Privacy Policy.

1Introduction

This Privacy Policy explains how PaceForge (“PaceForge”, “the app”, “we”, “us”, or “our”) handles information when you use our mobile application. We built PaceForge to be a calm, private tool for runners — a race-pacing and training planner that works entirely on your device. Privacy is not a feature we added later; it is how the app was designed from the very first screen.

We take a deliberately minimal approach: the best way to protect your information is to never collect it in the first place. Because PaceForge processes everything locally and operates no back-end servers, there is no central database of users, no profile of your running habits sitting on a company computer, and nothing for us to lose, leak, or sell. The one exception is advertising: to keep the app free, it shows ads served by Google AdMob, and the advertising SDK handles some device data in order to do that. Section 9 explains exactly what that involves and how you control it.

Please read this policy carefully. By downloading, installing, or using PaceForge, you acknowledge that you have read and understood the practices described here.

2Scope of this policy

This policy applies to the PaceForge mobile application on Apple iOS (including iPadOS) and Google Android, and to any updates or new versions we release, unless a different notice is provided with a specific feature.

This policy does not cover the practices of third parties we do not control — for example, Apple and Google, who operate the app stores from which you download PaceForge and the operating systems on which it runs. Their handling of your information (such as download records, device data, or payment information for store transactions) is governed by Apple’s Privacy Policy and Google’s Privacy Policy, respectively. We never receive that information from them.

3Information we do not collect

To be unambiguous, here is what PaceForge does not do. Neither we nor the app collects, requests, or processes any of the following:

• Your name, email address, phone number, or any contact details.
• Account credentials — because there are no accounts and no login.
• Your precise or approximate location, GPS data, or movement traces.
• Your contacts, photos, calendar, microphone, or camera.
• Health or fitness data from Apple Health, Google Fit, or any connected wearable.
• Usage analytics, behavioural events, heat-maps, or session recordings.
• Crash logs or diagnostics sent to us (the operating system may offer you its own, optional crash-reporting — that is between you and Apple/Google, not us).
• Cookies or similar web-tracking technologies (the app is not a website and sets none).

Because none of this information is collected, none of it is stored on our side, shared with partners, or sold. There is simply nothing to sell. The advertising identifier and other device data that the ad SDK may use to show ads are covered separately in section 9 — they are handled by Google, subject to your choices, and never reach us.

4Information stored on your device

PaceForge is genuinely useful, and to be useful it remembers the things you enter. All of this stays on your device only, inside the app’s private, sandboxed storage provided by your operating system. We never see it. This locally-stored information may include:

• Personal records (PRs) you choose to save — distances, times, dates, and any notes you add.
• Race plans you create — goal races, target times, pacing strategy, and the generated splits.
• Training inputs you type into the calculators — recent race results, age, and resting heart rate used to estimate paces and heart-rate zones.
• App preferences — your chosen units (km/miles), theme (light/dark), and language.

You enter this information voluntarily, and you can edit or delete it at any time from within the app. It exists only so the app can show you your numbers; it is never transmitted off the device by PaceForge.

5How PaceForge works (and why it’s private)

Every calculation in PaceForge — race-time predictions, VDOT, training paces, heart-rate zones, track splits, treadmill conversions, and split-by-split race plans — is computed locally using well-established sports-science formulas built into the app. Nothing is sent to a server to be processed.

PaceForge does not make network requests for its features and does not require internet access to function. The only network activity in the app is the delivery of ads by Google AdMob (section 9) and a small settings file the app downloads from our website to control how ads are shown (it contains no personal data and nothing about you is sent with the request beyond what any web download involves, such as your IP address). If you are offline, the ad spaces simply stay empty and every tool keeps working. There is no PaceForge cloud, no syncing service, and no remote account. This is what allows the app to work on a start line with no signal, on a plane, or anywhere else — and it is the same reason your information has no way to travel to us.

6Device & system data (Required Reason APIs)

Like virtually all mobile apps, PaceForge relies on standard operating-system services to run. On iOS, Apple requires apps to declare certain of these as “Required Reason APIs.” PaceForge uses them purely for ordinary app functionality and never to track you or to build a profile. For full transparency, the app ships with an Apple Privacy Manifest declaring exactly the following:

None of these capabilities transmit data off your device. Because the app asks for App Tracking Transparency permission on behalf of its advertising partner (section 9), PaceForge’s privacy manifest declares NSPrivacyTracking = true; the data types and domains involved in ad delivery are declared by the Google Mobile Ads SDK’s own privacy manifest, which Apple merges into the app’s privacy report.

