Privacy · PathForce

The short version

There’s no account. Nothing you do in PathForce is kept under a name, email or ID. There’s nothing to sign in to.
No analytics, ads or tracking. Nothing counts what you tap and nothing follows you anywhere else. We never sell data. The only outside code in the app is the engine that draws the map.
Your location is used on your phone. It leaves only as the points of a route you ask for, as the part of the map on your screen, and, when you search, as roughly where you’re looking.
Your stuff stays on your phone. Home, places, saved routes, rides and ride recordings live in the app’s own folder, and go when you delete the app.
We only hold what you send us. A feedback email you choose to send, and what Apple’s TestFlight shares with us while you’re testing the beta.

At a glance

Two lists. That’s the whole app.

Everything PathForce knows about you is on the left, on your phone. Everything it sends is on the right, with where it goes.

Stays on your phone

Kept in the app’s own folder

Never sent to us. Deleting the app deletes all of it.

Home addressSo it comes first when you search. Clear home removes it.
Recent placesThe last ten places you searched for or routed to. One found by HERE goes after 30 days.
Bike, elevation preference and fitnessYour answers to the rider questions, kept as settings.
Saved routes and recent ridesEvery route you save, and a line for every ride you start.
How far you gotA ride’s progress, so you can resume it. Expires on its own.
The plan you were makingComes back if the app closes. Goes when you save, discard or ride it.
What your rides have taught itHow long your rides really take, per bike. Reset under Rider forgets it.
Ride recordingsWhere you went, what was said and what the map did. Kept until you delete them; left out of iCloud backup.

Leaves your phone

Sent only to do the job you asked for

No name, no account and no device identifier goes with any of it.

A route requestStart, vias, destination, bike and elevation preference
PathForce relayon Cloudflare, then openrouteservice in Germany
The mapThe part of the map on your screen
MapTilerSwitzerland
A place searchWhat you type, and roughly where you’re looking
MapTilerSwitzerland
A place the search can’t findWhat you typed, and roughly where you’re looking
PathForce relaythen HERE in the Netherlands
A pasted address it can’t findThe address, and roughly where you’re looking
PathForce relaythen HERE, or Geoapify in Germany
Naming a pinA dropped pin’s position
MapTilerGeocoder
Checking for newsA plain request, nothing attached
pathforce.appThis website
Feedback, if you send itYour email, your message, a ride recording if you attach one
Us, by emailOnly if you press send
A shared route, if you share itThe line, its vias and the two ends’ names
Whoever you pickNever to us

Spoken directions are made on your phone by iOS. Dashed boxes only happen when you choose them.

In full

Who gets what, and how long it’s kept.

What	Why	Where it goes	How long it’s kept
A route request	To work out the route, its elevation and what each stretch is made of. Sent each time a route or a reroute is worked out.	Our relay, a small program on Cloudflare that adds our routing key and passes the request to openrouteservice (HeiGIT gGmbH, Heidelberg, Germany). It doesn’t pass on your network address, so openrouteservice sees the relay, not you.	The relay keeps no copy of your route and logs nothing per request. Like any web host, Cloudflare keeps the usual connection details. HeiGIT: see their privacy policy.
Map tiles	To draw the map. While the map follows you, the part on screen is the part you’re in.	MapTiler AG (Switzerland), which sees your network address like any website would.	Governed by MapTiler’s privacy policy. We don’t receive it.
Place search	To find places. What you type, and roughly where you’re looking.	MapTiler’s geocoding, the same company that draws the map.	Governed by MapTiler’s privacy policy. We don’t receive it.
A place the search can’t find	To find the place, when none of the map’s own results carries the words you typed.	Our relay, which passes what you typed, and roughly where you’re looking, to HERE (HERE Global B.V., the Netherlands). The relay keeps no copy and only counts the month’s requests.	Governed by HERE’s privacy policy. We don’t receive it. A place HERE found stays in your recent places for at most 30 days, and if your Home address came from HERE, the app asks HERE for it again once a month, so it never keeps HERE’s answer longer than their terms allow.
A pasted address the search can’t find	To find a point for a street address you pasted.	Our relay, which passes the address, and roughly where you’re looking, to HERE, or to Geoapify (Geoapify GmbH, Germany) when HERE is unavailable. The relay keeps no copy.	Governed by HERE’s or Geoapify’s privacy policy. We don’t receive it.
Naming a pin	To label a pin with a street or place name.	MapTiler’s geocoder.	Governed by MapTiler. We don’t receive it.
Checking for news	To fetch notes and notices about the app, at most every 15 minutes while it’s open.	pathforce.app, this website, hosted on Cloudflare. The request carries no name, account or device identifier, only your network address, as every web request does.	We keep no logs of it. Cloudflare keeps its own operational logs.
Feedback	To answer you and fix problems.	You send it to us from your own email app. Nothing is sent until you press send.	Emails up to 12 months; ride recordings deleted within 90 days. Sooner if you ask.
A shared route	Only when you share one.	Whoever you send it to, by AirDrop, Messages, email or any app you pick. It carries nothing about where you’ve actually been.	Not sent to us.

