SpotBud Privacy Policy

Last updated: October 7, 2026 · Operated by Spotbud LLC (Arizona, USA)

SpotBud ("we," "us," "the app") helps you find workout partners, join fitness challenges, track your training, and connect with a fitness community. We take your privacy seriously, especially your health and location data. This policy explains what we collect, why, where it goes, and the choices you have.

1. Information we collect

Account information you provide: name, username, email, profile photo, date of birth, gender, and optionally your sexual orientation, home gym, goals, and interests.
Fitness and health data you enter: goals, height, weight, weigh-ins, workout logs, and meal logs.
Apple Health data you choose to allow: step count, active energy, walking and running distance, flights climbed, resting heart rate, heart rate variability, VO2 max, sleep analysis, and body weight. SpotBud no longer asks to read your Apple Fitness workout history; if you allowed it in an earlier version, SpotBud can still read it until you turn it off in the Health app. See section 3 for what is shared and how to control it.
Location: your approximate location while you use the app. If you start a run or route session, SpotBud uses precise location and continues tracking while the app is in the background, until you end the session, and the precise GPS route of each run or walk you record is saved to your private workout history (see section 5).
Motion and fitness activity: step and pedometer data from your device.
Content you create: posts, comments, photos, GIFs, messages, AI trainer conversations (including small copies of photos you send in them), events you create, event RSVPs, and challenge and tournament activity.
Music: if you add a playlist to your profile, we store the link and the playlist's name. The cover shown next to it is loaded on each viewer's device: from Apple Music (through Apple's MusicKit, only on devices that have allowed Apple Music access) or from Spotify's public embed service. We don't store those covers. If you use the Apple Music picker, SpotBud reads the names and artwork of the playlists in your library, on your device, so you can choose one. We do not access your listening history.
Barcode scans: when you scan a packaged food's barcode, your device sends the barcode number (and nothing about you) to Open Food Facts to look up the product.
Calendar: if you choose to save an event, we add it to your calendar. We have write-only access and cannot read your existing calendar.
Camera and photos: photos you take or select for meals, workouts, your profile, and events you create.
Voice dictation: if you tap the microphone to dictate a message to your AI trainer, your speech is transcribed using Apple's speech recognition, which may process the audio on Apple's servers. We do not store the audio. Only the resulting text is kept, as part of your conversation.
Reports and feedback: if you report a member or a piece of content, we store the reason you give, the item reported, and any screenshot you attach. Feedback you send from Settings is saved to your account on our servers, together with any screenshots you attach, and may also be sent to us by email. It is deleted when you delete your account.
Signed-in devices: for each device signed in to your account we keep its name and type, system version, sign-in and last-seen times, and an approximate location (about 1 km) of the sign-in, so your other devices can approve or remove it (Profile → Edit Profile → Devices).
Apple Watch: the SpotBud watch app shows your steps and workouts synced from your iPhone. That data travels only between your two devices.
Device and usage data: device model, OS version, your push notification token, and, if you allow it, app usage and error data (see section 6).

2. How we use your information

To provide core features: matching you with workout partners, showing nearby gyms and events, running challenges and tournaments, tracking steps and streaks, and powering your AI trainer and meal tools.
To personalize your experience and recommendations.
To send the notifications you have turned on. News and update announcements, invitations to tournaments you haven't joined, tips, and daily reminders are off until you turn them on in Settings → Notifications.
To keep the community safe (moderation, reports, blocking), including notifying the app owner when an account is created or deleted.
To communicate with you (welcome, reminders, and account notices).
To manage subscriptions and purchases.
To fix bugs and improve performance.

3. Apple Health (HealthKit)

When you allow it, SpotBud reads the Apple Health data listed in section 1. We use it to power your in-app fitness features: your step level, 10,000-step streaks and badges, weight tracking, and the context your AI trainer uses.

Sharing your Health data with other members is optional and off by default.

