Privacy Policy
Last changed November 6, 2026. Last reviewed November 6, 2026.
Dockwise is published by Polymath LLC, which is responsible for your personal data in Dockwise (the "controller" under the GDPR). We don't run servers for Dockwise, we don't have accounts, and we don't sell or share your personal information. There are no ads or tracking in the app. Dockwise counts how it's used, anonymously and only as described below, and you can turn that off at any time. This page explains what does leave your device, why, and what you can do about it.
Who we are
Polymath LLC. For anything about privacy, including the requests below, email [email protected].
What leaves your device
| Sent to | What | Why |
|---|---|---|
| FOSSGIS e.V. public routing server (valhalla1.openstreetmap.de, Germany) | The coordinates of your trip's start, pickup and drop-off stations and destination, and of your position when rerouting | To calculate walking and cycling routes and find which streets have bike lanes. Sent only when you plan a trip or Dockwise reroutes you. No name, account or device identifier is sent. FOSSGIS's servers receive your IP address like any website. |
| Apple (Maps, search, address lookup, WeatherKit, Siri) | The area of the map you're looking at, to draw it; what you type in search; the coordinates of your location (precise when Precise Location is on) and of any pin you drop, to look up their street address; your route's location for weather; and what you ask Siri to do in Dockwise | To show the map, find places, name your location and warn about rain or heat. Apple handles this under Apple's privacy policy. |
| Citi Bike (Lyft) station feed | Nothing about you but your IP address, which any website receives. Dockwise only downloads the public station list and counts. | To show bikes and docks. |
| Your own iCloud (Apple), if you're signed in with iCloud on | Your saved places (their names and coordinates), your route, units, station and voice settings, and your ride history. Not your chosen voice, Save rides to Health, Head tracking, Watch or debug settings, which stay on each device. | So they follow you to your other devices signed into the same Apple Account. They go to your iCloud account, not to us: we can't see them. Apple handles them under Apple's privacy policy. Signed out of iCloud, Dockwise stops syncing and keeps them on the device. |
| TelemetryDeck GmbH (Germany, hosted in the EU), only as set out under Usage data | Anonymous usage counts from the fixed list below, each with the day (not the time) it was counted, a random ID made for this install of Dockwise, the app and iOS version, and your IP address, which any internet connection sends | So we can see which features riders use and fix what doesn't work. Never your location, routes, stations, saved places, addresses, searches or the times of your trips. |
We, Polymath LLC, receive none of this except the usage counts, which we see only as totals in TelemetryDeck and can't tie to you. Otherwise we only see what you send us by email.
What stays on your devices
Your saved places, settings, the trip in progress and recent station data are stored on your iPhone and Apple Watch, and shared between Dockwise's widgets, Siri shortcuts and Watch app on those devices. Dockwise never syncs the trip in progress or station data to iCloud. Your iPhone's backups, to iCloud or a computer, include Dockwise's data like any app's, under your backup settings.
Your ride history (the date, pickup and drop-off stations, distance, time and route of each ride you dock) is kept on your iPhone and, with iCloud on, in your iCloud's private database, which only you can read, so it's on all your devices signed into the same Apple Account. If you sign out of iCloud or turn it off for Dockwise, the synced rides leave that iPhone but stay in iCloud; rides not yet uploaded can be lost. We never receive it. Dockwise doesn't share it with its widgets or Watch app. You can delete one ride or all of them in Settings › History › Ride history, which deletes them on all your devices and in iCloud. A device that was offline with rides it never uploaded can upload them afterwards; delete them again there. If you sign out of iCloud before a delete reaches it, delete again after signing back in.
Location
Dockwise uses your location to find stations near you and to guide you turn by turn, including in the background while a trip is active. It stops using location in the background when the trip ends. Your precise location is used only to give you the trip you asked for: never for ads, profiles or anything else.
Head tracking
If you turn on Head tracking, Dockwise reads which way your head is turned from AirPods that support it during a trip, so each turn cue keeps coming from the direction of the turn as you look around. It uses this only while a trip is active, keeps none of it, and it never leaves your iPhone.
