HRV Expert app privacy policy

Who is responsible

This policy covers HRV Expert (formerly HRV BLE), the Android app with the package name com.cardiomood.hrvble. The app's developer, and the controller of the personal data this policy describes, is CardioMood SA, Chemin du Pré-Fleuri 5, 1228 Plan-les-Ouates, Geneva, Switzerland. You can reach our data protection contact at dpo@cardiomood.com.

Our representative in the European Union under Article 27 of the GDPR is Nuvem Catita Unipessoal Lda, Av. Aida 411 – Centro Comercial Estoril Garden, 2765-187 Estoril, Portugal (info@nuvemcatita.com).

What stays on your phone

Recordings: the beat-to-beat (RR) intervals and heart rate from your strap or from the camera check, with the time, protocol and posture of each recording, and the results the app works out from them.
What you enter: profile names, morning questionnaire answers (sleep, fatigue, soreness, mood, stress and training), tags and notes.
Your strap's details: its Bluetooth name and, where the strap provides them, its manufacturer, model, serial number and firmware version, stored with each recording.

The app keeps all of this in an encrypted database on your phone. The encryption key is kept in Android's secure key storage, and we never receive it.

What leaves your phone, and when

Data leaves your phone only in the cases below.

App updates

When the app starts, it asks Expo's update service (expo.dev) whether a newer version of the app's code is available. The request carries a random installation ID that the app creates, the app and Android versions, and the IDs of the updates already installed. It carries none of your recordings or entries.

Your hrv.expert account, if you sign in

Signing in to hrv.expert is optional, and you are not signed in until you choose to. When you sign in, the app sends your email address and a description of your phone: its model name, Android version and app version. After that, it sends only what you agree to:

With your consent "Keep my readings", it sends the RMSSD, lnRMSSD, resting heart rate, posture, time and strap name of each morning check.
With your separate consent "Keep my beat-to-beat recordings", it sends the beat-to-beat intervals of your recordings, with the markers you tap during a recording and any label you type. For an exercise recording, it also sends the power, speed and cadence from a power meter or footpod, which needs "Keep my readings" too.
If you allow live streaming to hrv.expert, it sends your heart rate and beat-to-beat intervals live while a strap is connected, with power, speed, cadence and markers when you use them. See "Live stream" below.

You can withdraw each consent in the app at any time and choose to delete what is stored. Signing out stops all sending.

What hrv.expert stores from the app, where it is stored, how long it is kept, which services handle it and your rights over it are set out in the hrv.expert privacy policy.

Exports you make

When you export or share a file (RR, CSV, JSON, PDF or a profile ZIP), it goes to the app or place you choose in Android's share sheet or file picker.

Integrations you turn on

The app has five integrations. None of them sends anything until you set it up:

Export folder: the files for each new recording are written to a folder you choose, for example in Google Drive or Dropbox.
intervals.icu: after each morning check, its RMSSD, mean heart rate and your questionnaire answers are sent to your intervals.icu account, using the athlete ID and API key you enter. The key is kept in Android's secure storage.
Webhook: after each recording, the same file as a JSON export is sent to the HTTPS address you enter. It holds the recording's beat-to-beat intervals, results, strap details, questionnaire answers and tags, but not your profile name.
Health Connect: the app writes the results of your morning checks to Health Connect on your phone, and reads your sleep, steps and workouts from it. See "Health Connect" below.
Live stream: while a strap is connected, your heart rate and beat-to-beat intervals are sent live, to hrv.expert or to your own server. See "Live stream" below.

From then on, the policy of the service that receives the data applies to it.

The app does not sell data and does not share it with advertisers or data brokers. It contains no third-party analytics, advertising or crash-reporting code. Everything it sends over the internet is encrypted (HTTPS, or WSS for the live stream).

Health Connect

Health Connect is the place on your Android phone where health and fitness apps share data, if you let them. The app uses it only if you connect it in Integrations, and only with the permissions you give it there.

What the app writes: after each morning check, with a chest strap or the phone camera, it writes the RMSSD (a heart rate variability value) and the resting heart rate measured during the check. Your other health and training apps can then use them.
What the app reads: how long you slept last night, yesterday's step count, and yesterday's workouts with their total time. It shows them next to your morning reading on the Today screen. It does not store them and does not send them anywhere, hrv.expert included.

