Privacy notice

What this notice covers

This notice covers this site at openphenology.com, the data site at data.openphenology.com, the published files at api.openphenology.com and the server for AI assistants at mcp.openphenology.com. The same rules apply to all of them. Where something applies to only one, this notice says so. Our development and testing environments follow this notice too: error reports are on, and visits are not counted.

What we collect

You don't need an account to use OpenPhenology, and we never ask for your name or email address. The site sets no cookies. We don't sell or share personal information, and we show no advertising.

Your ZIP code or city

When you enter a ZIP code, your browser downloads the list of ZIP codes that start with the same three digits from our data server, api.openphenology.com, and finds your county on your device. Your full ZIP code never leaves your device. Like any file request, our data server sees which three-digit list was asked for.

When you type a city, your browser downloads Ohio's list of cities, villages and communities from the same server and matches it on your device. The server sees only that the list was asked for, never what you typed.

Your ZIP code or city never appears in a page address, and never reaches our analytics, error reports or logs.

Your device's location

If you choose Use my location, your browser asks your permission first. With it, your browser gives the page your location once, and the page finds your county on your device using Ohio's county outlines, a file every visitor downloads the same way from api.openphenology.com. Your location never leaves your device, is never stored, and never appears in a page address, our analytics, error reports or logs. Only the county is kept, as below. You can turn location off for this site in your browser's settings at any time.

Your county, on this device

So that later visits can show your county's seasons, the site keeps your county's five-digit code, such as 39049, in your browser's local storage. It is the only thing the site stores on your device. It stays on this device and is never sent to us. It stays until you press Clear beside your county, or clear this site's data in your browser.

A county's own pages, such as Nearby for Franklin County, name the county in their address, as every page address names what it shows.

Counting visits

On openphenology.com only, we count visits with Cloudflare Web Analytics, to learn which pages help people. It records the pages viewed, the site that sent you, your country, your type of browser and how fast pages load. It sets no cookies, stores nothing on your device and does not follow you from page to page. It never runs on a Nearby county page, so no visit is tied to a county, and it does not run on the data site.

Error reports

When a page fails, an error report goes to Sentry so that we can fix it. A report holds the page address, with any county left out of Nearby addresses, your type of browser and device, and what went wrong. Sentry stores nothing on your device, records no screen or session, is set not to store your IP address, and keeps each report for 30 days.

Hosting and logs

The site runs on Cloudflare. To deliver pages and protect the site from attacks, Cloudflare handles your IP address and the details of each request. To stop floods, it also counts page requests from each address for 10 seconds at a time. We keep no log of your requests. Errors the site reports are kept by Cloudflare for up to seven days, and we use them only to fix problems.

Cloudflare and Sentry are United States companies, and the site is run from the United States.

What loads from elsewhere

Pages, photos, fonts and data all come from our own servers, so no other company learns which species or places you look at. The only two things that load from elsewhere are the visit counter and the error reporting described above. Nothing from social networks, advertisers or map providers is on any page.

Links to other sites

When you follow a link to another site, such as iNaturalist or GBIF, your browser tells that site only that you came from openphenology.com, never which page you were on. Other sites have their own privacy notices, which we don't control.

If you email us

If you email hello@, data@ or security@openphenology.com, we receive your email address and what you write. Cloudflare forwards the email to our mailbox. We keep it as long as we need to answer you and, for a correction, takedown or security report, as a record of what was asked and done. We don't add your address to any list.

Children

The site has no accounts and asks no one for personal information, so it collects none from children.

Your rights

Apart from emails you send us, we hold nothing that identifies you, so there is nothing for us to show, correct or delete. To have your emails to us deleted, write to hello@openphenology.com.

Your choices

• Press Clear beside your county to forget it.
• Clear this site's data in your browser to remove everything the site stored.
• Block the analytics with your browser or an extension. The site works the same without it.

Changes

When this notice changes, the date at the top changes with it, and the change is listed here.

• 24 October 2026: said which sites the notice covers; added flood counting, where the companies are, what loads from elsewhere, links to other sites, emails, children and your rights; said the visit counter runs on openphenology.com only and never on a Backyard county page; said that development and testing environments follow this notice.
• 20 October 2026: hosting and logs updated.
• 13 October 2026: first draft.

Contact

Questions about this notice or your data: hello@openphenology.com. Every way to reach us is on the Contact page.