Last updated: 6 November 2026
RunMode is a running and endurance-training app for iPhone, with a companion Apple Watch app. It is built around a simple principle: your training and health data stays on your device. This policy explains the few things that leave your device, who receives them, and why — in plain English.
RunMode ("RunMode", "we", "us") is operated by RunMode Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 17457700), registered office 124-128 City Road, London, EC1V 2NX. RunMode Ltd is a data controller based in the United Kingdom.
We are the "controller" of the personal data described below for the purposes of the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.
When you grant RunMode permission to read Apple Health, and when you record runs, the app stores and processes the following on your iPhone and Apple Watch. None of it is sent to us, and there is no account or cloud sync. It leaves your devices only in the ways described in section 3, or when you export or share it yourself:
Because this data lives on your devices, you control it directly. You can erase what RunMode keeps at any time with Profile → Delete all my data, or by deleting the app, and you can clear coach conversations at any time (Profile → Coach → Clear all coach conversations, or one conversation from inside the chat). Neither removes:
Delete all my data also clears what the RunMode Apple Watch app keeps of its own: its settings, the route you sent to it, a run waiting to start there, and a run cut short there that wasn't saved to Apple Health. The watch does this the next time it connects to your iPhone.
Three features send your data off your device, each to a named company and each only to make that feature work. They are described in (a), (b) and (d) below; (c) explains past-run weather, which RunMode doesn't look up. Each company that receives your data gives it the same or equal protection as this policy states and as Apple's App Store rules require: Google as our processor under its data processing terms, and Apple under its own privacy policy. Separately, whenever you view a map on your iPhone or Apple Watch, Apple Maps loads map images for the area on screen, so Apple receives that area and your IP address, as with any map app. RunMode never sends Apple your route.
As with any internet request, each provider also receives your device's IP address in order to reply. We never send any account or device identifier of yours.
Nothing is sent until you allow it. Before the coach sends anything, RunMode asks whether you want to use it and explains what it sends, for coach chats (including a training plan, if you choose to share it), for coaching notifications and for reading a plan you import (section 3(d)). Nothing goes to Google unless you tap Allow. If you choose Not now, the coach stays off and nothing is sent. You can turn the coach on or off at any time in Profile → Coach; once it is off, nothing more is sent.
The AI coach is only for people aged 18 and over. If RunMode doesn't know your age, it asks you to confirm that you are 18 or over before you can allow the coach. If your age in Apple Health or in Profile is under 18, the coach stays off and nothing is sent to Google (see section 9).
When the coach is on, your question and the training details needed to answer it are sent to Google's Gemini API, which writes the reply. Google provides the Gemini API to us as our processor, under Google's data processing terms. This covers coach chats and coaching notifications. Coaching notifications are short notes the coach writes when something in your training changes, for example your training load rising quickly. They use the coach too, so they only start once you have allowed it, and you can switch them off separately in Profile → Notifications. A coaching notification sends only the one fact it is about (for example your training-load ratio, your recent intensity mix, the dates of your recent hard runs, how long it has been since your last run, how often you usually run, your usual run days and time of day, your usual weekly increase in distance, or how many other workouts you did between two runs), not your wider data.
A coach chat can send, depending on where you open it:
RunMode never adds your name, email address, location or GPS route, your date of birth or exact age, your sex or weight, or any account or device identifier to what it sends Google. Only something you write yourself (a message to the coach, or a note or label in a plan you share), or a plan you import, could contain them, if you include them yourself. If your heart-rate zones are estimated from your age, the coach is told only that they are an estimate, not the estimated maximum heart rate itself.
The coach gives training guidance, not medical advice: it does not diagnose or treat any condition and is no substitute for a doctor.
Under Google's terms, your prompts and responses are not used to train or improve Google's models. Google keeps them for a limited period only, to detect abuse and for safety and legal purposes. The data does leave your device to Google, so if you would prefer that nothing be sent to a third party, leave the coach off. The rest of the app works without it, and every figure the coach uses, apart from a removed event's details and the comparisons a coaching notification is about, is also shown in the app itself. Google's handling is governed by the Google Gemini API terms and the Google Privacy Policy.
