Your runs aren't stored on Apex Run servers

Most running apps want an account before they’ll show you anything, and your runs go to their servers from then on. Apex Run is the other kind of app. What follows is the plain version of the Privacy Policy, written for the person who wants to know what actually happens.

What the first sync reads, and what you can choose to save

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On first launch the app asks for Apple Health access. That one sheet is the entire sign-up.

The initial import and ongoing sync are read-only. Apex Run reads your workouts and their routes, heart rate, distance, steps, running power, cadence, stride length and the other running-form metrics, VO₂ max, and, for the recovery screens, resting heart rate, HRV, sleep, respiratory rate and blood oxygen.

Three distinctions matter:

• Your local edits and deletions don’t change Apple Health. Deleting a run removes it from the app; any Health copy stays in Health. Converting a hike to a run brings a copy in; the hike stays a hike.
• A FIT run goes into Health only when you choose. Save to Health is a Pro action that requests write access separately and saves one FIT running workout, with ApexRun as the source rather than the original recorder. Importing the file alone stays local.
• A saved workout is a one-time copy, not a sync or full backup. Your original FIT run and local edits stay in Apex Run. Later edits or deletions don’t update the Health copy.

You can see and change the permissions any time in your iPhone’s Settings→Privacy & Security→Health→Apex Run . Turn a read permission off and the app stops seeing that data.

Where it all lives

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On the phone. Every run the app imports, and everything it works out from them, is stored in the app’s own database on the device. There is no Apex Run server, no Apex Run cloud copy, no account it’s tied to. Your iPhone backup can include this local data; a workout you choose to save to Apple Health is a separate copy.

Two consequences follow, and both are worth knowing before they surprise you:

• An iPhone and an iPad don’t sync with each other. Each reads Apple Health on its own and builds its own library. The runs match because Health matches; nothing passes between the two apps.
• What you add by hand stays on the device where you added it. Names, notes and race labels, favourites, shoes and trophy photos are yours on that phone only. A new phone restored from a backup keeps them; a fresh install on a second device starts without them.

The Home Screen widgets read a small summary the app leaves for them on the same phone. Nothing about a widget involves a network.

The short list of what does leave

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Honesty means naming these rather than saying “nothing”.

• Usage counts. The app reports which screens are opened, which features are used, how long a sync took and whether a purchase or trial completed, through Google’s Firebase Analytics. It’s counts, durations, outcomes and screen names. No heart rate, no pace, no distance from any run, no route, and no user ID, because the app doesn’t have one for you.
• A purchase. A completed subscription reports its price, currency, App Store product and Apple’s transaction identifier, so revenue can be attributed. Your payment details never reach the app at all; Apple handles them.
• Map tiles. The maps are Apple Maps. Showing a route means asking Apple for the tiles of that area, exactly as the Maps app does. Your track is drawn on top of them locally; displaying the map doesn’t upload it.
• Whatever you choose to share. A share card is an image you export, and a FIT file is a file you hand to another app. Both leave only when you send them, and only to where you send them.
• A workout you choose to save to Health. Its Health copy can include the route and heart rate when available, but not calories, steps, running dynamics or speed samples. Once saved, it follows your Apple Health sharing and iCloud settings.

That is the whole list. The web tools on this site, the file converter and the track comparator among them, run entirely inside your browser and upload nothing either.

Taking it back

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Revoke Health access in your iPhone’s Settings to stop further reads or saves, according to the permissions you turn off. Delete the app and its local data goes with it, in the ordinary iOS way. A workout already saved to Health remains there; manage or delete that copy in Apple’s Health or Fitness app. There’s no Apex Run account to close and no request to send, because no Apex Run server holds your runs.

The formal version, with the contact address, is the Privacy Policy.