Privacy — Grove

Grove is built around a simple idea: the map of where you walk and run is one of the most personal things you own. We collect as little as we can, we never sell it, and you can take it with you or have it erased at any time.

Who is responsible

Grove is an independent app made by a solo developer based in Japan, operating under the name Grove. For data protection purposes, that developer is the data controller for the information described here.

You can reach us about anything on this page at privacy@TBD.

What we collect

If you join the early access list

When you enter your email address on this website, we store:

Your email address.
Your browser's language setting — only so we write to you in English or Japanese rather than guessing.
Which link brought you here, if the link carried a tag (for example a post on social media). This tells us which posts reached people. It does not identify you.
The date you signed up.

That is all. We do not store your IP address, your device, or any advertising identifier alongside it. The legal basis is your consent, given by submitting the form. We use the address for one purpose only: to tell you when Grove opens.

If you use the Grove app

The app has not been released yet. This section describes how it is built to handle your data, and we will keep this page accurate as it ships.

Grove works without an account. Until you choose to create one, everything stays on your device and never reaches us.

Location. Grove records your position while you are tracking an outing, including when the screen is off — otherwise the recording would stop in your pocket. Location is used to measure your route, your distance, and your checkpoint times. It is not used for advertising and is never sold.
Your routes and outings. The checkpoints you place, the routes you save, your times, and your personal bests.
Health and workout data. If you allow it, Grove writes a completed workout to Apple Health. Grove does not read your Health data. Data obtained through HealthKit is never used for advertising or sold, and is never shared with third parties for marketing.
Account details, only if you create an account: an identifier from Sign in with Apple, or your email address if you sign in by email.

When your data leaves your device

There are exactly three cases, and no others:

You create an account. Your outings and routes are then synced so you don't lose them when you change phones. They are stored with Supabase, our database and authentication provider, and are readable only by you.
You generate a route with AI. To draw a loop inside the area you circled, the centre point and size of that area are sent to OpenRouteService, the routing service that plans the path. Your recorded outings and your identity are not sent — only the area you asked about.
The map itself. Map tiles are fetched from a map tile provider as you pan and zoom, which necessarily reveals the area you are looking at to that provider. This is how every map app works.

This website is served by Cloudflare, which processes standard request logs to deliver the page and protect against abuse.

What we never do

We do not sell your data, and we never will.
We do not show ads, and we do not share your location or health data with advertisers.
This website sets no tracking cookies and runs no third-party advertising or analytics scripts.
We do not build leaderboards, publish your routes, or show your outings to anyone else. Grove compares you only against your own past.

How long we keep it

Early access emails are kept until Grove opens and we have sent you that one note — then deleted, unless you have become a user by then. You can ask us to remove you at any point before that.
App data is kept for as long as you keep your account. Delete your account and it is removed.
Data on your device is yours; removing the app removes it.

Your rights

Wherever you live, you can ask us to show you what we hold, correct it, delete it, or hand it over in a portable form. If you are in the European Economic Area or the UK, these are your rights under the GDPR: access, rectification, erasure, restriction, portability, and objection.

Today, the only thing we hold is the email address you gave us for early access — the app is not released yet. To see it, correct it, or have it deleted, write to privacy@TBD and we will act within 30 days.

When the app is released, we are committing to two things you will be able to do yourself, without asking us:

Export — take your outings out as GPX files, in a format other apps can read.

Erase — delete your account, and the data synced with it, from the settings screen.

If you believe we have handled your data badly, you also have the right to complain to your local data protection authority.

Where your data is processed

Our providers operate servers in several countries, so your information may be processed outside the country you live in — including outside the European Economic Area. Where that happens for people in the EEA or UK, the transfer relies on the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses or an adequacy decision.

Children

Grove is not directed at children under 16, and we do not knowingly collect their data. If you believe a child has given us information, write to us and we will delete it.

Changes to this policy

Grove is early, and this page will grow as the app does. When we change something that matters, we will update the date at the top, and if the change is significant and we have your email, we will tell you directly rather than quietly editing this page.

Contact

Questions, requests, or concerns: privacy@TBD.

Your routes stay yours.