Privacy policy

The short version

• Gears reads Apple Health on your iPhone and Apple Watch to fit every run, every plan and every gear to your body. That reading and the coaching happen on your devices.
• Your health data is kept in your Gears account only if you say yes. There it is encrypted with a key unique to you. You can stop at any time in the app, and what we kept is deleted.
• Nothing in a run needs the network. The coach, its voice and the recording all run on your watch or iPhone, with or without a signal.
• You sign in with Apple. We never ask for your name, your email address or a password.
• We never sell your data and never use it for advertising. Gears has no advertising or third-party analytics code in it, and it does not track you across other apps or websites.
• A few named companies help us run Gears, such as our hosting provider and a weather service. Each one is listed below with exactly what it receives.
• If you turn on In your own words, the words you type go to an AI model. That happens only with your separate permission, and you can turn it off at any time.
• You can delete your account from inside the app, and you can ask us for a copy of your data by email.

In this policy

• Who we are
• What we collect and why
• Your health data
• Location
• The coach and your runs
• In your own words: the AI feature
• Diagnostics
• Encryption and security
• Who processes your data
• International transfers
• How long we keep data
• Your choices and rights
• US state privacy rights
• Consumer Health Data Privacy Policy (Washington, Nevada and other states)
• Children
• This website
• Changes to this policy
• Contact

Who we are

Gears, the iPhone and Apple Watch app, and this website, gearsrunning.com, are made and run by Likeflare LLC ("we", "us"). We decide how and why your personal data is used, which makes us the "controller" of it under data protection law.

For anything about your privacy, including a request to see, copy or delete your data, write to privacy@gearsrunning.com. The same address works from anywhere in the world, including the EU and the UK.

This policy covers the Gears app on iPhone and Apple Watch, the Gears account, and this website. It does not cover Apple Health, the App Store or other companies' apps, which have their own policies.

What we collect and why

Here is everything Gears collects, where it comes from, what it's for, where it's kept and for how long. Most of it stays on your iPhone and watch. Anything kept in your account is encrypted, as described under Encryption and security.

Before you sign in, Gears sends us only anonymous counts of which first-launch steps were reached, with no identifier attached, so we can see where the first launch gets in people's way.

Our legal reasons (EU and UK)

Data protection law asks us to name the legal reason for each use. These are ours:

Your health data

Health data is what makes Gears yours: it's how the coach knows your easy pace, how hard today can be, and how carefully to start. Here is exactly what Gears reads from Apple Health, with your permission, and what for.

Gears also writes to Apple Health: each run you record, as a workout with its route, heart rate, distance and active energy, so it counts toward your rings and appears in Fitness.

Read on your devices

Your Health data is read on your iPhone and Apple Watch, and most of what Gears works out from it is worked out there. Your watch and iPhone pass runs and plans to each other directly, over Apple's encrypted link between them. Apple Health itself is Apple's: what's in it stays on your devices, and you manage it in the Health app.

Kept in your account only if you say yes

After you sign in, Gears asks: "Keep your health data in your account?" Nothing from Health is kept in your account unless you tap Keep it in my account. If you choose Not now, the app still works in full from your iPhone. If you say yes, your account keeps:

• a summary of each day: sleep and its stages, heart rate variability, resting heart rate, breathing rate, wrist temperature, steps, exercise minutes, Cardio Fitness, your training and your readiness score
• the readings behind each day, one by one
• each run, second by second: heart rate, pace, power, cadence, running form, height, and its GPS route from start to finish
• your recent workouts from other apps, as training load
• your gears and paces, and your place in your plan
• your weight, year of birth and sex, as Health has them
• your answers on the safety step, which can include a heart condition, heart medicine or pregnancy

We keep these so your runs, scores and plan are there on a new iPhone, and so your scores can be worked out again for you when we improve how they're calculated. That's all we use them for.

Changing your mind

Open You → Settings → Account and turn off Keep health data in my account. Gears asks "Stop keeping health data?", and when you confirm, everything from Health kept in your account is deleted: the daily summaries and the readings behind them, your runs, your weight, age and sex, and your safety answers. What is on your iPhone and in Apple Health stays.

