The short version
- Rows, workouts and rowers stay on your phone. Nothing leaves it unless you send it.
- An account is optional. It stores your email and nickname for shared row pages, rooms and Otterow Pro.
- We do not sell data, show ads, track you in the app or use AI services.
- Deleting your account in the app also deletes your shared row pages. Rows on your phone stay there.
- Questions and requests go to hello@otterow.com.
This summary is here to help. The full text below is what counts.
What we keep, and where
| Data | Where it lives | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Rows and workouts | Your phone | So you can see your progress. |
| Email and nickname | Our EU servers | Only with an account, to sign you in. |
| A row you share | Our EU servers | Only if you share it as a page, until you turn the link off. |
| A room | The room server | Only while you row together. Gone within hours. |
| Health | Your Health app | Only if you turn it on. We write, never read. |
| Your voice | Nowhere | We never record you. |
Who we are
Otterow is made by Kacper Kępiński, a private individual in Poland, trading as Kindraft (kindraft.studio). That person is the data controller for Otterow. For anything about your data, including requests and reports, write to hello@otterow.com. We have no data protection officer.
Using Otterow without an account
Your rows, workouts, rowers, settings and heart-rate readings are stored only on your phone. We never receive them, and nothing is sent anywhere.
You don’t need an account for rowing, coaching, the logbook, goals, backups, exports or a shared workout link.
A backup or export is a file you save wherever you choose, including a folder in a cloud service you picked. Automatic weekly backups go to a folder you pick. What happens to those files next is up to you.
On iPhone, the app’s data may be included in your iCloud or computer backup of the phone. Apple’s settings control that backup.
The app uses Bluetooth only to talk to your rower and your heart-rate strap. On Android versions before 12, the system calls this a location permission. The app does not read your location.
On Android you can give the app notification access, so that it can show and control what another music app is playing. None of this leaves your phone.
A date of birth you enter to unlock the adults-only coach stays on your phone.
Save to Health
Save to Health is off unless you turn it on. When it is on, each finished row is written to Apple Health (iPhone) or Health Connect (Android) as a rowing workout. The entry holds the start and end time, the distance where the platform stores it, and the heart rate if a strap was connected. Otterow reads nothing from Apple Health or Health Connect and sends none of it to us. Rows already saved stay there when you turn the switch off.
Your account
An account is optional. You need one only to sign in, to share a row as a web page, to row together in rooms, and for Otterow Pro.
We store:
- your email address;
- the nickname you choose;
- on iPhone, if you sign in with Apple: the first name Apple passes to us, and a token that we use only to revoke the Apple sign-in when you delete your account.
You sign in with a 6-digit code emailed to you, with Google (Android), or with Apple (iPhone). There is no password. Before a code is emailed, a Cloudflare Turnstile check runs to stop robots from triggering sign-in emails. We rely on the contract with you for the account (Article 6(1)(b) GDPR), and on our legitimate interest for the check and for preventing abuse (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR).
Giving us this data is voluntary. Without an account, there are no shared row pages, rooms or Otterow Pro. Everything else works.
Rowing together
Rowing together needs an account. While you are in a room, our server holds:
- the room’s name and its workout plan;
- for each member: their account ID, their name, the name their rower announces over Bluetooth, their target pace, their distance (sent once a second), whether they are paused, whether they are ready, and their result once they finish.
Every member sees the others’ name, rower name, target, distance and result.
Anyone with the six-character room code or the invite link can see, without signing in, the room’s name and plan, whether it has started, how many people are in it, and their nicknames. A nickname is the name you typed in the app. If you never typed one, the invite page shows you as “Rower”, never the name from your Google or Apple account.
A room lasts at most 6 hours. It is removed sooner if it is empty: after 10 minutes with nobody in it, or after 2 minutes if someone has been in its lobby and nobody is there now. A running room ends after an hour with nobody connected.
For 24 hours after a room ends, a marker keeps its code, plan and the host’s account ID, so the code is not reused. Names and members are erased from the marker. The legal basis is the contract with you (Article 6(1)(b) GDPR).
Otterow Pro
Otterow Pro is a subscription that pays for hosting a room. Joining a room stays free. Otterow Pro is not on sale yet. When it is, you pay through Google Play or the App Store, never to us, and we never see your card details.
