Privacy Policy

Last updated: July 31, 2026

The short version: the OpenWater app collects no data. There is no account, no analytics, no crash reporter and no advertising identifier. Your GPS tracks, heart rate and sessions never leave your device unless you explicitly export or share them.

Data the app collects

None. OpenWater has no server, requires no account, and includes no analytics or tracking SDK of any kind. The only network traffic the app generates is Apple Maps loading map tiles, which is handled by Apple's own framework and is not data we collect or can see.

How the app uses device permissions

OpenWater asks for permissions solely to record your sessions, and everything it records stays on your device:

Location — records your GPS track while a session is recording, so the app can measure your speed, distance and runs. Recording starts only when you press Record. Background location is used because sessions run for hours with your phone in a pocket and the screen off. Location data is never transmitted anywhere.
Motion sensors — used to tell when you are flying on the foil, to count pumps, and to detect jumps.
Health (Apple Watch) — reads your heart rate during a session so your effort appears alongside your speed, and saves each finished session to Health as a workout with its route. Declining Health permission does not prevent recording.

Sharing and export

Export and sharing are user-initiated, every time. When you share a track, OpenWater trims the start and end by default, because those usually reveal where you parked or where you live. Nothing is shared automatically.

Open source

Every claim on this page is checkable: the complete source code, including every analysis algorithm, is public at github.com/laanlabs/openwater.

Spot Guide submissions

If you submit a spot or a correction to the Foil Spot Guide, we store what you send — the spot details, any links, an optional photo, and your email address if you choose to give one. Submissions are reviewed by a human before anything appears in the guide. Your email is used only to follow up about your submission and is never published; uploaded photos are published only if accepted, under the CC BY 4.0 license you grant when uploading.

This website

This website (openwaterapp.com) uses Google Firebase Analytics to understand aggregate visitor traffic — pages viewed, approximate region, and device type. This applies to the website only, not the app. See Google's privacy policy for how Google processes this data.

Children

OpenWater does not collect personal information from anyone, including children.

Changes to this policy

If the app ever adds a feature that involves collecting data (for example, an optional sync service), this policy will be updated before that version ships, and the change will be visible in the open-source repository.

Contact

Questions? Email hello@openwaterapp.com or open an issue on GitHub.