Privacy Policy

Last updated: 2026-09-16

Garage Buddy is a mileage and expense tracker for your vehicles. This policy explains what data the app handles and where it goes. It covers the iPhone, iPad and Mac app, and the web version at web.garage-buddy.app (see The web version). Garage Buddy does not operate a server — your data lives on your device or in your own accounts.

Where your data lives — you choose

When you first open Garage Buddy you pick one of two storage modes, and you can switch between them later (taking your data with you, in either direction):

On this device — everything stays on your iPhone, iPad or Mac, in the app's own storage, included in your normal device backup. No account and no network connection are required, and nothing leaves the device except the optional AI features described below.
Google Drive — your data is kept in a spreadsheet and folder that the app creates in your own Drive, described below.

The sections that follow describe Google Drive mode. In on-device mode, no Google account is involved and none of the Drive behaviour applies.

What data the app handles

Your car and transaction data (car details including VIN and licence plate if you enter them, odometer readings, dates, categories, costs, gallons or kWh, notes, reminders, to-dos, purchase and sale prices, and value estimates). In on-device mode this is stored locally on your device. In Google Drive mode it is stored in a Google Sheet named "Garage Buddy" (older installs: "Car Log Data" — renamed automatically) that the app creates in your own Google Drive.
Attachments, photos and reports (receipts, documents, an optional dashboard photo per car, each car's photo album, and the reports you generate) are stored as files in a "Garage Buddy" folder in your own Google Drive (older installs used "Car Log Attachments"). Reference photos are also cached on-device so scans don't re-download them.
Your Google account, used only to sign in and to create/read/write that spreadsheet and folder. The app requests the drive.file scope, which grants access only to files the app itself creates — it cannot see the rest of your Drive.
Photos and documents you choose to scan (odometer, fuel pump, receipts, or a car document such as a title, registration or insurance card). When you use the optional AI capture feature, the selected photo — plus any reference photos you added to your cars — is sent to the AI provider you configure (Anthropic, Google Gemini, or an OpenAI-compatible endpoint) using your own API key, solely to read what is on it (mileage, amounts, or a document's VIN, plate, policy and dates). A PDF is sent as images of its first few pages. The free on-device scanning mode processes photos entirely on your device and sends nothing. Photos are not stored by Garage Buddy beyond the attachments you explicitly save to your Drive.
Vehicle details you ask the AI to work from. Some optional AI features send text rather than photos to the provider you configure, again using your own API key:
- Value estimates send one car's year, make, model, colour and current mileage, and ask what it is worth.
- Service interval suggestions send one car's year, make and model (or its name, if those are blank) and current mileage.
- Written reports (the fleet summary and the vehicle-history page) send a summary of that car's or that period's log — car names and descriptions, miles, what was spent and on what, service notes you typed, and upcoming reminders. The vehicle-history page deliberately withholds what you paid and what you sold for.
- Document and receipt naming sends what was read off the document.
None of this is sent unless you use the feature, and none of it is sent at all if you have not configured an AI key.
Your AI API key, stored locally in the device Keychain. It is sent only to the provider you configure and is never transmitted to anyone else.
Home Screen widgets read a small summary (car count, recent miles/spend, upcoming reminders) that the app writes to a private App Group container on your device only; it never leaves the device.
Notifications for date-based reminders are scheduled locally on your device; no push server is involved.

The web version

web.garage-buddy.app works only in Google Drive mode, on the same spreadsheet and folder as the app. It has no server of its own: the page is a set of static files, and once loaded it talks directly from your browser to Google.

Sign-in uses Google Identity Services, a script the page loads from accounts.google.com. It requests the same drive.file scope as the app. The access token Google returns is held in memory only — never written to storage — and is gone when you close the tab.
Where your data goes: your browser reads and writes your spreadsheet and Drive files directly through Google's Sheets and Drive APIs (sheets.googleapis.com, www.googleapis.com). Opening a file in Drive or Sheets takes you to Google's own sites.
Stored in your browser (localStorage, on that computer only):
- a copy of your garage data, so the page opens instantly and can be read offline,
- changes made while offline, until they are sent,
- your unit preferences,
- the email address of the Google account you signed in with, so the next sign-in can suggest it.
Signing out deletes all of this except your unit preferences — including any offline changes not yet sent, so reconnect before signing out if you have some. Clearing your browser's site data for web.garage-buddy.app removes everything.
No AI. The web version never contacts an AI provider and never asks for an API key. It shows what the app's AI features have already saved to your Drive.
Hosting. The page is served by Cloudflare Pages. As with any website, Cloudflare receives your IP address and browser details when it delivers the files; the page adds no analytics or tracking script of its own. See Cloudflare's Privacy Policy.

What we do NOT do

We do not run a backend and do not collect, store, or sell your data.
We do not use analytics or advertising SDKs.
We do not share your data with third parties other than the services you explicitly connect (Google for storage and sign-in; your chosen AI provider for the AI features).

Third-party services

Google Drive / Google Sheets — stores your data in your account, and Google Sign-In (Google Identity Services on the web) signs you in; governed by Google's Privacy Policy.
Your AI provider (only if you add an AI key in the app) — Anthropic, Google (Gemini), or the OpenAI-compatible service you configure — governed by that provider's own privacy policy.

Your control

In on-device mode, your data is in the app. Deleting the app removes it; export a PDF report first if you want a copy. Settings → Data can move everything to Google Drive.
In Google Drive mode, your data is in your own Google Sheet and Drive folder; you can view, edit, export, or delete it directly at any time.
Disconnecting Google in Settings signs the app out and clears the widgets. Deleting the "Garage Buddy" folder (spreadsheet included) removes your data.
Removing your AI key in Settings → AI turns off every AI feature (on-device scanning keeps working, offline).
On the web, signing out removes your data from the browser and revokes the page's Google access; clearing the site's data in your browser settings removes your unit preferences too.

Contact

Questions: shuffman@gmail.com