Steps: your daily steps, step streak, lifetime steps, and 10,000-step days appear on your profile and on leaderboards only if you turn on step sharing. SpotBud asks once after you connect Apple Health, and you can change it anytime in Settings.
Challenges: when you join a step challenge or tournament, your step count for it is shown to that challenge's players. The Join button says so before you join.
Weight: body weight synced from Apple Health is hidden from your profile unless you choose to show it.

Some of this data is stored on our servers so your features work across your devices. It stays private to your account unless you choose to share it as described above.

We never use Apple Health data for advertising or marketing, and we never sell it or share it with data brokers.

Your Apple Health data may be included in the context your AI trainer uses. By default that processing happens on your device (see section 4). If you switch to ChatGPT, that context, including health values, is sent to OpenAI.

Some SpotBud files stored on your device, including your workout log and your trainer's memory, are included in your iPhone's iCloud or computer backups if you have backups enabled. Those backups are controlled by you and Apple, not by us. We do not upload your Apple Health data to iCloud ourselves.

You can revoke SpotBud's access at any time in the iOS Health app.

4. AI features and how they are processed

SpotBud's AI trainer, meal analysis, and workout tools can run on different engines, and you choose which.

On-device (default): SpotBud uses Apple Intelligence, which writes its replies on your device. Your prompts are not sent to an AI company.
ChatGPT (optional): if you select ChatGPT in Settings and provide your own OpenAI API key, your messages and the context SpotBud adds are sent directly from your device to OpenAI. That context can include your profile details, goals, weight history, Apple Health data, recent workouts, recent meals, your location when you ask about events near you, and posts you have liked, including the names and post text of other members. Your key is stored on your device. Use of OpenAI is governed by OpenAI's own terms and privacy policy.
Anthropic (Claude): current versions of SpotBud do not send any data to Anthropic.

Your AI trainer conversations are saved to your SpotBud account on our servers, whichever engine you use, including small copies of photos you send in the chat, so your history is there when you come back and on your other devices. You can clear them in Settings → Chat History, or set them to delete automatically.

Meal photo analysis: if you allow usage data (section 6), when you scan a meal the result (food names, portions, calories and macronutrients, which engine was used, and how long it took) is logged to Braintrust, our AI evaluation provider, so we can measure and improve accuracy. The photo itself and your name or account are not sent. If you don't allow usage data, nothing is logged.

Your AI trainer also keeps a short memory of things you have told it. That memory is stored in an encrypted file on your device and is not uploaded to our servers. It is included in your device backups, and deleting your account does not remove it. Delete the app to remove it from your device.

5. Location

We request reduced accuracy for everyday use, so your position is roughly 100 metres and only updates after you move about 25 metres.
Your everyday location (used for matching and the map) is deliberately blurred to a grid of roughly one kilometre before it is saved to our servers. Other members never see your exact position, only an approximate area and a distance.
If you start a run or route session, SpotBud switches to precise GPS and keeps tracking while the app is in the background so your route is accurate. This stops when you end the session.
Saved run and walk routes: when you record a run or walk, the GPS route of that session is saved precisely to your private workout history so you can see it on a map later. Only you can see it. Deleting the session, or your account, deletes it.
Weather comes from Apple Weather (WeatherKit): your device sends your location to Apple to get the forecast. SpotBud does not use any other weather provider.
We send only a coarse area, never your identity, when looking up nearby gyms and events.

6. Analytics

Analytics is off unless you allow it ("Share usage data" when you first open the app, changeable anytime in Settings → Privacy & Data). If you allow it, we use PostHog to understand how the app is used and to diagnose problems: which screens and features are used, and reports of errors the app runs into, linked to your account. We do not record your screens, and crash reports are not sent to PostHog. The same choice also covers the meal-scan accuracy logs sent to Braintrust (section 4).

SpotBud does not track you across other companies' apps or websites, and does not use your data for advertising.

Sponsored posts are not targeted. Every member sees the same sponsored posts; we don't use your gender, age, or any other personal information to choose them. We only keep anonymous totals of how many times each sponsored post is shown and tapped, with no record of who saw or tapped it.

