Privacy Policy

Overview

rDetect is a companion app for Uniden R-series radar detectors. We are committed to protecting your privacy and being transparent about our data practices.

Local Data Storage

The following data is stored on your device. Alert history, GPS lockouts, points of interest and settings profiles are additionally mirrored to your own private iCloud database whenever you are signed in to iCloud (see iCloud Sync); nothing else leaves your device unless you enable or use a sharing feature:

• •Bluetooth Connection Data — Device identifiers for your paired Uniden detector
• •Alert History — Logs of radar and laser alerts for your personal reference, including the GPS coordinates where each encounter began and faded
• •GPS Lockouts — Learned and manual GPS lockout locations for false alert suppression
• •Points of Interest — User-created locations for custom alerts
• •Trip History — A saved summary of each drive (duration, alert counts by band, peak and average speed, and the destination if you navigated), kept on the device only, never synced to iCloud, and kept until you delete it
• •GPS Trails — While you drive with the detector connected, rDetect records a breadcrumb trail so a navigated trip can show the route you took. A point is saved whenever five seconds have passed or you have moved 50 m, whichever comes first. Trails stay on the device and are deleted automatically after 30 days
• •Navigation History — Your Home and Work places, up to eight favourites, and your ten most recent destinations
• •Settings & Profiles — Your preferences, configuration choices, and saved settings profiles

This data can be deleted at any time by uninstalling the app or using the in-app data management tools.

Opt-In Anonymous Data Collection

rDetect includes an optional data contribution program that helps improve false alert scoring for all users. When enabled, the app periodically uploads anonymous, aggregated alert feature data to our servers. This data is used solely to train and improve the lockout scoring model.

What is collected

Each submitted record contains only statistical signal features — no personal identifiers or precise locations:

• •Alert characteristics — Band (Ka, K, X, etc.), signal strength, frequency, and duration
• •Contextual data — Speed (and a marker recording whether that speed was normalised from the detector's own units), posted speed limit, road class, hour of day, and day of week
• •Environmental data — Weather conditions and precipitation (when available)
• •Road context — Whether the alert occurred in a commercial or school zone, how densely traffic signals are clustered nearby, and the road's grade
• •Behavioural signals — Whether you muted the alert yourself, whether the app muted it for you (and which of its rules did so), and whether you slowed down afterwards
• •Coarse location — Latitude and longitude truncated to approximately 1 km accuracy (not your precise position), plus a country/state region code
• •Pattern indicators — Encounter count, spatial spread, nearby lockout presence, multi-band status, and how the alert's peak signal compared with its average
• •Scoring metadata — The false-alert score the app calculated on your device and the version of the scoring rules that produced it
• •Outcome — Whether the alert eventually became a lockout (the training label)

None of these signals identify you. rDetect has no access to your brake pedal or vehicle bus — “slowed down” means only that your speed dropped after the alert. The list above is the complete set of fields the app transmits; it is kept in step with the in-app consent screen shown before you enable the feature.

What is NOT collected

• •Your name, email, Apple ID, or any account information
• •Your precise GPS coordinates (locations are coarsened to ~1 km)
• •Your device's unique identifiers (UDID, serial number, etc.)
• •Your driving routes, trip history, or movement patterns
• •Any data from other apps on your device

Data is transmitted securely over HTTPS and authenticated with an API key. Submissions are grouped into batches and include a random batch identifier (not linked to your device) and your app version for compatibility purposes.

Debug Log Submissions

To help us investigate a problem you are experiencing, rDetect lets you send a diagnostic bundle to our support team. It is transmitted only when you explicitly tap Send, and the app shows you what it includes beforehand.

What is included

• •Diagnostic log — recent in-app connection, settings-sync, GPS, and Bluetooth alert events used for troubleshooting
• •App & device information — app version and build, iOS version, device model, and the connected detector model and firmware (if any)
• •A random install identifier — a random ID generated on your device to group repeat submissions; it is not your Apple ID, name, or a hardware identifier
• •Recent alerts — approximately your 50 most recent alert records (band, signal strength, frequency, time, and an approximate location coarsened to ~1 km — never your precise position), to help diagnose detection and scoring issues
• •An optional note — anything you choose to type describing the problem
• •An optional email address — included only if you choose to provide one, and used solely to reply to you about your report

Debug-log submissions are transmitted securely over HTTPS, authenticated with an API key, and stored on our self-hosted backend. They are diagnostic in nature and are routinely deleted within approximately 90 days. If you provide an email address, we use it only to respond to your report and do not share it or use it for marketing.

iCloud Sync

rDetect keeps your alert history, GPS lockouts, points of interest, and settings profiles in sync across your Apple devices using Apple's CloudKit framework. Sync runs automatically whenever you are signed in to iCloud — there is no rDetect account and no in-app sync switch:

• •Data is stored in your private iCloud database — only you can access it; it is not shared with us or any third party
• •To stop syncing, sign out of iCloud or turn rDetect off under iOS Settings › your name › iCloud › Manage Account Storage
• •Trip history and the GPS breadcrumb trails behind it are kept in a separate local-only store and are never sent to iCloud

iCloud sync is governed by Apple's Privacy Policy. We do not have access to your iCloud data.