Location

PathForce asks for your location while you’re using the app. It never asks for “Always”.
It leaves your phone only three ways: as the points a route request needs; while the map is following you, as the part of the map MapTiler is asked for, which is the part you’re in; and when you search, as the middle of the map on your screen, which while the map follows you is near where you are.
During a ride, location keeps working with the screen locked so guidance carries on. iOS shows its own indicator the whole time, and background location switches off when the ride ends.
You can turn it off any time in Settings › Privacy & Security › Location Services › PathForce. Without it the app can still plan and show routes, but can’t guide you along one.

The lock screen and the voice

While you ride, the next turn and how far away it is are shown on the lock screen, so you can check without unlocking. Anyone looking at your phone can see it. Turn it off in Settings › PathForce › Live Activities.

Directions are spoken with the phone locked and in your pocket. While one is being said, music is turned down and a podcast is paused, then carries on where it was.

Ride recordings

Each ride is recorded on your phone: where you went, what was said and what the map did. It’s how we find and fix navigation problems, but only if you send one to us. Recordings stay on your phone until you delete them (Settings › Rides › Delete ride recordings), are left out of iCloud backup, and you can switch recording off under Settings › Rides.

A recording is a precise trace of where you rode and can show where you live. One leaves your phone only when you attach it to feedback yourself. We never publish, demonstrate or share a recording without your written permission.

Feedback and your email

The feedback button writes an email in your own mail app. We use what you send only to reply and to fix the app. We won’t add you to a list or email you about anything else unless you ask.

The beta and TestFlight

The beta is delivered through Apple’s TestFlight. Joining, installing and sending feedback through TestFlight are handled by Apple, and Apple explains in the TestFlight app what it shares with developers before you install. That can include crash reports, basic usage such as installs and sessions, and any feedback or screenshots you send from TestFlight. We use it only to make the app work better.

This website

pathforce.app is a plain website hosted on Cloudflare. It has no analytics and sets no cookies of its own, and its fonts and images are served from this site, so visiting it doesn’t tell Google, Facebook or anyone else. Cloudflare may set a strictly necessary security cookie to protect the site from abuse. The beta buttons take you to Apple’s TestFlight site, which is covered by Apple’s privacy policy. Because there’s nothing to opt out of, we treat Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control signals as already honoured.

Children

PathForce is a general-audience app. It isn’t directed at children and we don’t knowingly collect information from anyone under 13. If we learn a feedback email came from a child under 13, we’ll delete it.

Where in the world it goes

Route requests reach Germany (openrouteservice) through Cloudflare’s global network. Map tiles, search and pin names come from MapTiler in Switzerland. A place the search can’t find goes through our relay to HERE in the Netherlands, and a pasted address it can’t find to HERE, or to Geoapify in Germany. Feedback reaches us in Australia. We don’t send personal information anywhere else, and if that changes we’ll update this page first.

Your rights

You can ask what personal information we hold about you, and ask us to correct it, delete it, or send you a copy. Because we only hold what you’ve emailed us (and what TestFlight shares during the beta), most requests come down to finding and deleting your emails. Write to hello@pathforce.app; we’ll reply within 30 days and won’t charge you. We don’t make automated decisions about you.

We follow the Australian Privacy Principles. If you’re not happy with our answer, you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (oaic.gov.au), New Zealand’s Office of the Privacy Commissioner (privacy.org.nz) or the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ico.org.uk), wherever you live. We don’t sell or share personal information, including precise location, and we don’t use it for advertising or profiling.

Security

Everything the app sends is encrypted in transit (HTTPS). Ride recordings on your phone are protected by iOS’s own file protection. Our feedback mailbox uses multi-factor authentication. If personal information we hold is ever lost or accessed in a way likely to cause you harm, we’ll tell you and the relevant regulator as soon as we can.

Changes

We’ll update this page whenever the app changes what it does with information, a service it relies on changes, or the law does. The date at the top moves with every change. A material change is also announced in the app’s news notices, and where it changes what the app sends, the app asks you to agree again before you next plan a ride.

Questions?

PathForce is made in Bondi, Sydney, Australia. Email us at hello@pathforce.app.