Privacy Policy

Byker is a motorcycle route-planning app and the website byker.net. It is run by [legal name of the person or company that runs Byker], [postal address], United Kingdom ("Byker", "we", "us"). We are the controller of your personal data under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

For anything about your data, contact us.

Most of what we hold, you give us when you use the app. We don't buy data about you, and we don't collect anything for advertising.

We don't use analytics or advertising tools in the app, and we don't track what you do in other apps or on other websites.

Byker asks for your location so it can centre the map on you and find rides near you. You can say no and still use the app.

• Showing the map and finding nearby rides: your position is used on your phone. To find rides near you, it's rounded to about 1 km before it's sent to us, used to answer that one request, and not stored.
• Recording a ride: while you record, your precise track is kept on your phone. It's only sent to us if you choose to save the ride. Discard it and it never leaves your phone.
• Events near you: this uses the town you typed into your profile, never your phone's location. We keep only the town's centre.
• Planning and events: the points you add to a route, and an event's meeting point, are saved because you've chosen to save them.
• Sharing your location: off unless you turn it on, for a time you choose (or until your event ends). While it's on, your phone sends your position every 30 seconds or so while you move. We keep only your latest position, in a temporary store outside our database and its backups, and delete it as soon as you stop or the time runs out. There's no history. You choose who sees it each time: the riders at an event you're going to, your friends, or the members of a club you're in see exactly where you are; nearby riders (adults only) see only roughly where you are, to about 1 km, and your public profile. Sharing with friends, clubs and nearby riders comes with Byker Premium. Riders you've blocked never see your position. If you set your home in the app, it stays on your phone, and sharing pauses near it. We record when you start and stop sharing (for your account's security), never where you were. Riders under 18 can share only with events and friends. While you share, we also use that position to tell you about a camera van another rider reports nearby (you can turn this off in your notification settings).
• Alerts and cameras you report: when you report a camera van, road closure, biker down or speed camera, other riders see the alert but never who reported it. We keep its place (not yours), what you said about it, and who reported or confirmed it (so we can stop false reports), and delete it within 90 days of it ending.
• Messages: your chats (one-to-one, groups and club chats) are stored on our server so they reach the other riders and your other devices: the text, photos and Byker items you send, reactions, and what you've read. They aren't end-to-end encrypted, so that reports can be checked. Our staff read messages only when handling a report, and see only the reported message and the few before it; that access is recorded. Our security records note that a message was sent, edited or deleted, never what it said.
• Support tickets and Help: when you open a support ticket, we keep what you write, any screenshots you add, and your Byker version and phone system (so we can reproduce problems). Byker's support team (our moderators and administrators) read it to help you, and we email you when we answer. Their names are never shown to you: answers always come from "Byker Support". If you tap "Was this helpful?" on a Help article while signed in, we keep your answer so you can change it. Help and the FAQ on byker.net need no account, and don't record who reads them.
• Contact form: when you send us a message from byker.net, we receive your name, email address, the topic and your message by email, so we can answer you. The website doesn't store it.

A ride can still show where you live if it starts or ends at home. That's why your rides are private until you share them, and why you can turn on Hide exact start and finish, so other riders see the route without its first and last stretch. It's on by default when you save a recorded ride.

Every photo you add (to a ride, your profile, your garage, an event or a message) is re-processed on our server, which removes all hidden information, including GPS location, camera details and the time it was taken. Photos are stored privately and only shown, through short-lived links, to the people allowed to see them.

• Your rider page: your @username, display name, profile photo, town (if you've added one), your cover photo, bio and the year you started riding (if you've added them), your main bike, when you joined, how many friends you have, your published rides and the public events you organise. Your friends list shows only to the riders your privacy settings allow.
• Friends-only rides: only your friends.
• Clubs: a club's members see its members list, noticeboard, club rides and club events. Anyone can see a public or unlisted club's name, area, description and photo; a private club shows only to its members and the riders invited.
• Blocking: a rider you block can't see your page, rides, events or location, or find you, and you can't see theirs. They aren't told.
• Chats: only the riders in a chat see its messages. Friends can message you; anyone else sends a message request, which you can accept, ignore or block (you choose who may send one in Privacy settings). They can't tell whether you've seen a request until you accept it.
• Reports: the rider you report is never told who reported them.
• Published rides: everything on the ride, its ratings and comments. If you hide the exact start and finish, other riders don't see them.
• Rides you share: only the riders you share with, or anyone with the link, until you stop sharing.
• Your comments and ratings on rides and events, with your username.
• Events: who's going is shown to the organiser and the riders going.