You can also change what Gears may read at any time: in the Health app, tap your picture, then Apps under Privacy, then Gears. Or in iPhone Settings, go to Privacy & Security → Health → Gears.

On your iPhone

Gears doesn't store your data in iCloud. Your iPhone's own backups, to iCloud or a computer, can include some of the files Gears keeps on the phone, such as your training-load days and the shapes of your loops; Apple protects those backups under its own terms. During a run, your Lock Screen and Dynamic Island show your gear, pace, distance and heart rate, and your widgets show today's run, so anyone who can see your screen can see them. You can turn off Live Activities in iPhone Settings.

Location

Gears uses your location in four ways. Only the first is precise.

• During a run, GPS on your watch (or your iPhone, on a run without the watch) measures pace and distance and draws your route. The route is saved to Apple Health, and kept in your account only if you agreed to keep health data. A route is kept whole, so it shows where you started and finished, which may be your home.
• For the weather, before a run, your rough area (your position rounded to about 1 km) is sent to the Norwegian Meteorological Institute (MET Norway) for the day's temperature. This happens only when Weather talk or Adjust for heat is on.
• For hills ahead on roads you've never run, your watch or iPhone may fetch squares of a public height map, each about 2 km across, from Amazon Web Services. This reveals the area you're in, never your exact position. The squares are then kept on your device.
• For map pictures of your routes and loops, the app asks Apple Maps for the map of that area.

We also keep your time zone, so reminders arrive at your run time. You can change location access at any time in iPhone Settings → Privacy & Security → Location Services → Gears.

The coach and your runs

Nothing in a run needs the network. Every line the coach speaks is pre-recorded and chosen by rules on your watch or iPhone, as you run. Nothing is generated during your run, and the coaching never waits on a connection. Your heart rate, pace and route pass between your watch and iPhone over Apple's encrypted link between them, and aren't sent to us while you run. The one thing a run may fetch, if a connection happens to be there, is the public height-map squares described under Location.

When the run ends, it's saved to Apple Health. If you're signed in, your iPhone syncs what's new when it can: the run's summary and grade go to your account only if you agreed to keep health data.

In your own words: the AI feature

With Gears Plus you can describe a run, or a change to your plan, in your own words. Your iPhone reads most of these itself. Only words it can't read go to an AI model, and only if you said yes when asked "Let an AI model read this?".

• What is sent: the words you typed; when you ask to change a run, the run on the card; and today's date. No health readings, no location and nothing that names you.
• How it travels: from your iPhone to our relay, then through OpenRouter to the AI model provider it routes to. The app names the providers when it asks you. The provider sees our relay's address, not yours.
• What the provider may do: the company running the model may keep your words and may use them to improve its models, under its own policy. Once sent, we can't recall them.
• Words about your body: before anything is sent, your iPhone checks your words for ones about pain, illness or warning signs, and keeps those requests on the phone. This check works from a list of words, so it can miss things. Please don't type health details you wouldn't want an AI provider to see.
• What we keep: our relay stores none of your words. Your words and the model's answers are kept in your account, encrypted, so you can see what was asked and answered. To stop overuse, the relay keeps a scrambled daily code of your install number and connection, wiped the next day.
• Turning it off: open You → Settings → AI and tap Turn off and delete. The app stops sending words, and the words kept in your account are deleted. The app keeps working with your iPhone's own, simpler reading.

Diagnostics

While you're signed in, the app sends us diagnostics so we can see when something goes wrong and fix it. They record what the app did: which screens opened, which buttons were tapped, which settings changed (the name of the setting, never its value), when a permission or consent was answered, errors, syncs, and when a run started and ended. Each comes with the app version, your iPhone or watch model, its software version, your language and region setting and the network type. Watch diagnostics travel through your iPhone.

Diagnostics are linked to your account and install number, so we can follow a problem you report. They never hold your heart rate, sleep, pace, distance, route, location or anything you type. We keep them for about 3 months, then they're deleted automatically.

We rely on diagnostics to keep Gears working, so there's no switch to turn them off. You can object to them at any time by writing to us, and we'll weigh your objection and reply within 30 days. Signing out or deleting your account stops new diagnostics being sent.

