Privacy Policy

Last updated: October 27, 2026

Crankcase is a personal vehicle collection tracker made by Preston Siegel. This policy explains what the app stores, where it goes, who can receive it, and what you control.

What Crankcase stores

• Vehicle details you enter or scan: VINs, serial numbers, license plates, year, make, model, specs decoded from public data, photos, storage locations, values, purchase, lease, and sale records, modifications, service history, odometer readings, documents, custom fields, recall notices, and notes. If you connect an AI assistant, a log of the changes it made (the client's name, what changed, and when). If you share a garage or join one, an activity log of who changed what in it.
• Gear and tools kept in your garages (name, category, vendor, quantity, notes, cost, value, and purchase date, which vehicles they fit, and an optional receipt photo).
• App settings such as theme, units, and currency.
• If you allow an AI assistant: your permission and when you gave or withdrew it, the name of each assistant you connect and when it last connected, and the changes it queues until the app applies them. If you share a garage: your sharing settings for it (which categories and editor abilities).

All of this lives on your device and, if you use iCloud, in your private iCloud database. It is encrypted in transit and at rest by Apple. We run no server that stores your collection. The one server we operate is the optional AI assistant connector described below; it reads your data only at your direction and keeps no copy of it.

Where data goes

• Widgets. Crankcase's widgets show your collection's total value, a featured vehicle with its value and garage, and a Glovebox card with a vehicle's plate, the last characters of its VIN, insurer, policy number, and insurance and registration expiry dates. To draw them, the app keeps a small summary of your own vehicles in a file only Crankcase and its widgets can read, on your device; vehicles in garages shared with you are never in it. Remove a widget any time; the summary leaves your device only inside a device backup.
• iCloud. Your collection syncs between your devices through your private CloudKit database. Only you, people you share a garage with, and an AI assistant you allow can access it. Turning off iCloud for Crankcase in iOS Settings stops syncing.
• NHTSA. When you decode a VIN or check recalls, and when Crankcase refreshes recalls in the background, the VIN or the make, model, and year are sent to the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's public vPIC and Recalls services. When an assistant decodes a VIN or checks recalls, our connector makes the same request from Cloudflare. NHTSA publishes its own privacy practices at nhtsa.gov. We do not add any identifier of yours to those requests.
• Diagnostics (Sentry). "Share diagnostics" is on by default; turn it off in Settings → Privacy at any time. While it is on, crash reports, hang reports, records of the system closing the app, and performance samples are sent to Sentry. They include device model, iOS version, app version, locale, your settings (theme, units, currency, privacy mode, photo quality), how many vehicles and locations you have, how many tips you have left, whether iCloud is signed in, and a trail of recent screens and actions. When something goes wrong, the report also includes a screenshot and a short replay of the screens leading up to the problem so we can see what you saw. VINs, serial numbers, license plates, insurers, policy numbers, notes, and images of documents and receipts are blacked out in those images, and VINs and serial numbers are also masked in written messages and logs; other on-screen content such as vehicle names and values may be visible. No diagnostics are tied to your name, email, or Apple ID.
• Feedback. If you send feedback from App Info, your message, the category, an optional email, an optional screenshot you attach, and, if you leave Include diagnostics on, the app version, iOS version, device model, theme, locale, currency, and how many vehicles you have, are sent to Sentry so we can reply and fix problems. If you include an email address, that feedback is linked to you.
• Shared garages. Garages you share travel through Apple's iCloud sharing to the people you invite. The Shared Garages section below says what they see.
• AI assistants. Nothing reaches an AI assistant unless you allow it in Settings → AI Assistant. The AI assistants section below says what an assistant can read, who receives it, and how to turn it off.
• Siri, Shortcuts, and Spotlight. Crankcase's Siri and Shortcuts actions return vehicle details (name, year, make, model, garage, value, and VIN) and your collection's total to the shortcut you run. Where the shortcut sends them next, including Apple Intelligence or the ChatGPT extension in Use Model, is governed by Apple's and that provider's terms. Your vehicles are also indexed for Spotlight search on your device only.
• Notifications. Service, document, recall, and assistant-change reminders are local notifications created on your device. The only pushes involved are Apple's own silent iCloud pushes that tell the app its data changed; they carry no content, and we operate no push server.

Shared Garages

You can share a garage with other people through Apple's iCloud sharing. Everyone you invite sees each vehicle's details, notes, photos (including any photo of the VIN plate), purchase and sold dates, odometer, service and modification history with costs, recalls, and the garage's activity. They also see the gear kept in that garage and which vehicles it fits; its cost, value, and purchase date are shared only with the money category, and its receipt only with the documents category. You choose whether to also share four categories: identifiers (VINs, serial numbers, license plates, and plate state), money (purchase prices, values and their history, sold prices, and lease amounts), documents (title, registration, insurance, warranty, loan, manuals, and receipts, with their files), and custom fields. Records in a category you keep off stay in your iCloud only.

Shared data travels from your iCloud to each participant's iCloud through Apple's sharing service and is stored on their devices. Crankcase stores none of it on any server of ours. Participants see each other's Apple names, and activity entries in the garage name who did what. If you remove a participant or stop sharing, or a participant leaves, the garage is deleted from their devices. If the copy of a shared garage on your device is damaged, Crankcase moves it aside on your device, keeps it out of device backups, and deletes it the first time Crankcase opens after it is a week old.

Editor abilities you set (adding vehicles, editing details, logging activity, adding photos, marking vehicles sold, editing custom fields) are rules the Crankcase app follows. They are not a privacy boundary: anything in a shared category can be seen by everyone you invite.

