meridian

Privacy // Policy

Privacy Policy

Effective 8 October 2026

Meridian is made by Chris Mahlke. This policy explains what Meridian does with information on your iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch.

The short version: Meridian has no accounts, no ads, no analytics, and no tracking, and I never receive any information about you. It works out the sky on your device, without a connection. Two features, Terrain horizon and Will I see it?, are off until you turn them on, and each sends your location rounded to about a kilometre. Searching for a place sends what you type to Apple Maps.

What Meridian uses, and where it stays

Your location. With your permission, Meridian uses your location while the app is open, to place the sun, moon, planets, and stars in your sky and to find true north. It asks for your location only to within about a kilometre, and never uses it in the background. Your Apple Watch asks separately and uses its own location in the same way. If you don't allow location, Meridian shows an approximate sky worked out from your time zone.

The last location. The last location Meridian found, and when it found it, is saved on your device so the app, its widgets, and Siri can show your sky before a new one arrives. The widgets read it from storage shared only with the app, and mark their sky APPROX. when it's more than a day old. Like Meridian's settings, it's included in your device's backups.

Your heading. The compass reading turns the dial as it arrives. It is never stored.

The camera. With your permission, the sky in AR draws the sun's and moon's paths over the camera's view. The picture is shown on screen only. It is never recorded, saved, or sent anywhere.

Saved places. The places you save, with their names, coordinates, and time zones, are stored on your device in Meridian's settings.

Ground heights. With Terrain horizon on, the ground heights Meridian downloads are kept in its cache on your device, so it doesn't ask again for the same place.

Reminders and the golden-hour countdown. Reminders are scheduled on your device as notifications, and the countdown on the Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island runs on your device too. Neither passes through a server. Meridian asks before sending notifications.

Settings. Your choices, such as marks or words, true or magnetic north, and night mode, and whether you've seen the tour, are stored on your device only.

Siri and Shortcuts. When you ask Meridian about sunrise, sunset, the moon, or north, it works out the answer on your device from the last location it found.

Shared images. When you share the sky, the image and its text hold the time, where the sun and moon are, and the name of a saved place if you're looking at one, never your coordinates. They go only where you choose to send them. If you choose Save Image, Meridian asks for permission to add the picture to your photo library. That permission lets it add photos, not see them.

Information that leaves your device

Terrain horizon (Open-Meteo). Off until you turn it on in Settings. To draw the hills around you, Meridian asks open-meteo.com for ground heights at your location rounded to about a kilometre, and at points in rings around it out to 48 km.

Will I see it? (Apple Weather). Off until you turn it on in Settings. To check the cloud forecast for the next sunrise, sunset, and moonrise, Meridian sends Apple Weather your location rounded to about a kilometre, and the hours it needs.

Place search (Apple Maps). When you search for a place to save, what you type is sent to Apple Maps to find matches.

Like any web request, these reveal your device's IP address to Open-Meteo or Apple, which handle it under the Open-Meteo privacy policy and Apple's privacy policy. I don't receive it.

Nothing else leaves your device. Meridian contains no third-party analytics, advertising, or tracking code, and does not share or sell any information.

This website

This website has no cookies, analytics, or ads. It's hosted by GitHub Pages and loads its typeface from Google Fonts, so, as with any website, your browser's IP address reaches GitHub and Google. If you choose the light or dark theme, your browser remembers the choice. It isn't sent anywhere.

Children

Meridian is suitable for all ages and collects no personal information from anyone, including children.

Deleting your information

Everything Meridian stores is on your device. Deleting the app (and the watch app) deletes it all, along with its widgets. You can remove saved places in Places, and turn off location, camera, photo, or notification access at any time in the Settings app.

Changes

If this policy changes, the new version will be posted on this page with a new effective date.

Contact

Questions about this policy: email cmahlke@gmail.com, or open an issue on GitHub. Issues are public and need a free GitHub account.