Legal

Privacy Policy

CarMind is built so your car’s records live on your phone, on iPhone and Android alike. This policy explains exactly what leaves your device, why, who receives it, and how you can delete it.

Effective 15 October 2026

The short version

  • You can use CarMind without an account. Your cars, maintenance, expenses and documents are stored on your phone.
  • Receipt, invoice, odometer and document scans are read on your phone. The photos are not uploaded.
  • Data leaves your phone only for features that need it: cloud backup (if you sign in), CarMind AI (if you use it), nearby places (if you search), ads for Free users, purchases, crash reports and usage analytics.
  • We do not sell your personal information. On the Free plan, our advertising partner may use your phone’s advertising ID, on iPhone only if you allow tracking, and on Android unless you delete it (section 9).
  • You can delete your account and cloud backup from inside the app at any time.

Who we are

The CarMind mobile app (“CarMind,” “the app”) is developed and published by Clifford Francisco, doing business as Fordytech Solutions, based in Naga City, Camarines Sur, Philippines (“we,” “us”). We are responsible for the personal information described in this policy. Contact us at support@fordytechsolutions.com.

This policy covers the CarMind app on iPhone (iOS) and Android, and this website. It does not cover the websites or services of other companies that the app links to, such as map apps or reference websites.

1. Information stored on your device

Everything you enter in CarMind is saved in a database on your phone, including:

  • Vehicles: make, model, year, nickname, fuel type, plate number, VIN, photo and odometer readings
  • Maintenance items, PMS packages, service records and the line items on them
  • Expenses, fuel logs, saved fuel prices, budgets and reminders
  • Glovebox documents such as registration, insurance and driver’s license details, with their photos and expiry dates
  • Your CarMind AI conversations and the facts it remembers about your car
  • Your settings, such as currency, units and appearance

We cannot see this information unless you choose to back it up (section 3) or send part of it to CarMind AI (section 4). Deleting the app deletes this data from your phone. If your phone backs up its apps (iCloud Backup on iPhone, or Google’s Android backup, which can include CarMind’s data), that copy is handled by Apple or Google under their own privacy policies.

2. Your account (optional)

If you create a CarMind account, we collect your email address and a password, plus your name if you add one. We use them to sign you in, confirm your email, keep your backup separate from everyone else’s, and connect your Pro purchase to your account. Passwords are stored by our authentication provider in hashed form. We never see them in plain text.

3. Cloud backup and sync (Pro)

If you turn on cloud backup, CarMind copies your vehicle records (including plate number and VIN), odometer readings, maintenance items, PMS packages, service records, expenses, saved fuel prices and document details to our servers. This lets you restore them or use them on another device. The copy is linked to your account and protected so that only your account can read it.

Photos are not uploaded: receipt, vehicle and document photos stay on your phone. CarMind AI conversations and reminders are not backed up either.

4. CarMind AI (Owlbert)

When you send a message to CarMind AI, the app sends the following to our server, which forwards it to our AI service provider to write the answer:

  • Your message and up to the last 12 messages of the conversation
  • Details of the car you’re asking about: type, make, model, year, fuel type and odometer, along with its maintenance status, recent spending and service summary
  • A short line for each car in your garage, which may include its nickname
  • Facts CarMind AI has remembered from earlier chats, your saved fuel prices, and the country implied by your currency
  • An anonymous app user ID and your time zone, used for the daily message limit and for dates in the answer

It does not send your photos, location, plate number or VIN. To pick out lasting facts (“my car uses 0W-20 oil”), CarMind sends your message to the AI service a second time. Those facts are saved only on your phone, and you can delete them.

For questions about symptoms or current information, our server may run a short web search based on your question. It sends the search phrase, not your personal details, to a web search or reference service. To enforce the daily message limit, our server keeps a count of messages per day for each app user ID (or, if there is no ID, for the IP address).

Our AI service provider processes this information only to provide the service to us. Please don’t put sensitive personal information, such as ID or bank numbers, in your messages. CarMind AI can make mistakes. See our Terms of Use.

5. Scanning and on-device intelligence

Receipts, invoices, odometer readings, maintenance schedules and documents are read on your phone: on iPhone with Apple’s built-in text recognition, and on Android with Google’s ML Kit text recognition, which runs on the device. On iPhones that support Apple Intelligence, its on-device model may also help understand the text and write short summaries. These photos and the text read from them are not sent to us or to any AI provider. On Android, ML Kit may send Google basic information about how the recognition performed (such as the device model and how long it took), but not the photos or the text.

6. Location

CarMind asks for your location only while you’re using the app, and only to find gas stations, repair shops and car washes near you. When you search, your approximate position is sent to a maps service so it can return nearby places: Apple Maps on iPhone, and OpenStreetMap on Android (or on iPhone when Apple Maps has no answer). Tapping a place opens directions in your maps app, under that app’s own privacy policy. We don’t store your location or use it for anything else. You can turn location access off in your phone’s Settings at any time.

7. Camera, photos and notifications

The camera and photo library are used only when you scan or attach a photo. Photos you take or choose stay on your phone. On Android, CarMind uses the system photo picker, so it only sees the photos you pick. Reminders are scheduled on your phone as local notifications. CarMind does not use push notifications, so no notification token is sent to a server.

