Your location, only while you record

In short

• Location is collected only while you have an exercise recording running, which you start yourself.
• Recording carries on if your screen locks, until you stop it or it ends automatically after 4 hours.
• There's no tracking at any other time, and nobody can start a recording on your phone or watch you live.
• Routes are seen only by named roles in your stable. Owners don't see your identity, and a route only goes into an owner report if a manager chooses to add it.
• By default, the link to you is kept for 90 days and the route for 365 days. Your stable can choose different periods within set limits.
• It isn't used to score your productivity or attendance, for discipline, or in AI features.
• You can always log exercise by hand instead.

When location is collected

Your phone's precise location is collected only during an exercise recording that you start in the app. While it runs:

• the app shows clearly on screen that it's recording, with pause and stop controls;
• it keeps recording if the screen turns off or you switch to another app;
• on Android, a notification shows for as long as the recording runs; and
• it stops when you tap Stop, or automatically after 4 hours.

Your location is never collected at any other time. There's no remote, scheduled, hidden or background tracking outside a recording you've started, and there's no live view for managers.

GPS stays switched off for a stable until that stable has completed its own checks (see your stable's responsibilities). The app also confirms with our servers at least once every 24 hours that your stable is still allowed to record. If it isn't, new recordings can't start.

Why background location is needed

The route is used for the horse's training record: where the work was done, how far, and how fast. Your phone will ask for permission with these words on iPhone and iPad:

“ThoroughTrack records your route during an active exercise so you can review distance, pace, and workout patterns.”

“ThoroughTrack needs background location to continue recording your route while the screen is locked during an active exercise.”

Background permission matters because nobody can keep a phone screen on and the app open for a whole lot. Without it, the route would have gaps that can't be filled in afterwards. Before your phone shows its own permission prompt, the app will explain all this on a screen of its own.

What is recorded

• GPS positions about once a second (every two seconds in battery-saver mode), each with a time and accuracy reading.
• Which rider the route is linked to, and who made the recording.
• The horse and exercise session the route belongs to.
• The stable's settings that allowed the recording, such as its retention choices and notice version. These contain no free text.

From the route, the app works out figures such as distance, time, pace and the fastest furlong for the training record.

Who can see it

Within your stable, raw routes and the rider linked to them can be seen only by:

• the Stable Admin, Trainer and Yard Manager;
• you, as the rider; and
• staff assigned to that exercise.

Your stable can narrow this list, and the notice you see in the app before recording shows the list for your stable. Owners, vets and farriers don't see raw routes or who rode. ThoroughTrack's own team has no standing access to your stable's records.

Routes in owner reports

Owner reports are also planned. A route is included in a report only if a stable manager specifically chooses to add it; it's off by default. Before it's shared, your name and other rider details are removed, along with precise timings that aren't needed.

What it is not used for

By default, location data and the rider link are not used:

• to score your productivity;
• to monitor your attendance;
• to support disciplinary decisions; or
• as input to any AI or automated-suggestion feature.

Using it for anything materially different would need a new data protection impact assessment, a new version of the notice you see, and a design review.

How long it is kept

When the rider link expires, your name is removed from the route, but the route itself is kept for its own period. Because it could still be traced back to you from who recorded it and when, it isn't anonymous, and we treat it as personal data until it's deleted. Keeping routes forever isn't an option.

If your stable later shortens a period, the shorter period applies to routes already stored. A longer period only applies to new recordings. Figures worked out from a route, such as distance and time, can stay with the training record under the stable's normal record keeping.

How to stop or decline

• Stop a recording at any time with the Stop button in the app. It also stops automatically after 4 hours.
• Decline background location. You can still log exercise by hand, or record only while the app is open on screen.
• Turn off location for the app in your phone's settings. On iPhone and iPad go to Settings, ThoroughTrack, Location. On Android go to Settings, Apps, ThoroughTrack, Permissions, Location (the exact wording varies by phone).
• Ask questions or object using the contacts in your rights below.

Your stable's responsibilities

For location data, your stable is the controller: it decides whether to use GPS recording and is responsible for using it lawfully. Before GPS can be switched on, the stable must:

• assess whether recording is necessary and proportionate, and whether a less intrusive option would do, following the Information Commissioner's Office guidance on monitoring workers;
• choose and record its lawful basis: legitimate interests, legal obligation, contract or explicit consent. Because consent is rarely freely given at work, it's never assumed;
• tell and consult its riders and staff, and show them the location notice in the app;
• choose its retention periods within the limits above;
• name a contact for questions, access requests and objections; and
• renew all of this at least once a year.

ThoroughTrack Limited provides the app and completes a product-level data protection impact assessment before any stable can use the feature.

Your rights as a rider

If you ride out or record exercise, you're likely to be an employee or worker of the stable, and data protection law gives you rights over your location data. You can:

• ask for a copy, including routes where you're the rider even if someone else made the recording;
• object to the recording;
• ask for incorrect data to be corrected, or for data to be deleted or restricted; and
• complain to the Data Protection Commission in Ireland or the Information Commissioner's Office in the UK.

Start with the rights contact your stable names in the app's location notice. You can also email us at hello@thoroughtrack.ie, and we'll help or pass your request to your stable. Requests only ever cover your own data, never another rider's.

Maps

Routes can always be viewed offline on a plain route view. Satellite imagery, from Esri ArcGIS, loads only when you're connected and looking at a map. Nothing is downloaded in advance. Your route isn't sent to the map provider: it receives only the map tiles needed for the area on screen, along with network details such as your IP address, which can show roughly which area you're viewing.

Questions

Email hello@thoroughtrack.ie. For everything else about how we handle personal data, see our privacy notice.