Trailway Privacy Policy
Effective November 5, 2026
Trailway (“the app”) plans routes on Ohio's bike paths, trails and sidewalks and records your bike rides, walks and runs (together, “rides” below). This policy explains what the app stores, what leaves your device, and the choices you have. Trailway has no ads, no analytics and no tracking. It has no app server of its own: what you share is stored in Apple's iCloud, as described below.
Stored on your iPhone
Your rides (GPS track, times, speed, elevation, heart rate and calories), saved routes, profile details (including date of birth, height, weight and emergency contact), your phone number if you add one, your Safety settings (the Trailway riders you chose as emergency contacts), bikes and gear are stored on your iPhone, inside the app. If you also use Trailway on a Mac, your saved routes sync between your devices through your own private iCloud storage, which only you can access; nothing else syncs. Your password is stored only as a salted hash in your iCloud Keychain, which is end-to-end encrypted and available only on your own Apple devices, so you can sign in on them. Deleting the app deletes the information stored in it.
Apple Health and Apple Watch
With your permission, Trailway saves rides to Apple Health as cycling, walking or running workouts and reads heart rate, workouts and routes to show them in your rides and to import rides. New rides, walks and runs that other apps (such as Garmin Connect or Strava) save to Health are imported automatically when you open Trailway; you can turn this off in Settings → Connected apps & import. Trailway may also add heart rate to a recent ride when another app saves it to Health later. Health data stays on your devices. It is never posted to Social, shared with third parties, sold, or used for advertising or marketing.
Heart rate monitors
If you choose a Bluetooth heart rate monitor (a chest strap, or a watch broadcasting heart rate) in Settings → Apple Health & Watch, Trailway reads only heart rate from it during rides and remembers which monitor you chose. That heart rate is stored with your rides like any other.
Location
Your location is used to plan routes from where you are and to record rides. During a ride, tracking continues with the screen locked and stops when the ride ends. Location is not sent anywhere except as described below: for route planning, as part of a ride you choose to share, while you share a ride live, and in a fall alert.
Social (only what you share)
Social features use Trailway's public iCloud (CloudKit) database, operated by Apple. The following is stored there and visible to other Trailway riders:
| What | When |
|---|---|
| Username | Always, so usernames stay unique |
| Profile: display name, photo, bio, hometown, riding style, ride and mile totals | Unless you set your profile to “Only me” |
| Who you follow | When you follow someone |
| A shared ride: title, date, distance, time, speed, elevation, calories, caption, up to 4 photos, the full route, including where you start and end (unless you choose to hide 10% of its length, up to 300 m, at each end, or to show no map at all), and, if you include them, the bike, gear and songs from the ride, and the riders you tag as riding with you | Only when you share that ride |
| Likes and comments (riders can see who liked a post) | When you post them |
| A live ride: your current position, the path so far, distance, speed and ride time | Only while you share a ride live (see Live rides) |
| Direct messages | When you send them. Messages are end-to-end encrypted on your iPhone: only you and the rider you write to can read them. If you report a message, its text is sent with the report so it can be reviewed. |
With Post automatically on (Settings → Social & privacy), each ride you record over a quarter mile is shared when it ends, with its full route, including where you start and end. Choose Ask each time or Don't post to share rides only when you decide to.
Reports you send are visible only to the developer, for review. Heart rate and other Health data are never included in shared or live rides. Your email address is never shared.
Phone number and Find friends
You can add your phone number in Settings → Social & privacy → Phone number so friends who have it in their contacts can find you. The number itself stays on your iPhone. Trailway's public iCloud database stores only a one-way code made from it (a SHA-256 hash), linked to your username. These codes can't be listed or searched, so someone can find you this way only if they already have your number. Riders never see your number. You can remove it at any time on the same screen, and deleting your account removes it too.
If you allow access to your contacts, Social → Find friends reads the phone numbers in your contacts on your iPhone, turns each into the same kind of one-way code, and asks iCloud whether a rider has added it. Your contacts' names and numbers are never stored or uploaded, and Trailway never contacts them. Matches are shown only to you, with the name you have saved for that person.
Live rides
When you share a ride live (Share my ride live on the Ride tab, or the Live button during a ride), your current position, the path you've ridden so far, distance, speed and ride time are stored in Trailway's public iCloud database and updated every few seconds. Riders who follow you see the ride in Social → Live now, and anyone you send its private link to can watch it on a web map (moonrcks.github.io/trailway-site), which loads map images from OpenStreetMap. A live ride always shows your exact position, including where you start. Like other Social content, it is shared even if your profile is set to “Only me”, so turn it on only when you want to.
