PRIVACY POLICY

YOUR DATA STAYS YOURS.

How PACA handles your training, health and location data: what it reads, why, where it lives, and what we never do with it.

LAST UPDATED 14 OCTOBER 2026

THE SHORT VERSION

  • Your runs, health data and plans stay on your iPhone and Apple Watch. PACA has no accounts and no servers that store your data.
  • Your data is only ever shown to you. It is never sold, never shared for advertising and never used to train AI.
  • No ads, no analytics, no tracking, in the app or on this website.
  • You stay in control: switch off Apple Health or Strava access, or delete the app, at any time.

WHO WE ARE

PACA is made by Paul Bragason, an individual based in Cape Town, South Africa ("PACA", "we", "us"). Paul is the responsible party for PACA under South Africa's Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) and is PACA's Information Officer. You can reach him at hello@thepaca.app.

WHAT PACA READS AND WHY

PACA only reads what it needs to build your race plan, and only with your permission.

  • Apple Health (iPhone): your workouts (runs), heart rate, resting heart rate and VO2 max. PACA uses these to estimate your finish time, work out your readiness score and set your heart-rate zones.
  • Apple Health (Apple Watch, during a run): heart rate and distance, to keep you on plan.
  • Strava, if you connect it: your activities from the last 26 weeks (date, distance, time and heart rate), read with the permission you approve on Strava's own sign-in screen. PACA uses these alongside Apple Health and ignores duplicates.
  • Location (Apple Watch, during a run): GPS, to measure your pace and show where you are on the course. PACA only uses location while you are recording a run.
  • Things you add yourself: your name, an optional profile photo, your nutrition list (gels, drinks and so on), the routes and GPX files you load, and your race plans and settings.

PACA does not collect your email address, phone number, contacts or advertising identifiers, and it never asks you to create an account.

WHAT PACA WRITES

With your permission, PACA saves the runs you record on your Apple Watch (the workout, route and heart rate) to Apple Health, so they appear alongside your other activity.

WHERE YOUR DATA LIVES

  • Everything PACA works out stays on your device. Your race plans travel directly from your iPhone to your paired Apple Watch over Apple's own connection between the two.
  • Your Strava sign-in is kept in your iPhone's secure Keychain. PACA talks to Strava directly from your phone. There is no PACA server in between.
  • Apple Health data stays inside Apple Health, and PACA reads it on your device.
  • If you back up your iPhone to iCloud or your computer, PACA's data is included in that backup, under Apple's terms.

PURCHASES

Race Passes and PACA Pro are sold through the App Store. Apple handles the payment. PACA never sees your card or bank details. PACA only receives confirmation from Apple of what you have bought, so it can unlock it. Apple's own privacy policy covers the payment itself.

WHAT WE NEVER DO

  • Sell, rent or trade your data.
  • Use your health or activity data for advertising or marketing.
  • Use your data, or Strava data, to train any artificial intelligence or machine-learning model.
  • Show your data to anyone other than you.

Data from Apple Health is used only as Apple's HealthKit rules allow, and data from Strava only as Strava's API agreement allows.

YOUR CHOICES AND RIGHTS

  • Apple Health: change what PACA can read or write any time in the Health app › Sharing › Apps › PACA, or in iPhone Settings › Health.
  • Strava: disconnect in PACA (Athlete › Connected apps), or revoke access on Strava under Settings › My Apps.
  • Location: change it in Settings on your iPhone or Apple Watch.
  • Delete everything: delete PACA from your iPhone and Apple Watch. Because PACA keeps no copy on a server, that removes it. Runs PACA saved to Apple Health stay there until you delete them in the Health app.

Under POPIA, and the GDPR if you are in the European Union or United Kingdom, you have the right to know what personal information is held about you, to have it corrected or deleted, and to object to how it is used. As PACA holds nothing about you on its own systems, most of this is in your hands on your device, but you can always contact hello@thepaca.app with any request or question.

If you are unhappy with how your information is handled, you may complain to South Africa's Information Regulator (inforegulator.org.za), or to your local data protection authority.

THIS WEBSITE

thepaca.app is a simple website with no cookies, no analytics and no tracking. It is hosted by Netlify, which keeps standard server logs, and it loads one typeface from Google Fonts. Both may see your IP address when they deliver the page, under their own privacy policies.

CHILDREN

PACA is meant for adult runners. It is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly process information about them.

CHANGES

If this policy changes, the new version will be posted here with a new date. If a change is significant, we will also say so in the app. Questions? Email hello@thepaca.app.