What the GarageID app for iOS and Android does with your data: what stays on your phone, what is sent to Google Gemini and other services, and why.
GarageID is made by Dariy Dzyndra (Dariyd.Soft), an independent developer ("we", "us"), who is responsible for this data. Contact: dariyd.soft@gmail.com.
The short version
- We have no servers. Your documents, photos, car records and everything the AI reads from them are stored only on your phone — and in your own iCloud Drive if you turn on backup. There is no account.
- Drives, if you turn them on, are recorded on your phone and stay there. To name a stop or a town, the phone asks its own map service — Apple Maps or Google — about that one point.
- To read a document you add, the app sends it to Google's Gemini AI. Gemini only analyses it and sends the result back to your phone. We keep no copy, and under the paid Google service we use, Google does not use it to train its AI.
- To fix crashes and improve the app, we use Sentry for crash reports and Google Analytics for Firebase for usage statistics. They carry a random ID created by the app — never your name, email address or documents — so we cannot tell who they come from.
- We do not sell your data, show ads or track you across other apps and websites.
Stored only on your phone
We have no servers that store your data. Everything you add to GarageID, and everything the AI reads from it, is kept in a database on your phone. This includes:
- Documents, scans and photos you add
- The text read from them and everything made from them: service history, expenses, fuel fill-ups, insurance, warranties, tires and reminders
- Car details such as make, model, VIN, number plate and mileage
- Saved places and parking spots
- Your drives, if you turn Drives on: each drive's route, distance, times, speeds and stops, and the place names looked up for them
- Your app passcode, kept in the phone's secure keychain
Some work is done on the phone itself and never leaves it: text recognition and image labels (Apple Vision on iPhone, Google ML Kit on Android) and the search index (Spotlight on iPhone, AppSearch on Android).
Cloud AI: Google Gemini
GarageID reads your papers with Google's Gemini AI models, reached through Google Firebase (Firebase AI Logic). Gemini runs on Google's servers, not on your phone. This is how the app knows what a document is and fills in the details for you.
What is sent to Gemini:
- Every document, photo or PDF you add or import — the file itself, including anything stored inside it such as a photo's location data — with its title, file name and your folder names, so it can be recognised, named, tagged, filed and read
- Photos you take inside a form (a receipt, an insurance policy, a contract or a tire), to fill in the fields
- For the insights on My Car: your car's details, such as make, model and mileage, with its service history, costs, insurance dates and reminders
- For a VIN lookup: the result together with the car details you have entered
- When you import a spreadsheet (CSV): its header row and a few sample rows, to work out what each column means
- On iPhone with iOS 26 or later: when you use Visual Intelligence (camera or screenshot search) and GarageID has records to compare, the image being searched, so it can be matched with your records
Google handles this data for us only to analyse it and send the result back to your phone. The result is stored only on your phone: we have no servers and keep no copy. Our Firebase project uses Google's paid Gemini service; under its terms, Google does not use your content to train or improve its AI, and keeps it only for a limited time to detect abuse and meet legal duties.
Reading with Gemini is part of adding a document and cannot be turned off on its own. The Settings switch that turns documents into records only stops the app from creating history, expense and reminder entries; the file is still read. If you do not want a document read by Gemini, do not add it to the app.
Other services the app contacts
A few features need information from outside the app. Only what the feature needs is sent:
- Google Firebase Authentication and App Check: an random app ID created on first launch, and a check that requests come from the real app. No name, email or password.
- NHTSA vPIC (U.S. Department of Transportation): the VIN, when you look a car up by its VIN.
- European Central Bank and National Bank of Ukraine: currencies and dates, to convert foreign receipts into your home currency. Nothing about you.
- Apple Maps (iPhone) or Google Maps (Android): the place you search for, or the location of a spot you save, to show it on a map and find its address.
- Apple Maps (iPhone) or the phone's own map service (Google on Android), with Drives: the position of one stop or town, to give it a name — and, on iPhone, the area around a stop, to find the fuel stations and chargers there. Never a whole drive.
- A web page you share to GarageID: the app opens the link to read the page.
- Google Forms: what you type into the contact or feature request form in Settings.
