Bike Nights

Privacy Policy

Last updated 22 August 2026

This policy explains what happens to data when you use the Bike Nights app, on iPhone or on Android. It is written to be read rather than to cover anyone's back, so if anything here is unclear please get in touch and we'll fix the wording.

Using the app without an account

The map, the day filters and the events list all work with no account and no sign-up. If that is all you do, we hold nothing about you beyond the technical server logs described further down. There is no profile, because we never made one.

If you choose to sign in

Signing in is optional and exists for three things. You can save the bike nights you go to, send in a meet or an event, and correct something that's wrong.

There is one way in, and that is your email address. There is no password. We deliberately do not offer password sign-up, so there is no password of yours for us to store or lose. We send a six-digit code to the address you give us, and typing that code back in is what signs you in.

Use the same address every time. A different address makes a separate account, and the things you saved under one won't appear under the other. The app says so on the sign-in screen.

What we receive when you sign in

• The email address you type in. That is the whole of it. We use it to send your sign-in code, to recognise you next time, and to reply to you if you have asked us something. Nothing else.
• No name. Nothing passes us one, so your display name starts empty and you can set one on the account screen if you want to.

Sending that code means the address passes through our email provider, Resend, who are listed with the other services further down. We do not add you to any mailing list, and there is nothing to unsubscribe from. The only emails we ever send are the sign-in codes you asked for.

What you create

• Saved bike nights. Stored against your account and on your phone. Nobody else can see them.
• Meets, events and corrections you send in. Held with your account attached until a human has reviewed them.
• Photos you upload. See the section below, which is the part worth reading properly.
• Reports you make about a listing, and any note you add.

Photos

Photos are worth spelling out because the obvious risk with a photo is not the photo.

• We only ever open your photo library when you tap to add a picture. iOS asks your permission the first time and you can refuse or change your mind later in Settings. Nothing is read in the background.
• Location data is stripped before the photo leaves your phone. Every iPhone photo carries the coordinates and the time it was taken. We remove that, along with the rest of the embedded camera data, and we do so on your device, so it is never uploaded in the first place rather than deleted later.
• The photo is shrunk on your phone too, which keeps the upload quick and the storage bill small.
• An uploaded photo is private until it is approved. It goes into storage that cannot be reached by a web address at all. Only you and the person moderating can see it. If it is approved it is copied somewhere public. If it is rejected the file is deleted.

Reporting a stolen bike

The stolen bike board publishes what you send to it. That is the entire point of it. A listing nobody can see would not get anybody's bike back. So it is worth being precise about what does and does not go on it.

What is published

• The make, model, year, colour and anything that makes the bike recognisable.
• The registration, if you give one.
• The town it was taken from, and the first half of the postcode only, so SO51 rather than SO51 0QF. If you type a full postcode the app cuts it down before anything is sent, and tells you it has done so. A stolen bike board that listed full postcodes would be a list of addresses where a motorcycle was recently taken, which is the opposite of helpful.
• The date it was taken.
• The crime reference number the police gave you, and the force, if you name it. This is published deliberately. It is what someone who spots your bike quotes when they ring 101, and it is what makes a listing worth acting on rather than just worth reading.
• A photograph, if you add one, once it has been approved.

What is not published, and cannot be

• No way to contact you. There is no phone number, email address or messaging anywhere in this feature, and no field to put one in. Anyone who sees your bike is told to ring 101 and quote the crime reference. Nobody is asked to approach it, and nobody is given a way to turn up at your door.
• Nothing about any person. There is no notes box, no comments and no "who took it". The only free text is about the motorcycle. This is enforced by the app not having anywhere to write it, not by us asking you not to.
• Your name and account are never shown. A listing shows a bike, not a person. We know which account sent it so that you can take it down again. Nobody else can see that.

Who can see it

Nothing appears until a person has read it. Once it is approved it is public. It is visible to anyone using the app, with or without an account, and anyone can share it to Facebook, WhatsApp or anywhere else. Assume a listing will travel, because that is what you want it to do.

