Privacy Policy

1. Information We Collect

1.1 Personal Information

We collect NO personal information. Car Story does not require account creation, email registration, or any personal identifiers. You can use the app completely anonymously.

1.2 Vehicle and Maintenance Data

All vehicle information and maintenance records you enter into Car Story are stored locally on your device. This includes:

• Vehicle make, model, year, and VIN
• Maintenance schedules and service records
• Photos you attach to service records
• Cost and vendor information
• Fuel logs, issue history, and custom notes
• Reminders and notification preferences

This data never leaves your device unless you explicitly choose to export it using our export feature, which creates local files on your device.

1.3 Usage Analytics

We do not collect any analytics or usage data. Car Story does not include any third-party analytics SDKs, tracking pixels, or telemetry. The app contains no advertising.

2. No Advertising

Car Story contains no advertisements. The app is free to download with an optional one-time in-app purchase ("Pro"). We do not integrate with any advertising networks, and no ad-related data collection occurs.

3. Data Storage and Security

3.1 Local Storage

All your vehicle and maintenance data is stored locally on your device using secure iOS data storage mechanisms (AsyncStorage). This data is:

• Protected by your device's security features
• Included in your device's encrypted backups
• Not accessible to other apps
• Never transmitted to our servers

3.2 Data Backup & Export

Car Story offers two export options, both creating files locally on your device:

• JSON Backup: Full data export (Settings → Export Data) that can be re-imported to restore your data
• HTML Report: Shareable maintenance report (Settings → Generate Report) for record-keeping or resale

We do not have access to these exported files. You control where they are saved or shared via the iOS share sheet.

3.3 App Deletion

If you delete the Car Story app, all your data is permanently removed from your device. We cannot recover this data since we don't store it on our servers.

4. Information Sharing

We do not share your information with anyone because we don't collect personal information in the first place. There are no advertising or analytics SDKs. The only third parties involved are Apple and RevenueCat for processing optional in-app purchases (see Section 8.4), and the NHTSA public API for recall and VIN lookups (Sections 8.1–8.2) — none of which receive your maintenance records or personal identity.

5. Children's Privacy

Car Story is not intended for children under 13. Since we collect no personal information, we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe we have inadvertently collected such information, please contact us immediately.

6. Data Rights

6.1 Your Control

Since all data is stored locally on your device, you have complete control over your information:

• Access: All your data is visible within the app
• Modification: Edit or update any information directly in the app
• Deletion: Delete individual records or clear all data from the app settings
• Portability: Export your data using our export feature

6.2 No Data Requests Needed

Since we don't store your personal data on our servers, there's no need to request data access, modification, or deletion from us. You have direct control over all your information.

7. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Any changes will be posted on this page with an updated effective date. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically.

If we make material changes that affect how we handle data, we will notify users through the app or other appropriate means.

8. Third-Party Services & Network Requests

Car Story has no servers and no user accounts. It makes a small number of network requests, listed in full below. None of them transmit your maintenance records, photos, costs, or notes.

8.1 Safety Recall Checks (NHTSA)

To check for open safety recalls, Car Story queries the public API of the NHTSA (U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration):

• Only your vehicle's make, model, and year are sent to retrieve recall information.
• No personal information and no maintenance data are sent.
• NHTSA is a U.S. government service governed by its own privacy policy.

8.2 VIN Decode (Optional)

If you choose to use the "Decode VIN" button when adding a vehicle, the VIN you enter is sent to NHTSA's public vehicle-decode API to look up the make, model, and year. This is optional — you can always enter vehicle details manually instead. The VIN is used only for that lookup and is not sent anywhere else or stored off your device.

8.3 Vehicle Reference Data Updates

Car Story periodically downloads an updated maintenance-schedule and reference dataset from our public hosting (GitHub Pages). This is a one-way download — no information about you or your vehicles is sent in the request.

8.4 In-App Purchases

Car Story offers a one-time optional "Pro" unlock. Purchases are processed by Apple, and we use RevenueCat to manage entitlements. RevenueCat receives the purchase/transaction details and an anonymous, app-generated identifier so your purchase can be restored. No name, email, or other personal information is collected, and this data is not used for advertising or tracking. See Apple's and RevenueCat's privacy policies for how they handle purchase data.

8.5 No Analytics, Tracking, or Ads

Aside from the requests above, Car Story makes no network calls. There are no analytics SDKs, tracking pixels, advertising networks, or cloud sync.

9. International Users

Car Story is developed and operated in the United States. Since we collect no personal data, there are no international data transfers to be concerned about regarding your vehicle and maintenance information.

This Privacy Policy is effective as of May 20, 2026, and applies to all users of the Car Story mobile application (v2.1 and later).