Privacy policy

Roda Livre for iPhone. Last updated: 18 October 2026.

Roda Livre is made by Ricardo Gonçalves, an individual developer based in Portugal ("we"). This policy explains what the app does with your information. In short: your ride data stays on your phone unless you choose to send it somewhere, we run no accounts, we only count anonymous taps and screens (you can switch that off), and the only third party that gets data automatically is the ad network that pays for the free app.

What stays on your device

• Ride data (speed, power, cadence, distance, heart rate, time) read from your bike and, optionally, a heart rate source over Bluetooth. It is used to show the dashboard and to build the .fit file of a ride. The last 30 rides are kept on the phone (in Rides, excluded from backups) until you delete them, so you can upload or share them later. Nothing is uploaded unless you use Garmin upload or share the file yourself.
• Settings such as your unit preference.
• Garmin session tokens, if you sign in to Garmin. They are kept in the iOS Keychain. The app never stores your Garmin password.

The app asks for Bluetooth permission only to talk to your bike and heart rate source. It does not use your location, contacts, photos or microphone.

Garmin Connect (optional)

If you sign in to Garmin, the app sends your Garmin e-mail and password directly to Garmin's servers to sign in, and uploads each finished ride directly to Garmin Connect. This goes straight from your phone to Garmin; it does not pass through any server of ours. What Garmin does with the data is covered by Garmin's privacy policy. You can sign out at any time in Settings.

Feedback (optional)

If you tap Send feedback, the app sends the message you write, the contact detail you choose to add, and, if you leave the switch on, technical details: the app version, your iOS version, your phone model, the Bluetooth names of your bike and of nearby heart rate sensors, the Bluetooth diagnostics of your bike, and a note of which dials of the dashboard had a value, were zero or were empty (never the values themselves). The optional Compatibility check sends the same kind of information (which values your bike sends, and whether the resistance control responded), only when you tap Send. This is sent to a small relay running on Cloudflare, which creates a private issue in our GitHub repository so we can read it. We use it only to fix problems and improve the app. Once we have dealt with a report and closed it, the contact detail and the Bluetooth device names in it are removed automatically after 90 days; the rest is deleted when it is no longer needed.

Anonymous usage statistics (optional, on by default)

To see which screens and buttons are used, and where connecting to a bike goes wrong, the app sends short anonymous events: for example "the Settings screen was opened", "Start recording was tapped", "connecting took about 10 seconds and succeeded", "this bike offers level control, distance and heart rate", or the length of a ride in broad steps (under 5 minutes, 5 to 15, and so on). Each event carries a random identifier made every time the app starts, which is not linked to you, your phone or any account, plus the app version, the iOS version and the phone model. It never includes ride numbers (speed, power, heart rate, distance), Bluetooth device names, free text, your location or your Garmin account. The events are stored for 180 days in a database on Cloudflare and used only to improve the app. You can turn this off at any time in Settings > Share anonymous usage; nothing is sent after that.

Ads

Roda Livre is free and shows ads served by Google AdMob. To show and measure ads, Google and its partners may collect and use information from your device such as your IP address, device identifiers (including the advertising identifier if you allow it), and information about how you interact with ads. See how Google uses information and Google's privacy policy.

• In the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and similar regions, the app asks for your consent before ads are requested, using Google's consent tool. You can change your choice any time in Settings → Ad privacy choices.
• On iPhone, you decide whether the app may track you across other companies' apps and websites. If you choose Ask App Not to Track, you still see ads, but not personalised through your advertising identifier.
• Ads are not shown while you are recording a ride.

What we do not do

We do not sell your data, we do not build profiles, we do not use third-party analytics or crash-reporting services (the anonymous statistics above stay in our own database), and the app has no accounts of its own.

Children

Roda Livre is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect data from them.

Your rights

Under the GDPR you can ask us for access to, correction of, or deletion of any personal data we hold. The only data we hold is what you send us through the feedback screen and the anonymous usage events, which cannot be tied to you. For data held by Garmin or Google, contact them directly. You also have the right to complain to your data protection authority (in Portugal, the CNPD).

Changes and contact

If this policy changes, we will update this page and the date above. Questions: roda.livre@icloud.com.