Health Connect keeps its data on your phone. Other apps you allow can read what the app writes there, and their own policies then apply. The app does not use data from Health Connect for advertising and does not sell it. You can change or remove the app's permissions at any time in Health Connect, and delete there the data the app wrote.

The use of information received from Health Connect will adhere to the Health Connect Permissions policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

Live stream

While a strap is connected, the app can send its heart rate and beat-to-beat intervals live, about once a second, to hrv.expert or to your own server. "Live stream" in Settings is the main switch. It is on by default, but nothing is sent until you choose where the data goes: to hrv.expert, once you allow it, or to your own server, once you enter its address. Turning the switch off stops every stream at once.

Live stream to hrv.expert

The app streams to hrv.expert only when you are signed in and have allowed it. Right after you sign in to hrv.expert, the app asks once whether to stream there. If you allow it, that is your consent to live streaming, and hrv.expert keeps it with your account. If your account already has this consent, streaming starts without the question. Only the profile signed in to hrv.expert streams there; the other profiles on your phone do not.

About once a second, the app then sends hrv.expert:

the strap's heart rate and beat-to-beat (RR) intervals;
whether the strap has skin contact, and its battery level;
the kind of recording;
the strap's name, maker and model;
if a power meter or footpod is connected, its power, speed and cadence;
the markers you tap during a recording, with any label you type.

You can watch it in the browser, and so can coaches you choose (a share with the "Live stream" scope). Coaches never see people added to your account. The app shows how many people are watching.

Nothing is stored. The last 10 minutes are held in memory on hrv.expert's servers in the EU, so that people who start watching late can catch up. They are deleted 10 minutes after the stream ends, when you withdraw the consent, when your account or a person is deleted, and when the server restarts. They are not kept in the database, backups or logs. The legal basis is your explicit consent, under Article 9(2)(a) of the GDPR. The rest is in the privacy policy of hrv.expert.

To stop, turn Live stream off in the app's Settings. To withdraw the consent, use your account settings on the website. Withdrawing ends every live stream of your account at once and ends your coaches' viewing.

Live stream to your own server

Instead of hrv.expert, you can stream to your own server: enter its address under Integrations → Live stream → Your own server. The address must start with https:// or wss://, so the data is encrypted on the way. The app then sends the live data straight from your phone to that address, and only there. hrv.expert never receives or sees it. Whoever runs that address receives your heart data and is responsible for it. This policy and the hrv.expert privacy policy do not cover what happens to it there. For authentication, the app uses only what the address itself carries, such as a token in the address. To stop, delete the address or turn Live stream off in Settings.

Permissions

Bluetooth: to find and connect to your strap. On Android 11 and older, Android requires the location permission for any Bluetooth scan. The app never reads your location.
Notifications: for the ongoing notification while a recording runs, alerts when the app cannot record, and the optional morning reminder.
Running in the background and after a restart: so a recording continues with the screen off, and an overnight recording continues after the phone restarts.
Camera: for the camera check, which measures your pulse from a fingertip held over the rear camera and its light. The images are analysed on your phone and are never stored or sent.
Health Connect: to write and read the data listed under "Health Connect", only if you connect it.

The app does not use the microphone, your contacts or your location.

Keeping and deleting your data

Your data stays on your phone until you delete it. You can delete a recording or a profile in the app, use Settings → Delete all data, or uninstall the app.

If you signed in to hrv.expert, you can delete your account in the app: Integrations → hrv.expert account → Delete my hrv.expert account. You can also delete it on the website, without the app, as Delete your account explains. Deleting your account deletes everything stored in it.

Data you exported or sent through an integration stays wherever you sent it.

Adults only

The app is meant for adults 18 and older and is not directed at children. You must also be 18 or older to create an hrv.expert account, as the terms of use say.

Health information

The HRV Expert app is for wellness, training and research. It is not a medical device, and it does not diagnose, treat or monitor any condition. The medical disclaimer says more.

Changes

If this policy changes, we will publish the new version at this address and change the date at the top. If a future version of the app sends data to a service of ours that this policy does not name, this policy will say so before that feature is available, and the feature will stay off until you turn it on.

Contact

Write to dpo@cardiomood.com about this policy or your data. Our postal address is CardioMood SA, Chemin du Pré-Fleuri 5, 1228 Plan-les-Ouates, Geneva, Switzerland.