Taking it down

Tap I've got it back and it disappears from the board immediately. If you tap it by mistake you can put it back. A listing also comes off the board on its own after 90 days.

What actually happens when you open the app

Three things worth naming honestly.

• Our database is hosted by Supabase in London, and handles both the listings and the sign-in. Like any web server it records a short-lived technical log of incoming requests which includes the IP address the request came from. Under UK data protection law an IP address counts as personal data, so we're telling you about it rather than claiming we collect nothing at all. We don't use these logs to build any profile of you, we don't link them to anything else, and we don't look at them except when investigating a fault.
• App updates are delivered by Expo. When the app checks for an update, Expo's servers see your device type, operating system version and IP address in order to send the right update. Expo's own privacy terms apply to that exchange.
• The map is drawn on your phone by the operating system, which means Apple Maps on iPhone and Google Maps on Android. Their own privacy terms cover how map data is handled. We don't receive anything from it.

What we still don't do

• We don't use analytics, advertising or tracking of any kind. Nothing about your use of the app is shared with advertisers or data brokers.
• We don't ask for your location. Not for the map, not for anything.
• We don't set cookies or identifiers to follow you between apps or websites.
• We don't sell anything to anyone, and there is nothing here that would be worth buying.

Why we're allowed to hold it

Under UK data protection law we have to have a lawful basis. Ours are straightforward. We process your account details because we need them to perform the service you asked for, and you cannot have saved bike nights without something to save them against. We process submissions and reports on the basis of legitimate interests, namely keeping the listings accurate and keeping abuse out of an app that publishes what strangers write. A stolen bike listing is published on the basis of legitimate interests too. Yours in getting the bike back, and other riders' interest in not unknowingly buying it. You choose what goes on the board and you can take it down whenever you like.

How long we keep it

• Your account, for as long as you have one.
• Submissions and corrections, indefinitely, but with your identity removed as soon as you delete your account. See below.
• Rejected photos, not at all. The file is deleted when it is rejected.
• A stolen bike listing comes off the board after 90 days, or the moment you mark it recovered. The record itself is kept, invisible to everyone but you and the moderator, so that a bike marked recovered by mistake can be put back. It goes entirely when you delete your account.
• Server logs, for the short period our database host keeps them. We don't control or extend that.

Deleting your account

There is a Delete my account button on the account screen inside the app. It works immediately and it does not go through us. If you no longer have the app installed, the delete your account page explains how to ask us to do it.

We remove your account, your email address, your display name, and your saved bike nights. All of it, straight away, and it cannot be undone.

We keep the bike nights and corrections you sent in, with your name detached from them. This is deliberate, and we would rather explain it than surprise you. If you fixed a start time six months ago and hundreds of riders have relied on it since, deleting your account should remove you. It should not un-fix the time. Once detached, those entries are no longer personal data about you at all.

If you would rather a specific submission were removed as well, ask and it will be.

Who else sees your data

Nobody, other than the services that make the app work. Those are Supabase (our database and sign-in, in London), Apple and Google (the maps themselves), Resend (sending the sign-in code emails, in Ireland) and Expo (app updates). They act on our instructions and cannot use your data for their own purposes. There are no other recipients, and no advertising or analytics companies involved at any point.

Children

Bike Nights is aimed at adult motorcyclists and is not directed at children. We don't knowingly collect information about anyone under 13, and an account requires a working email address.

Your rights

You have rights under UK data protection law to ask what personal data an organisation holds about you, to have it corrected, to have it deleted, and to object to how it is used. The delete button in the app does most of that instantly. For anything else, get in touch. You'll be dealing with one person, not a department, and there is no argument to be had about it.

If you're unhappy with our response you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk.

When this will change

A future version is planned to add a rider assistance feature that would involve sharing your approximate location with other riders, but only if you switch it on. That processes genuinely sensitive data, so this policy will be rewritten before any of it ships, and the app will ask for your consent at the time rather than relying on a policy update you never read. Nothing in the current version does any of it.

Contact

Questions about this policy go to Support.