BeatWatch Privacy Policy
1. Who we are
BeatWatch ("BeatWatch", "we", "us") is operated by Stephen Lucas, an individual doing business as BeatWatch, 151 Calle San Francisco, Suite 200, San Juan, PR 00901.
Contact: privacy@beatwatch.app
If we transfer the app and this service to a company we form (see §14), that company becomes the operator named above and this policy continues to apply to your information.
2. The short version
BeatWatch helps a group of friends — a "crew" — stay connected at a festival or event. To do that it handles some genuinely sensitive information: where you are, your heart rate, and what you say to your crew.
- Everything we collect is linked to your account.
- We do not track you. No advertising identifiers, no cross-app or cross-site tracking, no ad networks, no data brokers.
- We do not sell or share your personal information for advertising or for anyone else's marketing.
- There is no analytics SDK, no crash-reporting SDK and no attribution SDK in the app. We do not collect usage analytics, crash logs or performance telemetry.
- Your data is scoped to your crew, not to the public. Your location is visible to the crew you shared it with. Your heart rate is visible only to one person you explicitly accepted.
- You can delete your account from inside the app, and it really deletes.
3. What we collect, why, and who can see it
| What | Why we have it | Who can see it |
|---|---|---|
| Email address | To create and sign in to your account | You and us |
| Display name | So your crew knows who you are | Your crew members |
| Profile photo (optional) | Your avatar in crew lists and chats | Your crew members |
| Precise location | To show your crew where you are on the Friend Compass | Members of the crew you shared it with |
| Heart rate | To show your live pulse and, if you accept a partner, whether your hearts are in sync | You, and one crew member whose pairing you accepted |
| Message content | To deliver your messages to your crew | Members of that conversation |
| Photos you upload | Event maps and schedule images you add to a crew | Members of that crew (see §6 for schedule images) |
| Other content you write | Activity notes, check-ins, BRB posts and custom button labels | Members of that crew |
| User ID | The internal identifier that ties your data to your account | Us |
| Device ID (push token) | To send you notifications (e.g. a crew member's SOS) | Us and our push provider (§7) |
Legal bases (EEA/UK users): we process this information to perform our contract with you (providing the app's features), on the basis of your consent where the device asks for it (location, Apple Health, notifications, photo library), and for our legitimate interests in keeping the service secure and working.
4. Health data — how we treat it
BeatWatch reads heart rate from Apple Health (HealthKit), including from a paired Apple Watch. If you use the BeatWatch watch app, it reads your heart rate directly on the watch.
Specific commitments, which mirror Apple's requirements for apps that use HealthKit:
- We use health data only to provide the app's features you can see: your live pulse, and the heart-sync feature with a partner you accepted.
- We never use health data for advertising or marketing, and never for data mining.
- We never sell health data and never share it with data brokers.
- We do not store health data in iCloud.
- Heart rate is shared with exactly one other person, and only if you both agree. A heart pairing requires an explicit request and an explicit acceptance, and the database enforces that rule — it is not just a setting in the interface.
- Other health metrics stay on your device. The app can display heart-rate variability, blood oxygen and body temperature from Apple Health. Those are read on your device and shown to you only — they are never transmitted to us or to anyone else. Only heart rate leaves the device.
- BeatWatch is a wellness app. It does not diagnose, treat or monitor any medical condition, and it makes no medical claims. See the Terms of Service for the full disclaimer.
You can revoke BeatWatch's access to Apple Health at any time in iOS Settings → Privacy & Security → Health, or in the Health app under Sharing.
5. Location — how we treat it
- BeatWatch requests "While Using the App" location permission only. It does not request or use background location, and it does not track you when the app is closed.
- Your position is written to the crew you have open, and is visible to that crew's members only.
- We keep the latest position per person per crew, so the Friend Compass can point at them. It is not a location history product, but the latest position persists until it is replaced or your account is deleted.
- If you raise an SOS, your location may be attached to that alert so your crew can reach you.
- You can revoke location access at any time in iOS Settings → Privacy & Security → Location Services. The app degrades to a bearing-only or unavailable state rather than breaking.
6. Messages, photos and other content
- Messages you send are stored so they can be delivered and shown in the conversation. They are visible to the members of that conversation. We do not read your messages except where we must to investigate abuse, protect someone's safety, or comply with law.
- Event map images you upload are stored and shown to that crew. ⚠️ The event-map storage bucket is public, which means anyone who has the exact link to an image can open it without signing in. Please do not upload anything private as an event map.
- Schedule images. If you use the schedule-extraction feature, the image you choose is sent to Anthropic (see §7) so the text of the schedule can be read out of it. Choose a photo of a schedule, not a photo containing personal information you would not want processed.
- Activity notes, check-ins, BRB posts and custom labels are stored and shown to your crew.