RevenueCat, Inc. (USA) manages the subscription for us. It receives your account ID, the purchase record from the store, and the technical details its software collects about the device and app version. The app contacts RevenueCat when a signed-in app starts and when you open the Pro page. If you are signed out and never open the Pro page, RevenueCat does not know about you.
When someone creates a room, our server asks RevenueCat whether that account has Pro. We keep no purchase data ourselves. The legal basis is the contract with you (Article 6(1)(b) GDPR).
The website
Our pages set no cookies. If you change the theme with the button in the header, your browser remembers that choice (light or dark) and nothing else. The sign-in check that the app opens is different: it runs Cloudflare Turnstile, which uses what it needs in the browser to tell a person from a robot.
The main pages (the home page, this policy, the terms and the delete-account page) use Cloudflare Web Analytics. It counts visits without cookies and without identifying anyone. The legal basis is our legitimate interest in knowing whether the site is used. Shared rows, shared workouts, room invitations and the sign-in check carry no analytics.
As the host of the site, Cloudflare processes the IP address of each request to deliver and protect it.
Email and feedback
If you write to hello@otterow.com, we receive your address and your message. We use them to reply, and keep them for as long as the matter needs (see “How long we keep data”).
The Feedback button in the app opens your mail app with the app version, phone model and system version already filled in. You can delete any of it before sending.
What we do not do
- We show no ads.
- We do not track you, in the app or on the website.
- We do not sell data, and we do not pass it on for advertising.
- The app has no crash reporting and no usage analytics.
- We use no AI services.
- We do not connect to Strava or any other fitness account.
- We do not sync your rows to the cloud.
- We do no profiling and make no automated decisions about you.
Who processes data for us
These companies run parts of Otterow for us. Each processes data only for the purpose listed.
| Company | What it does for us | Where the data goes | Transfers outside the EEA |
|---|---|---|---|
| Supabase | Account database and sign-in | A database in the EU, in Frankfurt, Germany | Supabase says transfers to the United States and Singapore are made under the European Commission’s standard contractual clauses. |
| Cloudflare | The website, the room server, the sign-in check and Web Analytics | Cloudflare’s global network | Cloudflare says it relies on the European Commission’s standard contractual clauses and is certified under the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework. |
| Resend | Sends the email with your sign-in code | Resend’s servers, which may be outside the EEA | Resend’s data processing agreement says it complies with the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework and uses the standard contractual clauses. |
| Sign in with Google (Android) | Google’s global infrastructure | Google says it complies with the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework and relies on standard contractual clauses. | |
| Apple | Sign in with Apple (iPhone) | Apple’s infrastructure | Under the European Commission’s standard contractual clauses or the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, as Apple states in its data processing terms. |
| RevenueCat (once Otterow Pro is on sale) | Otterow Pro subscriptions | RevenueCat, Inc., USA | RevenueCat’s data processing addendum applies the European Commission’s standard contractual clauses. |
How long we keep data
- Account data (email, name, and the Apple token): until you delete your account.
- Shared row pages: until you turn the link off, or until you delete your account.
- Rooms: as described under “Rowing together”.
- A sign-in code is valid for 10 minutes.
- Emails you send us: we delete them when the matter is closed, unless you ask us to delete them sooner.
- Technical logs kept by our providers follow their own retention periods.
Deleting your data
In the app, go to Settings, Account, Delete account. Your account, shared row pages and Apple sign-in token are deleted at once. Rows on your phone stay on your phone.
Deleting your account does not end an Otterow Pro subscription. Cancel it in Google Play or the App Store.
The account’s record at RevenueCat is removed on request by email.
You can also delete your account without the app. See the delete-account page.
Your rights
Under the GDPR you have the right to:
- access your data;
- have it corrected;
- have it erased;
- have its use restricted;
- receive it in a portable form;
- object to processing based on our legitimate interest;
- complain to a supervisory authority.
In Poland, the supervisory authority is the Prezes Urzędu Ochrony Danych Osobowych (UODO), ul. Stawki 2, 00-193 Warszawa, uodo.gov.pl. If you live in another country, you can complain to the authority there.
To use any of these rights, write to hello@otterow.com. We answer within one month.
Children
Accounts are for people aged 16 or over. Without an account, the app collects nothing.
Changes to this policy
The date at the top changes whenever we change this policy. For an important change, we tell account holders in the app or by email.