Apple Health
If you turn on Save rides to Health, Dockwise writes the bike part of each trip to Health as a cycling workout with its distance and route. It doesn't read anything from Health. Health data is never sent anywhere by Dockwise. On Apple Watch, Dockwise runs a workout session during a ride so it can tap your wrist for turns. With Save rides to Health on, that workout saves the ride instead of your iPhone, and adds your heart rate and active energy to it.
Usage data
Dockwise can send anonymous counts of how it's used to TelemetryDeck, an analytics service in the EU. It sends only these events, and a new one can't be sent until we add it here:
- the app opened
- a trip started, arrived, or ended early, with the bike ride's distance rounded to the kilometer
- a station filled up during the ride and Dockwise moved you to another
- a Siri, Shortcuts or widget action was used, and which one (such as Check Docks)
- the Apple Watch app was used
Dockwise sends only the day of each count, not the time, so the counts don't show when your trips happened. Each count carries a random ID made for this install of Dockwise, so TelemetryDeck can count riders without knowing who they are. Dockwise doesn't use Apple's advertising identifier, and the ID isn't linked to your Apple Account, your name or your other apps. TelemetryDeck hashes the ID again before storing it, and receives the app and iOS version, but not your device model, language, region or time zone: Dockwise sends those blank. TelemetryDeck's software also keeps a record of when and how long you used Dockwise on your iPhone; it never leaves the device, and Dockwise deletes it when you turn usage data off or use Delete my data, at the latest by the next time Dockwise starts.
Whether it's on depends on your App Store country:
- In the EU, the EEA, the UK and Switzerland, and wherever Dockwise can't read your App Store country, it's off until you say yes. After setting up, Dockwise asks once, "Help improve Dockwise?" Closing the question counts as no. Nothing is sent before you say yes. If your App Store country changes to one of these, sending stops until you say yes there.
- Everywhere else, it's on from the start, without a prompt. This policy is your notice.
Turn it off at any time in Dockwise's Settings › Privacy › Your Privacy Choices › Share usage data. Sending stops at once and counts not yet sent are deleted. Your choice is kept on that device only, with its date, your App Store country and the version of this list you saw. If the list changes, Dockwise asks again in the countries above, and we update this policy.
Why we may use your data
The GDPR asks us to name a legal basis for each use.
| Use | Legal basis |
|---|---|
| Routes, place search, addresses, weather and station counts | Needed to give you the service you asked for (GDPR Article 6(1)(b)). |
| Syncing saved places, settings and ride history through your iCloud | Needed to give you the service you asked for (Article 6(1)(b)). You turn it off with iCloud in iOS Settings. |
| Usage counts, in the EU, EEA, UK and Switzerland | Your consent (Article 6(1)(a)), asked before anything is sent or the usage ID is stored. You can withdraw it at any time with Share usage data. |
| Saving rides to Health | Your consent, given when you turn on Save rides to Health and allow it in Health (Articles 6(1)(a) and 9(2)(a)). You can withdraw it at any time by turning either off. |
| Your email to us | Our legitimate interest in answering you (Article 6(1)(f)), and our legal duty when it's a privacy request (Article 6(1)(c)). |
Dockwise stores data on your device only to provide what you asked for, as the ePrivacy rules allow without separate consent. The one exception is the usage ID, which in those countries Dockwise stores only after you say yes.
Where your data goes
FOSSGIS e.V. and TelemetryDeck GmbH are in Germany, and TelemetryDeck stores data in the EU. Apple and Lyft are in the United States, and Apple may process data in other countries too. If you're in the EU or UK, what goes to Apple and Lyft leaves the EU. Each handles it under its own privacy terms. Dockwise sends them only what the table above lists.
