you preview or export a clip that has a track, the app sends the middle point of the track, rounded to about 1 km, and the day of the track to our server at snow.0-21.co.uk. Our server answers with the weather for that day, the resort's time zone and its conditions, for the clock and weather parts of your overlay. Like a resort request from the website, the rounded point goes into our recent requests list (see section 1). Answers are cached on your machine so the same track and day are not asked for again.
• Name my runs (optional): only if you click Name runs, the app fetches the resort's piste map from our server so it can label your runs with real piste names. This sends your track's approximate area (a rounded latitude/longitude) so we can find the right resort, nothing else, and nothing is stored on our server. If you never click it, no piste data is ever requested. The fetched piste map is cached locally on your machine (an application-wide cache, reused across projects for the same area) so it is not re-requested.
• 3D flyby transitions (planned, not in this version). This feature is not available in this version: the control is shown disabled and no map or terrain tiles are requested today, and nothing is cached for it. When it ships in a future version, and only if you turn it on, the app will download map imagery and terrain for the area around your route so it can render a short 3D flyover between clips. The map imagery will come from Esri World Imagery (Esri, Maxar and Earthstar Geographics), and the terrain elevation will come from our own DEM tile service at snow.0-21.co.uk. To fetch the right tiles, these services will receive the tile locations for the area around your route and view. Tile locations are grid references, not your exact track, but they do reveal the general area you skied. As with any web request, the services will also receive normal network information such as your IP address. Your video and your GPX/FIT file will not be uploaded. Downloaded tiles will be cached locally on your machine so they are not re-requested. If tiles fail to load, Studio will fall back to a plain chapter card instead. The feature will be off by default. Esri's terms are at esri.com/legal and Esri's privacy policy at esri.com/privacy; the DEM tile service is our own, covered by this policy.

Those are the app's network communications in this version: licence verification and the weather and conditions requests are automatic, and "Name my runs" is an opt-in feature you control. "3D flyby transitions" is disclosed above for when it ships; it does nothing over the network today. If a future version enables it, or adds further online features, this policy will be updated first and the feature will disclose what it sends.

Like every request to our server, Studio's requests pass through Cloudflare and appear in our security log, kept about two weeks (see section 1).

What we don't do

Through the Studio app we do not collect names, email addresses, viewing habits, or usage statistics. The only location it sends is the rounded track point described above (for the website's use of your location, see above). We do not sell your data, and we do not share it with third parties for their own purposes. In this version the app makes no requests to any third-party service on your behalf (its requests to our server pass through Cloudflare, as every request does). The only third-party service the app is designed to contact is the Esri map imagery service, and that happens only when the planned 3D flyby transitions feature ships and you turn it on, as described above. At that point it would receive the tile locations for your route area and normal network information such as your IP address, and nothing else. The app has no advertising or analytics SDKs.

Your choices

The free tier works without any account or code. Its only automatic network calls are licence verification (which only applies once you enter a Pro code) and the weather and conditions requests described above. The optional feature that reaches the internet, "Name my runs", stays off until you choose to use it. "3D flyby transitions" is not available in this version and makes no network calls. You can deactivate a Pro device at any time from Settings, which removes its fingerprint from our server.

Questions or data requests: [email protected]. This page replaces the separate Studio privacy note (19 July 2026) and the per-app notes.