Gears has no crash-reporting or analytics code from other companies.

Encryption and security

We protect your data the way we'd want ours protected. Here is what that means, plainly.

• In transit: every connection the app and this website make uses HTTPS (TLS), so data is encrypted as it travels.
• At rest, with a key unique to you: everything kept in your account, from your health data and runs to your settings and words, is encrypted on our servers with a key made for you alone. Your key is itself locked by a master key held in our hosting provider's secret store, apart from the database. A copy of the database without that master key reveals none of it.
• Who can read it, and when: our servers unlock your data only to do the work you use Gears for, such as working out your scores and syncing your runs to a new iPhone. That means our systems can read it while they do that work. Access to those systems is limited to the few people who operate Gears, and we look at personal data only to keep the service running, to fix a problem, when you ask us for help, or when the law requires it.
• What sits outside that extra layer: a few things our servers need to sort and schedule, such as your account ID, when each run started, which days have data, your ratings, your reminder time and time zone, the link to your purchase, and your device's push token. They're still protected by our hosting provider's security and access controls.
• On your iPhone: Gears' files are protected by iOS's built-in encryption, and your sign-in keys sit in the iPhone's Keychain, never synced to other devices.
• Little to lose: we don't ask for your name, email address or a password, and we never see your payment details. Apple handles payment.
• No tracking, ever: no advertising code, no third-party analytics, no data sale, no tracking across other companies' apps or websites. Gears never asks to track you, because it doesn't.

No system is perfectly secure. If a breach ever affects your data, we'll tell you and the authorities as the law requires, and say what we're doing about it.

Who processes your data

A few companies help us run Gears. Some are our processors, bound by contract to use your data only for us. Others provide a service under their own terms and privacy policies. Here is each one, and exactly what it receives.

We may also disclose data when the law requires it, for example to answer a valid court order, and then only what's required. If Gears is ever sold or merged, your data would pass to the new owner only under this policy's promises, and we'd tell you first.

International transfers

Gears is used around the world, and our providers operate in the United States and other countries. When data from the EU, the European Economic Area, the UK or Switzerland goes to a country without an equivalent level of protection, we protect it with the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses (with the UK's addendum for UK data), or with the EU-US Data Privacy Framework and its UK extension where the provider is certified. MET Norway is in the European Economic Area. To get a copy of these safeguards, write to us.

How long we keep data

Your choices and rights

Your data is yours. Much of what follows you can do yourself, right now, in the app:

When you delete your account, Gears tells Apple to disconnect it from your Apple Account, and deletes your account from our database at once: your settings, streak, runs, health data, words, ratings, reminders and purchase link. What survives, and for how long: diagnostics (about 3 months), our servers' technical logs (a few days), our database's recovery history (up to 30 days), and anything an AI provider already received. What is in Apple Health, and Gears' files on your iPhone, stay on your devices until you remove them. Deleting your account doesn't cancel a Gears Plus subscription: cancel it in your Apple Account.

Your rights under data protection law

Wherever you live, you can ask us to do any of these. Under the EU and UK GDPR they're your legal rights:

• Withdraw consent at any time, for anything we do with your consent. It doesn't affect what we did before.
• Access: get a copy of your data and know how it's used.
• Rectification: have wrong data corrected. Most of your data comes from Apple Health, so a correction there is read again; you can answer the safety step again in the app.
• Erasure: have your data deleted.
• Restriction: have us pause using your data while a concern is sorted out.
• Portability: get your data in a common, machine-readable format, to keep or take elsewhere.
• Objection: object to what we do on the basis of our legitimate interests, such as diagnostics.

How to ask: use the app for anything listed above, or write to privacy@gearsrunning.com. To ask for a copy of your data, email us and we'll send it to you within 30 days. We'll ask only for what we need to be sure the account is yours. We answer every request within 30 days, free of charge; if a request is unusually complex we'll tell you within those 30 days and may take up to two months more.

Automatic decisions: Gears makes automatic choices about your training: your gears, today's gear, your plan and your grade. They shape your training only, with no legal or similarly significant effect on you, and you can always change, override or ignore them.

