BikeChat Privacy Policy

Last updated: 28 September 2026

BikeChat is a social app that helps motorbike riders find each other, connect, and ride together. This policy explains exactly what we collect, why, who can see it, and the controls you have. We collect the minimum we need to run the app. We do not sell your data, we do not show ads, and we do not track you across other apps or websites.

BikeChat is run by Ioannis Georgios Triantos, who is responsible for your personal data (the "data controller"). How to reach us is at the end of this page.

What we collect

• Account: your email address and display name, and a password (stored by Firebase Authentication — we never see the password itself).
• Birth year: when you sign up we ask your date of birth, to check you are old enough to use BikeChat. Your phone checks the full date; we keep only the year. Other riders never see it, and it can't be changed later from the app.
• Profile: whatever you choose to add — bio, city and country, riding experience, your bikes, and a profile photo.
• Approximate location: while you are recording a ride and set to visible, other riders see your position snapped to a grid of roughly 1 km — never your exact spot. Turning visibility off, or stopping the ride, removes your pin immediately.
• Precise location: while the app is open, it uses your position to show the map, riders and meetups near you, and to call for help (SOS). When you start a ride or navigation, it keeps using it — including with the screen off — until you stop. Your precise position is never shown to other riders.
• Ride recordings: when you start a ride, the app records your GPS track, distance and speed so you can view and replay it. Your recordings are private to your account until you delete them.
• Routes you post: if you choose to post a ride as a route, other riders see its path with at least the first and last 500 m cut off, so it does not show where you started or finished, and they never see your top speed. A ride too short for that posts without a map. If a ride passes by where it started or finished along the way, that stretch is still shown. Only post a route you are happy to share.
• Photos and videos: before a photo leaves your phone, the app re-encodes it, which removes its location, camera details and other hidden data. Moment videos are uploaded as recorded.
• Things you share: posts, comments and likes, moments, meetups you host or join, chat messages (including photos and voice messages you send), ride-group messages, and connection requests.
• Follows: who you follow and who follows you — other riders can see these lists and counts.
• Road alerts: alerts you report are stored without your identity attached.
• Safety records: riders you block, and reports you submit about others.
• Crash data: crash and error reports through Firebase Crashlytics (device model, OS version, stack trace), tagged with your account ID — never your email or name — so we can fix the problem you hit. No advertising identifiers, no third-party analytics.

Who can see what

• Only you: your email, birth year, ride recordings, blocks, reminders, and the reports you file.
• Riders in the app (signed in, never the open web): your name, profile and photo while you are visible, your approximate pin while riding and visible, your posts, moments, routes, comments, meetups, and follows.
• The people in a conversation: your messages in a chat or a ride group.
• Our team: reports, for safety review, and crash reports.

Who processes it for us

• Google Firebase (Authentication, Cloud Firestore, Cloud Storage, Cloud Functions, Crashlytics, Hosting) runs the app's backend and stores everything above, under Google's Firebase privacy terms. Files are stored in the United States.
• TomTom receives a route's start and destination to plan turn-by-turn directions.
• komoot Photon and LocationIQ receive the place you search for, with your position (Photon) or a wide area around you (LocationIQ), to find nearby places.
• OpenStreetMap's Overpass API receives your position during a ride, to show the speed limit.
• OpenFreeMap, and for the 3D ride replay Esri ArcGIS and Amazon Web Services, serve map, satellite and terrain images for the area on your screen.

None of these receives your name, email or account ID from the app.

What we never do

• We never sell or rent your personal data.
• We never show other riders your exact live position.
• We never read your location when the app is closed, unless you are recording a ride or navigating.
• We never run third-party ads or share your data for advertising.

Deleting your account and data

You can delete your account inside the app: Account → Settings → Privacy & safety → Delete account. Deletion permanently removes your profile and public card, your location pin, chats (for both people in them), connection requests, follows, meetups you host and your messages in ride groups, your posts, routes and moments, your ride history, reminders, blocks, the reports you filed, and your photos.

Some things are kept: reports other riders made about you (for safety review), and road alerts, which never carried your identity. Deleted files can remain in our storage provider's backups for up to 7 days before they are gone for good.

You can also ask for deletion by emailing bikechatapp@gmail.com from your account's email address.

Your rights

Depending on where you live (including under the EU GDPR), you have the right to access, correct, export, or delete your personal data, and to object to or restrict processing. Write to bikechatapp@gmail.com and we will respond within 30 days. You also have the right to complain to your national data protection authority. Our legal bases are performing the service you asked for (the app itself), and our legitimate interest in keeping it safe and working — which includes checking that riders are old enough to use it.

Age

BikeChat is for riders aged 18 and over. We ask your date of birth when you sign up; if it shows you are younger, no account is created and we keep no record of the attempt. If we learn that an account belongs to someone under 18, we delete it. If you believe that has happened, contact us.

Changes

If this policy changes materially, we will note it here and in the app before the change takes effect.

Contact

BikeChat is run by Ioannis Georgios Triantos. Email bikechatapp@gmail.com about anything in this policy.