Legal

By accessing or using beaches.mt(the “Service”), you agree to be bound by these Terms and Conditions (“Terms”). If you do not agree, you must not use the Service. We reserve the right to update these Terms at any time. Continued use constitutes acceptance.

beaches.mt is an independent informational website that presents:

• Official bathing water quality data sourced from the Environmental Health Directorate (EHD) of Malta
• Weather and sea condition data from Open-Meteo and related meteorological APIs
• Community-submitted beach condition reports (e.g. jellyfish, seaweed, crowd levels, flag status)
• Beach voting (good / not great) from site visitors
• Facility information, beach locations and map view

The Service is provided free of charge. We reserve the right to modify, suspend or discontinue any part of the Service at any time without notice.

Water quality data is sourced from the EHD Malta and is provided for informational purposes only. The EHD samples weekly during the bathing season. Conditions can change significantly between sampling periods. The classification shown may not reflect current conditions. Always refer to official EHD notices and on-site signage.

Weather and sea conditions are estimates from third-party APIs and may differ from actual conditions.

Swimming scores and condition ratings are algorithmically derived and are not official safety assessments. An “Ideal” rating does not guarantee safe swimming conditions.

Community reports and votes are submitted by members of the public, have not been verified by beaches.mt or any authority, and may be inaccurate or outdated.

Facility information (parking, toilets, lifeguards, etc.) may not be current. Availability and opening hours are not guaranteed.

beaches.mt accepts no liability for any loss of life, personal injury, illness, accident, drowning or other harm arising from or connected with swimming, bathing, water sports or any other activity at any beach, whether or not that beach is listed on our website, and whether or not information on our website was consulted beforehand.

You accept full personal responsibility for your own safety and that of anyone in your care:

• Swim in designated areas and between lifeguard flags
• Follow lifeguard instructions and official on-site signage
• Never swim alone or under the influence of alcohol or drugs
• Assess local weather and sea conditions before entering the water
• Consult the official EHD bathing water advisories for current status

By submitting a beach report or vote, you grant beaches.mt a non-exclusive, royalty-free, perpetual licence to display that content on the Service. You warrant that your submission is accurate to the best of your knowledge and does not contain abusive, illegal or deliberately misleading material. We reserve the right to remove any content at our discretion without notice.

The design, code, graphics and original content of beaches.mt are protected by copyright. Water quality data is © EHD Malta. Weather data is © Open-Meteo and respective licensors. Map data is © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL) and © Esri / CartoDB where applicable.

You may use the Service for personal, non-commercial purposes. You may not scrape or systematically extract data without our prior written consent.

Links to third-party websites (EHD Malta, meteorological services, mapping providers) are provided for convenience only. We accept no responsibility for external site content or availability.

You agree not to violate any law, attempt unauthorised access, introduce malware, scrape data commercially, or submit deliberately false reports that could mislead beach visitors.

The Service is provided “as is” without warranties of any kind. beaches.mt shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental or consequential damages arising from use of the Service. Nothing herein limits liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence.

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless beaches.mt and its operators from any claims or expenses arising from your use of the Service or violation of these Terms.

These Terms are governed by the laws of Malta. Any dispute shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Malta. EU consumers may also use the European Commission's Online Dispute Resolution platform: ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr. Contact us first at info@beaches.mt.

Anonymous analytics.We record per-visit signals that cannot identify you: page path, device type, browser language, country (from Vercel's edge header — your IP is never stored), timezone region, OS, browser name, screen width, session duration, scroll depth and UTM parameters.

Community reports & votes. If you submit a beach report or vote, we store the report type, beach and timestamp. No name, email or account is required — reports are fully anonymous.

Email contact. If you email info@beaches.mt, we receive your address and message solely to respond to your enquiry.

• IP addresses (never stored or logged)
• GPS or precise location data
• Names or email addresses (no user accounts)
• Cross-site tracking cookies
• Payment information

Legitimate Interests (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR) — anonymous analytics and email responses carry no privacy risk.
Consent (Article 6(1)(a)) — community reports and votes are submitted voluntarily.

We use third-party services for database storage and website hosting. All processors are contractually bound to handle data securely and under Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) approved by the European Commission for EU data transfers.

Anonymous analytics events are retained for operational and improvement purposes and are periodically reviewed. Reports and votes contain no personal data and are retained indefinitely. Email correspondence is deleted once resolved.

You have the right to access, correct, delete, restrict or port any personal data we hold, and to object to its processing. Email info@beaches.mt and we will respond within 30 days. You may also complain to the IDPC Malta: idpc.org.mt · idpc.info@idpc.org.mt

We use sessionStorage and localStorage instead of cookies for session analytics and your personal preferences (saved beaches, temperature unit). None of this data contains personal information or enables cross-site tracking. Storage is cleared when you clear your browser data for beaches.mt.

We honour the DNT: 1 browser signal. When detected, no analytics events are recorded for your visit.

Go to your browser settings → “Site data” or “Storage” → remove beaches.mt. This also clears your saved favourites and unit preference.