Foilborne privacy policy
Effective 20 October 2026.
Foilborne is an iPhone and Apple Watch app that records hydrofoil sessions and analyses them. It is made by Jason Bird (JB69). This page says what the app does with your data. The short version: your sessions stay on your iPhone and Apple Watch. There is no account, no server of ours, no analytics and no advertising. A few lookups go to weather, tide and map services, and anything else leaves your devices only when you share it yourself.
What stays on your devices
- Your sessions: the GPS track, speed, heights and motion the watch records, the readings from your eFoil’s speed controller if you connect one, and the notes, titles and gear you add. They are kept in the app on your watch until sent to your iPhone, and in the app on your iPhone. They are not uploaded anywhere by the app. Your device’s own backup (iCloud Backup or a computer) may include them, as it does for any app.
- Apple Health: with your permission the watch saves each session as a workout in Apple Health, with its route, heart rate, energy and water temperature, and reads your heart rate and energy during the session. Health data is used only to show you your sessions. It is never used for advertising, never sold, and never stored in iCloud by the app.
- Location: the watch uses your location while you record a session, to measure where you went and how fast. The iPhone uses it, while you look at the tide page, to find the tide near you. The app does not track your location in the background between sessions.
- Bluetooth and motion: the watch connects to your eFoil’s speed controller over Bluetooth when you turn that on, and uses the watch’s motion, water and pressure sensors during a session. These readings stay in the session.
What leaves your devices for a lookup
To show the wind, weather and tide, the app sends a place and a time, and nothing else, to these services:
- Apple Weather (WeatherKit): a session’s starting place and time, for the wind and weather during your ride. You can turn this off in the app’s settings (Wind and weather). Apple’s privacy policy applies: https://www.apple.com/legal/privacy/.
- Open-Meteo: a session’s place, rounded to about 11 metres, and its dates, for the tide and current during your ride. https://open-meteo.com/en/terms
- TidesAtlas: only where no tide station is close enough to predict the tide on the device, the place for the tide page, rounded to about 11 metres. https://tidesatlas.com
- Apple Maps: what you type in the tide page’s place search, or the position of a pin you drop, to find the place’s name. Apple’s privacy policy applies.
These services receive the request with your device’s internet address, as any web request does. They do not receive your name, an account or any identifier from the app.
What you can choose to share with us
Nothing reaches the developer unless you send it yourself:
- Help improve Foilborne (off unless you turn it on): the watch records extra detail in your sessions, and Share research sessions puts them in a file you send through the share sheet (AirDrop, Mail, Files). These files contain the sessions’ tracks, motion, heart rate and energy, and a random contributor ID (like FB-1234-5678) that is made when you turn sharing on and does not include your name. We use them only to improve how the app detects and measures rides. Turning it on or off changes nothing about what the app unlocks.
- Share diagnostics: a file of the app’s own logs and Apple’s crash and performance reports, which you can send with a support question.
- Exporting a session (GPX, CSV or the session’s files) goes wherever you send it. That is between you and whoever receives it.
What you send us is kept only as long as it is useful for those purposes, is not sold or given to anyone else, and is deleted on request (give your contributor ID if you shared research sessions).
Purchases
Purchases are made through Apple’s App Store. The app learns from Apple which modules you own, so it can unlock them, and sends nothing about them anywhere. We never see your payment details.
Children
The app is not aimed at children and collects no personal information from anyone.
If this policy changes, this page will show the new version and its date.
Questions or requests: email foilborne.app@gmail.com, or open an issue at https://github.com/jb69/Foil-Design-Tool/issues.