The short version
This site measures Tokyo's atmosphere, not its visitors. We collect the minimum data required to understand which microclimate zones people research, to answer messages sent to us, and to fulfill guide purchases. We do not run advertising trackers, we do not sell personal data, we do not build profiles, and we do not embed third-party social media pixels of any kind. If you decline the cookie banner, the analytics cookie is never set, and the site works identically. The rest of this page is the long version, and it's written to be read.
Who we are
The Tokyo Microclimate Observatory is operated by Oregon Timber Dwellings LLC, registered in Washington State, USA, with a Japan office in Shibuya, Tokyo. Contact for privacy matters: [email protected], or +1 (206) 624-8910. The lead climate observer, Kenji Mori, is the responsible contact for data questions originating from the Japan office. For the purposes of applicable data protection law, Oregon Timber Dwellings LLC is the data controller for information collected through this site.
What we collect
Server logs. Like every website, our hosting infrastructure records standard request logs: IP address, browser type, referring page, and timestamp. These logs exist for security and debugging, rotate automatically, and are not correlated with any identity. We don't mine them for behavior.
Analytics cookie (optional). If you click “Accept” on the cookie banner, a single first-party cookie records which zone pages you visit — the banner says exactly this: we track which Tokyo microclimate zones visitors research most. The cookie carries an anonymous identifier, no name, no email, and no cross-site component. If you click “Decline,” it is never written. Your choice is stored in your browser's local storage so we don't ask again. You can change or revoke it any time on the cookie controls page.
Contact form submissions. If you send us a message, we receive what you type: name, email, the zone and interest you select, your planned season, and the message itself. We use it to reply, and — if you flag a data error — to route it to the corrections review queue. We keep correspondence for up to 24 months in case a thread continues, then delete it.
Purchase records. If you buy a climate guide, we collect the information needed to deliver it and process payment: name, email, and order details. Payment card data is processed by the payment processor and never touches our servers. Order records are retained as required for tax and accounting purposes under Washington State and applicable Japanese law.
What we never collect
We do not collect location data from your device — an ironic restraint for a weather site, but your latitude is your business. We do not collect device fingerprints, advertising identifiers, or behavioral profiles. We do not buy data from brokers, and we do not run any form of cross-site tracking. The Open-Meteo API calls that power the live conditions boxes go from your browser directly to Open-Meteo; we see the aggregate, never your individual query.
Legal bases
Where a legal basis is required: server logs and essential site operation rest on legitimate interest in running a secure website. The analytics cookie rests on consent, given or declined through the banner. Contact form processing rests on your request for a reply. Purchase processing rests on contract performance, and record retention on legal obligation. If you decline every optional item, the site's content remains fully available to you — consent here is genuinely optional, and we built it that way on purpose.
Sharing
We share personal data only with the service providers needed to operate: our hosting provider (server operation), our email provider (correspondence), and our payment processor (guide purchases). Each acts under contract and may not use the data for its own purposes. We do not otherwise disclose personal data unless legally compelled, and if legally compelled, we disclose the minimum required. We have never received a data request from any authority as of this policy's effective date, and we'll update this page if that changes.
Retention
Server logs rotate within 90 days. Analytics cookie data is aggregated monthly and the raw identifiers deleted. Contact correspondence is kept up to 24 months. Purchase records are kept for the statutory accounting period. When retention ends, deletion is actual deletion — not anonymized retention under another name.
Your rights
You may request access to, correction of, or deletion of your personal data at any time by emailing [email protected]. You may withdraw cookie consent instantly on the cookie controls page — withdrawal takes effect in your browser immediately, no email required. If you're in a jurisdiction with a supervisory authority, you may also lodge a complaint there, though we'd appreciate the chance to fix the problem first. We answer privacy requests within 30 days, and usually much faster.
Security
The site is served over HTTPS. Correspondence and order records are stored with access limited to the three-person team. We run no user accounts, so there is no account database to breach. The best security property this site has is how little it holds.
Children
This site is not directed at children and does not knowingly collect their data. The subject matter — urban climatology and residential decisions — is adult business, and the site is operated accordingly.
Changes
If this policy changes, the effective date above changes, and material changes are announced on the site's front page for 30 days. We will never make the policy more permissive quietly; that would violate the entire ethic this project runs on. Questions, requests, and corrections: [email protected].
International transfers
The company is registered in the United States and operates an office in Japan, so limited personal data crosses the Pacific in both directions: correspondence sent to the Shibuya office may be read by Seattle staff, and purchase records are consolidated in the US accounting system. Both offices operate under this same policy, and the transfers are intra-company only. We don't route personal data through third countries, and we don't use processors outside Japan and the United States. If you're visiting from a jurisdiction with data-localization rules, the practical answer is that the only data we hold about you is what you typed into a form or what your browser sent in a log line — and you can have it deleted with one email.
Cookies and analytics detail
The mechanics of our two storage items are documented on the cookie controls page; the privacy-relevant summary bears repeating here. The analytics cookie exists only if you accepted it, contains an anonymous random identifier, and feeds aggregate zone-page counts. There is no identity attached to it, and nothing connects it to a contact form submission or a purchase. If you buy a guide after browsing with analytics accepted, those remain separate records by design. The aggregate counts answer questions like “did the Boso typhoon section get read” — they cannot answer questions about you, because there is no “you” in them.
Email practices
We send email only in reply to your messages or in fulfillment of a purchase. There is no newsletter, no marketing drip, no “occasional updates” checkbox doing quiet work. If a corrections entry affects a guide you bought, you'll receive the corrected edition — that's a fulfillment obligation, not marketing, and it's the only unsolicited email a customer will ever receive from us. Every message comes from a human at one of the two addresses listed on this site; we don't use no-reply senders, because a two-way address is the whole point of correspondence.
Data breaches
If a breach of personal data ever occurs, our commitments are: notify affected individuals within 72 hours of confirmation, describe what was taken in plain language, and post a dated notice on this site. Given how little we hold — no accounts, no passwords, no card numbers — the realistic worst case is a list of correspondence addresses. We still treat that seriously, because an address someone entrusted to a weather site deserves the same care as any other.
Policy contact
Privacy questions, access requests, deletion requests, and complaints: [email protected], or Oregon Timber Dwellings LLC, 1201 3rd Avenue, Suite 2800, Seattle, WA 98101, USA. Japan-side matters may also go to the Shibuya office at 2-15-1 Shibuya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-0002, or +81 (3) 5489-3321. We answer within 30 days by commitment and within a week by habit.