Lap privacy policy

Effective 26 October 2026

Lap is a deep water running app for Apple Watch and iPhone. Lap doesn’t collect your information. It has no accounts, analytics, advertising, tracking or third-party software, and I don’t run any servers for the app or its features. Your workouts stay on your Apple Watch and iPhone, and in Apple Health if you allow that.

That isn’t quite the same as nothing ever leaving your devices. When you view a workout’s location, Apple’s own map service is involved. Apple services explains how.

What Lap uses, and why

Lap asks for your permission before it uses any of this, and each permission is optional.

• Health and fitness data. Lap reads your heart rate, active and resting energy, and Activity summary from Apple Health to show live workout feedback and workout summaries. Heart rate is harder to measure in water, so readings during a pool workout are less reliable than on land. Treat them as a rough guide. Heart rate zones aren’t reliable for deep water running either, because water lowers your heart rate for the same effort. When you allow it, Lap writes your completed workouts and your effort ratings to Apple Health.
• Motion and water sensors. Your Apple Watch’s motion sensors let Lap estimate your arm cycles and cadence. Watches that support it also report whether the Watch is underwater, and the water temperature.
• Location. At the start of a workout, the Watch records one location reading, so your iPhone can show where the workout took place. Lap records a single point, not a route. You can choose to opt out of location tracking. Workouts work without it.
• Workout records. Lap keeps your workout summaries, interval results, cadence readings over time, and the settings it needs to run.

Where it’s stored

Lap keeps its copies of this information on your Apple Watch and your iPhone. Your Watch sends each completed workout to your iPhone using Apple’s Watch connectivity technology. Lap doesn’t sync to iCloud, and I never receive your data.

Apple services

Lap uses Apple services that handle limited information on Apple’s side. Apple’s own privacy notices describe what Apple does with it.

• Apple Maps. To show where a workout took place, Lap displays a map from Apple Maps, which receives the area being shown. That area is centred on where your workout began, so Apple can tell roughly where it was. I don’t receive anything from this. See Apple Maps & Privacy.
• Apple Health. You decide which Health data Lap can read and write. Other apps only get Lap’s workouts from Apple Health if you separately allow them. See Health App & Privacy.
• Location Services. Apple controls the permission prompt and the setting. See Location Services & Privacy.
• Motion & Fitness. Apple controls this permission too. Apple’s overview of its privacy notices is at Data & Privacy.

How long Lap keeps it, and how to delete it

• After a workout, your Watch keeps its copy only until your iPhone confirms it has received it, then deletes it.
• Your iPhone keeps your workouts until you delete them. To delete one, open it in Lap and delete it there. That removes Lap’s copy only. The workout stays in Apple Health, where you can separately delete it if you want.
• Deleting Lap from your iPhone removes everything Lap stores on that iPhone. Deleting Lap from your Watch removes everything Lap stores on the Watch.
• Workouts and effort ratings already saved to Apple Health stay there when you delete Lap. You can remove them in Apple Health.
• Lap has no accounts, so there’s nothing else to delete.

Your choices

• You can allow or turn off Health, Motion & Fitness and Location access at any time in Settings on your iPhone. Lap still records a workout without them. Some information, such as cadence or the workout’s location, will be missing.
• If you turn off Precise Location, Lap records the approximate reading Apple provides.

This website

This website has no analytics, cookies, tracking scripts or embedded content from other sites. It’s hosted on Cloudflare, which, like any web host, handles standard request information such as your IP address to deliver and protect the site. See Cloudflare’s privacy policy. If you email me, I use your message and address only to reply to you.

Not medical advice, and pool safety

Lap is a workout tracking app and doesn’t give medical advice. Talk to your doctor before starting a new exercise programme. Deep water running takes place in deep water, so wear a flotation belt, follow your pool’s safety rules and look after your own safety.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, I’ll update the effective date at the top of this page and say what changed.

Contact

Lap is made by Sideplate. Questions about privacy? Email lap@sideplate.dev.