Privacy Policy

Last updated: September 11, 2026

This policy covers the IEM Alerter Discord bot and distributor service (together, the "Project"). The Project is operated as an independent, community-maintained project.

TL;DR

We do not sell your data. We collect and retain only information needed to operate, secure, troubleshoot, and improve the Project.

Discord Bot

When you use the Discord bot, it may process:

• Discord user IDs, guild IDs, channel IDs, and direct-message channel IDs needed to deliver alerts.
• IEM rooms, subscriptions, and alert filters needed to provide the configuration you requested.
• Information you send to the bot or its maintainers, such as command content, your username, or a support message.

The bot uses this information to deliver alerts, maintain subscriptions, enforce basic service behavior, troubleshoot errors, and respond to support requests. Discord also processes activity under Discord's own terms and privacy policy.

WebSocket Distributor

When you connect to the WebSocket distributor, it may process:

• Connection information such as an IP address, proxy-provided address when configured, request headers, User-Agent, connection time, and disconnect time. This may appear in operational or debugging logs.
• Your active channel or room subscriptions, which are held in server memory for the duration of the connection and are not intended to form a permanent user profile.
• Weather messages and products received from upstream data services and distributed to subscribers. The distributor may write event data to local event logs for operation, history, and troubleshooting.

The distributor uses this information to maintain connections, deliver requested weather data, monitor reliability, investigate errors, prevent abuse, and troubleshoot the service. It does not require an account.

Shared Information and Use

Both services may process information you send to the maintainers, such as your username, email address, or support message. We use information only to operate, secure, troubleshoot, and improve the Project.

We do not sell, rent, or trade personal information. We do not use the Project to build advertising profiles.

Third Parties and Retention

The Project uses Discord and upstream weather and alert data services. Those services, along with any hosting, networking, logging, or monitoring providers selected by an operator, may process information under their own terms and privacy policies.

The Project uses data from sources including GWES, the Iowa Environmental Mesonet (IEM), the National Weather Service (NWS), and other sources. Retention depends on the service operator's configuration. In-memory connection and subscription data normally disappear when a connection ends; operational and event logs may be retained as reasonably needed to operate and troubleshoot the Project, then deleted or rotated.

You may request deletion of personal information held by the Project through the published support channel or repository, subject to information that must be retained for security, legal, or operational reasons.

Security and Changes

Reasonable measures are used to protect information, but no network service, log, or transmission can be guaranteed to be completely secure. Do not send secrets or sensitive personal information to the Project.

This policy may be updated as the Project changes. The current source is available at https://git.chrischro.me/iem-alerter/.

For questions, concerns, or to request deletion of personal information, contact the maintainers through the Project's Discord server or by emailing support@iembot.dev.