Legal
Watch App Privacy Policy
Last updated: October 2026 (version 2.0)
This policy covers the Locus Fit Garmin Connect IQ watch app (“the app”), made by Locus Fit (“we”). The Locus Fit platform (locus.fit, and the iPhone and Android apps) is covered by its own privacy policy.
What the app collects
On the watch
The app reads your watch’s motion sensors (accelerometer, and gyroscope where available), GPS position, and heart rate to compute stroke rate, distance per stroke, pace, and related training metrics. All of this happens on the device. The results are recorded into the activity (FIT) file on your watch, exactly like a native Garmin activity, and sync to your Garmin Connect account under Garmin’s own privacy policy. The app never sends our servers your activity file, your position or route, or your heart rate. What it does send is listed below, and nothing else.
Effort rating (RPE)
If enabled, the effort rating you give after a session is stored in the activity file on the watch. It is not sent to our servers.
Linking your watch (optional)
To get your workouts on the watch, you link it to a Locus Fit account: the watch shows a QR code and a short code, and you approve the link on locus.fit. When linking starts, the app sends our servers its version number and your watch’s model (its Garmin part number), nothing that identifies you. Once you, or your coach, approve the link while signed in to Locus Fit, the watch receives a token for your account and your name as it appears on your account, which the app shows in its settings menu. Watches without the code screen link with a token you create in Settings on locus.fit, or one your coach issues. We keep the record of a link request (the code, the watch model, the app version, and when and by whom it was approved) for up to 90 days, or 1 day if it is never approved.
With a linked account
The app fetches from our servers, when you open it and about every 3 hours in the background while your phone is connected:
- your workouts for the day, with the time each is planned for and whether you have already done it (from the sessions on your Locus Fit account),
- your athlete profile (display name, training zones, max heart rate) so the watch can show zone targets,
- the number of each training group you belong to and, on watches with the group workout relay, each group’s signing key and zone table, and
- an ANT number for your watch, so your coach’s app and your teammates’ watches can tell it apart.
These requests carry your watch’s local date and the app’s version. The token identifies your account on our servers; we store only a cryptographic hash of it, and you or your coach can unlink the watch (revoke the token) at any time in Settings on locus.fit. Our servers record when your watch last checked in and which workouts it fetched, so you and your coach can see whether sync is working.
Your Locus Fit account itself (your name, email address, workouts, and training settings such as zones and max heart rate) is created on the Locus Fit platform by you or your coach, and is covered by the platform’s privacy policy.
Session summaries (linked watches)
After you save a session, the app sends a summary of it to your Locus Fit account:
- when it started, and your watch’s time zone,
- the sport (kayak or canoe), how long it took and how far you went,
- the number of strokes and the average stroke rate,
- how long the warmup and cooldown were,
- which planned workout it was, if any, and
- for each finished piece of that workout, its average stroke rate, speed and distance.
A summary never includes your position or route, your heart rate, or the activity file. It becomes a session in your Locus Fit training log, which you and your coach see, and marks that planned workout done. If the activity file of the same session later reaches Locus Fit (for example when you upload it), the file replaces the summary. Summaries wait on the watch, up to the last five, until your phone is in range. Switch them off with Session Summaries in the app’s settings menu, or in the app’s settings in the Garmin Connect app.
Anonymous daily usage count
Once a day, the first time you open the app, it sends:
- a random number the app made for itself when it was first used, which comes from nothing about you, your watch or your account,
- the date, the app’s version and your watch’s model,
- the sport (kayak or canoe),
- how many sessions were recorded since the last count, their total minutes, and how many of them followed a planned workout, and
- whether the watch is linked to a Locus Fit account, not which one.
We use it to know how many watches use the app, on which models and versions, and how much. It is not tied to your account, even when your watch is linked, and we store no IP address or other identifier with it. Counts are kept for 13 months. Switch it off with Usage Count in the app’s settings menu, or in the app’s settings in the Garmin Connect app.
On watches with less memory (128 KB, such as the Forerunner 55, fenix 6 or vivoactive 3) the app sends neither summaries nor the count, and the edition for Instinct and Descent G1 watches sends nothing to our servers at all.
Radio broadcasts during a session
While you record, the app broadcasts over ANT, the short-range sports radio in Garmin watches:
- your live heart rate, stroke rate, speed, distance and elapsed time, which piece you are on, and a summary of each piece you finish, and
- your watch’s ANT number and the number of your training group.
These broadcasts reach receivers within radio range on the water, such as your coach’s Locus Coach app and your teammates’ watches. They carry no name: a coach’s app shows names by matching ANT numbers to the coach’s own squad list on Locus Fit. ANT broadcasts are not encrypted, so any ANT receiver in range could pick up these numbers. Group Start sends its countdown (with the group’s number) the same way. During a session the app also listens for its group’s watches, to show how many are on the water and to hear a group start; it does not record or upload what it hears.
Your group’s workout, passed between watches
On watches with the group workout relay, a watch holding the day’s group workout broadcasts it over ANT from the start screen, for up to 20 minutes at a time, so teammates whose watches have not synced still get it. The broadcast holds the workout itself (its name, date, planned start time, and its pieces with their lengths and zones) and the group’s number. It holds nothing about any athlete: no names, targets, or ids. It is signed with a key that only your group’s watches hold, so a watch accepts only a workout that really came from your group. Signing is not encryption: an ANT receiver in range could read the workout.
What we don’t do
- No advertising, no third-party analytics or advertising SDK, no advertising or cross-app tracking identifier
- No sale or sharing of personal data with third parties
- No position, route, heart rate or activity file sent from the watch app to our servers
- No usage count tied to an account, a device identifier or an IP address
The usage count and the sync records are our own, first-party analytics: they live in our own database, they exist so you, your coach and we can tell whether the app and its sync are working and how much they are used, and they are never sold or shared with anyone.
Service providers
Our servers are hosted on Microsoft Azure. Like any web service, they keep short-lived technical request logs for reliability and debugging. We don’t use these logs for profiling or share them with anyone.
Data retention and deletion
Account data (your athlete profile, workouts, sessions including session summaries, and sync records) is retained while your account is active. Link-request records are deleted after 90 days, or after 1 day if never approved. Usage counts are deleted after 13 months. You or your coach can unlink your watch at any time in Settings on locus.fit. Email support@locus.fit to request deletion of your athlete profile and associated data.
Relationship to Garmin
Any data submitted through the app is submitted to Locus Fit, not to Garmin. Garmin has no responsibility or liability for that data. Locus Fit is an independent developer and is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by Garmin. Activity files recorded on your watch are handled by Garmin under Garmin’s own privacy policy.