Privacy policy

Who runs Long Splice

I am Kieran Hollis, an individual developer in Australia. I build and operate Long Splice and there is no company behind it. This policy covers the Long Splice Android app and this website. You can reach me at admin@longsplice.au and I reply within 30 days.

What is live today

Long Splice is in private testing with a small group of invited runners, who receive it through a closed test on Google Play or through Firebase App Distribution. It is not publicly listed on Google Play, and sign-ups on this website are limited. If you sign up on this website, the Sydney service keeps the address you give, when you signed up, and whether you were added, so I can check that each invitation worked. The first 50 people are added straight away: your address goes into the test's Google Group, which Google Play reads to let you join, you get a private page with the download link, and the link is emailed to you from my Google Workspace account. For that page the service keeps a random code and a scrambled form of your address, so signing up again brings back the same page. After the first 50, a signup is kept as a request until I add you. I approve requests from inside the app, a feature only my account has. Testers can also share an invite link from Invite friends in Profile, which lets up to five friends join without waiting for me. To make the link, the app keeps a random key on your phone and in your backup, and the Sydney service keeps a scrambled form of that key, the link's short code, the first name from your profile, which friends see when they open your link, and a scrambled form of each friend's address so the link stops at five. A friend who joins from a link gives the Google account on their phone, which goes straight into the Google Group. The service keeps their address, when they joined and the first name on the link they used, emails them the link, and sends me a notification with their address and that first name. I can switch off any invite link. I delete your address from the service and the group when you stop testing or ask me to. This policy describes the app as it works today. As the app grows I may add features or services and use information to run, support and improve it. When that changes what this policy says, I'll update it and its date, and tell you in the app if the change is significant.

Information on your phone

The app stores these details on your phone:

• your name, age, weight and injury flag;
• your recent race results, weekly distance, longest run and training days;
• your plan, completed runs and personal notes;
• runs you skipped and the reason you chose, and any distance and time you add for a finished run;
• a log of the sessions you've finished, kept when you start a new plan, for the totals and bests in Profile;
• the IDs of the calendar events the app created;
• Garmin activities read through the Personal API, if you add a key;
• your Garmin Personal API key, stored encrypted, if you add one.

Most of this is backed up as described under Backup. If you join a group, the items listed under Training groups are shared with it. Skip reasons, the distances and times you add and your log of finished sessions are never shared with a group.

Uninstalling the app removes this information from your phone. It doesn't remove your backup or group record. Delete all data removes your phone's copy and your backup.

Returning to running after birth

If you choose the plan for getting back to running after having a baby, the app asks about the birth, healing, pelvic floor symptoms, bleeding, mood, sleep, feeding and your history of running. This is sensitive health information. It's used to set and adjust your plan. It isn't shared with a group or Garmin, and that plan can't be shared with a group. Your details about the birth and your running history are included in your backup, which you're told about when you sign in, so your plan can carry on after a reinstall. You can turn backup off in Profile. Your answers aren't sent to Google Calendar or Garmin Connect. The sessions are, with ordinary names such as "Walk-run", and their descriptions and steps can show the kind of plan, for example pelvic floor exercises or feeding before a run. You can remove your answers from your phone at any time from Profile, and delete your backup there too. Tapping a helpline number only opens your phone's dialler.

If you choose a plan for coming back after an injury, an operation, an illness or a long break, the app asks what kept you off (such as the injury or the kind of operation), when it happened, a few questions before your first run, and a short check-in each week about pain and symptoms. This is health information too. It's used only to set and adjust your plan, stays out of your group, and is included in your backup so the plan can carry on after a reinstall. Your answers aren't sent to Google Calendar or Garmin Connect, but the sessions are, and their descriptions can show it's a return, for example "Before your operation" or a note to stop if a particular spot hurts. You can turn backup off, or delete it, in Profile.

Training groups

Linking up is optional, and this section applies only if you start or join a group. A group needs one plan that every member can see, so its record sits in Google Firebase Firestore in Sydney, Australia. All group members can see everything listed here.

