Privacy

Last updated: September 2026

What this site does

Open Bolt is a free map tool. You choose a location and time range; the site sends that search to our API, which reads public NOAA GOES-R GLM data. There are no user accounts and no paid features.

Data we process

• Search parameters — latitude, longitude, date, and time range you enter are sent to our backend API to run the query.
• Browser location — if you use map geolocation, your browser may ask permission; coordinates are used only in your browser session for the search form.
• Theme preference — light/dark mode may be stored in your browser’s localStorage.

What we do not do

• No selling or sharing of personal data
• No advertising trackers on this site
• No login or email collection

Third parties

Map tiles may be loaded from OpenStreetMap and Esri. Fonts are loaded from Google Fonts. Lightning data is read from NOAA public AWS datasets via our API on Google Cloud Run. Cloudflare Turnstile is used for bot protection on search requests; Cloudflare may set cookies or process IP addresses per their privacy policy.

Contact

Questions: see Contact.