7. Service providers we share data with
We use a small number of providers to run the service. None of them is an advertiser, an analytics vendor or a data broker.
| Provider | What it receives | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Supabase (hosted on AWS, US East region) | Everything in §3 — it is our database, authentication, file storage and server functions | It is where the app's data lives |
| Expo (push service) | Your device push token and the contents of notifications we send you — which can include a crew member's display name and crew name (e.g. "Alex needs help") | To deliver push notifications |
| Apple (APNs) | The same notification payload, as the operator of iOS push delivery | To deliver push notifications to your device |
| Anthropic | Only a schedule image you explicitly choose to upload for extraction (§6) | To read the text of a festival schedule out of the picture |
| 2CB | Only the text of a question you type into the in-app information feature | To answer that question |
We may also disclose information if we are legally required to, or where we believe in good faith it is necessary to protect someone's safety.
8. What we do not do
Stated plainly, because these are the questions people actually have:
- We do not use any advertising or attribution SDK.
- We do not use any analytics or crash-reporting SDK. We do not collect crash data, performance data or usage telemetry.
- We do not track you across other apps or websites, and we do not ask for the App Tracking Transparency permission because we have nothing to track you with.
- We do not sell your personal information, and we do not "share" it for cross-context behavioural advertising as those terms are defined under California law.
- We do not use your health data, location or messages to build a profile about you.
9. Deleting your account
You can delete your account from inside the app: Settings (the gear on the home screen) → Delete Account. You will be asked to type the word DELETE to confirm, because it cannot be undone.
What is permanently deleted:
- your account and login — you will not be able to sign in again;
- your profile, display name and profile photo;
- your location history;
- your heart-rate history and any heart pairings;
- your activity posts, check-ins, BRB posts, reminders and wellness logs;
- your device push tokens.
Two consequences that affect other people, stated plainly because they are easy to miss:
- ⚠️ Your messages are removed from crew threads. Messages you sent are deleted from group chats, direct messages and activity threads. Other members of those conversations will see your messages disappear. We cannot delete your messages from a conversation without changing what the other participants see.
- ⭐ Crews you created are NOT deleted. If you set up an event, it keeps running for everyone still in it — they keep the crew, the chat and the schedule. Your name is simply removed as its creator. We designed it this way deliberately: one person leaving must not destroy an event other people are still using.
Timing. Deletion happens immediately when you confirm. Copies may persist for a short period in routine encrypted backups before being overwritten, and we may retain the minimum records required by law.
You can also just log out if you want to stop using the app without deleting anything.
10. How long we keep things
- Account data — until you delete your account.
- Location — the latest position per crew, replaced as you move, deleted with your account.
- Heart rate — samples are retained to power the sync feature and deleted with your account.
- Messages and crew content — for as long as the crew exists, subject to §9.
- Backups — routine encrypted backups on a short rolling window.
11. Security
Access to your data is enforced in the database itself, not only in the app. Row-level security rules mean, for example, that heart-rate rows can only ever be read by their owner and an accepted partner, and that crew content can only be read by that crew's active members. Data is encrypted in transit. No system is perfectly secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.
12. Your rights
Everyone. You can access, correct, export or delete your information. Account deletion is available in the app (§9); for anything else, contact us at privacy@beatwatch.app.
EEA / UK. You have rights of access, rectification, erasure, restriction, objection and data portability, and the right to complain to your local supervisory authority. Where we rely on consent, you may withdraw it at any time.
California. You have the right to know what personal information we collect and how we use it, to request deletion and correction, and to not be discriminated against for exercising those rights. We do not sell or share personal information as those terms are defined by the CCPA/CPRA. We do collect information that is "sensitive personal information" — precise geolocation and health data — and we use it only to provide the features you asked for, which does not trigger a right to limit its use.
13. Children
BeatWatch is an 18+ service. You must be at least 18 years old to use it. It is not directed to children and we do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 18.
We set the floor at 18 rather than at the US legal minimum of 13 for two reasons: most of the festivals and events BeatWatch serves are themselves 18+, and an 18+ product means we do not collect health data or precise location from minors at all.
If you believe someone under 18 has created an account, contact us at privacy@beatwatch.app and we will delete it.
14. International transfers, and changes of ownership
Our infrastructure is hosted in the United States. If you use BeatWatch from outside the US, your information is transferred to and processed in the US.
Change of ownership. BeatWatch is currently operated by an individual and we intend to transfer it to a company being formed in Puerto Rico. If that happens — or in any merger, acquisition or sale of assets — your information will transfer with the service, and the new operator will be bound by this policy until it gives you notice of any change.
15. Changes to this policy
If we make a material change we will update the "Last updated" date and, where the change is significant, tell you in the app. Continuing to use BeatWatch after a change means you accept it.
16. Contact
privacy@beatwatch.app · 151 Calle San Francisco, Suite 200, San Juan, PR 00901