The shared plan and group settings

The goal, race name, race date, target time if one is set, elevation, training days, the schedule and its group training paces, proposed moves and the responses to them.

Each member's record

• display name;
• weekly distance and longest run;
• race results used for fitness;
• whether they can run 30 minutes;
• whether they have a hill to train on;
• a yes or no "cautious progression" flag;
• which runs they completed.

The cautious progression flag does not state the reason, which is being aged 45 or over or having had an injury in the last year.

Who can reach a group

Groups don't use accounts. A long random code acts as the password, and anyone holding it can read and change the group's records. Only the phone that started a group can delete it for everyone. Share it only with people you train with. Google hosts the database and processes request data such as IP addresses.

How group data is deleted

Group records stay in Firestore until one of these actions deletes them, or until someone holding the code deletes them.

Google Calendar

Calendar sync starts only after you give the app permission on your phone. The app lists your calendars so you can choose one, then creates, updates, deletes and reads only the events it created. Calendar access doesn't use your Google sign-in, and calendar events aren't sent to me. Google syncs the events under Google's privacy policy.

Weather

Weather is optional. If you allow it, the app reads your phone's approximate location, rounds it to about a kilometre, and sends those coordinates to Open-Meteo, a free weather service, to get a forecast. It does this when you open the app, at most once an hour, and not in the background. If you type a town instead, that name goes to Open-Meteo to find its coordinates. Open-Meteo sees your phone's IP address, as any website would. Forecasts aren't included in your backup. You can turn location off at any time in your phone's settings.

App updates

When you open the app, at most once an hour, it reads a small public file at longsplice.au to see whether a newer version exists. The request carries nothing about you or your training. Like any website visit, it reaches Google's Firebase Hosting, which sees your IP address and may keep it in its logs. I don't use those logs to identify anyone. If a new version exists, the app asks whether you'd like to install it, and choosing Install opens App Distribution in your browser.

Crash reports

If the app crashes or hits an error it can recover from, such as a failed sign-in, it sends a report to Google's Firebase Crashlytics so I can find and fix the problem. A report has the error and where in the app it happened, your phone model, Android version, app version, the time, and a random ID for this install. It doesn't include your plan, runs, name, email address, health details or location, and it isn't linked to your backup or your Google account.

Reports are on unless you turn them off under Crash reports in Profile, which stops them straight away. Crashlytics keeps reports for 90 days, and they're processed by Google, possibly outside Australia. Uninstalling the app also stops them.

Garmin personal key

Adding a Garmin Personal API key is optional. You create the key yourself on Garmin's website, under Garmin's own terms, and you can delete it there at any time. With a key, the app reads your own recent activities to recognise completed runs and to show your recent running on your phone, including the distance and time of those runs in your stats. It can also use them, on your phone, to fill in your fitness when you build a plan. From those activities it keeps the date, name, distance, time, type, fastest splits and VO2 max. It also reads your age from Garmin's fitness age data, your recent average weight and your preferred training days, and keeps them on your phone. You can enter your weight yourself instead. The app asks about once a month unless Garmin is keeping it current, and you can change it or decline at any time. It's used for food advice. It doesn't read other health data, such as sleep. The key is stored encrypted on your phone and sent only to Garmin. Removing it in the app, or using "Delete all data", deletes the key and the stored activities from your phone.

If you're in a group, it sees which runs you completed. If you choose to fill in your fitness from Garmin, your weekly distance, longest run and race results go into your member record, which your group can see, and your backup. Garmin activity names and health data aren't shared with your group.

Strava

Linking Strava is optional, and off until you link it in Profile. You log in on Strava's own page, and Long Splice never sees your Strava password. The link does one thing: when a run or strength activity lands on Strava on a day your plan had a session, Long Splice names it after the session, such as "Long Splice - Easy run". If the description is empty, it becomes "longsplice.au" followed by the session as the app shows it: what it's for and each step, with your target paces. Whoever can see the activity on Strava can see that. A name or description you wrote is never changed.

