Privacy Policy

Who we are

weather.capetown ("we", "us", "our") is a privately-operated hyperlocal weather website based in Cape Town, South Africa. This privacy policy explains what personal information we collect from visitors to weather.capetown, how we use it, who we share it with, and your rights regarding that information.

We are committed to compliance with the Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (POPIA) of South Africa. For visitors from the European Union or United Kingdom, we apply equivalent General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) protections.

What we collect

Information you give us directly

• Email address — if you subscribe to our newsletter.
• Email and message content — if you contact us via email.
• Any information you choose to share in correspondence.

Information collected automatically

When you visit weather.capetown, we and our third-party service providers automatically collect:

• Device and browser data — type, version, operating system, screen size.
• IP address and approximate location — used for analytics and delivering geographically-relevant ads.
• Usage data — which pages you visit, how long, referring URLs, time of visit.
• Cookies and similar technologies — see "Cookies" below.

How we use your information

We use the information we collect to:

• Operate, maintain and improve weather.capetown.
• Deliver content (including weather data, location-relevant information).
• Send you our newsletter, if you've subscribed.
• Respond to your enquiries and correspondence.
• Display advertising via Google AdSense (see below).
• Monitor and analyse site usage to improve user experience.
• Detect, prevent and address technical or security issues.
• Comply with applicable laws and respond to lawful requests.

Cookies and similar technologies

We use cookies and similar tracking technologies to operate the site, remember your preferences, analyse usage and deliver advertising. Cookies on weather.capetown fall into the following categories:

• Essential cookies — necessary for the site to function (e.g., remembering you've dismissed a banner). These don't require consent.
• Analytics cookies — help us understand how visitors use the site (anonymised aggregate data). We may use Google Analytics for this.
• Advertising cookies — placed by Google AdSense and its partners to deliver and measure advertising. These can be disabled via your browser settings or via Google's ad personalisation controls.

Most browsers allow you to control cookies through their settings. Disabling cookies may affect how the site works for you.

Third-party services

Google AdSense

weather.capetown uses Google AdSense to display advertisements. Google AdSense is a third-party advertising service operated by Google LLC.

Google, as a third-party vendor, uses cookies (including the DoubleClick DART cookie) to serve ads on our site based on your visits to weather.capetown and other websites on the internet. This is a process called "interest-based advertising" or "personalised advertising".

Google AdSense may collect:

• Your IP address and approximate location.
• Information about your device, browser and operating system.
• Pages visited and time spent on each.
• Cookies and other identifiers.

Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to you based on your visit to our site and/or other sites on the internet. You can opt out of personalised advertising by visiting Google's Ads Settings or by visiting www.aboutads.info.

For more information about how Google uses information from sites that use its services, see Google's policies.

Open-Meteo

We use Open-Meteo's free public API to retrieve weather forecast data. When your browser fetches this data, your IP address is sent to Open-Meteo's servers. Open-Meteo's privacy practices are described at open-meteo.com.

Google Fonts

We load typefaces from Google Fonts. When your browser fetches a font, Google receives your IP address. See Google's privacy policy.

Email service providers

If you subscribe to our newsletter, your email address is stored in our newsletter platform (currently Beehiiv). The provider's privacy practices apply to how they process your information.

Sharing your information

We do not sell your personal information. We share information only:

• With service providers who help us operate the site (analytics, hosting, newsletter delivery, ad serving) — under contracts that limit how they may use your information.
• If required by law, court order or lawful request from a government authority.
• To protect our rights, your safety, or the safety of others.
• If we are involved in a merger, acquisition or sale of all or part of our assets — in which case you'll be notified.

Data retention

We retain personal information only as long as necessary for the purposes for which it was collected. Newsletter subscriber data is retained until you unsubscribe. Email correspondence is retained for as long as we have an ongoing relationship with you, or as required by law.

International data transfers

weather.capetown is hosted in South Africa. However, several of our service providers (Google, our newsletter provider) operate internationally and may transfer data outside South Africa. Where this happens, we rely on appropriate safeguards as required by POPIA section 72 (and equivalent GDPR mechanisms for EU/UK visitors).

Your rights

Under POPIA you have the right to:

• Access — request a copy of the personal information we hold about you.
• Correction — ask us to correct inaccurate information.
• Deletion — ask us to delete your information, subject to legal obligations.
• Objection — object to certain types of processing, including direct marketing.
• Withdrawal of consent — withdraw consent you've previously given (e.g., unsubscribing from the newsletter).
• Complaint — lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator of South Africa (inforegulator.org.za).

To exercise any of these rights, email privacy@weather.capetown. We respond within 30 days as required by POPIA.

EU/UK residents have equivalent rights under GDPR including the right to lodge a complaint with their national data protection authority.

Children's privacy

weather.capetown is a general-audience travel and weather website not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe we have collected information from a child, please contact us so we can delete it.

Security

We use industry-standard technical and organisational measures to protect personal information from unauthorised access, alteration, disclosure or destruction. However, no internet transmission or electronic storage is fully secure. We cannot guarantee absolute security.

Changes to this policy

We may update this privacy policy from time to time. The "Last updated" date at the top of this page indicates when we last revised it. We encourage you to review this policy periodically. Significant changes will be communicated via a notice on the homepage.

Contact

For privacy-related questions or to exercise your rights, contact:
Email: privacy@weather.capetown
Information Officer: Tariq Hendricks
Postal: weather.capetown, Cape Town, South Africa

This privacy policy was last updated on 26 April 2026.