Relay Tracker — Privacy Policy

Last updated: 3 August 2026

Relay Tracker ("the app") is a relay-race pacing and van-exchange timing tool. Its main feature is live team tracking: the two vans in a relay — and any fans following along — can see the team's progress in real time over the internet. The app also works fully offline, and you can choose to use it entirely on your own device with nothing shared. This policy explains what is stored, what is shared, and what is not. There are no ads, no advertising identifiers, and no usage-analytics or tracking.

The two ways to use Relay Tracker

• On your own (offline). If you don't create or join a team, everything you enter stays on your device and nothing leaves your phone.
• In a team (live cloud sync). If you create or join a team, your team's race data is synced through the cloud so teammates and fans stay up to date. Cloud sync is on by default for a team, and you can switch it off at any time (see below).

Data stored on your device

Everything you enter — runner names, baseline 10k times, leg assignments, and recorded split times — is stored on your device in a local database, and the app can run fully offline during your race.

Cloud team sync

When you create or join a team, Relay Tracker stores that team's race data in Google Firebase (Cloud Firestore) so it can be shared live. When cloud sync is active:

• What is stored: your team's name, the race/course, runner names and baseline times, leg assignments, split times, and the official start time — plus random technical identifiers used to keep the data in sync (a per-install device id, a session id, and an anonymous sign-in id). By default your device is identified only by an anonymous ID — no email, phone number, or password. You may optionally sign in to a personal account (see "Optional account" below); if you do, your email and display name from that provider are stored with your identity.
• Who can see it — please read: a team is publicly discoverable by its name. Anyone using Relay Tracker can search for your team's name and watch its progress — including runner names and times — read-only, without any code. This is intentional, so friends and family can follow along. Because of this, avoid putting sensitive information in runner names; first names or initials are a good choice.
• Who can change it: only people who join with your team's invite code can log or edit times. Spectators cannot change anything. Keep your invite code within your team.
• Encryption: data is transmitted encrypted (HTTPS/TLS).
• Turning it off: in Settings you can switch live cloud sync off — you stay in the team but sync only device-to-device (QR / Nearby). Or you can leave the team entirely, which stops sync and removes your membership.
• Deletion: to have a team's cloud data deleted, email us the team name (or invite code) and we will remove it. If you have an account, you can also delete everything yourself in-app (see "Optional account"). A team's captain can delete the whole team from the app: it is hidden immediately and the shared team record — the roster, the event log, and everything teammates and spectators can see — is permanently deleted for everyone after 30 days (the captain can restore it within that window). Each member's personal race history — their own legs, times, and the team's name, stored in their own account — is theirs and is not deleted by the captain; see "Optional account" below.

If you never create or join a team, none of this happens and no data leaves your phone.

Optional account (sign-in)

You can use Relay Tracker with no account at all — that is the default, and the offline core works exactly the same either way. Signing in is entirely optional. It does two things: it makes your teams recoverable — so you don't lose a team you created if you lose or replace your phone — and it keeps your race history: a personal, private record of the races you've run, which legs were yours, and your times, year over year.

• Providers: you may sign in with Google, Apple, or an email and password. When you do, the app stores your email address and display name from that provider, linked to your existing identity. No password is ever stored by us (the provider handles sign-in).
• Race history: when a race you ran with a team finishes, the app saves a record to your account: the race and year, the team's name, which legs you ran, your times, and the team's total. It is visible only to you, it is saved only when you've marked which runner you are ("That's me" on the roster), and you can delete any entry — or all of it — in the app at any time. Races planned without a team are never uploaded, as promised above.
• What it's used for: account management, restoring your teams, and showing you your own race history. It is not used for advertising, analytics, or tracking, and is not shared with third parties for their own purposes.
• Deleting your account: in Settings you can delete your account and all its data at any time. This removes your sign-in, deletes your race history, deletes any teams you created (including their shared race data, for everyone on them), and removes you from teams you had joined. Deletion is permanent.

Helping improve predictions (off unless you ask)

Relay Tracker predicts each leg from the 10k time a runner enters, adjusted for the terrain, the weather and how far into the race they are. Those adjustments were worked out from historical results for one course. To make them better — and to support courses we have no historical data for at all — the app can send the results of a finished race so the model can be improved.

This is off unless someone turns it on. It is offered as an unticked box when a team is created or joined, and it can be switched off again in Settings at any time before the race finishes. Nothing is sent during a race. If you never turn it on, nothing is ever sent.

• What is sent — one row per completed leg: which race and course version, the leg number, whether it was that runner's 1st/2nd/3rd leg, the 10k time they entered, the time they actually ran, the temperature and humidity, how far into the race it was, whether it was a night leg, and how far that runner had already run.
• What is not sent — no names. No team name or team ID. No account. No device or install ID. No dates, clock times or location. A row contains nothing that identifies you, your team, or your phone.
• It cannot be traced back, which cuts both ways. Because a row carries no identifier at all, we cannot tell which team it came from — and neither can anyone else. That also means deleting your account cannot reach these rows, because there is nothing in them to match to you. This is why nothing personal is put in them in the first place.
• Only the team captain's device sends, and only once per race, so a team is counted once rather than once per phone.
• Legs that would mislead the model are left out — an estimated time rather than a measured one, a time outside what anyone runs, or a race that passed an official course cutoff.
• It is used only to improve the app's pace predictions. It is not used for advertising, is not sold, and is not shared with third parties for their own purposes.

Other internet use (pre-race, optional)

• Downloading race data. When you pick a race, the app may download that race's public course file (distances, elevation, exchange locations) from our public website. These requests contain the course information only — never anything about you.
• Weather forecasts. The app can fetch hourly forecasts for the course from Open-Meteo, a free public weather service. These requests contain the course's coordinates only.

Location (optional, while-in-use only)

If you use "Nearby" van-to-van sync to trade splits directly with the other van's phone, Android requires location access only while the app is open so its Nearby Connections service can discover the nearby device over Bluetooth/Wi-Fi. The app itself never reads, stores, or transmits your coordinates — location is not part of cloud sync, and there is no background location collection. If you don't use Nearby sync, the app never uses your location.

Camera (optional)

The app requests camera access for a single purpose: to scan a QR code — a teammate's transfer code or a team invite. The camera is used only on that screen. No photos or video are stored, saved, or transmitted.

Device-to-device sharing (QR, file, and Nearby)

You can share your team's data directly to a teammate by QR code, by a file you send via the system share sheet, or over Bluetooth / Wi-Fi "Nearby" when both phones are together. These transfers are initiated by you and go directly to the other device — they do not pass through any server.

Notifications

If you enable alerts, the app schedules notifications (exchange-approach reminders and a wake alarm) on your device. Nothing about them is sent anywhere.

What we do NOT do

• No advertising or ad identifiers.
• No usage analytics or behavioral tracking. We do not record what screens you open, what you tap, how long you use the app, or anything else about how you use it. The optional contribution described under "Helping improve predictions" is not analytics: it is race results, carries no identifier, is off unless you turn it on, and is used for nothing but the pace model.
• No selling of your data, ever.
• No sharing of your data with third parties for their own purposes. (Google Firebase, used for cloud sync, acts as our storage provider and processes the data on our behalf — it is not sold or shared for others' use.)
• No background location collection.
• No account is required to use the app. An optional sign-in (Google, Apple, or email) is available and can be deleted in-app — see "Optional account". We never store your password or collect a phone number.

Children

Relay Tracker is a general-audience sports tool and is not directed at children under 13.

Changes

If this policy changes, the updated version will be posted on this page with a new date.

Contact

Questions or a deletion request? Email scagladjack@gmail.com, or see the support page.