Privacy Policy

Overview

PureAscent is an offline-first trail navigation and run-tracking app. It does not use advertising or analytics, and you do not need to register an email/password account. Online trail services, live sharing, and community features use an anonymous Firebase identity. This policy explains the information the app handles and the choices you have.

Information stored on your iPhone

PureAscent stores your imported trails, downloaded offline maps, saved destinations, settings, trail and run photos, and recorded runs—including route, distance, pace, elevation, and time—on your iPhone. You can delete saved runs, imported trails, trail and run photos, and offline maps in the app. Removing the app removes its locally stored app data.

Location

With your permission, PureAscent uses your precise location for map display, run recording, trail navigation, off-trail warnings, and Live Sharing. While an active run is being recorded, it may continue using location in the background so distance, route, and pace recording can continue. Precise location is sent off your device when you enable Live Sharing, submit a completed route for community review, or use online map, weather, or search features that require a requested map area or location.

Optional live sharing

If you start live sharing, PureAscent creates an anonymous Firebase user ID to create and manage a private Live Sharing session. The ID is linked to the shared route data while sharing is active. PureAscent sends your current location, route, selected planned route, run statistics, and optional aid-station information to Firebase so that people with the private link you share can view your active run. This information is used only for app functionality, not tracking or advertising. The app uses a high-entropy link and viewers cannot list shared runs. Stop live sharing in the app when you no longer want to share your run.

Apple Health

Runs, distance, pace, elevation, and route history are stored locally on your iPhone. Apple Health access is optional. If you choose to save a completed run, PureAscent writes that outdoor workout, including its route, distance, and elevation, to Apple Health. PureAscent does not read your Health data or use HealthKit data for advertising, marketing, or profiling.

Contacts

PureAscent lets you choose a contact to prefill a Live Sharing message. Contact details are not uploaded or stored as an address book.

Online plant identification

In Settings → Miscellaneous, you can choose Pl@ntNet, Apple Intelligence, or Apple Visual Look Up. All require taking a photo. With Pl@ntNet, after you accept the online identification notice, only the photo you take is sent through PureAscent's authenticated backend to the Pl@ntNet recognition API. Live camera preview frames are never uploaded. GPS coordinates, original photo metadata, trail details, and run details are not sent for identification. Our backend removes image metadata and does not save the images or identification results. It stores daily request counts and the last request time, associated with your anonymous Firebase identity, to enforce usage limits. Pl@ntNet processes the images under its service terms. Retaking a photo, closing the scanner, or backgrounding the app cancels the client request; an upload already delivered may finish processing. Pl@ntNet requires internet access and results may be incorrect.

With Apple Intelligence on iOS 27, the captured photo is analyzed by Apple's on-device Foundation Model. PureAscent does not send this photo to its backend, Pl@ntNet, or a cloud model. This option requires supported hardware, Apple Intelligence enabled, and the system model downloaded. Generated identifications can be incorrect.

With Apple Visual Look Up, PureAscent analyzes the captured photo using Apple's VisionKit and displays Apple's native lookup interface. Opening a lookup may send image-derived information to Apple's servers under Apple's privacy policy. This photo is not sent to the PureAscent identification backend or Pl@ntNet. Availability varies by device, language, and region.

Trail and run photos

Photos added to a trail or completed run are stored locally on your iPhone. Adding a photo does not upload it. You can include local photos in a backup or explicitly share or submit them. On the community submission screen, saved photos are preselected when there are five or fewer; with more than five, you choose which to include. You can exclude photos before confirming the upload. Removing a photo from the upload selection does not delete it from your local gallery.

Community submissions

When you confirm the final submission button, PureAscent uploads the trail name, description, selected photos, and selected route coordinates to our Firebase backend. Submissions are linked to your anonymous Firebase ID and remain private to you and the reviewer until approved. Approved submissions are visible to other app users. Photo metadata is removed, and activity timestamps and health data are not included in route submissions. Review is performed by a person, not an automated AI approval service. We store submission and review timestamps, review notes, status, and reviewer identity, and a per-identity daily upload count to limit uploads. You can delete a submission and its uploaded photos from More → Community Trails & My Submissions → My Submissions. Deleting a submission removes its uploaded record and photos without deleting your local run or gallery. Removing the app alone does not remove previously uploaded submissions. Anonymous submission access is tied to your app identity and may be lost if that identity is reset; contact support for removal help in that case.

Maps and trail searches

PureAscent uses Firebase and Google Cloud for online trail services, Live Sharing, and community submissions. Map and terrain features use providers including Apple Maps, OpenStreetMap, USGS, Google, Esri, and Mapterhorn; weather features use Open-Meteo. When you use those online features, a requested map area, location, or search request may be sent to the relevant provider to return results. Downloaded USGS topographic maps are saved on your device. The providers’ respective privacy policies govern their handling of requests.

Sharing and exports

When you choose to share a GPX file, backup, race-day file, photo, or live-share link, the information you select is provided to the app, person, or service you choose through the iOS share sheet. Approved community submissions are also made available to other app users as described above. PureAscent does not sell your information.

Optional AI features

If you configure an AI provider, its API key is stored in your device’s Keychain. When you use an AI feature, PureAscent sends the prompt and relevant feature context directly to your selected provider using the selected model. Depending on the feature, this can include trail or race details, location context, and text you supply. These requests are separate from community moderation. You can remove the key in More → AI. The selected provider’s terms and privacy policy govern its handling of those requests.

Support email

If you contact support, we receive the information you include in your email and any attachments you send. We use it only to respond to your request and improve support. Do not send passwords or sensitive health information.

Your choices and contact

You can control location and Health permissions in iPhone Settings, delete locally saved data and community submissions in the app, remove an AI API key, and stop live sharing at any time. For privacy questions or requests, email pureascentapp@gmail.com.