MotorWarden

Privacy policy

Last updated: November 12, 2026

What MotorWarden keeps, and where

Everything you enter (vehicles, including VINs, plates and insurance details if you add them; work, parts, tools, costs, photos and receipts) is stored in a database on the device you entered it on.

If you turn on syncing between your devices, a copy is also kept in the storage service you choose (OneDrive, Dropbox, Google Drive or iCloud Drive), in a folder belonging to the app in your own account. That copy is encrypted on your device with a passphrase you set before it is uploaded. The storage service, and anyone else without the passphrase, cannot read it. The passphrase is never stored or sent anywhere; a key derived from it is kept in your device's secure storage (the Keychain on Apple devices, Windows data protection on a PC).

What leaves your device

• Encrypted sync files, to the storage service you chose, only if you turn on syncing.
• A VIN, to the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's free VIN decoder, only when you choose "Fill in from the VIN". Nothing else about you is sent with it.
• Requests for year, make and model lists, to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's fuel economy data service, when you pick a vehicle from the lists. They contain the year, make or model you are choosing, and nothing about you.
• Links you open, such as a sales tax lookup, open in your web browser under that website's own policy.

Nothing is sent to the developer.

Google user data

If you choose Google Drive, you sign in on Google's own page; MotorWarden never sees your Google password. This is what it does with your Google account:

• What it can access. MotorWarden requests two permissions: the files MotorWarden itself creates (drive.file) and a hidden app-data folder of its own (drive.appdata). It cannot see, list or change any other file in your Google Drive. It also reads your Google account's name and email address, to show you which account is signed in.
• How it uses it. Only to store and retrieve your own encrypted garage files, so that your devices stay in step. Your name and email address are shown on your device's settings screen and used for nothing else.
• Where it is stored. The encrypted garage files are stored in your own Google Drive. The sign-in token Google issues is stored in your device's secure storage. Your account name is stored on your device. None of it is stored anywhere by the developer.
• Who it is shared with. Nobody. MotorWarden does not transfer, sell or disclose Google user data to anyone, does not use it for advertising, and does not use it to train AI or machine learning models. No person other than you reads it.

MotorWarden's use and transfer of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

Microsoft, Dropbox and Apple

The same applies to the other services. With OneDrive and Dropbox you sign in on the service's own page and MotorWarden uses a folder of its own; with OneDrive you can also choose to keep your garage in a folder you share with other people, which needs wider access to your files that you are asked to approve at the time. iCloud Drive uses the iCloud account your device is already signed in to. In every case the files are encrypted with your passphrase first.

Photos, camera and receipts

Photos you add, and text read from receipts, are processed on your device. They are stored with your garage and synced only as part of it, encrypted.

Removing your data

• On a device: delete the app, and its data goes with it. On a Windows PC, also delete the garage folder shown under Settings, Folders on this PC.
• In a storage service: choose "Stop syncing here" in the app on each device, then delete the app's folder in that service. In Google Drive, open Settings, then Manage apps, find MotorWarden and choose "Delete hidden app data".
• MotorWarden's access to your Google account: remove it at any time at myaccount.google.com/connections. The other services have an equivalent page.

Test versions

If you install a test version through Apple's TestFlight, Apple may collect crash reports and usage information under its own terms. MotorWarden itself adds no analytics or crash reporting.

Children

MotorWarden is not directed at children and collects no personal information from anyone.

Changes and contact

If this policy changes, the new version will be posted here with a new date. Questions: support@householdkit.dev.