Privacy Policy

Overview

First Gear calculates coaching on your Apple Watch and keeps its training history on your devices. You do not need a First Gear account or sign-in. That does not mean every part of the app and website works without sending information: diagnostics, usage analytics, subscriptions, ad measurement, weather requests, feedback you choose to send, and website visits use the services described below.

First Gear is a product of Rubber Bands LLC. Rubber Bands LLC is responsible for the information we process for the purposes described in this policy. You can contact us at support@firstgear.run.

App data and Apple Health

You enter your age and answer health and coaching questions during setup. With your permission, First Gear reads this Apple Health information: heart rate, resting heart rate, walking heart rate, VO2 max estimates, walking and running distance, running stride length, active energy, daily Activity ring totals, workouts, and workout routes. Heart-rate information helps set coaching targets and guides the coaching in each session. VO2 max estimates are used in progress views. Distance, stride length, and active energy describe your sessions, and workouts and workout routes let your history show each saved session and its route. Activity ring totals let the coach tell you when your Move or Exercise ring closes during a session. These readings are device estimates, not clinical measurements.

With your permission, First Gear uses Motion & Fitness activity on your Apple Watch during a session to tell running from walking and to notice when you have stopped. Sessions need it. The iPhone app asks for this permission during setup on your Watch's behalf and does not use motion activity itself. Each saved session keeps the time spent walking and jogging.

The app stores settings and session history locally and syncs them between your iPhone and Apple Watch. We do not operate a First Gear server that stores your raw heart-rate readings, routes, or health-question answers.

With permission, sessions and their routes are also saved to Apple Health. Apple Health sharing, iCloud sync, device backups, and other apps you authorize are controlled through your Apple settings and those services. Those copies are separate from the app's local files.

Location, weather, and sharing

With location permission, First Gear records your route during outdoor sessions. It also requests local weather through Apple WeatherKit using a location from the session. Apple processes that weather request under its own privacy terms. Location permission is optional. Sessions still run and save without it, just without a route, pace, or weather.

If you choose to share a run, the app prepares a summary for the destination you select in the system share sheet. A shared card can include workout information and, if you include it, a route map. If you export session data from your history, the file can include detailed heart-rate, route, and coaching information. Check the content before sharing. Information you send to another app or person is then subject to that destination's handling.

Crash and reliability reports

First Gear uses Sentry to report crashes, errors, and app reliability information. Reports can include the app and operating-system versions, device model, a random installation identifier, and technical context about a failure or recovery.

Some recovery messages include limited session information, such as the length of an interruption, a session outcome, or a count of saved sessions. They are not copies of your workout history. First Gear does not explicitly add raw heart-rate readings, routes, or health-question answers to reports. The diagnostics service can also record interaction breadcrumbs, such as screen and control names. Screenshots, view hierarchies, network breadcrumbs, and performance tracing are disabled.

We do not supply your name, email address, or Apple Account details to Sentry. A random installation identifier is still an identifier, so we do not describe these reports as completely anonymous.

Usage analytics

First Gear uses Google Analytics for Firebase to count a few moments in the program, so we can see where runners stop and whether the stages work: each setup screen you reach, finishing setup, seeing the subscription screen, choosing Not now or backing out of Apple's purchase sheet, ending a session, and reaching a new stage. These events carry the name of the setup screen, what opened the subscription screen, the plan you picked, the stage number, the session length in whole minutes, whether the session counted as complete, whether it was a free first session when one is offered, and the day of the program on which you reached a stage. They never say how you answered the health questions. If you answer the iPhone app's "Enjoying First Gear?" question, or send feedback from the app, two more events record your yes or no, and the reason you picked along with where you opened the feedback form. They never include anything you type. Google's software in the iPhone app also records its own events, such as the first time the app is opened, each time it is used and for how long, and app and operating-system updates.

