No GPS Storage Architecture

RUNSTR uses a memory-only GPS architecture. During your workout, GPS coordinates flow through the app solely to calculate distance and elevation—they're never written to permanent storage. GPS points exist only in RAM while the workout is active, used for real-time distance computation via the Haversine formula.

The moment your workout ends, all coordinates are immediately discarded—we literally set the array to empty (cachedGpsPoints = []). What remains is only the aggregate data: your total distance, duration, elevation gain, and split times. There's no database of routes, no history of where you've been, nothing that could reconstruct your path.

What We Publish to Nostr

When you choose to save a workout to Nostr (kind 1301 event), we publish only summary metrics: "ran 5.2km in 30:45 with 50m elevation gain." We include the number of GPS data points collected (to indicate it was GPS-tracked vs manual entry), but not the points themselves.

Your split times show pace per kilometer, not locations. The published event tells the world what you accomplished athletically, with zero information about where you did it. Someone viewing your workout on Nostr learns you ran a fast 5K—they can't learn it was through your neighborhood, past your workplace, or along your daily commute.

No Central Database

Unlike traditional fitness apps that upload your routes to company servers, RUNSTR has no backend database at all. We're built on pure Nostr—a decentralized protocol where you control your own data. Your workouts are signed with your own keys and published to relays you choose. We never see your GPS data because there's no RUNSTR server to send it to. The app runs entirely on your device, querying public Nostr relays for leaderboard data. When you compete in a team challenge, we query kind 1301 events from team members' public workout posts—we're aggregating publicly shared summaries, not collecting private
location data.

Local-First Health Data

Personal metrics like height, weight, and age are completely optional and stay strictly on your device. They're used only for local calculations like VO2 Max estimation and fitness age—none of this is ever
published to Nostr. Your health profile lives in your phone's local storage, invisible to RUNSTR, invisible to Nostr relays, invisible to everyone. Even route names (like "Park Loop" or "Lake Trail") that you create for organizing workouts are just text labels stored locally—they contain no GPS data and are never published. Weather conditions captured during workouts? Local only. Body composition analytics? Calculated and stored on-device exclusively.

User Control Philosophy

Everything in RUNSTR is opt-in. Workouts stay private on your device until you explicitly tap "Save to Nostr" or "Post to Nostr." You control exactly what gets published and when. Even then, you're publishing workout achievements—not surveillance data. We've deliberately made it impossible to expose sensitive location information because we simply don't retain it. The app can't share what it doesn't have. This isn't just a privacy policy promise; it's architectural. Combined with Nostr's pseudonymous accounts (just an npub, no email or phone required) and Bitcoin Lightning for anonymous payments, RUNSTR provides genuine privacy-by-design for fitness tracking. Your routes stay between you and the road.

Quick Reference Table for User FAQs