Privacy

Downwind Runs uses your account details to create your account, keep it secure and provide the signed-in features of the app.

Account details

When you sign up, Downwind Runs stores the name and email you provide. Account details are retained while the account is active. Earlier beta access requests are deleted after their retention period.

Feedback

The Settings page provides an email link for questions, bug reports and route feedback. Downwind Runs does not copy or store those email messages inside the app.

Website usage

We count website screen views and active time to understand which parts of Downwind Runs visitors use. Random identifiers distinguish views and sessions within a browser tab. These identifiers are kept in memory, without analytics cookies or saved browser storage, and reset after 30 minutes of inactivity.

Active time stops while a tab is hidden or after 60 seconds without interaction. Reports contain page categories, public forecast regions and public route names, device categories, browser-width ranges, and totals. We use Cloudflare’s approximate country and region derived from the network connection; VPNs and mobile networks may show a different location. We do not store IP addresses, precise locations, account identifiers, names, emails or private activity details in analytics. Activity is retained for 30 days. The iPhone app, administrator visits, and browsers requesting Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control are excluded.

Private device data

Personal GPX drafts are kept in local storage on your device. During the domain change, signed-in browser settings and drafts may be stored privately in your account so they can be restored on downwindruns.com.

Uploaded activity files

When you choose to add a completed activity to My runs, Downwind Runs privately stores the original GPX, FIT or TCX file, its GPS track and calculated statistics in the account you are signed into. Runs remain private unless you explicitly choose Share with community. Files are not used for advertising or sold to third parties.

A run recorded with native live tracking has no uploaded original file. Downwind Runs stores its accepted GPS track and calculated statistics, and you can export a processed GPX afterward. Heart-rate values from an activity file you upload remain private.

A shared community summary can be viewed by anyone without an account, including through its shared link. A community summary includes your display name, run name, activity date, summary statistics and a simplified, less-precise map line. It does not include your original file, notes, exact activity times, heart-rate data or device details. You can stop sharing at any time without deleting your private saved run.

Shared race events are accessible to signed-in members who join with an invite code. Uploading to an event shares your chosen name, full GPS track and recording times with its members. You can remove your recording or leave the event; the organiser can delete the event and its recordings. Each racer can separately allow their recording in a viewing link, which shares their name, full GPS track and recording times with anyone who has the link, without signing in. Racers can withdraw that choice and organisers can turn the link off. Replacing a recording requires a new choice. Organisers can also upload recordings racers send to them, with permission to share their names, GPS tracks and times. Organisers control sharing and removal of those uploads. Shared post-race summaries include GPS-derived distance, average speed and gaps within the replay window. Health data is not included in shared event recordings.

Gate times is a separate opt-in for completed runs timed between reviewed gates. Its public results share only your community name, route, activity date and gate-to-gate result. You can remove a race result without changing your Community runs sharing choice or deleting the private activity.

You can download the original, export a processed GPX, remove an optional route link, or permanently delete the activity and its stored file from My runs. Obvious invalid or implausible GPS points may be omitted from calculated statistics; the import preview tells you when this occurs.

Native live tracking and precise location

Live tracking is available only in the installed iPhone and Android apps. It starts only after you press Start recording and grant precise location permission. While a recording is active, the native app collects location approximately once per second and may continue in the background when the screen is locked or another app is open. If coverage is poor, unsent points are kept in the phone's protected local storage and uploaded in order after reconnection.

Live tracking starts in Only me mode, so nothing is shared. You can instead choose Private link or Community. A private link lets anyone with its unguessable address follow your travelled route and current position without signing in. You choose whether the live map also displays speed, distance or elapsed time. The moving map itself may still indicate approximate movement, distance and timing. You can revoke the link at any time.

Community mode shows the same live route and only your selected live-map statistics to signed-in Community members. Only one audience mode can be active at a time, and you can change the audience or displayed statistics while recording.

An exact private live route remains available through its follower link for up to 24 hours after you finish, then the link expires. If you choose Share with Community, the run appears under Live now while active and afterward keeps only the existing simplified, less-precise Community summary. The full completed activity remains privately in My runs until you delete it.

An incomplete recording can be recovered for seven days. Temporary live-point batches are deleted after successful conversion or expiry. A live session ends automatically after 12 hours.

Live tracking is not an emergency-location service. Mobile coverage, GPS conditions and battery restrictions can delay updates, so followers are always shown when the latest position was received and must not assume a stale position is current.

Optional route alerts

Alerts are enabled separately for each route. We store your subscribed routes, chosen notice period, pause setting and delivery history with your account. If you grant notification permission on an iPhone, we store its Apple push token and an installation identifier to deliver notifications through Apple Push Notification service. These tokens are not shown to other members or included in public pages.

You can turn route alerts off or pause them in Settings. Saving a route does not enable alerts. Signing out disconnects that installation from your account; delivery also depends on your iPhone notification settings. Forecast alerts are not safety warnings or guarantees of conditions.

Account deletion and blocking

Settings → Account & privacy → Delete my account permanently removes your login, private recordings and uploads, comments, saved preferences and route alerts. Shared activity and live links are disabled. Published public routes and accepted local knowledge remain without your account identity. Backups may retain removed data until their normal retention period expires.

You can report community content and block its author. Blocks are stored with your account and hide community activity between the two members. Manage blocked members in Settings. Reports are available to authorised moderators for review.

Forecasts and local judgement

The app is a planning aid. Forecasts can change and do not replace local knowledge, current observations or your own safety decisions.