7Backups, exports & the clipboard

PaceForge lets you back up and restore your data so you never lose your records and plans — for example when switching to a new phone. This feature is entirely under your control:

• Export places a copy of your data (as text) onto your device’s clipboard so you can paste it wherever you like — a note, a file, a message to yourself. We do not receive it, and it is not uploaded anywhere by the app.
• Import reads backup text that you paste in, and restores it locally on your device.

Once data is on your clipboard or saved into another app, that information is handled according to your choices and the privacy practices of whatever app or service you paste it into. Please treat your exported backup like any personal file.

8Third-party services & SDKs

PaceForge integrates two third-party services, both operated by Google: Google AdMob (the Google Mobile Ads SDK, together with Google’s User Messaging Platform for consent), used solely to display advertising as described in section 9, and Firebase Cloud Messaging, used solely to deliver the optional training reminders described in section 9. The app does not integrate any analytics providers, marketing tools, social-media trackers, or data brokers. Everything else in the app is built from standard app-development components for the interface, navigation, local storage, and number/date formatting — none of which collect personal data or send it to a third party.

We do not share your records, plans, settings, or anything you type into the app with anyone, including Google. The ad SDK does not have access to that data.

9Advertising, consent & tracking

PaceForge is free to download and use. To support development, the app shows ads served by Google AdMob:

• Banner ads — a strip above the tab bar, and a rectangle at the bottom of result and detail screens.
• Native ads — clearly labelled “Ad” cards below the tool grid, below your lists, and in Settings.
• Full-screen ads — an interstitial shown occasionally between screens, and an “app open” ad when you launch the app or return to it after a while. Both are capped so they never appear back to back, and each can be closed immediately.

There are no rewarded or forced-watch video ads, and no ads are shown during first-run onboarding.

What the advertising SDK may collect

To request and display an ad, the Google Mobile Ads SDK running inside the app may collect and send to Google:

• Device and ad identifiers — for example Apple’s advertising identifier (IDFA, only if you allow tracking) or an app-scoped identifier, and Google’s Advertising ID on Android.
• IP address and approximate (coarse) location derived from it, used to serve ads relevant to your region and to comply with local law.
• Device and app information — device model, operating-system version, language, screen size, app version, and similar technical details.
• Ad interaction data — which ads were shown, viewed, or tapped.
• Non-user-related crash logs and performance diagnostics of the SDK itself.

Google acts as an independent controller of this data and uses it as described in Google’s Privacy Policy and in How Google uses information from sites or apps that use its services. None of this data is sent to us, and none of your running data (records, plans, inputs) is ever shared with Google or with advertisers.

Europe, the United Kingdom and Switzerland

If you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or Switzerland, PaceForge does not currently ask you to consent to personalised advertising. Ads there are served in Google’s “limited ads” mode, which does not use your data for personalisation. If we later introduce consent-based personalised ads in these regions, we will ask first through Google’s certified consent form, and you will be able to change your choice at any time from Settings → Ad privacy options.

Tracking permission — iOS

On iOS, the app asks once, through Apple’s App Tracking Transparency prompt, whether it may use your advertising identifier to show more relevant ads. If you choose Ask App Not to Track, the identifier is not made available, and ads are shown without it. You can change this later under iOS Settings → Privacy & Security → Tracking.

Personalized vs. non-personalized ads

When consent or tracking permission is not given, Google serves ads that are not based on your interests or activity in other apps. You can also limit ad personalization system-wide at any time — on iOS under Settings → Privacy & Security → Apple Advertising, on Android under Settings → Google → Ads, and for your Google account at adssettings.google.com.

Training reminders (push notifications)

PaceForge can send occasional training reminders — motivation, pacing tips and race-week nudges. They are delivered through Firebase Cloud Messaging (Google). To make this work, the app registers a push token with Google (an anonymous identifier for this installation) and subscribes it to broad topics that carry only your app language and your time-zone offset, so that a “good morning” reminder arrives in the morning. No name, account, location or running data is attached. The text and pictures of every reminder are built into the app; the server only sends a short message code.

Reminders are optional: the operating system asks for your permission first, and you can turn them off at any time under Settings → Training reminders in the app or in your device’s notification settings. Turning them off removes this device from every reminder topic. Google’s handling of the push token is described in Firebase’s privacy documentation.