To show current conditions and your race-day forecast, RunMode sends your device's location, rounded to about 1 km, to Apple WeatherKit. If you add a venue to an event, that event's race-day forecast uses the venue's location instead, also rounded to about 1 km. To find a venue, what you type in the venue search is sent to Apple's place search (Apple Maps), which suggests matching places; the name and location of the venue you pick are saved with the event on your device. This is handled by Apple under Apple's own privacy terms. See Apple's Privacy Policy and the Apple Weather data sources.
RunMode doesn't look up the weather for past runs or other workouts, so nothing about them is sent anywhere for weather. A workout shows its weather only when Apple Health already has it (Apple's Workout app saves it there). Weather that an earlier version of RunMode looked up from Open-Meteo, a weather archive service (it was sent a workout's start location rounded to about 1 km and its date, with no account or identifier), stays on your iPhone and can still show; Profile → Delete all my data removes it. If a later version looks up past-run weather, we'll update this policy first.
You can import a training plan you already have (Prep → Calendar → Plans → New plan → Import from text, photos or a file) by pasting its text, choosing up to 6 photos or screenshots, or choosing a file (a PDF of up to 10 pages, a picture or a text file). If you've allowed the AI coach (section 3(a)), RunMode sends what you chose to Google's Gemini API so it can list the plan's sessions: the text, or the pictures, with a PDF's pages sent as pictures. Before you choose anything, the screen says “Your plan goes to Google's Gemini to read it: photos, pictures and PDFs as soon as you choose them, text (including a text file) when you tap Read the plan. Photos go without their location or other details. Nothing else is sent.” Photos, pictures and PDFs are sent as soon as you choose them; text is sent when you tap Read the plan.
Pictures are redrawn before they are sent, with no metadata, so no location, date or camera details go with them. Everything you can see in a picture or page does go, so crop out or leave out anything that isn't your plan, such as your name. Nothing else goes with it: none of your Apple Health data, runs, check-ins or coach conversations, and no account or device identifier. RunMode keeps no copy of the text, photos or file. The sessions you check and save, with the plan's own words for each, are kept on your iPhone as your plan (section 2). Google handles what it receives as described in section 3(a): it is not used to train Google's models, and Google keeps it for a limited period only.
Plan import follows the coach's rules: it is only for people aged 18 and over, nothing is sent unless the coach is allowed, and once you turn the coach off, no plan is sent. Without the coach, nothing leaves your iPhone: on an iPhone with Apple Intelligence, RunMode reads the plan on the iPhone itself (finding the text in photos and PDFs on the iPhone first); otherwise you add the sessions by hand.
Health and fitness data is "special category" data under the UK GDPR, which requires both a lawful basis (Article 6) and an additional condition (Article 9). Our bases are:
| Activity | Lawful basis (Art. 6) | Special-category condition (Art. 9) |
|---|---|---|
| On-device processing of your Health data | Consent: you agree on RunMode's Health screen and choose, in Apple's permission sheet, which types of health data RunMode may read | Explicit consent |
| Processing coaching data for coach chats and coaching notifications (Google Gemini) | Consent: you tap Allow on the AI coach screen, which explains what is sent for chats, coaching notifications and plan import, before anything is sent (confirming you are 18 or over if RunMode doesn't know your age), and can turn it off in Profile → Coach. A training plan goes with chats only if you also choose to share it, which you can turn off in Profile → Coach → Share my training plan | Explicit consent |
| Reading a training plan you import (Google Gemini) | Consent: only after you've allowed the AI coach (confirming you are 18 or over if RunMode doesn't know your age), and only when you choose a plan to import, on a screen that says first that it goes to Google's Gemini. Turning the AI coach off in Profile → Coach stops it | Explicit consent, where a plan includes health details (for example a note about an injury) |
| Recording your runs — precise route, heart rate and distance, processed on your devices and saved to Apple Health with your permission | Consent — you choose to record a run and grant location and Apple Health access | Explicit consent (for the heart-rate data a run records) |
| Sending your rounded location to Apple WeatherKit for current weather and the race-day forecast | Consent: you allow location access, which RunMode asks for to show local weather | Not applicable (location is not special-category data) |
| Searching for a race venue, and sending its location for the race-day forecast | Consent — you choose to add a venue to an event | Not applicable (a venue's location is not special-category data) |
| Loading map images when you view a map (Apple Maps) | Legitimate interests: showing the map you opened. Apple receives the area on screen and your IP address, never your route | Not applicable |
| Replying to emails you send us and calls or voicemails you leave us | Legitimate interests: replying to you. For privacy requests: our legal obligation to respond | Not applicable (please don't send us health details we haven't asked for; see section 5) |
You don't have to give RunMode any of this. Features that need data you haven't allowed won't work, but the rest of the app will.