Other riders never see your email address, birthday or gender, or your private rides. When an event is for women or men only, or for certain engine sizes, Byker checks your details privately and only tells you whether you can join.

UK GDPR says we need a lawful reason for each use of your data. Here are ours.

We don't make decisions about you using automated processing that has legal or similarly significant effects.

We run Byker's maps, routing, place search, database, photo storage and email on our own server, so most of your data never goes to anyone else. We use a few other organisations only where we have to:

• Hetzner Online GmbH provides the server Byker runs on. It stores our data but doesn't use it for anything of its own.
• Google (Firebase Cloud Messaging) delivers push notifications to your phone, if you've turned them on. It receives your device's push token and the notification's text.
• Apple and Google handle Byker Premium payments in the App Store and Google Play. We send them the purchase details your phone gives us, to check your subscription is real.
• Apple, Google and Facebook, if you sign in with them. We check the sign-in with the service and receive your name, email address and an ID from it. Their own privacy policies apply to what they collect.
• Google Maps, only if you tap to open a ride or place in it. The app then opens Google Maps with the points needed for directions, and Google's privacy policy applies.
• The police, courts or regulators, if the law requires it, or where it's needed to protect someone's safety.

We never sell your personal data, and we never share it with advertisers.

Byker's server is in the European Economic Area, which the UK recognises as protecting personal data to an adequate standard. Google, Apple and Facebook may process data in the United States and elsewhere; where they do, they rely on the UK's adequacy regulations (including the UK Extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework) or on the UK's approved contract terms.

• Your account and everything in it stays until you delete it. Delete a ride, photo, comment or message and it's gone straight away (photo files included).
• Deleting your account (Profile → Account Settings → Delete account) removes your profile, photos, garage, rides, shares, friends and blocks, club memberships, messages, support tickets, Help votes, sign-in methods and Premium record immediately. A club you own passes to its longest-serving admin or member, or closes if nobody else is in it. Copies of shared rides that other riders saved for themselves stay theirs, credited to "a former rider". In other riders' chats, your messages are removed and you show as "a former rider". Deleting your account doesn't cancel a Premium subscription; cancel that in your App Store or Google Play settings.
• Notifications are deleted automatically 90 days after you've read them, or after 180 days if you haven't.
• Support tickets are deleted, screenshots included, two years after they're resolved.
• Messages from our contact form are deleted from our inbox two years after we've answered them.
• Security records are kept for as long as we need them to protect Byker. When you delete your account, they're anonymised, so they no longer identify you.
• Backups of our database are kept for up to [30] days, then overwritten, so deleted data disappears from them within that time.

Everything between the app and our server is encrypted (HTTPS). Passwords and one-time codes are stored only as secure hashes. Your sign-in is held in your phone's secure storage. Photos are never on public web addresses, and every request for a ride, photo or share is checked against who's allowed to see it. Our staff can only reach your data where it's needed to run or protect Byker.

Under UK GDPR you have the right to:

• Get a copy of your data. Use Download my data in the app for your profile, rides (also as GPX files), photos and shares, or ask us.
• Correct it. Most details can be edited in the app.
• Delete it. Use Delete account in the app, or ask us.
• Restrict or object to how we use it, including anything we do on the basis of legitimate interests.
• Move it to another service, in a machine-readable format.
• Withdraw consent at any time, for anything we do on the basis of consent.

To use any of these, contact us. We'll reply within one month. If you're unhappy with how we've handled your data, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113, but we'd appreciate the chance to put it right first.

You must be 16 or over to create a Byker account, and we check your birthday when you sign up. If you think someone under 16 has an account, please tell us and we'll delete it.

Because the law treats under-18s as children online, riders aged 16 and 17 have extra protections on Byker, whatever their settings:

• Messages: only your friends can message you. Riders who aren't your friends can't send you a message request, or add you to a group chat.
• Sharing your location: you can share it with your friends and with an event you're going to, but not with a club or with nearby riders, and you never appear to anyone as a nearby rider.

We use your birthday to apply these protections. When you turn 18 they end by themselves, and you can then choose the same settings as any other rider.

byker.net doesn't use cookies, analytics or advertising trackers, and its fonts are served from our own server. Like most websites, our web server keeps standard logs (IP address, the page asked for, the time, and your browser type) for security and to fix problems; they're deleted after a short time. When you open a Byker link (like byker.net/r/…) without the app, the page only works out whether you're on iPhone or Android to send you to the right app store. It doesn't look up or show the ride, event or rider.

If we change this policy, we'll update the date at the top. If the change is significant, we'll tell you in the app before it takes effect.

Questions, requests or worries about your data: contact us, or write to us at the address in section 1.