Privacy Policy
Last updated October 24, 2026.
GoldenHourly (“we”) is a free website with no accounts and no ads. The sun calculations run in your browser, and we don't keep a database of visitors. This page explains everything the site does with information about you.
Your approximate location
When you open the home page, our hosting provider, Vercel, estimates your location from your IP address and passes it to us with the request. We use that estimate to show your golden hour straight away, and we put a place (name, coordinates and time zone) in a cookie called gh_geo on your device so the page knows where it is. If the estimate is within about 40 km of a city we list, the cookie holds that city; otherwise it holds the estimated location. The cookie lasts one hour and is sent back to our site with your requests to it. We don't store your IP address or the estimate anywhere else. The cookie is needed for the page to work, so there's nothing to opt in to.
Your precise location
Only if you click “use precise location” does your browser ask for your position. It's used in your browser to calculate the times, and your coordinates (to about 10 metres) are added to the page address so you can bookmark or share it. We don't send them anywhere ourselves, but anyone who opens that address, including you after a reload or bookmark, sends them to our host, so they appear in its standard request logs. Think before sharing a link made from your precise location. The same goes for places you pick on the map.
What's stored on your device
The last place you searched for, picked on the map or located with precise location is kept in your browser's local storage (under gh:place), so the site opens there next time. For a precise location that means your coordinates. It's read only by the site in your browser and isn't sent to us. Clear this site's data in your browser to remove it. Calendar files from “Add to calendar” are made in your browser, and the share button uses your device's own share sheet.
Visit counts
We count page views with Vercel Web Analytics. It sets no cookies and doesn't follow you across other sites. It records the page address (with everything after the “?”, such as coordinates, removed before it's sent), the site that linked you here, and your country, browser, operating system and device type. Vercel tells repeat visits apart with a short-lived anonymous identifier derived from your request, not stored on your device. We see only totals.
Services that see your requests
- Vercel hosts the site. Like any web host it processes your IP address to deliver pages and keeps standard request logs (which include the full address requested, with any coordinates in it) for a limited time. See Vercel's privacy policy.
- OpenFreeMap serves the map. The map loads when you scroll near it, and your browser then fetches the map style and tiles directly from it, so it sees your IP address and the area you view, as any web map would. Your browser tells it only that the request comes from goldenhourly.com, not which page or coordinates. See OpenFreeMap's privacy policy.
Fonts, place data and everything else load from our own domain. We don't sell or share information about you, and there are no advertising or social media trackers.
If you email us, we use your message and address only to reply, and delete them when they're no longer needed.
Children
The site is for a general audience and isn't directed at children under 13. We don't knowingly collect personal information from children. Like any website, our host and analytics provider process technical data such as IP addresses (see above), and if a child emails us we'll delete the message.
Your choices and rights
You can block or delete cookies and site data in your browser, and skip precise location entirely; the site still works. Depending on where you live, you may have the right to ask what personal information we hold about you or to have it deleted. We hold almost none, and can't link analytics totals to you, but email contact@patrickws.com with any request and we'll answer it.
Changes
If this policy changes, for example if we add advertising, we'll update this page and the date at the top first. See also our Terms of Use.
Contact
Questions about privacy: contact@patrickws.com.