Privacy Policy

1. Overview & Privacy Commitment

CrewLink is a live tracking and telemetry platform designed for endurance athletes, ultramarathon runners, and support crews. This Privacy Policy outlines how information is collected, processed, and safeguarded across:

• Smartwatch & Wearable Applications: Including the CrewLink Connect IQ Data Field and compatible wearable apps.
• Automated Inbound Tracking Bridges: Including the zero-install email ingestion bridge ({code}@track.crewlink.run) and supported third-party live sharing integrations (such as Garmin LiveTrack, COROS Live Tracking, and fitness platforms).
• Web Services & APIs: The interactive web dashboard (crewlink.run), streaming APIs, and spectator communication channels (collectively, "CrewLink").

2. Information We Collect

CrewLink collects only the data necessary to provide real-time athlete tracking, course navigation, dynamic arrival forecasting, and crew coordination:

• Athlete Account Creation & Identity: To create an athlete channel, you provide your email address, an athlete display name, and your preferred channel handle (e.g. crewlink.run/yourname). We use passwordless authentication (one-time verification codes or secure sign-in links sent directly to your email) to verify account ownership without storing passwords. Each registered athlete channel is issued a private 6-character Watch & Crew Key for watch pairing and support crew delegation, as well as a dedicated inbound tracking email bridge.
• Frictionless Spectator Access (Zero Logins): Spectators, family members, and the public require no accounts, no logins, no personal information, and no app downloads to view live athlete channels. Support crew members authenticate on the runner's channel solely by entering the athlete's 6-character Watch & Crew Key—no crew accounts are needed.
• Live Telemetry & Biometrics: As transmitted periodically by your connected smartwatch, wearable app, or tracking bridge during an activity, we process:
  • Positional data: GPS coordinates (latitude, longitude) and barometric elevation/ascent.
  • Movement dynamics: Distance covered, current pace, moving speed, and elapsed activity duration.
  • Sensor biometrics: Heart rate, cadence, and sport or sub-sport classifications (e.g., Trail Run, Ultra Run, Cycling, Hiking).
  • Hardware diagnostics: Battery percentage, estimated battery life in days, timer state (active, paused, completed), client app version, and watch hardware model.
• Offline Dead-Zone Breadcrumbs: Coordinate arrays buffered by your device during cellular dead zones (such as mountain valleys) and backfilled upon network reconnection to preserve unbroken route history.
• Course & Waypoint Information: Course routes (GPX files) and checkpoints that you upload or import into your Course Library, including trail tracks, aid station coordinates, cut-off times, and private crew notes.
• Inbound Email Bridge Data: If you use the zero-install email bridge, our mail processing service receives automated live track emails sent to your dedicated address ({code}@track.crewlink.run). We process the message solely to extract the public live tracking session link. Email bodies are processed ephemerally in-memory and are never stored in a marketing inbox.
• Crew & Spectator Presence: An anonymous count of concurrent viewers on your channel. If an authorized support crew member explicitly enables "Show my location" in their browser, their coordinates remain client-side or transient for leapfrog navigation and are never published publicly.

3. How We Use Your Information

Your telemetry and course information is used strictly to power real-time tracking and crew coordination features:

• Plotting your live location, breadcrumb trail, and active route on the interactive spectator map.
• Computing dynamically smoothed Arrival Forecasts (ETAs) at upcoming checkpoints, road crossings, and aid stations.
• Monitoring device battery drain to help support crews anticipate recharging needs during multi-hour or multi-day events.
• Displaying real-time active spectator counts on your watch screen to provide encouragement on the trail.
• Preserving a post-race activity summary for family and friends across global time zones when your workout concludes.
• Enforcing privacy restrictions (such as Supporter Passcodes) and validating authorized Crew Chief administration.
• Authenticating athlete sign-ins, delivering one-time access codes, sending device pairing guides, and managing account preferences.
• Maintaining operational logs (e.g. ping reception, battery thresholds, session status transitions) to diagnose connectivity and verify platform reliability.