People you share with can use their own AI assistant to read everything you share with them, and to change it within the permissions you set. Their assistant's maker then receives that data. Crankcase's connector never sends anyone's name to an assistant; to a participant's assistant you are described only as the garage owner.

AI assistants

Optional, and off until you allow it. Nothing about your collection reaches an AI assistant unless you open Settings → AI Assistant, read what it can read and who receives it, and tap Allow. Until then the app hides the connection details and our connector refuses every sign-in and every request that reads your data. If we change what an assistant can read, Crankcase asks you again before any assistant can continue.

What it can read. An assistant you connect can read your vehicles and their details, including VINs, serial numbers, and license plates; your notes on vehicles, service, and modifications; purchase prices, values, and the history of each value; the sale price and date of vehicles you sold; service records, odometer readings, and modifications; recalls, photo thumbnails, garage names and descriptions, and custom fields; gear and tools in your garages, with their vendors, quantities, and your notes, which garage holds them, which vehicles they fit, and their cost, value, and purchase date; and garages other people share with you, limited to what they chose to share. People's names are never sent. Glovebox documents such as title, registration, and insurance are never sent to an assistant, and the assistant cannot add photos or documents. In App Store privacy terms this is user content, photos, financial information (prices and values), and your iCloud user identifier, all linked to you and never used for tracking.

How it is collected. After you allow, the assistant signs in to your iCloud account through Apple's web sign-in. Each time the assistant asks, our connector reads your collection live from your iCloud database and passes the answer to the assistant. It reads nothing on its own schedule and nothing before the assistant asks.

How it is used. For two things only: answering the questions you put to the assistant, and queuing the changes you ask it to make. On your instruction the assistant can add vehicles, edit details, mark vehicles sold or archived, move them between garages, set values, log service, modifications, and mileage, set custom fields, add and update gear, create, rename, and archive garages, check for new recalls, and dismiss recalls. Those edits are written to your own iCloud, which pushes them to your devices; the app applies them within seconds and lists each one (the client's name, what changed, and when) under the bell, where you can undo it. You can require your approval before any edit applies (Settings → AI Assistant → Review changes before they apply).

Who receives it. The company behind the assistant you connect receives what it reads: Anthropic for Claude (Anthropic's privacy policy), OpenAI for ChatGPT (OpenAI's privacy policy), SpaceXAI for Grok (SpaceXAI's privacy policy), or the company that makes any other MCP assistant you choose. What they keep is governed by their privacy policy and your account with them. Each assistant you connect is listed by name under Connected assistants in Settings → AI Assistant.

Our connector and Cloudflare. Crankcase's connector runs on Cloudflare, a U.S. company. Cloudflare is our processor: it runs the connector's code and keeps short-lived request logs, which we use only to diagnose problems. Those logs hold only the connector's own error lines, with no collection data and no sign-in tokens, and Cloudflare keeps them for at most seven days. To limit abuse, the connector briefly uses your IP address to count sign-in, registration, and token requests; those counts last about a minute and are never stored with your data. The connector passes data between your iCloud and the assistant and keeps no copy of your collection. No AI runs on our server, and we do not read your data.

Retention. The connector holds your iCloud sign-in so it can act for you: the web session token Apple issued, until Apple expires it (two weeks at most) or you turn access off; the assistant's OAuth grant, for 14 days after its last use; and, for clients that use an API key instead, that key for 14 days. With each of these it keeps your iCloud user identifier, the client's name, and when you connected. It also keeps each assistant's registration with the connector (the assistant's name and its return address) so the assistant can reconnect, and the time of its last permission check. Turning off AI assistant access ends every session and grant. No collection data is kept.

Withdrawing. Turn off AI assistant access any time in Settings → AI Assistant. It records your withdrawal in your iCloud and signs out every assistant; our connector refuses every sign-in and every request that reads your data from then on, within a minute. Your collection is untouched, and you can allow again later.

Protection. Every third party that receives your data through Crankcase protects it at least as this policy requires. Cloudflare, as our processor, is bound by its contract with us: encryption in transit, no copy of your collection, and no use beyond serving your own requests. The AI company you choose receives your data only at your direction and is bound by the privacy policy you accept with your account with them, linked above, which governs what it keeps and how it protects it.

What we do not do

• No advertising, no ad identifiers, no analytics SDKs, no tracking across apps or sites.
• We never sell your data, and we share it only as described here, at your direction.
• No AI processing of your data by us. Any on-device intelligence uses Apple frameworks on your device. What an AI assistant you connect can read, who receives it, and how it is protected are described in the AI assistants section above.

Tips

Tips are processed by Apple through In-App Purchase. We receive no payment details.

Your controls

• Delete any vehicle, photo, or record in the app. It disappears from all your devices and is never shared or sent to an assistant; the record stays in your iCloud marked deleted (so sync and undo work) until you remove Crankcase's iCloud data.
• Export your data from Settings → Data.
• Turn off diagnostics in Settings → Privacy. Turn on Privacy mode to blur values on screen, which also blurs them in any diagnostic screenshot.
• Turn off AI assistant access in Settings → AI Assistant; every assistant is signed out within a minute.
• Stop sharing a garage, remove a participant, or leave a garage someone shared with you, from the Garage tab.
• Delete the app to remove local data; remove iCloud data from iOS Settings, Apple ID, iCloud, Manage Storage.

Children

Crankcase is not directed at children under 13 and does not knowingly collect their data.

Changes

We will update this page and the date above when the policy changes. Material changes are announced in the app's What's New.

Contact

Questions about this policy or your data: open Crankcase, go to Settings → App Info → Send Feedback, and choose Question. Feedback reaches us through our diagnostics provider; include an email address if you want a reply. You can also leave a review on the App Store.