• What Long Splice asks Strava for: permission to view your activities, except those set to "Only You", and to edit them. It uses this only as described above.
• What it reads: the new activity's date, type, name and description, at the moment it arrives, to decide whether to name it. None of this is saved, shown to anyone or brought into the app.
• What the server keeps: your Strava athlete number, the tokens Strava issues for the link, a count of activities named, and the names and write-ups of your sessions by date for about the next four weeks. It is held in Sydney.
• Unlinking: Unlink in Profile, or remove Long Splice under Strava's own settings. Either way the tokens and everything above are deleted from the server. Activities already named stay as they are, and you can rename them on Strava.

Without the link, nothing from Long Splice reaches Strava: Strava names activities itself, including ones that come from Garmin Connect.

Suggestions you send

Testers can send me a suggestion from Suggest a change in Profile. It sends what you type, the kind of suggestion you picked, and the app version. If you choose, it also sends your name and the email address you're signed in with, so I can reply. Nothing else from your phone goes with it, and you don't need to be signed in to send one. Suggestions are stored in Google Firebase Firestore in Sydney, Australia, where only I can read them, and my phone gets a notification with your name if you added it. I delete each suggestion once I've dealt with it, and at the latest when testing ends. To have one deleted sooner, email me.

Backup

You need a Google account to use Long Splice. Signing in tells the app which backup is yours, and backup is on from then, so reinstalling the app or changing phones doesn't lose your plan. You can turn it off at any time in Profile, and if you do, changes on your phone can't be recovered if you uninstall the app.

The backup holds your plan, finished runs, skipped runs and their reasons, the distances and times you add, the distance, time and device name Garmin recorded for runs that ticked off a session, your log of finished sessions, notes, goal, training days, name, age, weight you've entered, injury flag, race results, weekly distance, your group link, and your details if you're on the after-baby plan or a plan for coming back. It's stored in Google Firebase Firestore in Sydney, Australia, against a scrambled form of your Google account ID. I don't store your email address on the server, though your phone keeps it to show which account you're using. Google encrypts stored data and hosts it for me. I can reach the backup if I need to fix a problem or you ask me for help.

Raw Garmin data, such as your runs, health numbers and weight from Garmin, isn't included, apart from the distance, time and device name of runs that ticked off a planned session, and your Garmin link and key aren't either, so you link Garmin again after restoring. Your plan and the runs already ticked off do come back, and they can reflect Garmin data you've used, such as fitness numbers you chose to fill in from Garmin.

Your backup stays until you delete it from Profile, use Delete all data, or email me. Uninstalling the app doesn't delete it.

When you accept the terms, I keep a record of the terms version and the time against your scrambled account ID, so I can show they were accepted. That record stays after your backup is deleted.

Deleting your account

Use Delete all data in Profile, or follow the steps on the delete your account page. It removes your backup, your phone's data and your group record.

Where data is held

This website

This website currently sets no cookies of its own and runs no analytics or advertising. Google hosts it on Firebase and processes request data such as IP addresses as host. If you open the form to join the test, the page loads Google's sign-in button from Google, which sees your IP address and its own cookies under Google's privacy policy. It isn't loaded before you open the form.

Security

The app's connections to Firestore and Garmin use HTTPS, and so does this website. Your Garmin Personal API key is stored encrypted on your phone. Group records are reached only with a long random code, and a backup only by signing in with the Google account that made it. No system is perfectly secure, and anyone who obtains your group code has full access to that group's records.

Your rights

You have the right to access, correct and delete your personal information. You can do this in the app for anything on your phone or in your backup. For group records, use the app or email admin@longsplice.au, and I will reply within 30 days.

If you are not satisfied with my reply, you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.

Age limit and changes

Long Splice is not for anyone under 13. You give your date of birth when you accept the terms, and the app keeps only the month and year, to apply the age limits. Under 18, the app doesn't ask for your weight. If you're a parent or guardian and want a young person's data deleted, email me. Training plans and food advice are general information, not medical advice, and no doctor, physio, dietitian or coach has reviewed them. The app is not affiliated with or endorsed by Garmin, Strava or Google.

When this policy changes I update the effective date above, and I tell testers before a change affects how their information is used.