Usage rules

This page lists the basic rules for the ExpTech API and real-time streams. Each API’s class and how to attribute it are on Data license & attribution. The full rules are the Terms of Service.

Credit the source and follow the class

• Credit the source for any data you use from any API. Where to put it, and what text to use, is in How to attribute.
• Data marked “attribution required, commercial use allowed” (for example, CWA earthquake reports) can be used for personal, nonprofit, and commercial purposes.
• Data marked “attribution required, non-commercial only” (data from TREM-net, which ExpTech runs, for example TREM real-time station data) is for non-commercial use only. To use it commercially, request commercial use and get ExpTech’s approval first.
• When an upstream source (for example OpenStreetMap or ECMWF) has its own terms, those terms apply as well.

Which class each API belongs to is in Class of each API. The Data license section on each data page marks it too.

Relaying or redistributing data

Have users connect to the ExpTech API directly, including real-time streams. Relaying through your own server, a chat bot, a livestream, or any other way of redistributing the data needs approval first. Contact us. When you have approval, keep the source attribution. Non-commercial-only data stays non-commercial only after you relay it. See Example: relaying or redistributing data.

Building a third-party service

If you build an app, a website, or another service with ExpTech data:

1. Credit the source as described in How to attribute, and tell users how the data works and what it is for.
2. Have users connect to the ExpTech API directly, including real-time streams, to get the data. Do not relay it through your server.
3. Do not present the data with incorrect, insinuating, or misleading text, and do not imply that ExpTech or an upstream agency endorses your product.
4. A product or service that makes money may use only data that allows commercial use. If you need TREM-net data, request commercial use first.

Keep the API Token off the client

Do not put an API Token in frontend code or in an app package. When you need to connect on a user’s behalf, use OAuth2 to get that user’s own token. How to send a token, and security advice, are in API Token.

Data accuracy

ExpTech works to keep the data correct, and does not guarantee that it is free of errors. For weather and earthquake information, follow what the Central Weather Administration (CWA) publishes.