Terms of Use and Privacy Policy

Last updated: 7 November 2026

1. What Better B is

Better B is an independent, free app that shows Barcelona's Bicing stations on a map, with the number of bikes, e-bikes and free docks, and helps you walk to them. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to Bicing, Barcelona de Serveis Municipals (BSM), the Ajuntament de Barcelona or the SMOU app. "Bicing" and "SMOU" are trademarks of their respective owners.

2. SMOU and Bicing

Everything to do with your Bicing account happens in SMOU, not in Better B: signing up, reserving, unlocking and returning bikes, payments, fines and customer support. The Reserve and Unlock buttons only open the SMOU app.

We have no access to your SMOU or Bicing account and are not responsible for SMOU or the Bicing service, their prices, availability or rules. Please contact Bicing or SMOU directly about those. Their own terms and privacy policy apply to what you do there.

3. Station data

Station locations and availability come from the station list Bicing publishes on its website, which our server reads. CityBikes, a public service that collects the same data, is the backup. Barcelona City Council also publishes this data as open data on Open Data BCN under the CC BY 4.0 licence. It's refreshed several times a minute but can be delayed, incomplete or wrong: a bike or dock shown in the app may be gone when you arrive. Always check at the station. The "usually" figures on a station card are worked out by Better B from Open Data BCN's history of Bicing stations (Barcelona City Council, CC BY 4.0) and from our own records. They are estimates, not promises.

4. Maps and directions

Maps, walking and cycling directions and address suggestions come from Apple Maps (MapKit) and are approximate. Follow traffic rules and signs, watch your surroundings and don't use your phone while riding. If you open a route in Google Maps or Apple Maps, that app's own terms and privacy policy apply.

5. What data we collect

Better B has no accounts, no analytics, no ads and no tracking, and we never receive your location, name or contacts. The only thing our server keeps about you is a station alert while it's waiting: when you set one, the app sends the station, what you're waiting for, the app language and your phone's push notification token (a code from Apple that lets us send a notification to this phone and says nothing else about you). It's deleted as soon as the alert is sent, cancelled or expires (after 3 hours at most). We don't sell or share it. Separately, every five minutes the server records how many bikes and free docks each station has, to work out when stations are usually empty. That record is about stations and says nothing about people.

6. What the app does on your phone

• Location is used on your device to show where you are, find the nearest station, draw the route, notice when you've arrived and, for a nearby alert, look for stations around you as you walk. It is never sent to us.
• Background location is used only while you're watching for an e-bike near you, so the app can keep looking around you as you walk. It stops when the alert fires, is cancelled or expires, and iOS shows the location indicator meanwhile. You can turn this off with "Check in the background" in Settings.
• Notifications for station alerts are sent by our server through Apple's push service; the "e-bike near you" alert is created on your phone.
• Favorites, meaning the stations you star and the places you save (home, work, the gym, any address), are stored only on your phone. We never receive them.
• Settings such as your language are stored only on your phone.

7. Services the app connects to

• Better B's server (run on Cloudflare), to download station data, which it gets from Bicing's website or, failing that, from CityBikes, and to keep your station alerts as described above. These requests don't include your location. Like any website it can see your IP address; we don't store it or anything else about the request. Cloudflare handles this traffic under its own privacy policy.
• CityBikes, directly, only if our server can't be reached. Like any website CityBikes can see your IP address.
• Apple (MapKit), to show the map, calculate walking and cycling routes and suggest addresses when you add a place. Apple receives the map area, the start and end of the route and what you type in the address search, under Apple's privacy policy.
• SMOU, Google Maps and Apple Maps, only when you tap a button that opens them. For directions, the station's coordinates are passed to the maps app.

8. Your choices

You can turn off location or notifications at any time in iOS Settings. Cancelling an alert deletes it from our server straight away, and nothing else about you is kept there. Deleting the app removes everything it stored on your phone.

9. Children

Better B is not intended for children under 14.

10. No warranty

Better B is provided free of charge and "as is", without warranties of any kind. To the extent permitted by law, we're not liable for any loss or damage from using the app or relying on its data, including missed bikes, reservations, fines or charges from Bicing. Nothing in these terms limits rights you have under consumer protection laws that can't be excluded.

11. Changes

We may update these terms. If we make significant changes, the app will ask you to accept them again.

12. Contact

Questions about these terms or your privacy? Write to support@betterb.org.