Events carry technical information too, such as the app and operating-system versions, the device model, language, and time zone. Google derives an approximate location, such as city, region, and country, from the IP address the events arrive from; First Gear does not use Location Services for analytics. Each installation gets a random identifier created by Firebase, so Google can tell one installation from another. Google Analytics does not receive the advertising identifier, has ad personalization turned off, and is not linked to a Google Ads account. If you installed First Gear after tapping an Apple Ads ad, the iPhone app may also share that ad's campaign and keyword with Google Analytics. When the iPhone app comes to the front, it also asks Firebase Remote Config, another Google service, for one app setting: whether a first session can start without a subscription. That request carries the same random identifier and technical information, and nothing about your sessions or health.

Your iPhone sends these events, including those for sessions recorded on your Apple Watch; the Watch app sends none. Subscription events reach Google Analytics from RevenueCat instead, as described under Subscriptions. First Gear does not send raw heart-rate readings, routes, or health-question answers to Google Analytics. Google deletes event-level data after two months and data tied to an installation's identifier fourteen months after that installation's latest use; aggregate reports, which hold only totals, are kept longer. Google may process this information in the United States. For users in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland, we rely on our legitimate interest in understanding how the app is used.

Subscriptions

Apple processes subscription payments. First Gear does not receive your payment-card details or Apple Account password.

We use RevenueCat to check subscription access, load offers, and restore purchases. It receives a random purchaser identifier shared between your phone and Watch, purchase and subscription information, and technical information needed to provide the service. The app does not send your raw heart-rate readings, routes, or health-question answers to RevenueCat.

On iPhone, once per install, First Gear asks Apple for an Apple Ads attribution token and passes it to RevenueCat to learn which ad campaign, ad group, and keyword led to the install. This information is not linked to you and is not used for tracking.

On iPhone, First Gear also gives RevenueCat the random installation identifier Firebase created, and RevenueCat sends Google Analytics your subscription events under it: a free trial starting, a purchase or renewal, a cancellation or its reversal, a billing problem, a plan change, and an expiry. Each event carries the product, price, and currency, the store's transaction identifiers, and the random purchaser identifier. This lets us see whether people who use the program keep their subscription. Google Analytics keeps these events as described under Usage analytics.

Ad measurement in the app

We advertise First Gear on Meta's apps and services, such as Facebook and Instagram. To measure how those ads perform and to help Meta show them to people more likely to start a free trial, the iPhone app includes Meta's software development kit (SDK). It tells Meta when the app is installed, each time it is opened and for how long, and when a free trial or subscription begins, including one started on your Apple Watch. A trial or subscription event carries the price paid, which is zero for a free trial, its currency, and the store's transaction identifier. With these events go a random identifier the SDK creates for the installation, technical information such as the app and operating-system versions, device model, mobile carrier, language, and time zone, and the IP address the events arrive from. The Watch app does not include Meta's SDK.

First Gear never shows Apple's tracking prompt and does not ask to track you. Your device's advertising identifier stays on your device, and Meta's SDK marks every event it sends as not allowed to track. Apple's own ad attribution may also tell Meta that one of its ads led to an install, without identifying you or your device.

RevenueCat does not receive the identifier Meta's SDK created and does not send Meta your subscription events.

First Gear does not send Meta your heart-rate readings, routes, session history, health-question answers, or anything else from Apple Health, and does not use health information for advertising. Meta also uses these events for its own purposes, including to deliver and improve ads, as its Business Tools Terms allow, and handles the information it receives under its own privacy policy.

Website visits and analytics

The website is hosted through Netlify. Hosting and network services process request information needed to deliver and protect the site, such as an IP address, browser information, and the page requested.

The production website uses Google Analytics to measure how people find and use the site: pages viewed and how they are used, such as time on the page, scrolling, and links followed to other sites; how visitors arrive, such as from a search, a link, or an ad campaign; approximate location, device, and browser; and events such as tapping the App Store button. Google processes request information, such as an IP address and browser details, to produce these statistics.

If Google locates your visit in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Gibraltar, Jersey, Guernsey, or the Isle of Man, Google Analytics runs without cookies. The site sets Google Consent Mode to deny analytics storage there, so Google Analytics neither sets nor reads cookies on your device, and each page view or event sends Google a cookieless signal. Because nothing stays on your device between visits, Google cannot tell a return visit from a new one. Pages you open in one visit without reloading may share a random number that lasts only until you close or reload the page. These signals feed aggregate statistics.