What we still do not do

We do not run analytics of our own, we do not profile you, and we do not follow your activity across other apps or websites. Any change to this section — for example adding a new ad partner or a paid, ad-free option — will be reflected here before it takes effect, with updated app-store disclosures and, where the law requires it, a fresh request for your consent.

10Permissions

PaceForge requests no device permissions for its features. It does not ask for access to your location, camera, microphone, photos, contacts, calendars, motion sensors, health data, or Bluetooth. The only system prompts you will see are the App Tracking Transparency request on iOS (section 9), which relates solely to advertising, and the notifications permission for the optional training reminders (section 9). You can decline either without losing any functionality. If a future feature ever needs a permission, your operating system will ask you first, and you can decline.

11Data security

Because your information never leaves your device, it benefits from the security protections built into your phone: app sandboxing, and — if you enable them — your device passcode, Face ID / Touch ID, and full-device encryption. We strongly recommend keeping a device passcode or biometric lock enabled and keeping your operating system up to date.

No method of electronic storage is ever 100% secure, but by keeping data on-device and operating no servers, PaceForge removes entire categories of risk — there is no cloud account to be breached and no central store of user data to be stolen.

12Data retention & deletion

Your data is retained on your device for exactly as long as you want it. You are always in full control:

• Edit or delete individual items (records and plans) directly within the app.
• Clear example data from Settings if you loaded the demo content.
• Delete everything at once by uninstalling PaceForge — removing the app removes its local storage and all data it held.

Since we never receive your information, there is nothing for you to request that we erase on our side, and no waiting period — deletion is immediate and entirely in your hands.

13Children’s privacy

PaceForge does not collect personal information from anyone, including children. The app is a general-audience running tool and is not directed at children under the age of 13 (or the equivalent minimum age in your country). The advertising in the app is not directed at children either. Because the app itself collects and transmits no data, it does not knowingly gather information from children in violation of the U.S. Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), or similar laws. If you believe a child has somehow provided information through the app, note that any such information exists only locally on that device and can be removed by deleting it or uninstalling the app.

14Your privacy rights

Depending on where you live, you may have rights over your personal data — such as the right to access, correct, delete, or port it, and to object to or restrict its processing. These include rights under the EU/UK GDPR, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA/CPRA), and comparable laws in other regions.

PaceForge is built so that you can exercise these rights directly and instantly, without ever contacting us: because all of your data lives on your own device, you hold it, you can view and edit it in the app, and you can delete it at any time.

• Right to access / portability: use the in-app Export feature to obtain a copy of your data.
• Right to rectification: edit any record, plan, or setting in the app.
• Right to erasure: delete items in the app, or uninstall to remove everything.
• Right to object / restrict advertising personalisation: choose Ask App Not to Track on iOS, limit ad personalisation in your device settings, or use the in-app consent controls where they are offered (section 9).
• Right to opt out of “sale” or “sharing” (California and other U.S. states): we do not sell personal data. The advertising SDK’s use of device identifiers for personalized ads may count as “sharing” under some state laws; in regulated states the app presents Google’s privacy-options form, and the controls in section 9 let you opt out at any time.

For the limited interactions where data-protection law applies, our lawful basis for any on-device processing is the performance of the service you have requested and our legitimate interest in providing a functioning app. In the EEA, UK, and Switzerland ads are not personalised on the basis of consent (see section 9). If you have questions about your rights, you may contact us using the details below, and you also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data-protection authority.

15International users & data transfers

PaceForge can be used anywhere in the world. Because the app does not send your information to us or to any server of ours, we make no international transfers of your personal data — your records and plans stay on your device, in your country, with you. The advertising data described in section 9 is processed by Google, which may transfer it to servers outside your country (including the United States) under the safeguards described in Google’s Privacy Policy.

16Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time — for example to reflect new features, or changes in law or app-store requirements. When we do, we will revise the “Last updated” date at the top of this page. For material changes (such as adding an ad partner, analytics, or any new data collection), we will provide a more prominent notice and, where required, obtain your consent before the change takes effect. We encourage you to review this page periodically.

17Your consent

By using PaceForge, you consent to this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with it, please do not use the app. You may withdraw your consent at any time by discontinuing use and uninstalling PaceForge.

18Contact us

If you have any questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or your data, we would be glad to hear from you: