Downwind privacy policy

Last updated 21 October 2026

Downwind is a live tracker for groups on the water, made by VIDV STUDIOS. This page explains what the app collects, who can see it, how long it is kept and how you can delete it. In short: Downwind only collects what it needs to show your group where you are, it never sells or shares your data for advertising, and you can delete everything from inside the app.

What Downwind collects

• Your account. The app creates an account on your device with no email, phone number or password. We keep a random ID, the name and colour you choose, and a scrambled (hashed) copy of the device key that signs you in; the key itself is never stored on our side.
• Your position while you track. Only while you have started a ride: the time, your location, speed and GPS accuracy, about once a second. On iPhone and Android this continues with the screen off, because staying visible to your group is the point of the app. Tracking stops when you end the ride. The app doesn't cut it short, so nobody in trouble at sea disappears from their group; if it is still on after a few hours, it reminds you. A session ends on its own 30 minutes after everyone in it has landed.
• Battery level and tracking mode of the device you ride with, so your group knows if your phone is about to die.
• Ride status and help calls: whether you have landed, and when you ask your group for help.
• Crews: the crews you create or join, the names in them, which name is yours, and the landing spots saved for the crew.

On Apple Watch, Downwind records the ride as a workout in Apple Health on your watch, with your heart rate and route. Heart rate stays in Apple Health: it is shown on the watch during the ride and is never sent to us. Downwind does not use advertising, analytics or tracking tools of any kind.

Who can see it

• Everyone riding in the same session sees your name, position, track, battery, status and any help call, live and as a replay afterwards.
• Anyone you share a session link with can watch it from the shore without an account.
• Members of a crew see the crew's names, landing spots and its past sessions.

We do not sell your data or share it with anyone else, except the service providers below that run the app for us.

Service providers

• Cloudflare hosts the server and stores the data. The main database is in Western Europe.
• Expo delivers app updates to your phone. It does not receive your positions.
• Apple and Google distribute the app through their stores, under their own privacy policies.

Alerts are shown by your own device; Downwind does not use a push notification service.

Why we use it

We use this data only to provide the service you ask for when you start a ride: showing your group where you are, warning them when something looks wrong, and keeping your ride history. Location is only collected after you start a ride and give the app permission.

How long it is kept

• Your rides are kept as your ride history until you delete them or your account.
• A session nobody rode in is deleted after 30 days.
• When everyone who rode in a session has deleted their account, the session is deleted too.

Deleting your data and your rights

You can delete a single ride from your history, or delete your whole account with Delete my account and data in the app or on the website. Deleting your account removes your account and your tracks from every session, and clears the app's data from your phone and watch.

You can also ask us for a copy of your data, or to correct or delete it, by writing to [email protected]. If you are in the European Union you have the rights given by the GDPR, including the right to complain to your data protection authority (in Spain, the AEPD).

Children

Downwind is made for adults doing water sports and is not directed at children under 16.

Changes

If this policy changes, the new version will be published on this page with a new date.

Contact

VIDV STUDIOS, Spain. [email protected]