Privacy Policy

1Who I am and how to contact me

Routehold is provided by Chris Wild, an individual based in the United Kingdom. For UK data protection law, I am the data controller for the limited personal data described in this policy. For anything about this policy or your data, contact me at chris@routehold.com.

2What this policy covers

This policy explains how the Routehold app (for iPhone and Android), and the routehold.com website, handle your data.

3The data Routehold uses

3.1Location. When you navigate, Routehold uses your device's location, including precise GPS location, to show where you are and to follow your planned route. A ride keeps running until you end it: on Android it runs as a foreground service with a visible notification, and on iOS it uses the location background mode, so guidance continues when your screen is off or another app is in front. Outside a ride, Routehold reads your location once, at the moment you press a control that needs it, such as Find fuel now or the map overview while you are in a ride group.

3.2Ride log (test versions only). Test versions of Routehold (TestFlight and Google Play testing) record a diagnostic log on your device during a ride, including your location during that ride, to help find and fix problems. The log stays on your device, is not sent anywhere automatically, and is cleared every 20 rides. The App Store and Google Play versions of Routehold record no such log.

3.3Routes and maps. Routes you import (for example GPX or KML files) and maps you download for offline use are stored on your device.

3.4Email. If you use the contact form on the website, ask to hear when the Android app is ready, or email me, I receive your email address and any message you send.

3.5Ride groups (optional). A ride group lets friends riding the same route see each other on the map overview and navigate to each other. It is off until you join a group, and it stops when you leave. While you are in a group, Routehold sends three things to a small service of mine: the rider name you typed (use a first name or nickname), a fingerprint of the route you have loaded (a one-way hash of its coordinates, used only to check that everyone joining has the same route), and your position, about every 12 seconds, for as long as you stay in the group: while you ride, between rides, and with Routehold in the background or your screen off. On Android an ongoing notification shows while sharing; on iPhone the status bar shows the location indicator. Sharing pauses after 90 minutes without moving and resumes when you move. Nothing is sent after you leave the group or close the app. The app shows "Sharing with group" and the group code whenever it is sending, and shows you a plain summary of this before your first join.

3.6Ride group invites. When you create a group, Routehold also sends the service a copy of the route, encrypted on your phone with a key that is created for that group and never sent to the service. The key travels only inside the invite link (the part after the # sign) and the QR code you choose to share, so the service holds bytes it cannot read, and only a phone that has the link can open the route. This is what lets a rider you invite receive the route with one tap instead of having to import the same file. The encrypted route is deleted with the group, when the last member leaves or 24 hours after its last activity, and 7 days after it was created at the latest. Anyone you send the link to can join the group and see the route, so share it as you would a private message. Groups created before this feature carry no route copy.

3.7Routehold does not require an account, and apart from the rider name you choose for a ride group, does not ask for your name, contacts, photos, or other personal information.

4How your data is used

• Location is used to provide live navigation and to follow your planned route.
• Your routes and maps are used to let you ride offline and to review and manage your routes, on your own device. In test versions, the on-device ride log is used only to diagnose and fix problems.
• Your email is used only to reply to you or, if you asked, to tell you when the Android app is available.
• Your ride group name and position are used only to show you to the other riders in your group and to let them navigate to you.

I do not use your data for advertising or profiling, and I do not build any profile of you.

5Sharing, and what leaves your device

5.1To calculate and follow routes, Routehold sends location and route information to Mapbox, the mapping and routing service it uses. This is necessary to generate and display your route. Mapbox processes this as my service provider.

5.2The Mapbox software includes optional usage and location "telemetry" that is switched on by default. In Routehold that telemetry is turned off, so Mapbox receives only what is needed to provide routing.

5.3Routehold's maps are built on OpenStreetMap data (© OpenStreetMap contributors). Using the maps does not send your personal data to OpenStreetMap.

5.4Your imported routes, downloaded maps and, in test versions, the ride log stay on your device. They are not sent to me or to anyone else automatically. If you use a test version and choose to help troubleshoot a problem, you can export the ride log from the app and email it to me yourself; because it includes your location during your rides, only send it if you are happy to share that.

5.5Any email you send is delivered to me. Messages sent through the website's forms are delivered to me using Amazon Web Services (email delivery only).

5.6Ride groups. When you join a group, your rider name and latest position are sent to a small program of mine running on Cloudflare's network, and are shown to the other members of your group: that is anyone who has both the group code and the same route loaded, so share the code only with people you are riding with. Cloudflare processes this as my service provider and, like any website you connect to, receives your IP address. Each group's data is held by Cloudflare at the location nearest the rider who created the group. My own service logs record only the kind of request and its result code. Cloudflare's platform logs for the service record, for 3 days, each request's address (which contains the group code and a member id), its result, your IP address and the details Cloudflare derives from it, such as country and city. They never contain what your phone sent, so your position and your name are not in them, and access tokens are redacted from them.

5.7I do not sell your data, and I do not share it with advertisers or data brokers.

6What Routehold does not do

• No advertising and no ad networks.
• No analytics, usage tracking or crash-reporting services.
• No selling or renting of your personal data.
• No account, and no tracking of you across other apps or websites.
• No location sharing unless you join a ride group, and none once you leave it.

7Keeping and deleting your data

7.1On your device: your routes, downloaded maps and, in test versions, the ride log remain until you delete them in the app or uninstall Routehold, which removes them from your device. The ride log is also cleared automatically every 20 rides.

7.2Email: I keep emails only for as long as needed to deal with your message, or until the Android app is available if you asked to hear about it, and then delete them. You can ask me to delete your email at any time.

7.3Ride groups: only your latest position is kept, and each update overwrites the one before it, so there is no history and no ride trail. If your phone stops sending, the other riders keep seeing your last position, marked with how long ago it was sent, until you leave the group or the group ends. Leaving the group deletes your name and your position at once. The whole group is deleted 24 hours after its last activity, and no group lives longer than 7 days. Cloudflare's platform logs described in 5.6 are kept for 3 days.

8Security

I take reasonable steps to protect the limited data I hold. Data stored on your device is protected by your device's own security. No method of storage or transmission is completely secure, so I cannot guarantee absolute security.

9Sending data outside the UK

Mapbox, Amazon Web Services and Cloudflare may process data outside the United Kingdom, including in the United States, under their own safeguards for international data transfers.

10Your rights

Under UK data protection law you have rights over your personal data, including the right to access it, to have it corrected, to have it deleted, and to object to its use. For ride groups, leaving the group in the app deletes your data on the service at once, and because that data is short-lived and not linked to an account there will usually be nothing left to provide. To exercise any of these rights, email me at chris@routehold.com. If you are unhappy with how your data has been handled, you can also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk.

11Children

Routehold is not intended for or directed at children under 13, and I do not knowingly collect personal data from them.

12Changes to this policy

I may update this policy as Routehold develops. The current version is always published at routehold.com/privacy.html, with the date it was last updated shown at the top. If the changes are significant, I will make that clear.

13Contact

For any question about this policy, or any request about your data, contact Chris Wild at chris@routehold.com.