Privacy Policy
1. Your data stays on your phone
Parksmith saves where you parked and helps you walk back to your car. When you tap “Save my spot” (or use the widget or Quick Settings tile), the app reads your phone's location once, on your device, and stores the coordinates, a time stamp and an accuracy label in the app's private storage. It uses your location only while you save a spot or look for your car, never in the background, and never uploads it to us: we operate no servers that receive your location, photos or notes. Photos of a parking sign are taken with your phone's camera app and kept in the same private storage; notes (such as “B2 · C14”) stay there too. Cloud backup of that storage is disabled. The compass and motion sensors are read live to show the direction to your car and are not recorded.
Google Maps is opened only when you tap “Walk there”: the destination coordinates are handed to the Google Maps app on your phone, which handles them under Google's own privacy policy. Sharing a spot sends a text and a map link only where you choose to send it. There is no account and no sign-in.
2. Permissions
- Precise and approximate location — asked the first time you save a spot or look for your car, and used only while the app is open and you do so. No background location.
- Notifications — your parking-time reminder, and for free users one short note a day (can be turned off).
- Nearby devices / Bluetooth connect — Pro only, optional: lets Parksmith notice when your car's Bluetooth disconnects so it can offer to save the spot. Asked only if you turn that feature on.
- Camera — not requested. Parking-sign photos are taken through the system camera app.
- Notifications — free users only, can be turned off: one short note a day.
- Internet — ads, analytics, purchases and consent. Your content is never sent.
3. Analytics and crash reports (Google Firebase)
With your consent where required, we use Google Analytics for Firebase and Firebase Crashlytics to understand how the app is used and to fix crashes. We log anonymous events such as “paywall viewed” or “purchase completed”, plus device model, OS and app version, approximate region and an app-instance identifier. We never log your content; the app enforces this with an allow-list of event parameters. Crash reports contain the error type and stack trace only. Firebase Remote Config is used to tune paywall and ad settings.
4. Advertising (Google AdMob and Unity Ads)
The free version shows ads: one slim banner on a list screen, an occasional full-screen ad after you save something, and optional rewarded ads you choose to watch to unlock a Pro tool for a while. Ads never cover a live tool, onboarding or the paywall, and never appear in the first two minutes of first use. Parksmith Pro removes all ads.
Ads are served by Google AdMob, with Unity Ads competing through AdMob mediation and serving the banner directly. These partners may collect the advertising ID, device and usage information and approximate location derived from your IP address to serve and measure ads. See Google's and Unity's privacy policies.
5. Your choices (GDPR, UK GDPR, Swiss FADP, US state laws)
In the EEA, the UK and Switzerland, Parksmith asks for your consent through Google's consent message (IAB TCF) before personalised ads or analytics are used. If you decline, ads are non-personalised and analytics stays off. In US states with privacy laws (such as California, Virginia, Colorado), you can opt out of the “sale” or “sharing” of personal information and targeted advertising. You can change your choice at any time in Settings → Privacy choices.
Legal bases (GDPR): consent for analytics and personalised ads; performance of a contract for the features you use and for purchases; legitimate interest for crash diagnostics where consent is not required. You may request access, deletion, correction or portability of data we control, object to processing, or lodge a complaint with your supervisory authority. California residents (CCPA/CPRA): we do not sell personal information for money; ad partners may receive identifiers as described above, which you can opt out of in Privacy choices. We do not discriminate against users who exercise their rights.
6. Purchases
Subscriptions and the lifetime purchase are processed by Google Play. We never receive your payment details; Google tells the app whether Pro is active.
7. Retention and deletion
Your content remains on your device until you delete it or uninstall the app. Analytics data is retained by Google for up to 14 months. See how to delete your data.
8. Children
Parksmith is not directed to children under 13 (under 16 in the EEA) and we do not knowingly collect their data.
9. Changes
We will update this page if our practices change and revise the date above.