If you turn on Share my location on every ride (Settings → Safety), each ride is shared the same way with just your emergency contacts: their usernames are stored with the live ride so they can find it in Social → Live now, and Apple notifies them when you start. Followers don't see it unless you also share the ride live. You can stop for one ride with the Live button.
The live ride is deleted when the ride ends, and the link stops working. If Trailway closes before the ride ends, it is deleted the next time you open the app, and the web map stops showing a position after 30 minutes without an update.
Fall detection and safety alerts
If you turn on Fall detection (Settings → Safety), Trailway uses your iPhone's motion sensor during bike rides (not walks or runs) to notice a hard impact followed by you stopping. Motion data is processed on your iPhone and is never stored or sent. Trailway then asks whether you're OK. If you don't answer within 30 seconds, it sends each of your emergency contacts (up to five Trailway riders you choose) an end-to-end encrypted Trailway message with the time, your location and a live link, shares the rest of the ride live with them, and stores a small alert in iCloud for each (your username, theirs and a short note) so Apple can notify them. A test alert from Settings sends the same kind of message and notification, without a location. Fall detection does not contact emergency services.
Services the app contacts
- OpenStreetMap (Overpass API) receives a map area to download local streets and trails for route planning.
- Apple Maps receives points along a route to fill in street directions and place searches.
- National Weather Service, Iowa Environmental Mesonet (radar tiles), USGS (topographic tiles) and Ohio DOT OHGO (traffic cameras and road work) receive the map area you're viewing.
- Apple Music, only if you allow it: Trailway reads what's playing during a ride to save the song list with the ride on your iPhone.
- Adding music by hand: when you add a song or podcast episode to a ride, your search goes to Apple's public music and podcast catalog. A link you paste goes to Spotify or YouTube to look up its title, or for any other link, Trailway loads that page to read its title.
- Spotify, only if you connect it: Trailway reads what's playing and your recently played songs during rides, and sends play, pause and skip commands. Song lists stay with your rides on your iPhone.
- Strava, only if you connect it: rides upload to your own Strava account and past rides are downloaded from it. You can disconnect at any time in Settings.
- Notifications, only if you turn them on (Settings → Notifications): Trailway asks iCloud (CloudKit) to alert your device when your ride is posted, when someone follows you, when riders you follow post, when you get a message, when you're tagged on a ride, when a rider you've starred as a favorite finishes an activity or shares one live, and when a rider who chose you as an emergency contact shares their ride location or sends a safety alert. For the alerts about riders you follow or have starred, iCloud keeps their usernames with your notification request; which riders you've starred is otherwise kept only on your iPhone and no one else sees it. Apple delivers the notifications.
- Siri, only if you allow it: Apple handles your voice request, and Trailway receives only the command (such as start, pause or end a ride). Personal Voice, if you choose it for directions, is used on your iPhone.
- Sign in with Apple or Google, only if you choose them to sign in. Trailway receives an account identifier and, if you allow it, your email address, which stay on your device.
None of these services receive your name, your rides or your Health data from Trailway, except Strava when you connect it.
The developer
The developer can see the list of Trailway usernames and when each account was created, along with public profiles, and receives an email at trailwayapp@gmail.com when someone creates an account. That email is sent by a scheduled GitHub job through Gmail and includes the new username, when it was created, and the display name and hometown if the profile is public. It never includes your email address, rides, location or messages.
Your choices
- Hide your profile from Social: Settings → Social & privacy → Only me.
- Delete a shared ride: open it and choose Delete.
- Block or report a rider or post from its menu.
- Stop sharing a ride live: Live → Stop sharing live during the ride. Ending the ride stops it too.
- Change your emergency contacts, location sharing or fall detection: Settings → Safety.
- Remove your phone number: Settings → Social & privacy → Phone number → Remove my number. Stop Find friends from reading your contacts: the Settings app → Trailway → Contacts.
- Delete your account: Settings → Account → Delete account. This removes your account, your Social profile, shared rides, follows, likes, comments, sent messages, live rides, safety alerts and phone number, and frees your username.
- Export your rides as GPX files: Settings → Data & storage.
Children
Trailway is not directed to children under 13, and the developer does not knowingly collect information from them.
Changes
If this policy changes, the updated version will be posted here with a new effective date.