Website & Analytics

The rDetect website (rdetect.app) uses Cloudflare Web Analytics, a privacy-first analytics service that:

• •Does not use cookies or track individual visitors
• •Does not collect personal information
• •Provides only aggregate page view and performance metrics

No other third-party analytics, advertising, or tracking scripts are used on this website.

Beta Program

If you sign up for the rDetect beta program through our website, we collect:

• •First and last name — Required by Apple TestFlight for beta distribution
• •Email address — Used to send your TestFlight invitation (must match your Apple ID)
• •Detector model — Optional, used to prioritize testing on specific hardware

This information is stored securely and used solely for beta program administration. It is not shared with third parties or used for marketing purposes. If you contact us through our support form, we also store your name, email, and message to respond to your inquiry.

When you submit either form, we also record the IP address the request came from and your browser's User-Agent string. These are used only to rate-limit automated abuse of the forms, and are never used to profile you, shared with third parties, or used for marketing. We erase both from the stored submission after 90 days, keeping only the message itself.

Device Permissions

Bluetooth

Required to communicate with your Uniden radar detector. Used solely for receiving real-time alert data, reading device status, and syncing detector settings.

Location

If granted, location is used to:

• •Display your current speed and heading
• •GPS lockout learning — associating locations with recurring false alerts for automatic muting
• •Nearby lockout indicators and geofence-based alert suppression
• •Camera, enforcement and speed-limit lookups via OpenStreetMap Overpass — your approximate position only, about 110 m, with no name, account or device identifier
• •Turn-by-turn navigation — route guidance, rerouting, and warning you about recorded alerts and cameras ahead on your route

rDetect asks for “Always” location so guidance, GPS lockout evaluation and alert tagging keep working with the screen locked. Location is used while you are driving with rDetect, including in the background with the screen locked.

The location records rDetect keeps — alert coordinates, lockouts, points of interest — stay on your device and in your own private iCloud. Some location does leave your device for lookups. rDetect sends an approximate position, rounded to about 110 m, to OpenStreetMap's public Overpass servers to find cameras and speed limits; you can switch those lookups off in Settings. It also sends your position to Apple for weather, place names, search and routing, which Apple handles under its own privacy policy. We never share your location with advertisers or data brokers.

Notifications

Used to deliver alert, urgent-threat and detector connection notifications while the app is in the background. All notifications are generated on your device — rDetect has no push server and never sends you marketing or remote push messages.

Motion & Fitness

rDetect never prompts for Motion & Fitness. If you have already granted it system-wide, rDetect reads only the coarse stationary/in-vehicle summary at the moment a Bluetooth connection drops, to tell whether your vehicle was switched off or the detector simply went out of range. Raw motion data is never stored or transmitted.

Apple Services

Some features hand your location to Apple, under Apple's Privacy Policy:

• •Apple Weather — Weather is fetched for your current position as you drive and attached to your alerts. This runs whenever location is granted and has no setting to disable it
• •Place names — Alert and area coordinates are reverse-geocoded so the app can show “City, ST” instead of raw numbers. The region code in the opt-in analytics payload is derived from this lookup, and that one lookup uses the full-precision coordinate before the value sent to us is coarsened
• •Maps — Destination search and route calculation send your search text, destination and current position to Apple Maps

Data Sharing & Export

rDetect allows you to export GPS lockouts and alert history in standard formats (JSON, CSV, GPX, KML), and points of interest as JSON. Exported files contain only the data you choose to export. Sharing is entirely at your discretion through standard iOS sharing mechanisms — no data is transmitted to any server during export.

We do not sell or rent your personal data, and we share nothing with advertisers or data brokers. Some features send your location to Apple and to OpenStreetMap's public servers, as described under Device Permissions and Apple Services.

Children's Privacy

rDetect is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect any information from children under 13 years of age.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Changes will be posted on this page with an updated revision date. Continued use of the app after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

Contact

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy, please get in touch through our Support page.