Piton Privacy Policy Effective May 1, 2026 · Last updated May 11, 2026

Privacy Policy

Piton is an Apple Watch and iPhone app that helps you track indoor and outdoor rock climbing sessions. Piton records climbing data locally on your devices. If you choose to enable optional AI features by entering your own Anthropic API key, Piton can send selected summaries of your climbing data directly from your iPhone to Anthropic's Claude API.

Piton has no user accounts, no servers we operate, and no analytics, advertising, or attribution SDKs. We do not sell your data, share it with data brokers, or use it for advertising or tracking.

This policy describes what data Piton handles, where it lives, and which optional features send data outside your devices. If you have questions, see the Contact section at the bottom.

01

What data Piton handles

Data stored locally on your devices

Piton stores climbing data on your Apple Watch and iPhone. Most app data is stored with Apple's SwiftData framework. If you enable AI features, your Anthropic API key is stored separately in the iOS Keychain on your iPhone. Some records live on the device that captured them, while session summaries and related records can be exchanged between your paired Apple Watch and iPhone as described below.

Piton may store:

  • Climbing sessions:start and end times, gym name, city-level locality when available, raw session coordinates when location permission is granted, your selected wear configuration, and session type (indoor rope, indoor boulder, outdoor sport, outdoor boulder).
  • Climbing laps:individual attempts within a session: time, height reached, grade tag if you provided one, send / fall / flash status, and notes you wrote.
  • Sensor samples:altitude readings from the barometric altimeter and motion readings from accelerometer / gyroscope sensor fusion, captured during active sessions to detect lap boundaries and support the in-app sensor inspector.
  • Heart-rate and energy summaries:heart-rate readings are sourced from HealthKit during active sessions when permission is granted. Piton stores session-level heart-rate and calorie summaries when available; persistent heart-rate samples remain managed by HealthKit.
  • Gym configurations:names, coordinates, match radius, and detector profile preferences for gyms you visit regularly.
  • Routes and projects:names, grades, color tags, status, gym names, and your notes for routes you choose to track.
  • API key:if you enable AI features, your Anthropic API key is stored in the iOS Keychain on your iPhone only. It is not synced to Piton servers (we do not have any) and is not synced to your Apple Watch.

Piton does not maintain a backup or copy of your climbing data on servers we control. If you delete the app, the local app data on that device is removed with it. Apple may include app data in iCloud Backup if you have that enabled; that is controlled by your Apple settings, not by Piton. Your Anthropic API key uses device-only Keychain storage and is not intended to migrate through iCloud Keychain or device backup.

Data exchanged between your watch and your iPhone

Climbing sessions captured on your Apple Watch are synced to your paired iPhone over Apple's WatchConnectivity framework. This can include session summaries, laps, route/project data, session-prep queues, and session coordinates when location permission is granted. The exchange is between your paired devices through Apple's platform channel and does not pass through any server operated by us.

Raw sensor samples are used for detection and diagnostics on the device that captured them. Piton does not send raw sensor samples to Anthropic.

Apple HealthKit

Piton requests permission to read HealthKit data used during climbing sessions and to write climbing workout records to Apple Health. When you grant this permission, Piton may:

  • Read heart rate, workout, and active-energy data during active sessions so it can display live metrics and store session-level summaries.
  • Write a climbing workout record and active-energy data to Apple Health when you end a session, so the workout and calories can appear in Apple Health.

Piton does not write heart-rate samples itself. Heart-rate samples remain managed by HealthKit.

You can revoke Health permissions at any time in Settings > Health > Piton on your iPhone or watch.

Location

When location permission is granted, Piton requests a single, low-accuracy location reading at the start of a session. Piton uses that reading to:

  • Store session coordinates for gym matching.
  • Reverse-geocode a city-level locality string, such as "Santa Cruz, CA", for the session record.
  • Match against your gym list to auto-tag the session.

Piton does not track your location continuously and does not use your location outside of session-start matching. Coordinates are retained with the session so future gym configuration changes can re-match historical sessions. Reverse geocoding is performed with Apple's system location and mapping services. Piton does not send raw latitude/longitude coordinates to Anthropic.

You can revoke location permission at any time in Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services > Piton.

02

Optional AI features

Piton includes optional AI-assisted features that use Anthropic's Claude API. These features are off by default. They become available only after you enter your own Anthropic API key in Tools > AI Helper > Settings.

