Privacy Policy
Lotside has no accounts, no analytics, no ads and no tracking. The cars, quotes, notes and photos you save stay on your phone. The app only goes online to look up a VIN you enter (with the U.S. government's NHTSA database) and to check for app updates.
What the app stores, and where
Everything you enter in Lotside is saved only in the app's private storage on your own device: the cars in your garage, dealer quotes, checklist progress, notes, photos you take or attach, and your settings such as ZIP code, sales tax, loan rate, down payment and target payment. None of it is sent to us or to anyone else. Deleting the app, or using “Erase everything” under My info, permanently removes it.
Sharing summaries
When you share a car summary, your shortlist or a “what to say” message, Lotside builds the text or PDF on your phone and hands it to your phone's share sheet. It goes only where you choose to send it, and a PDF is deleted from the app once the share sheet closes.
What we collect
Nothing about you. There is no sign-in, no user account, no analytics or advertising software, no advertising identifier, and no crash reporting that identifies you. We cannot see the cars you look at, the quotes you enter or anything else you save.
The camera and photos
- Reading a VIN from a photo. When you photograph the VIN plate, the text is read on your phone by Apple's Vision framework (iPhone) or Google's ML Kit (Android). The photo is deleted from the app as soon as it has been read, and it is never uploaded. On Android, Google's ML Kit may send Google anonymous performance and usage statistics under Google's own terms; it does not send the photo or the text it reads.
- Scanning dealer paperwork. When you photograph a dealer quote, buyer's order, lease worksheet or add-on sticker, the text is read on your phone the same way, and the photo is deleted from the app as soon as it has been read. Only the numbers you choose to keep are saved, with that car's quote, on your phone. The photo and its text are never uploaded. If you pick a photo from your library, the original stays in your library.
- Photos of cars. Photos you take or choose under “On the lot” are copied into the app's private storage on your phone and stay there until you delete them or the car.
- The app asks for camera and photo-library access only when you use these features, and you can turn access off at any time in your phone's settings.
When the app goes online
- VIN lookup. When you tap “Look up and add to garage,” the app sends that VIN, and nothing else, to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's public vehicle database (vpic.nhtsa.dot.gov) to find the car's year, make and model. As with any website, NHTSA's servers see your device's internet address. Lotside does not keep a record of the lookup anywhere but your garage. NHTSA's handling of requests is covered by its own privacy policy.
- App updates. Lotside checks for updates to its car data and features through Expo, the service that delivers them. Each check sends your phone's platform (iOS or Android), the app and update versions it is running, an anonymous random install ID that is not linked to your name, account, phone number or anything you save, and, if an update fails to load, a short technical error report. Expo uses this to deliver the right update and count installs. No personal information or saved data is included.
Car details in the app (trims, prices, warranty, features) are built into the app itself, so browsing them sends nothing anywhere.
What the app stores already know
Apple (the App Store and TestFlight) and Google (Google Play) collect their own information about downloads and devices under their own privacy policies. That happens between you and them, outside this app. We receive no personal information from either.
Children
Lotside is a car-shopping tool intended for adults and is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone, of any age.
Not advice, and not affiliated
Lotside is a planning tool. Payment figures are estimates from standard loan math, and car details are researched from manufacturer websites and public sources and may contain errors or change during the model year. Confirm prices, features and financing with the dealer and on the window sticker before you buy. Lotside is not financial or legal advice, and it is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to NHTSA, the EPA, any carmaker or any dealer.
Changes to this policy
If a future version of Lotside changes how information is handled, this page will be updated and the effective date above will change. Because the app collects nothing about you, we cannot notify you directly, so please check this page after major updates.
Contact
Questions about this policy: strata.works2026@gmail.com