TrackEncoder Privacy Policy
Last updated: 2 October 2026
TrackEncoder is a track-day video and telemetry recorder for Android, published by Geekopolis. This policy describes exactly what the app does with your data.
There is no account, no sign-in, no advertising, no analytics and no crash reporting. Nothing the app records is ever sent to us.
The short version
Your video, audio and telemetry stay on your phone, or on the memory card or drive you record to. The app has no upload path for them.
Two optional features send data off the phone, and only after you set them up with your own credentials: the AI coach and the Telegram bot. Both are described below. Until you set them up, nothing leaves the phone.
What stays on your device
Never transmitted anywhere by this app:
- Video and audio recordings, written to a memory card or USB drive you choose, or to the app’s own storage.
- Telemetry from your car and data logger: GPS position, speed, g-forces, and engine and chassis channels.
- Lap times, corner analysis, coaching notes and grip history.
- Your settings, car profiles and channel setup.
Recordings on a card or drive you chose stay there until you delete them. Uninstalling the app removes its own storage.
What leaves your device, and when
| Feature | What is sent | Where |
|---|---|---|
| AI coach (optional) | A written summary of a session: corner-by-corner analysis, lap times, the track name, and the car and conditions labels. No video, no raw telemetry, no GPS trace. | The AI provider you set up with your own API key: Anthropic (api.anthropic.com) by default, or another provider’s address you enter |
| Telegram bot (optional) | Session status, lap times, coaching notes and alerts, and a session data file when you ask for one. Commands you send the bot come back to the phone. | Telegram (api.telegram.org), to your own bot and your own chat |
Both are off until you set them up on the settings page. The AI coach sends its summary after a session, and only while the end-of-session summary is switched on. Remove the key or the bot token and that feature stops sending anything.
When you enter an Anthropic key or a Telegram bot token, the app checks it with that service before saving it. Those checks carry only the key or token.
Your API key and bot token are stored only on the phone and are sent only to the service they belong to. The settings page shows which provider or bot is linked, never the key or token itself.
Each of those services has its own privacy policy, and what you send is subject to it once it arrives: Anthropic, Telegram. If you point the AI coach at another provider, that provider’s policy applies.
On your local network
The app serves a settings and control page on the Wi-Fi network the phone is connected to, so a second phone or tablet in the car can change settings and start or stop recording. It is not reachable from the internet, but anyone on the same Wi-Fi network can open it, so use a network you control. The page uses plain HTTP: a key or token typed into it crosses that local network once and is never shown back.
Telemetry from a RaceCapture unit arrives over the same local network. Bluetooth devices such as GPS data loggers and OBD adapters talk to the phone directly.
Permissions, and why each one exists
- Camera: to record video from a USB or built-in camera.
- Microphone: to record audio with that video.
- Bluetooth (scan and connect): to connect to GPS data loggers, OBD adapters and other in-car devices.
- Location: requested only on Android 11 and older, where Android requires it for Bluetooth scanning. The app never reads the phone’s own location; the position on your video comes from your data logger.
- Wi-Fi state and multicast: to receive telemetry broadcast on the local network.
- Network access: for the local settings page, and for the AI coach and Telegram once you set them up.
- Notifications and foreground service: to keep recording with the screen off, with a notification that shows it is running.
- Run at startup: to open the recorder when the phone in the car powers on.
- USB: to use a USB camera and USB storage.
- Device administrator (lock screen only): to switch the screen off while a session records, which keeps the phone cooler. It cannot erase data or change passwords, and you can turn it off in Android’s settings.
Children
TrackEncoder is not directed at children and does not knowingly collect information from anyone under 13.
Changes
If this policy changes, the date at the top changes with it, and the previous text remains in the page’s history on GitHub.
Contact
Questions about this policy, or about data in the app:
matt@geekopolis.com