8. Purchases

CarMind Pro is sold through the Apple App Store on iPhone and Google Play on Android. Apple or Google handles payment, and we never receive your card details. We use a subscription management service to check which plan you have and to restore purchases. It receives an app user ID, your purchase and subscription history, and basic device information. If you’re signed in, it also receives your account’s email address and name so your purchase follows your account.

9. Advertising (Free plan)

The Free plan shows banner ads from our advertising partner on some screens. To show and measure ads and prevent fraud, the advertising partner may collect information from your device, such as its IP address (which suggests your general area), device model and operating system, and which ads you see and tap. We never give the advertising partner your car data. CarMind Pro has no ads.

  • iPhone: CarMind asks whether it may track you, using Apple’s prompt. Only if you allow it does the advertising partner receive your device’s advertising identifier, to show you more relevant ads. You’ll see the same number of ads either way, and you can change your answer in Settings → Privacy & Security → Tracking.
  • Android: the advertising partner may use your device’s advertising ID and Android’s ad topics to show more relevant ads. You can reset or delete the advertising ID, and turn off ad topics, in your phone’s settings (usually Settings → Privacy → Ads, or Settings → Google → Ads).
  • EEA, UK and Switzerland: before any ads load, Google’s consent form asks how ads may use your data. You can change your choice later in the app, in Settings → Ad privacy.

We don’t use the advertising ID ourselves, and our crash reports and usage analytics don’t collect it.

10. Crash and performance reports

We use a crash reporting service to find and fix crashes. When the app crashes or hits an error, it sends a report with technical details: the error, the app version, device model, operating system, and the screens you visited just before. It also measures how quickly some screens load. We set it not to collect personal information such as your name, email or IP address. Reports are kept for a limited period, typically up to 90 days.

11. Usage analytics

To learn which features people use and where the app gets in the way, CarMind sends usage events to our analytics provider: which screens you open, and which actions you take, such as adding a car, logging a service, scanning a receipt or opening the CarMind Pro screen. An event says what kind of thing happened (for example, that an expense was added in the Fuel category), never what you entered: no amounts, names, plates, VINs, notes, photos or CarMind AI messages. Each event also carries the app version, device model, operating system, language and approximate country (from your IP address, which isn’t stored), whether you’re on Free or Pro, and a random ID for your app install. If you sign in, events are linked to your account’s ID, not your email or name.

We use these events only in aggregate, to improve CarMind, and never for advertising. They are kept for up to 1 year. If you object to this use, or want the usage data linked to your account deleted, email us (section 14).

12. Why we use your information

We use information to provide the features you ask for (performing our contract with you), to keep CarMind secure, working and free of bugs, to understand how the app is used so we can improve it, and to show ads on the Free plan (our legitimate interests). We use the camera, photos and location only with your permission, and you can withdraw that permission in Settings. We may also use information where the law requires it.

The companies that help us run CarMind process data only to provide their service to us. We do not sell or rent personal information, we do not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising, and our usage analytics don’t follow you into other companies’ apps or websites.

13. How long we keep it

  • On-device data: until you delete it or delete the app
  • Account and cloud backup: until you delete your account
  • CarMind AI daily message counts: only as long as needed to apply the daily limit
  • Crash reports: typically up to 90 days
  • Usage analytics: up to 1 year
  • Purchase records: as long as needed for your subscription and our tax and accounting obligations

14. Deleting your data and your choices

  • Delete your account: in the app, open Settings, tap your account, then tap Delete account. This permanently deletes your account and your cloud backup. Data on your phone is kept until you delete the app.
  • Subscriptions: deleting your account doesn’t cancel a subscription. On iPhone, cancel it in Settings → your name → Subscriptions. On Android, cancel it in the Google Play Store app → your profile picture → Payments & subscriptions → Subscriptions.
  • Usage analytics: email us to object to usage analytics, or to have the usage data linked to your account deleted.
  • Ads: change tracking on iPhone in Settings → Privacy & Security → Tracking; reset or delete the advertising ID on Android in your phone’s ad settings; in the EEA, UK and Switzerland, use Settings → Ad privacy in the app. Or go Pro, which has no ads.
  • Permissions: turn camera, photos, location or notifications on or off in your phone’s Settings (on Android, Settings → Apps → CarMind → Permissions).
  • Requests: email support@fordytechsolutions.com to ask what we hold about you, or to correct, export or delete it. We’ll reply within 30 days.

Depending on where you live, including under the Philippine Data Privacy Act of 2012, the EU and UK GDPR, and California law, you may have rights to access, correct, delete or port your information, and to object to or restrict some uses. You can also complain to your local data protection authority. In the Philippines, that is the National Privacy Commission (privacy.gov.ph). We will not treat you differently for using these rights.

15. Security

Data sent between the app and our providers is encrypted in transit, and cloud backups can be read only with your account. No system is perfectly secure. Protect your account with a strong password, and use a passcode on your phone.

16. International transfers

We are based in the Philippines, and our providers may store and process data in other countries, including the United States. Where the law requires it, we rely on safeguards such as the providers’ standard contractual clauses.

17. Children

CarMind is made for drivers and vehicle owners and is not directed to children under 13 (or the minimum age in your country). We don’t knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has given us information, contact us and we will delete it.

18. Changes to this policy

We’ll update this policy when the app or our providers change, and revise the effective date above. If a change is significant, we’ll let you know in the app or on this page before it takes effect.

Contact

Clifford Francisco (Fordytech Solutions)
Naga City, Camarines Sur, Philippines
support@fordytechsolutions.com