Privacy

Last updated 2026-11-14

BLADES is an indoor rowing game. This page says what we collect when you use it, why, who can see it, and how to get rid of it. Short version: we keep what the game needs to work, we don’t sell anything, there are no ads and no third-party trackers, and you can delete your account from inside the app.

Questions about this policy or your data: use the support page.

Without an account

Just row, the Erg Lab and a classic solo career work without signing in. Your PBs, recent sessions, settings and that career stay in your browser or phone’s local storage. They don’t leave your device, and clearing the site’s data (or deleting the app) clears them.

What we collect

• Your account: your email address, a password (stored as a hash by our authentication provider; we never see it) and the name you choose, which crewmates and league members see.
• Your rowing: for careers, crews and leagues, each session’s time, distance, splits, average pace, rate and watts, which workout it was, a steadiness score, and minutes in each training band. Your 2k reference time and, if you give one, your maximum heart rate.
• Heart rate: if you pair a strap, we use your heart rate on the device to work out which training band you’re in. What we store is the minutes in each band, not your heart-rate trace.
• What you decide in the game: programme and team names, colours, line-ups, trades, recruiting and the other choices that make up a league.
• WHOOP (only if you connect it): your WHOOP workouts’ sport, start and end time, minutes in each heart-rate zone, strain and average heart rate, used as cross-training. Your WHOOP sign-in tokens stay on our server and never reach the app.
• Concept2 Logbook (only if you connect it): your Logbook user id, weight class and sign-in tokens (server only), and a record of which workouts we’ve posted so nothing goes twice.
• Product analytics: when the app opens, a PM5 connects, a piece starts or finishes, or a career is created, we record the event with a random id made for your device, the platform (web, iPhone, Android), the site that sent you here, and a few details of the event (which piece, the distance). If you’re signed in, the event is linked to your account. We use it to see whether the game works and where people get stuck, and for nothing else.
• Founding members (only if you join the list on the home page): your email, the name you give if any, and the site that sent you, so we can tell you first about what’s next. Ask on the support page to come off it.
• Crash reports: if BLADES hits an error, the error message, where in the code it happened, which screen you were on, the app version and the platform, with web addresses’ query strings and any email addresses removed. Never anything you typed. At most a few per visit.
• Feedback: what you send us through Send feedback or the support page, and the email you give us for a reply.

We don’t use HealthKit, we don’t collect your location, contacts or photos, and we don’t track you across other apps or websites.

Who can see it

• Your crewmates and league members see your name, your sessions and their results, your cross-training, and your decisions in that crew or league. That’s the game: everyone’s device rebuilds the same season from the same rows.
• On the open water: if you row with others (Row alone off), rowers on the same water see your name (or “A rower” if you hide it), your boat and where you are on the river while you’re out. Nothing about it is stored.
• Nobody else. Every table is protected so you can only read your own rows and those of people you row with.
• Our service providers, only to run BLADES: Supabase (database, sign-in and server functions) and Vercel (hosting the website). The website loads its fonts from Google Fonts, which sees your IP address.
• Concept2 and WHOOP, only if you connect them: we post your workouts to your Logbook, and read your workouts from WHOOP. Their own privacy policies cover what they do with them.

We don’t sell or rent your data, and we don’t share it for advertising.

Deleting your account

In the app: Account › Delete account…, then type DELETE. It deletes your sign-in and your email, your profile, careers, leagues and crews nobody else is in (with all their sessions), your WHOOP and Concept2 connections, your cross-training, your feedback, your analytics events and your place on the founding-member list. It can’t be undone.

If you’re in a league or crew with other people, their seasons are built from everyone’s sessions and decisions, so pulling yours out would change their results after the fact. In that case the sessions, decisions and cross-training their season uses stay, anonymised: everything you typed comes off them (you show up as “Former coach”, “Former programme” or “Former rower”, and a league or crew you founded loses the name you gave it), and with your sign-in and email deleted, nothing left links them to you. Workouts already sent to Concept2 stay in your Concept2 Logbook (delete them there).

Can’t get into the app? Ask on the support page and we’ll do it for you.

How long we keep it

As long as you have an account. Analytics events linked to your account and your feedback are deleted with it; events that aren’t linked to anyone are kept only as long as they help us improve the game.

Your rights

You can ask for a copy of your data, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete it, through the support page. Depending on where you live (for example the EU, the UK or California) you may have further rights, including to complain to your data protection authority. We use your data to provide the game you signed up for and, for analytics, because we have a legitimate interest in knowing whether it works.

Children

BLADES isn’t meant for children under 13, and we don’t knowingly collect data from them. If you think a child has signed up, tell us and we’ll delete the account.

Changes

If this policy changes, we’ll update the date at the top, and tell you in the app if the change matters.