The short version. FloodedArea is a free flood-watch map for the Philippines. To be useful it needs your location, and anything you report is published on a public map. You can browse the whole map without an account. We do not sell your data and we do not run advertising.
Flood reports are public. When you submit a report, its location, water depth, the display name you entered, and any photo you attach become visible to everyone using FloodedArea — including people who are not signed in. Please do not report from inside your home if you do not want that spot shown, and do not include faces, licence plates, house numbers, or documents in photos.
FloodedArea is an independent, non-commercial community project covering Metro Manila, Rizal, and surrounding areas. Contact: floodedareaph@gmail.com.
With your permission, the app reads your device's precise location to centre the map, work out how far you are from nearby floods, attach coordinates to a report you submit, and locate you for an SOS rescue request. While a trip or live view is active the app may follow your location continuously until you close it. You can refuse or revoke this permission in your browser or Android settings; the map still works, but distance, "report here", and SOS will not.
If you create an account or sign in with Google, we store your email address, display name, and profile picture URL, plus an internal user id and role. Signing in is only required to report, confirm a report, or send an SOS — browsing is open to all.
If you report without an account, we generate a random identifier and keep it on your
device (baha_guest_id_v1). It is not linked to your name or email. Its only
purpose is anti-abuse — limiting how many active reports one device can post. Clearing
your browser storage resets it.
We use your browser's local storage for your session token and profile, plus preferences: language, notification and live-view toggles, report mode, sidebar layout, the flood-prone area filter, trip state, a reminder flag for guests who have reported, and a per-session visit flag. Administrators additionally have a stored preference for which social accounts a post goes to. These stay on your device. Clearing site data removes them and signs you out.
We count total visits to show a public visitor tally, and we use Statcounter for basic traffic statistics. This involves your IP address and general browser information. We do not build advertising profiles.
We do not sell your personal data, and we do not use it for advertising.
Using FloodedArea causes your device to contact these third parties. Each has its own privacy policy and we do not control what they do with what they receive.
| Service | What it receives | Why |
|---|---|---|
| OpenStreetMap tile servers | IP address; which map tiles you view, which implies your approximate area | Map imagery |
| Nominatim (OpenStreetMap) | Coordinates you look up | Turning coordinates into place names |
| Overpass API | Coordinates and map queries | Roads and nearby map features |
| Google Sign-In | Your Google sign-in, if you choose it | Authentication |
| Cloudflare Turnstile | Browser and device signals | Blocking automated spam reports |
| Statcounter | IP address, browser information | Visitor statistics |
| Google Fonts | IP address | Page typeface |
| tlk.io | Everything you type in the community chat | Community chat — see below |
| Facebook, X, WhatsApp, Telegram | What you share when you tap share; and flood summaries we publish ourselves — see below | Sharing a report; public flood bulletins |
FloodedArea administrators can publish flood information to the project's own Facebook page and X account. This covers two things: an incident post written by an administrator, and a consolidated digest of currently active reports.
These posts describe flooding by place and severity — city, district, water depth, trend, and how many reports are active. They do not include the display name of whoever filed a report, their account details, or their photo. Once a post is published it is public and outside our control, on a platform with its own privacy policy. Ordinary users cannot trigger these posts; only administrators can.
The chat bubble embeds a public room hosted by tlk.io, a third-party service. Messages go to tlk.io, not to us. We do not store them, and our deletion controls do not reach them. The room is public and anonymous — treat anything you type as visible to strangers, and do not post personal details there.
FloodedArea is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect their personal information. If you believe a child has provided us with personal data, contact us and we will remove it.
Traffic is encrypted in transit over HTTPS, and access to administrative functions is restricted. No service can promise perfect security, and we would rather say that plainly than imply otherwise.
This page loads no fonts, no analytics, and no external resources of any kind. Opening it tells us nothing beyond an ordinary web-server request.
If this policy changes materially we will update the effective date above and, where the change is significant, note it in the app.
Questions, corrections, or deletion requests: floodedareaph@gmail.com.