Privacy & your information

Updated September 23, 2026. This notice describes how The Beach Database handles information.

Saved beaches

The heart button stores beach identifiers in this browser’s local storage. Favorites are not sent to an account or synchronized across devices. Remove individual favorites with the heart button, or clear this site’s browser data to remove them all.

Appearance

Your light or dark mode choice is saved in this browser’s local storage. It is not sent to an account. Without a saved choice, the site follows your device appearance setting.

Analytics choices

Cloudflare Web Analytics measures visits and site performance without using cookies or collecting personal data for advertising. Google Analytics 4 is optional and remains disabled until you select “Allow analytics.” If allowed, Google Analytics uses cookies and records page views and interactions such as searches, guide selections, saved or compared beaches, newsletter signups and clicks to external services. Advertising storage and Google Signals are disabled. Your analytics choice is stored in this browser. Clear this site’s browser data to reset it. Google handles Analytics data under its privacy policy.

Information this site collects

We have not added advertising, accounts, payments or a server-side contact form. Cloudflare hosts this site and may process network and security information to deliver and protect it. Search and filter choices appear in the page address; anyone you share that address with can see those choices.

Weather, tides and water quality

Opening a beach guide requests weather and alerts from the National Weather Service and tide predictions from NOAA, and hourly UV forecasts from the EPA using the beach area’s ZIP code. Requests use the beach location, not your GPS location. These services receive network information such as your IP address. Water-quality panels also request public county testing reports from the Florida Department of Health’s Caspio-hosted reporting service; Caspio receives your IP address and the requested county. We do not send your saved beaches or request account cookies. No location permission is requested. Feeds refresh while the page is open.

External services

Google Fonts supplies typefaces. Opening the map requests map tiles from OpenStreetMap. These providers receive network information such as your IP address and requested resources. Their own privacy policies apply: Google and OpenStreetMap Foundation. Beach photographs are stored with this site.

Links and sharing

Directions open Google Maps. Forecasts, water-quality information, restaurants and source links open third-party websites. Clicking Copy beach link writes a link to your clipboard; it does not send a message.

Corrections and contact

The public contact address has not been configured, so this site does not currently accept correction submissions. See Corrections & contact.

Hosting

Cloudflare hosts this site and may process access and security logs under its privacy policy. We have not configured a separate visitor-log database.