Privacy Policy

1. Overview

BikeWatch.app ("we," "our," or "us") is committed to protecting your privacy. This policy explains what data we collect, how we use it, who we share it with, and your rights regarding your data. We collect the minimum data needed to operate the Service.

2. Data We Collect

Account data

• Email address (required for login and notifications)
• Full name and phone number (required to file stolen reports)
• Mailing address (optional — used for regional notifications)
• Approximate location (optional — used to show nearby stolen bikes)

Bike registration data

• Make, model, year, serial number, type, colors, and description
• Photos you upload
• Theft details (date, location, police report number) if a stolen report is filed

Technical data

• Session tokens (stored server-side, used for authentication)
• Standard web server logs (IP address, user agent, timestamps)

3. How Bike Registration Data Is Shared

Bike registration records — including make, model, year, serial number, photos, colors, and theft status — are publicly accessible to everyone. This is intentional: the core purpose of BikeWatch is to enable police, bike shops, and the public to look up whether a bike is stolen.

If you post a stolen bike report, members of the public can see that the bike is stolen and contact BikeWatch.app to report a sighting — we will forward that information to you. Your contact details are not passed to third parties in that process.

4. Disclosure of Personal Information

Your personal profile data (name, email, phone number, and address) is treated as strictly private. We will only disclose this information in the following limited circumstances:

• Official law enforcement requests: We will provide your contact information to law enforcement agencies only in response to a valid legal process — such as a court order, subpoena, or formal criminal investigation request — related to a bike theft or other criminal matter involving your registered bikes. We will not voluntarily share this data with police without legal process except where we are legally required to do so.
• Your consent: If you explicitly request that we share your contact information with another party (e.g., to coordinate a bike return), we will do so only with your affirmative consent.
• Safety emergencies: If we have a good-faith belief that disclosure is necessary to prevent imminent harm to a person's life or physical safety.

We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information to any third party for commercial or marketing purposes.

5. Data Retention

We retain your account and bike data for as long as your account is active. When you delete your account, all associated personal data — including your name, email, phone number, address, and bike registrations — is permanently deleted from our systems. Backups are purged within 30 days.

If a stolen bike report was linked to a public law enforcement or press record outside our platform, we have no control over copies made by third parties.

6. Your GDPR Rights

If you are located in the European Economic Area (EEA), United Kingdom, or another jurisdiction with similar data protection laws, you have the following rights regarding your personal data:

• Right of access: You can request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
• Right to rectification: You can correct inaccurate data through your profile settings.
• Right to erasure ("right to be forgotten"): You can permanently delete your account and all associated data from your account settings. This deletion is immediate and irreversible.
• Right to data portability: You can request an export of your data in a machine-readable format by emailing [email protected] .
• Right to restriction of processing: You can request that we limit how we use your data while a dispute is being resolved.
• Right to object: You can object to processing based on legitimate interests.
• Right to withdraw consent: Where processing is based on consent, you can withdraw it at any time without affecting prior processing.

To exercise any of these rights, email [email protected] . We will respond within 30 days. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority.

7. Cookies and Tracking

We use a single session cookie to keep you logged in. We do not use third-party advertising cookies, tracking pixels, or analytics services that profile you across sites. No data is sent to advertising networks.

8. Security

Passwords are hashed using Argon2 and are never stored in plaintext. Access to production data is restricted to authorized personnel. We use HTTPS for all connections.

9. Children

BikeWatch.app is not directed to children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children under 13.

10. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy. When we do, we will update the effective date at the top. Material changes will be communicated via email to registered users.

11. Contact

For privacy questions or to exercise your rights, contact us at: [email protected]

BikeWatch.app — Portland, Oregon, USA