Privacy Policy

CarCapt is built privacy-first. There is no CarCapt account and no CarCapt server. Your records live on your device and, whenever you’re signed into iCloud, in your own private iCloud — a switch in the app you can turn off any time. We do not collect, sell, or even see your data.

Who this covers

CarCapt (“CarCapt,” “we,” “us”) is an Apple-platform app for tracking the cars you own. It runs on iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and Apple Vision Pro, and in the car on CarPlay. This policy explains what happens to your information when you use it.

Information we collect

None, by us. CarCapt has no server and no account system, so there is no place for us to receive or store your information, and we don’t. Everything you log lives in the app’s database on your own device.

What’s stored on your device

The app keeps your records locally so it can do its job: your charge, fuel, and service entries; your vehicles and any VIN you enter; your trips, including GPS routes; photos you attach to entries; service reminders; saved places; and your settings and layout. This stays on your device and, with Sync with iCloud on, in your own private iCloud.

iCloud: your iCloud, not ours

Sync with iCloud is on from the first launch whenever your device is signed into iCloud (the app’s Security & data screen turns it off), and device backups can include the app’s data as well. Either way, your CarCapt data syncs to your own private iCloud through Apple’s CloudKit private database. That copy is visible only to you, governed by Apple’s privacy policy and iCloud terms. We never receive it and cannot see it.

On-device intelligence

When you snap a receipt, import a statement, or hand CarCapt a charging-network screenshot, the reading is done on your phone by Apple Intelligence. The document images and the numbers read from them stay on the device. They are not uploaded to CarCapt or to any cloud AI service.

Location

Location is used on the device to log trips (distance and route), to show where your car has been, and to find nearby charging and fuel stations. While you log a trip or view the map it runs in the foreground. If you turn on Auto-Log Trips it also runs in the background, with “Always” permission, for two things only: to notice your car starting to move so a trip can begin, and to notice you arriving home so a journey can close itself. New entries can tag where they happened automatically. All of it is used on the device, and none of it is ever sent to CarCapt. You can turn location off in iOS Settings at any time. Trip logging simply won’t be available without it.

Optional connections to outside services

CarCapt only contacts an outside service when you take a specific action, and it sends only what that one feature needs. We have no account to attach to these requests. Each service has its own privacy policy, linked below.

NHTSA VIN decode

When you paste a VIN, CarCapt asks the U.S. government’s public vehicle database (NHTSA vPIC) to identify the make and model. Only the VIN is sent, one time.

OpenChargeMap

When you open a charging station on the Map, CarCapt fetches that station’s connector details (plug types, power) from OpenChargeMap.

Apple Maps & geocoding

Maps, Look Around, place cards, and turning a receipt’s address into a pin use Apple’s MapKit and geocoding, handled by Apple under Apple’s privacy policy.

Wikimedia Commons: a photo for a new car

When you save a car with a make and model, CarCapt asks Wikimedia Commons for a public photo matching that year, make, model, and colour, so your garage has a picture before you add your own. Only those words are sent — nothing about you — and your own photo replaces it the moment you add one.

Apple speech recognition

Voice search on the Map and the Voice button on a new entry use Apple’s speech recognition. Where your device supports on-device recognition it happens there; otherwise Apple’s speech service handles the audio under Apple’s privacy policy. CarCapt keeps only the words it heard.

Car Link: your car’s own stereo

With Auto-Log Trips on, CarCapt learns which car you’re in from the stereo you connect to (CarPlay or Bluetooth). That identifier stays on your device. CarCapt never connects to a car-maker’s account or any car-data service.

Analytics, advertising & tracking

CarCapt itself runs no analytics and no trackers. Your car's logbook, photos, receipts and trips never leave your devices and your own iCloud.

The free tier shows ads. Ads are served by Google AdMob through the Google Mobile Ads SDK, and they appear in five places only: after the second item on the Vehicle, Logs, Trends, Glovebox and Reminders screens, plus at most one full-screen ad a day after you save an entry. Ads never appear inside the entry form, on CarPlay, on Apple Watch, on widgets or on the Lock Screen.

What the ad network collects. Google's SDK declares, in its own privacy manifest, that it may collect a device identifier, advertising data, your interactions with ads, a coarse location derived from your IP address, and crash, performance and diagnostic data, for advertising and analytics. CarCapt hands it none of your logbook. The App Store privacy label reflects Google's disclosure together with ours.

Tracking is your call. The first time an ad is about to load on a screen you opened, iOS shows Apple's App Tracking Transparency prompt, preceded by a short explanation. If you allow tracking, Google may use the advertising identifier (IDFA) to show ads that fit you better; if you decline, ads still show and the identifier is never sent. In the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, Google's consent form appears first and your choices apply. Both choices can be changed later in iOS Settings.

Subscribers get none of this. A CarCapt subscription removes every ad, and the Google SDK is never initialised for a subscriber's copy of the app: no consent prompt, no ad request, no identifier. The Mac and Vision Pro apps are subscription-only and never carry ads.

Camera, photos & files

The camera, your photo library, and the Files app are used so you can capture or import receipts and statements. CarCapt only ever accesses the specific photos or files you choose, and reads them on the device.

Notifications, Reminders & Calendar

Service reminders can post local notifications and, only if you allow it, write to your Apple Reminders and Calendar. Those entries live in your own Apple account. Nothing about them comes back to us.

Keeping and deleting your data

You are always in control. You can delete any entry (with a brief undo), use Reset All Data per vehicle in the app, or delete the app to remove its on-device data. If you turned on iCloud, you can manage or remove that copy in iOS Settings → iCloud. Because we hold nothing on a server, there is nothing to request from us.

Children’s privacy

CarCapt is not directed to children under 13, and it collects no personal information from anyone.

Your rights (GDPR, CCPA, and similar)

Privacy laws such as the GDPR and CCPA give you rights to access or delete the personal data a company holds about you, and to opt out of its sale. CarCapt holds none (no servers, no account), so there is nothing for us to access, and we never sell data. Your information is already entirely in your hands, on your own device.

Changes to this policy

If we update this policy, we’ll change the “last updated” date above, and note anything material in the app or here.

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