Garage Buddy is a mileage and expense tracker for your vehicles. This policy explains what data the app handles and where it goes. 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, in the app's own storage, included in your normal device backup. No account and no network connection are required, and nothing leaves the phone except the optional AI scanning 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, odometer readings, dates, categories, costs, gallons, notes, reminders). In on-device mode this is stored locally on your iPhone. 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 and reference photos (receipts, documents, an optional dashboard photo per car) 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 you choose to scan (odometer, fuel pump, or receipts). 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 extract the mileage/amounts. 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.
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 phone.
Notifications for date-based reminders are scheduled locally on your device; no push server is involved.
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; your chosen AI provider for scanning).
Third-party services
Google Drive / Google Sheets — stores your data in your account, governed by Google's Privacy Policy.
Your AI provider (only if you enable AI photo capture) — 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 Photo Capture disables AI scanning (on-device scanning keeps working, offline).