The AI features are:

  1. Coach's Notes:an observational synopsis of a single climbing session, displayed on the Today / Week / Month / Lifetime views. Once AI is enabled, Piton may automatically request or refresh a synopsis when these views load or when the underlying session changes.
  2. Ask Piton AI:a question-and-answer surface where you can ask about your own training history.
  3. AI threshold tuning:natural-language adjustments to the in-app lap-detection thresholds, with explicit confirmation before any change applies.
  4. AI-formatted bug reports:assembles a bug description plus app/OS/device facts and a summary of recent sessions into a structured report you can share with the developer.

What Piton sends when you use AI features

When an AI feature makes a request, Piton sends data directly from your iPhone to Anthropic's Messages API using your API key. Depending on the feature, this may include:

  • For Coach's Notes: a structured summary of one session, including date, gym name or locality, duration, climb counts, send / fall / flash counts, grade spread, hardest send, heart-rate and calorie summaries when available, effort-zone counts, and highlight or project notes.
  • For Ask Piton AI: a structured summary of your climbing history, such as session counts, climb counts, send / fall counts, hardest sends, boulder problem counts, active project counts, and recent session-character classifications, plus your typed question.
  • For AI threshold tuning: current lap-detection threshold values and your typed adjustment request.
  • For AI-formatted bug reports: your typed bug description, app version, OS version, device model, capture/heart-rate pipeline facts when available, and a small summary of recent sessions, including gym name, climb counts, send / fall counts, duration, and capture mode.
  • A system prompt describing how the AI should respond.

Piton does not send your contact list, photos, raw sensor samples, or raw latitude/longitude coordinates to Anthropic. Piton may send gym names, city-level localities, and session summaries as described above. Piton does not log AI request bodies to any server we control because we do not operate any Piton servers.

What Anthropic does with the data

Anthropic is the operator of the Claude API. When Piton calls the Anthropic API on your behalf using your API key, your request is governed by Anthropic's applicable API/commercial terms, privacy policy, and data processing terms, which you accept when you sign up for the API. Please review Anthropic's privacy policy and Anthropic's commercial terms for details.

You can disable AI features at any time by removing your API key in Tools > AI Helper > Settings. With no API key set, Piton makes no network calls to Anthropic.

03

Data we do not collect

Piton does not require, collect, store, or send:

  • Account identifiers for a Piton account, because Piton does not have accounts.
  • Contacts, calendars, browsing history, or unrelated app data.
  • Continuous location history.
  • Crash reports automatically through any third-party crash-reporting SDK. Apple may collect anonymized diagnostics with your consent through standard iOS settings; Piton does not control that.
  • Usage analytics, telemetry, advertising identifiers, marketing identifiers, or attribution data.

There are no third-party analytics, advertising, attribution, or crash-reporting SDKs in Piton.

Piton includes free-form notes and bug-description fields. If you choose to type personal information into those fields, that information may be stored locally and may be sent to Anthropic when you use an AI feature that includes that field.

04

How long we keep your data

Locally, your climbing data stays on your devices unless you delete it or delete the app. Piton's interface currently lets you delete individual laps and other editable records such as gyms. Deleting the app removes Piton's local app data from that device.

For data sent to Anthropic through optional AI features, retention is governed by Anthropic's applicable policies and your Anthropic account settings.

05

Your rights and controls

You can, at any time:

  • Delete individual laps and supported editable records through Piton's interface.
  • Revoke HealthKit, Location, or Motion permissions in iOS / watchOS Settings.
  • Disable AI features by removing your Anthropic API key in Tools > AI Helper > Settings.
  • Delete the app to remove Piton's local app data from that device.

Because Piton stores no data on servers we control, there is no separate "delete my account" process. Piton has no account system.

06

Children

Piton is not directed at children under 13. If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child has provided personal data through the app, for example by writing identifying information into a notes field or AI bug-description field, please contact the developer to discuss removal.

07

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The "Last updated" date at the top of this page will reflect the most recent revision. If Piton's data-handling practices materially change, especially what data is sent outside your devices, we will update this policy and any related App Store disclosures.

08

Contact

Piton is developed by Jeff Schwerdtfeger. For privacy-related questions, please use the email address below.

Web
fieldnotes.cc
Email
jschwerdtfeger@mac.com