Crash reports and usage statistics
Apart from the features above, this is the only information the app sends. It helps us find and fix problems and see which features are used, and it never includes your documents or photos:
- To Sentry (stored in the EU, in Germany): crash and error reports with the device model, system and app version, the error, the screens opened just before it (never the app's log lines, what you tapped or anything from your documents), your IP address and the random app ID. In some sessions, and in sessions with an error, a replay of the screens is recorded with all text and images hidden.
- To Google Analytics for Firebase: which screens are opened and which features are used — for example that a document was imported, never what it says — with the random app ID, device model, system version and approximate country. On Android, Firebase can also read the phone's advertising ID; we do not use it for advertising.
- When you use Report an issue in Settings: your message, an email address if you choose to give one, and any screenshots you attach, sent to Sentry.
Backups
iCloud backup is off until you turn it on. When it is on, a copy of your database, documents and settings is stored in your own iCloud Drive, under Apple's terms, and we cannot see it. Your device's name is saved in iCloud to show which phone made a backup. A backup file you export is yours to keep wherever you choose.
On Android, the phone's own backup to your Google account and phone-to-phone transfer include GarageID's data, but not your passcode.
Permissions
The app asks for these only when you use the feature that needs them:
- Camera: to scan documents and photograph receipts and tires
- Photos: to import pictures and save images you export
- Location: when you pin a parking spot, save a place or add a photo's location — and, only if you turn Drives on, also in the background, to notice and record your drives while the app is closed
- Motion & Fitness (iPhone) or physical activity (Android): only with Drives, to tell driving from walking. Nothing about your health is read.
- Bluetooth: only with Drives, to notice when the phone connects to your car — on Android through the Nearby devices permission; on iPhone no permission is needed, the app reads the name of the car audio the phone is connected to. The names of the connections you link to a car stay on your phone.
- Face ID, Touch ID or fingerprint: to unlock the app. The check is done by your phone; we never see it.
- Notifications: for reminders, which are scheduled on your phone — and, with Drives, while a drive records and to ask about it after it ends (on iPhone also as a Live Activity on the lock screen, which you can turn off)
Selling and sharing
We do not sell your data, show ads, or track you across other companies' apps and websites. Data goes only to the services named on this page, only for the purpose described. Otherwise a document leaves the app only when you share or export it yourself.
Security
The app can be locked with a passcode, Face ID or fingerprint. Connections to the services above are encrypted. The data on your phone is protected by the phone's own storage encryption.
Legal basis (EU, UK and similar laws)
We process data to provide the features you use — reading documents, VIN lookup, maps, drives, backups — as part of our agreement with you (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR). Crash reports and usage statistics are based on our legitimate interest in keeping the app working and improving it (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR). No decisions with legal or similarly significant effects on you are made automatically.
International transfers
Google may process data outside your country, including in the United States. Such transfers are covered by the EU Standard Contractual Clauses and Google's certification under the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework.
How long data is kept
- On your phone: until you delete it, delete the car it belongs to, or remove the app
- Full drive routes: as long as you choose in Settings › Drives (forever, one year or 90 days); the drive itself stays until you delete it
- In your iCloud backup: until you delete the backup in iCloud settings
- At Google Gemini: not kept by us; Google keeps it only for the limited time its terms allow
- Sentry: up to 90 days
- Google Analytics for Firebase: up to 14 months
Your rights
Everything the app stores is on your phone, so you can see it, export it (backup file, PDF or CSV) and delete it at any time, in the app. Deleting a car removes its documents and records; removing the app deletes everything on the phone. Settings › Drives can also delete all drives at once.
Crash reports and usage statistics are not linked to your name, email address or phone number: they carry only a random ID created by the app, and we have no way to tell which of them come from you. For that reason we cannot look up, hand over, correct or delete them for a particular person, unless you can give us details that let us find them (Art. 11 GDPR). They are deleted automatically after the periods above, and deleting the app stops them. For any other question about your data, email dariyd.soft@gmail.com; we answer within one month. If you think we handle your data wrongly, you can complain to your data protection authority.
Children
GarageID is not meant for children under 16, and we do not knowingly collect data from them.
Changes to this policy
When what the app does with data changes, we update this page and its date. Important changes are also mentioned in the app's release notes.
Contact
Questions about this policy or your data: dariyd.soft@gmail.com
Last updated: 15 October 2026