You can withdraw consent at any time by turning off the relevant feature (for the AI coach and reading imported plans with Gemini, Profile → Coach), revoking permissions in iOS Settings, or deleting the app. You can object to anything we do on the basis of legitimate interests by turning that feature off or emailing us. Withdrawing consent does not affect processing that already happened.
Google may process coach requests and plans you import in the United States and elsewhere. Google LLC is certified under the UK Extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, which UK law treats as adequate, and Google's data processing terms also provide approved transfer clauses where needed. Apple handles weather, map and place-search requests under its own privacy policy and transfer safeguards. Emails you send us are held by Google (Google Workspace), which may process them in the United States and elsewhere under its data processing terms and the UK Extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework. Email us for more detail.
Security. RunMode keeps your data on your devices under iOS data protection. Route fingerprints, imported courses and crash-recovery files have stronger file protection and are kept out of backups. Everything RunMode sends travels over encrypted (HTTPS) connections, without any account or device identifier of yours, and each feature sends only the data it needs.
Under the UK GDPR you have the right to access, rectify, erase, restrict or object to the processing of your personal data, and the right to data portability, and to withdraw consent. You can exercise most of these rights yourself: you can see your data in the app, export runs as GPX or TCX files, your check-ins, notes and coach conversations as a JSON file (Profile → Export my data), and each training plan as its own file (Prep → Calendar → Plans, open the plan, then ⋯ → Export plan). Sessions added straight onto the calendar, skip reasons and days away are in neither file. You can erase what RunMode keeps with Profile → Delete all my data (section 2 says what that doesn't cover). We don't hold your app data, so we can't access, correct or delete it for you, and Google (like Open-Meteo, which an earlier version used for weather) receives no identifier we could use to find your requests. For anything else, email info@runmode.app and we'll reply within one month.
If you're unhappy with how we've handled your data, please email info@runmode.app with "Privacy complaint" in the subject. We'll acknowledge it within 30 days. You can also complain to the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk.
RunMode is for adults. It is not designed for, or aimed at, anyone under 18, and you shouldn't use it if you're under 18. The AI coach, and reading an imported plan with Gemini, are only for people aged 18 and over, under Google's Gemini API terms. If your age in Apple Health or Profile is under 18, the coach stays off, a plan you import is read on your iPhone or added by hand, and nothing is sent to Google. We don't verify age. We don't hold your app data, so there is nothing for us to delete; Profile → Delete all my data removes RunMode's data from the device (section 2 says what it doesn't remove).
runmode.app sets no cookies and runs no analytics. It is hosted by GitHub Pages, and GitHub records visitors' IP addresses in its server logs for security, under GitHub's privacy statement. The website's App Store links take you to the App Store, which Apple runs under its own privacy policy. The website itself loads nothing from Apple. Its email links open an email to us in your own email app; section 5 explains what we do with it.
We may update this policy from time to time. Material changes will be reflected here with a new "Last updated" date.