How long it's kept
Saved places and settings stay on your devices and in your iCloud until you delete them. Ride history stays for as long as you choose in Settings › History: forever, 1 year or 90 days. Each device keeps its own choice and deletes older rides on all your devices. The trip in progress is kept only so a closed app can pick it back up: it's deleted when the trip ends, and not resumed after two hours. Station counts are replaced as new ones arrive. When you delete a saved place, your iCloud keeps a marker with no name or location for 180 days, so your other devices delete it too. After Delete my data, your iCloud also keeps the date you used it, so a device that comes back online later deletes its places and settings too.
The usage choice stays on your device until you change it, and Delete my data keeps it, so a no stays a no. TelemetryDeck keeps the usage counts under its own terms; they can't be tied back to you.
FOSSGIS, Apple and Lyft keep what they receive, such as server logs, under their own policies; we don't control them. We keep privacy requests and our replies for 24 months, as a record that we answered them, then delete them.
Your rights
Wherever you live, you can ask us to tell you what personal data we hold about you, to correct it, to delete it or to stop using it, and to give you a copy. If you're in the EU or UK, you also have the right to restrict or object to how we use it, to withdraw consent at any time, and to complain to your data protection authority.
Most of your data never reaches us, so you can see, change and delete it yourself. To delete it all, tap Delete my data in Dockwise's Settings › Privacy. It deletes your saved places, settings and ride history from that device and from your iCloud, so your other devices delete them too. If iCloud is off when you do this, the copy in iCloud stays; delete again after turning it back on. It also replaces the usage ID with a new one and deletes counts not yet sent. TelemetryDeck offers no way to delete the counts already sent under the old ID, and since that ID can't be tied to you, we can't find them either. Rides saved to Health stay in Health; delete them in the Health app. A ride still on its way to your Apple Watch to be saved to Health, with its route, stays on your iPhone until the Watch receives it. Deleting Dockwise deletes its data from that device, but not from iCloud.
For anything else, email [email protected]. We answer within one month. We may ask you to confirm the request comes from you. Someone you authorize can ask for you.
US state privacy laws
This section is for California (CCPA and CPRA) and other states with similar laws, such as Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut and Texas.
| Category | From whom and why | Who receives it |
|---|---|---|
| Precise geolocation (sensitive personal information) | From you, to give you routes, addresses, weather and the trip you asked for | FOSSGIS, Apple, and your own iCloud for saved places and ride history routes |
| Search text, and what you ask Siri | From you, to find places | Apple |
| Internet or other electronic network activity: anonymous usage counts with a random install ID (see Usage data) | From the app, to improve Dockwise | TelemetryDeck, which counts them for us |
| IP address | From your device, as any internet connection sends it | FOSSGIS, Apple, Lyft, TelemetryDeck and our website host, GitHub |
Usage counts are on by default in these states. Turn them off at any time in Settings › Privacy › Your Privacy Choices › Share usage data.
We use precise geolocation only to give you the trip you asked for, which the law allows without a "Limit the use of my sensitive personal information" link.
We don't sell or share your personal information, and never have. ("Share" here means for ads that follow you across apps and sites.) Usage counts are neither: they go only to TelemetryDeck, which counts them for us, and they're never used for ads. So there's no "Do Not Sell or Share" link; Your Privacy Choices in Settings › Privacy holds the usage switch and this policy. Dockwise has no advertising code, and we check every new software kit against this before adding it.
You have the right to know what we collect, to delete it, to correct it, and to opt out of its sale or sharing (there is none to opt out of). Use Delete my data, or email [email protected]. We answer within one month, inside the 45 days these laws allow. We won't treat you differently for using these rights.
This website
dockwise.bike sets no cookies, has no analytics and loads nothing from other sites: its fonts and images are served from the site itself. It's hosted on GitHub Pages, so GitHub receives your IP address when you visit, under GitHub's privacy statement. We honor Global Privacy Control. Since the site sets no cookies and doesn't sell or share data, there's nothing for it to opt you out of.
Children
Dockwise isn't directed at children under 13 and doesn't knowingly collect information from them.
Changes
We review this policy at least once a year. If it changes, we'll update this page and the dates at the top.
Contact
Questions about privacy: [email protected]. Polymath LLC.