Elsewhere, Google Analytics sets first-party cookies on this site, with names that begin with _ga, that tell one browser from another so it can count returning visitors and group pages into visits. They last up to two years after your latest visit, and some browsers delete them sooner.

Google Signals, advertising features, and ad personalization are turned off for this site, and it is not linked to a Google Ads account. The website never sends your email address or anything you type into a form to Google Analytics. Google handles this information under its own privacy policy.

Google Analytics deletes event-level data after two months, and data tied to a browser's _ga cookies fourteen months after that browser's latest visit. Aggregate reports, which hold only totals, are kept longer. Google may process this information in the United States. For visitors in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, and the other places listed above, we rely on our legitimate interest in understanding how the site is used.

The production website uses the Reddit Pixel to measure how well our Reddit ads work. It sets an advertising cookie and tells Reddit which pages of this site you visit and whether you tap the App Store button, so Reddit can connect those actions to ads you saw or clicked on Reddit and use them to deliver and measure our ads. The website does not send Reddit your email address or anything you type into a form. Reddit handles this information under its own privacy policy.

If your browser sends a Global Privacy Control signal, the website does not load the Reddit Pixel, and Google Analytics runs without cookies wherever you are, as described above. To stop Google Analytics on every site you visit, install Google's opt-out browser add-on from tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout. You can also block or delete cookies in your browser settings and manage ad personalization in your Reddit account settings.

Your light or dark appearance preference is stored locally in your browser. If you arrive from one of our ads, the name of that ad campaign is also kept in your browser for the rest of your visit and added to the App Store link, so we can see how many downloads each campaign brings. Provider behavior and browser settings also affect how information is stored or processed.

Feedback from the app

The iPhone app may ask whether you are enjoying First Gear, and a shortcut on the app icon lets you tell us why you are leaving. If you choose to send feedback, the app sends it to our website, which passes it to Resend, our email provider, for delivery to our support inbox. The message contains the reason you picked, anything you typed, where in the app you opened the feedback form, the app and iOS versions, the time you sent it, and the random ID this installation uses with RevenueCat for your subscription.

That ID has no account behind it and does not tell us your name. It lets us look up the subscription status of the installation that sent the feedback, for example to see whether a trial or subscription is still active. Feedback carries no name or email address, so we cannot reply to it. If you would like an answer, email support@firstgear.run instead.

Our website does not store feedback. Netlify processes the request, including your IP address, in order to deliver it, and Resend keeps a copy of the email under its own retention settings. The message then stays in our support inbox. Please leave health details out of anything you type.

The reason you picked, but never what you typed, also goes to Google Analytics, as described under Usage analytics.

Support

If you email support, we receive the message and whatever information you choose to include. Please do not send medical records or detailed health information to ask a general support question.

Service providers

Apple, Sentry, Google, RevenueCat, Meta, Netlify, Resend, and Reddit process information for the functions described above. Their service providers may also process information to deliver those services. Provider processing locations, security measures, and retention settings vary by service.

Your choices and deletion

You can manage Health access in the Health app, and Motion & Fitness, location, and notification permissions in the Settings app. You can also choose whether to share a run.

Deleting the app does not automatically erase Apple Health records, a paired device's copy, backups, subscription records, or reports already held by service providers. Manage Apple Health records and backups through Apple's controls. Deleting the app also does not cancel an App Store subscription.

To ask about access to or deletion of information we or our service providers hold, contact support@firstgear.run. Depending on where you live, you may have rights to access, correct, delete, or restrict use of your personal information, and to complain to a privacy regulator. We may need enough information to verify and locate your request; an installation identifier does not by itself tell us your name.

Step-by-step instructions for deleting First Gear data from your iPhone and Apple Watch: Account and data deletion

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as First Gear develops. We will update the date above and provide any additional notice or choice required by applicable law.

Questions about this policy can be sent to support@firstgear.run.