4. Data Storage, Retention & Lifecycle

CrewLink enforces a tiered data lifecycle designed to minimize data retention while supporting endurance events:

• Account Information: Your registered email address, channel handle, athlete profile, and channel configuration are stored securely until you choose to delete your account.
• Active Workout Cache: Live telemetry and dead-zone breadcrumbs are held in high-speed, in-memory cache during active workouts (up to 24 hours to accommodate continuous ultra-endurance events).
• Post-Activity Retention (14-Hour Race Lock): Once an activity concludes, a summary of the completed workout remains locked and visible on your channel for up to 14 hours. This ensures family and crew across different time zones can view your final finish metrics before the channel transitions back to standby.
• Passive Background Tracking: Outside active workouts, if background tracking is enabled in your settings, your device transmits low-frequency battery and status pings. Background GPS updates can be disabled at any time in your runner settings for complete location privacy outside recorded workouts.
• Course Library & Saved History: Uploaded GPX courses and high-level workout completion milestones remain stored in your athlete profile until you choose to delete or clear them.
• Ephemeral Inbound Email Processing: Inbound tracking emails sent to {code}@track.crewlink.run are parsed in-memory at the edge. Non-tracking messages are discarded or routed to fallback addresses, and email content is never retained in persistent storage.

5. Security & Access Control

We implement layered technical controls to protect your data:

• Encryption in Transit: All communications between your smartwatch, mobile phone, inbound email processing, server infrastructure, and spectator browsers are encrypted using industry-standard HTTPS (TLS 1.3).
• Passwordless Authentication: Athlete account access is protected via secure email OTP verification and cryptographic magic links. We never store or transmit account passwords, eliminating password reuse and breach vulnerabilities.
• Watch & Crew Key Protection: Administrative access, course management, and session controls are protected by your 6-character Watch & Crew Key. This key is strictly private to you and authorized crew members and is never exposed in public spectator payloads or search indexing.
• Channel Privacy (Supporter Passcode): Athletes can configure an optional Supporter Passcode. When enabled, public viewers must enter the passcode before receiving live map coordinates or workout metrics. Passcodes are securely hashed (SHA-256) prior to storage.
• Clean Share Links: Public sharing URLs (https://crewlink.run/{handle}) are designed clean, with zero embedded tokens, passwords, or personal credentials in the URL parameters.

6. Browser Storage & Analytics

• Browser Local Storage: CrewLink uses client-side localStorage strictly for functional platform preferences (such as your active Watch & Crew Key, preferred distance calibration toggle, unit preferences between kilometers and miles, and selected map layers). We do not use third-party advertising cookies or cross-site tracking beacons.
• Privacy-Preserving Analytics: We collect aggregate, cookieless web telemetry to evaluate server performance, detect system errors, and monitor page load times. This telemetry does not track individual athletes across third-party websites, does not construct personal advertising profiles, and operates in compliance with strict privacy standards.

7. Your Choices & Data Control

You maintain full authority over your tracking channel and data:

• Stop or Pause Transmissions: Stopping or pausing your workout on your watch immediately suspends telemetry broadcasts. If you disable Background Tracking in your runner settings, your device terminates all transmissions when workouts end.
• On-Demand Session Reset: You can discard active telemetry or perform an immediate clean session reset at any time through the dashboard settings panel (or via POST /api/run/reset).
• Course Management: You can activate, swap, or permanently delete GPX route files and waypoints from your Course Library at any time.
• Account & Data Erasure: You can permanently delete your athlete account, runner profile, registered email address, custom handle, course library, and associated telemetry history at any time.

8. Third-Party Platforms & Disclaimers

CrewLink is an independent software platform developed to support endurance athletes. Product names, logos, brands, and registered trademarks referenced on this site (including Garmin, Connect IQ, COROS, Suunto, Apple Watch, Strava, and others) belong to their respective owners. Reference to these brands does not imply affiliation, sponsorship, or endorsement.

9. Contact & Updates

We may update this Privacy Policy periodically to reflect enhancements to our platform, new wearable integrations, or regulatory updates. Any changes will be posted to this page with an updated revision date.

If you have questions, feedback, or data requests, please contact us:

Email: support@crewlink.run

Platform: https://crewlink.run