Privacy policy

The short version: there are no accounts, no sign-up, no email list and no analytics. Nothing you trace is sent to us, because there is no “us” to send it to — the planner runs entirely in your browser. Everything below is the detail behind that.

Last updated 3 September 2026.

What we collect

Nothing. Will It Shade has no user accounts, no login, no contact form and no analytics software. We do not set our own cookies, we do not build a profile of you, and we have no database of visitors. We could not tell you who has used the site, because we do not record it.

What stays on your own device

When you trace a property in the planner, the outlines, heights and settings are saved in your browser’s own local storage, so a refresh or a closed tab does not cost you the work. That data never leaves your computer and is not visible to us. Clearing your browser’s site data deletes it permanently, and there is no copy anywhere else.

Aerial photographs are never stored — they are fetched again each time you open a site.

Other services the site uses

The planner is built on public mapping services. To do its job it has to send them certain information, and each of them has its own privacy policy governing what it does with that.

Address search — OpenStreetMap Nominatim

When you type an address, the text you type is sent to Nominatim, run by the OpenStreetMap Foundation, which turns it into map coordinates. They receive the address text and your IP address.

Building outlines — Overpass API

Once a location is found, its coordinates are sent to the Overpass API to fetch the building footprints nearby. They receive those coordinates and your IP address, not your typed address.

Aerial imagery — Esri and state mapping services

Aerial photographs are loaded from Esri’s ArcGIS imagery service, and in some Australian locations from Victorian government mapping. These receive the map coordinates being viewed and your IP address.

Fonts — Google Fonts

The site’s typefaces load from Google Fonts, which receives your IP address when a page loads.

Advertising

This site is free, and is paid for by advertising. We use Google AdSense to serve those adverts.

Google and its partners use cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits to this and other websites. Google’s use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to you based on your visit to this site and other sites on the internet.

You can opt out of personalised advertising by visiting Google’s Ads Settings. You can also opt out of a third-party vendor’s use of cookies for personalised advertising at aboutads.info. Where required by law, you will be asked for consent before personalised advertising cookies are set.

We do not share anything with advertisers ourselves, because we hold nothing to share. Google’s handling of the data it collects is covered by the Google privacy & terms site.

Children

This site is not directed at children under 13 and we do not knowingly collect anything from them — or, indeed, from anyone.

Your rights

Data protection law in many countries gives you the right to see, correct or delete personal data a site holds about you. We hold none, so there is nothing for us to show or delete. For the data held by the services named above, please contact them directly using the links in their own privacy policies.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, the date at the top of this page changes with it. Material changes will be noted on the site rather than made quietly.

Contact

Questions about this policy can be sent to [email protected].