Complaints: if you're unhappy with how we've handled your data, please tell us first so we can put it right. You also have the right to complain to a data protection authority: in the EU, the one where you live or work (find yours); in the UK, the Information Commissioner's Office.

US state privacy rights

If you live in California, or another US state with a privacy law (such as Colorado, Connecticut, Oregon, Texas, Virginia or Washington), this section is for you. It's also our notice at collection under California law.

We collect this from you, your devices, Apple Health and Apple. How long we keep each kind is in How long we keep data. We don't sell your personal information, and we don't disclose it for cross-context behavioral advertising (what California law calls "sharing"). We have never done either. We use sensitive personal information only to provide the service you asked for, as the law allows, so there is nothing to limit.

Your rights: to know what we collect and how we use and disclose it; to get a copy in a portable format; to have it deleted; to have it corrected; and not to be treated differently for using any of these rights. We'll never charge you more, or give you less, for asking. To use them, write to privacy@gearsrunning.com; you can also ask someone to act for you as your authorized agent, and we'll check that they're allowed to. We'll answer within 30 days. If we turn down a request, you can appeal by replying to our answer with "Appeal", and we'll respond within 45 days. If you're still unhappy, you can contact your state's attorney general.

Consumer Health Data Privacy Policy

This section is our Consumer Health Data Privacy Policy under Washington's My Health My Data Act, Nevada's consumer health data law (SB 370) and similar state laws. "Consumer health data" means personal information that identifies your past, present or future physical health.

• What we collect: the Apple Health readings and safety answers described under Your health data; your runs and their routes; your gears, readiness, training load and grades; and any health details you type into In your own words.
• Why we collect it, and how we use it: only to provide the coaching you asked for: to set your gears, coach your runs, score your readiness, build and adapt your plan, grade your runs and keep them in sync across your devices.
• Where it comes from: Apple Health on your devices, your watch's and iPhone's sensors, and you.
• Who we disclose it to: our processors, who handle it only for us: Cloudflare, which hosts your account. With your separate consent, the words you type for In your own words go to OpenRouter and the AI model provider it routes to; health words are filtered out on your iPhone first, though the filter can miss some. We have no affiliates that receive it.
• Consent: we keep your consumer health data in your account only with your consent, and send your words to an AI provider only with your separate consent. We never sell consumer health data.
• Your rights: to confirm whether we collect or disclose your consumer health data; to access it, with a list of every third party and affiliate we've disclosed it to and how to contact them; to withdraw consent; and to have it deleted, by us and by our processors. We don't use location to set up a geofence around any health care service.

To use these rights, use the controls in Your choices and rights or write to privacy@gearsrunning.com. We'll answer within 30 days. If we turn down your request, reply with "Appeal" and we'll respond within 45 days; if you're still unhappy, you can contact the Washington State Attorney General or the Nevada Attorney General.

Children

Gears is not for children. You must be 16 or older to use it. We don't knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 16. If you believe a child has given us data, write to privacy@gearsrunning.com and we'll delete it.

This website

gearsrunning.com sets no cookies and uses no analytics, no tracking pixels and no advertising. Its fonts are served from the site itself. Cloudflare hosts it; like any web host, its network handles your IP address to deliver each page and protect the site from abuse.

• Early access: if you join the list, we keep your email address, where on the site you joined and whether you run with an Apple Watch. We use them only to email you when Gears is ready. We keep them until you unsubscribe, or 12 months after Gears launches. Our legal reason is your consent, which you withdraw by unsubscribing or writing to us.
• Support form: we keep your name, email address, topic and message, and the device and app version if you give them, to answer you. A copy reaches us by email. We keep requests for 24 months. Our legal reason is answering what you asked.
• Stopping abuse: to stop floods of messages, each form keeps a short-lived scrambled code made from your connection's address, never the address itself, deleted soon after.

If you email us directly, we keep your message and our reply for 24 months, then delete them.

Changes to this policy

When Gears changes, this policy will too. The date at the bottom shows the last change. If we make a change that matters to you, we'll tell you in the app or on this site before it takes effect. If we ever want to use your data in a new way, we'll ask you first.

Contact

Likeflare LLC, the maker of Gears. Email privacy@gearsrunning.com for anything about your privacy. For help with the app, see Support.