PWC Lab (“the app”) is built by GT40 Marine for personal-watercraft riders. This policy explains what the app collects, why, and your choices. Questions: mike@gt40marine.com.
What we collect
- Public and crew location (~1 km). When you choose “I’m Riding” or temporarily share with a joined ride or crew, your location is rounded to roughly 1 km before it leaves your device. We never publish your exact coordinates. Sharing is off by default, foreground-only, and expires automatically.
- Private GPS ride and run data. When an eligible recorded ride is synced, GPS samples can be sent privately to our backend so speed, distance, time, acceleration, route quality, and signal integrity can be calculated. Raw GPS samples are not available through public leaderboard APIs. Optional private research uploads exclude exact GPS unless you turn on the separate “Include exact GPS” control.
- Weather and water-condition area. To load conditions, the app sends latitude and longitude rounded to two decimal places (roughly a 1 km area) to Open-Meteo. This can be the selected riding area’s center or, when that area has no map point, an approximate area derived from the phone’s last-known location. It is used for the conditions request and is not sent with your rider handle.
- Optional private field-research data. If you opt in, completed ride telemetry, Link diagnostics, proof logs, and available vehicle data can upload when internet is available. This can include RPM, throttle, boost, load, temperatures, voltage, AFR, oil pressure, CAN/BLE frames, faults, firmware and connection events, timestamps, ski/build/sensor configuration, app version, phone platform, firmware, dongle, and update identifiers.
- Rider handle (display name). Optional. Shown on leaderboards and ride/meetup rosters.
- Photos. Optional. If you add a ski photo, profile picture, or save a share card, those images are handled on your device / your chosen destination.
- Pseudonymous device identifier. A random ID used to protect private access, prevent duplicates, associate consent with submitted packages, and diagnose recordings without requiring your legal name, email, or phone number.
- Passwordless installation identity. The app creates a pseudonymous Supabase identity on your device so only you can manage rides you host and so invite-only rides and crew spaces can enforce access. It contains no email, password, name, or phone number.
- Ride & performance data. GPS-derived stats from your runs (ride count, time, distance, waterbody, top speed, and acceleration) and the ski/build details you enter.
- Ordinary service metadata. Our infrastructure may receive normal operational data such as request time, network address, platform, error, security, and delivery logs.
No sign-in required. PWC Lab does not ask you to create an account or enter an email, password, legal name, or phone number. Research packages are designed to exclude direct identifiers such as your name, email, phone number, contacts, photos, messages, and payment information. Pseudonymous identifiers and precise location can still be personal data under some laws, so we disclose and protect them accordingly.
How we use it
We use data to provide recorded rides, verified GPS results, leaderboards, temporary on-water presence, group rides, your garage/build tracking, diagnostics, and support. If you opt into research sharing, GT40 Marine and PWC Lab may retain, analyze, compare, combine, reproduce, and use submitted raw data and derived results to validate gauges and decodes, troubleshoot failures, improve compatibility and calibration, build aggregated research datasets, study safety and reliability, and improve existing or future free and commercial products. Submitted research data is not used for targeted advertising.
What we share
- The public leaderboards may show your handle, ski/build, verified ride count, aggregate time and distance, waterbodies visited, and verified top speed. They do not expose raw GPS samples or exact coordinates.
- Public presence and planned rides may show your handle, selected waterbody, the public meeting point you type, and a coarse approximate area. Exact coordinates are never shown publicly.
- Invite-only rides, crew rosters, crew chat, and temporary rough-zone presence are limited to the host and riders who join that ride or crew. Public presence and joined-ride/crew sharing are separate controls; both are foreground-only and expire after 30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours, or Today.
- Private app and research data is processed by service providers that operate the app’s infrastructure, including Supabase. Data is encrypted in transit and access to private research storage is restricted.
- Open-Meteo receives the approximate area and ordinary network request data needed to return weather and marine conditions. PWC Lab does not send your rider handle, contacts, messages, or Link telemetry with that request.
- We do not sell personal data, and we do not share research packages for third-party advertising.
Your choices
- Research sharing is optional and off until you affirmatively choose it. Declining does not block the app’s basic features.
- Exact GPS in research packages is a separate control and is off by default.
- Turn research sharing off in Settings → Privacy & data to stop future submissions and remove pending uploads from that device.
- Decline or revoke the location permission at any time in your device settings (some features will be limited).
- Reset your profile and local data from Settings → Reset in the app.
- Request deletion of server-stored data by emailing mike@gt40marine.com.
Research permission and retention
Choosing to share gives GT40 Marine and PWC Lab permission to store and use submitted data and derived results for the purposes described above without payment to you. It does not transfer ownership of your phone or watercraft. Previously submitted raw data, de-identified data, derived measurements, and aggregate results may be retained for research, engineering, security, support, and legal purposes. Some derived or de-identified results may not be reasonably reversible or attributable to one device.
Children
PWC Lab is not directed to children under 13 and we do not knowingly collect their data.
Changes
We may update this policy; material changes will be noted in the app and dated above.