7. How we share information

We do not sell your personal information. We share limited data with service providers who help us run the app, under confidentiality obligations:

Google Firebase — authentication, database, storage, and notifications.
Google — Sign in with Google.
PostHog — product analytics and error reports, only if you allow usage data.
OpenAI — only if you choose ChatGPT as your AI engine, using your own key.
Braintrust — meal-scan results (no photo, no identity) to measure accuracy, only if you allow usage data.
Loops — sends account and community emails; receives your email address and first name.
GIPHY — GIF search; your search words go to GIPHY through our server.
Apple — Sign in with Apple, HealthKit, Apple Weather (your location, for the forecast), Speech Recognition (voice dictation), Apple Music (playlist covers and the playlist picker), and in-app purchases.
Spotify — when a Spotify playlist is shown, the viewer's device asks Spotify's public embed service for its cover and name, using the playlist link.
Open Food Facts — receives the barcode number when you scan a product.
Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons — photos and descriptions of trails and parks, requested by the place's name.
Uber — only if you tap Ride on a gym, the gym's address is passed to the Uber app on your device.

We also fetch public event listings from Meetup, Eventbrite, and Ticketmaster. We request these by geographic area from our servers. We do not send your name, account, or exact position to any of them. SpotBud uses the Meetup API and is not verified by Meetup.

8. What other members can see

Other signed-in members can see your profile and the content you post: your name, username, photo, bio, gym, goals, interests, playlist, level, badges and trophies, your age or age range unless you hide it, your approximate area and distance from them, your posts, comments, events, and challenge activity. Your steps, step streak, and 10,000-step days are shown only if you turn on step sharing (or, for a challenge, to the players of a challenge you join), and your weight only if you choose to show it.

Your public profile can be read by any signed-in SpotBud account, in the app or through our database, so treat it as visible to the SpotBud community and don't put anything there you would not want other members to see. Your email address, date of birth, and push notification tokens are kept in private records that other members cannot read.

Your direct messages are visible only to you and the people in the conversation. Your AI trainer conversations are not visible to other members.

9. Data retention and deletion

We keep your data while your account is active.

You can delete your account at any time in the app (Settings → Delete Account, also available from your Profile). This removes your profile, login, profile photo, posts, comments, direct messages, AI trainer conversations, group chat membership, notifications you sent to other members, workouts (including saved run and walk routes), meals, challenge history, feedback you sent, and uploaded photos from our servers. Deleting your account does not cancel an App Store subscription; cancel it in your Apple account settings.

Some things are not covered by that:

Your AI trainer's on-device memory and locally cached files remain on your phone until you delete the app.
We keep a minimal internal record that the account was deleted, consisting of the username and display name, so we can manage the community and prevent abuse.
Content other members still rely on, such as messages you sent in group chats and events you created, may remain.
Copies held by our service providers, such as our email (Loops) and analytics (PostHog) providers, are removed on request: email support@spotbudapp.com. Data you sent to OpenAI with your own key is governed by OpenAI's policies.
Some records may be retained briefly as required by law.

Anonymous, aggregated statistics that cannot identify you may be kept. Cached event listings are deleted automatically after 30 days.

10. Your rights

You may access, correct, or delete your information. Use the in-app tools or emailsupport@spotbudapp.com. Depending on where you live, you may have additional rights under laws such as the California Consumer Privacy Act or the GDPR, including the right to a copy of your data and the right to object to certain processing.

11. Children

SpotBud is intended for users 18 and older. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 18. If you believe a minor has provided us information, contact us and we will remove it.

12. Security

We protect your data with encrypted connections, authentication, and server-side access rules. Your AI trainer's on-device memory is stored with file-level encryption. No system is perfectly secure, but we work to keep your information safe.

13. Where your data is processed

SpotBud is operated from the United States, and our providers store and process data in the United States. If you use SpotBud from outside the US, your information is transferred there.

14. Changes

We may update this policy. Material changes will be reflected here with a new "last updated" date, and where appropriate we will notify you in the app.

Questions? Email us at support@spotbudapp.com.