Run Culture Privacy Policy

Last updated: November 3, 2026

Run Culture LLC, a Utah limited liability company ("Run Culture," "we," "us"), makes the Run Culture app, a running challenge app where your real runs count toward challenges automatically. This policy explains, in plain English, what we collect, how we use it, who can see it, and how to delete it.

If you have questions, email us at runcultureus@gmail.com.

What we collect

Your account

• Email address: so you can sign in with a one-time code, so we can contact you if you win a prize (including emailing gift cards), and so we can reply when you email us for support. We don't send marketing emails or newsletters. Announcements are shared in the app and on Run Culture's social media.
• Display name: the name you choose. It can be a nickname.
• Account ID: a random ID our system creates to keep your runs and progress connected to your account.

Your runs, from Apple Health

If you connect Garmin instead, see Connecting Garmin below.

With your permission, the app reads your running workouts from Apple Health:

• the date and time each run started and ended, and its duration
• distance
• elevation gain, if your watch recorded it
• the app or device that recorded it (for example "Apple Watch" or "Garmin Connect")
• whether the run was typed in by hand (manual entries don't count toward challenges)

Time zone. We don't collect GPS or your precise location. We save the time zone each run was recorded in (for example "America/New_York"), from Apple Health or, if a workout doesn't include one, from your phone when the run syncs, so time-of-day challenges are fair wherever you run. Apple counts a time zone as approximate location.

We read runs from the last 60 days whenever the app syncs. We don't read GPS routes or maps, heart rate, or any other health data. Run Culture never writes anything to Apple Health.

Your activity in the app

• The challenges you join, your progress, finishes and tiers (Bronze, Silver, Gold).
• The rewards you claim, and when.
• Your guesses in Mystery Challenges.
• Your settings, such as whether your name appears in Mystery Challenge results, and what you track your runs with (Apple Watch, iPhone, Garmin or another watch), so we can show you the right setup steps.
• Your reactions to Run Culture's posts (🔥 👏 😂 🏃), your votes in polls, and any private replies you send to Run Culture.

Crash reports

If the app crashes, it sends a technical crash report (device model, iOS version, app version and what went wrong in the code) so we can fix it. Crash reports don't include your email, name, runs or IP address.

We don't collect GPS or your precise location (only each run's time zone, which Apple counts as approximate location), your contacts, photos or advertising identifiers, and we don't track you across other apps or websites.

How we use it

• To run your account and sign you in.
• To count your runs toward the challenges you join, show your progress, and award finishes, tiers and rewards.
• To run Mystery Challenges and pick winners using each week's rule.
• To contact you about a prize you won, or to answer a message you sent us, including your replies to our posts.
• To show totals on our posts (for example "🔥 12" or "48 votes") and to learn which posts runners find useful.
• To understand how runners use the app (for example, which posts get reactions and which features get used), so we can improve it. We don't use advertising or tracking tools.
• To find and fix bugs.

That's all. We never sell your data. We never use your Apple Health or Garmin data for advertising or marketing, and we never share it with anyone for those purposes. We don't send marketing emails.

Who can see what

Other runners:

• Can't see your runs.
• Can see how many runners joined or finished a challenge, and a group's combined miles. These are totals, not your individual runs.
• Can see Mystery Challenge results, which list the winner and the top 5 by display name, with each person's single qualifying value (for example "Sarah · 3.16 mi"). For the winner, results also show when the winning run started.

Posts from Run Culture. Other runners only see totals of reactions and poll votes (for example "🔥 12" or "48 votes"), never who reacted or how anyone voted. Your replies are private: only you and Run Culture can read them. We use them to answer you and to improve Run Culture, and we never share them.

If you'd rather not appear by name in Mystery Challenge results, turn off Settings → Show my name in Mystery Challenge results. You'll still play and can still win, but you'll appear as "A runner".

Challenge sponsors (for example, a local running store) receive aggregated totals only for their challenge, for example:

• how many runners joined, were active and finished
• the total number of qualifying runs and miles, shown only when 5 or more runners took part
• how many rewards were redeemed

Sponsors never receive your name, email, display name or any of your individual runs.

Store staff see your claim pass (your display name, the challenge, the reward and your tier) only when you choose to show it to them to redeem a reward.

Prize winners: if you win a prize drawing or a Mystery Challenge, Run Culture contacts you directly by email, and emails prizes such as gift cards to that address. We may congratulate Mystery Challenge winners by display name on our social media (Instagram @run_culture_), unless you've turned off Show my name in Mystery Challenge results. We don't give your contact details to sponsors. If a sponsor needs something from you to deliver a prize, we'll ask you first.

Connecting Garmin

Connecting a Garmin account is optional. You can use Run Culture with Apple Health instead.

What Garmin sends us. If you connect, Garmin sends us the activities you record after you connect: activity type, start time and time zone, duration, distance and elevation. We don't receive activities from before you connected.

How we use it. Only to count your runs toward challenges, show your runs and progress in the app, prevent duplicate runs (for example, the same run arriving from both Garmin and Apple Health), and run the service.

What we never do. We don't sell Garmin data. We don't share your individual Garmin data with sponsors or other runners; sponsors only ever see totals that don't identify anyone. We don't use Garmin data with AI or analytics tools, or to train AI models.

Where it's stored. With our database provider, Supabase, on our behalf.

Disconnecting and deleting. You can disconnect any time in the app or in Garmin Connect. After you disconnect, we stop receiving new activities. You can ask us to delete your Garmin runs by emailing runcultureus@gmail.com, and they're deleted when you delete your account.

Garmin's own privacy policy covers how Garmin handles your data.

"Garmin" and "Garmin Connect" are trademarks of Garmin Ltd. or its subsidiaries. Run Culture is not affiliated with or endorsed by Garmin.

Service providers

We use a few trusted companies to run the app. They process data only on our behalf:

Deleting your account

You can delete your account at any time in Settings → Delete account. This immediately and permanently deletes:

• your account, email address and display name
• all your synced runs
• your challenge progress, rewards and claims
• your Mystery Challenge guesses
• your reactions, poll votes and replies to Run Culture's posts
• your settings, including what you track your runs with
• your Garmin connection, if you connected one

To keep challenge totals and past results accurate for everyone else, we keep anonymous numbers only: for example, that "one runner" joined and finished a challenge, or ran a certain number of miles in it. They can't be linked back to you. In past Mystery Challenge results, your entry shows as "Former runner".

Deleted data may remain in our database provider's backups for a short period before those backups expire.

To stop sharing Apple Health data without deleting your account: go to your iPhone's Settings → Health → Data Access & Devices → Run Culture and turn access off. Runs already synced stay in your account until you delete it.

Children

Run Culture is not intended for children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect information from them. If you believe a child under 13 has an account, email us and we'll delete it.

Security

Your data is stored with access controls, so each runner can read only their own runs. Sign-in uses one-time email codes, not passwords. No system is perfectly secure, but we take reasonable steps to protect your information.

Changes to this policy

If we make important changes, we'll update the date at the top and tell you in the app or by email.

Contact

Run Culture LLC, a Utah limited liability company Email: runcultureus@gmail.com Website: runculture.us