Privacy Policy

Last updated: 26 September 2026
Effective date: 26 September 2026

This policy explains what data CarLens processes, why, who we share it with and what your rights are. You need an account to identify cars, so we process your email address. Your car collection and its photos, on the other hand, stay on your device.

1. Data controller

The controller of the data described in this policy is Óliver Álvarez.

Owner: Óliver Álvarez
Tax ID: 35623134K
Address: Xose María Cao 39, 27891 Cervo, Lugo, España

For any privacy question, you can contact us by writing to carlens.support@gmail.com.

carlens.support@gmail.com

2. In brief

Identifying cars requires an account; the rest of the app works without one. With the account we store your email address, your encrypted password and, if you add one, a name.
Your collection, your car photos and your profile picture stay on your device. We have no access to them.
The photos you identify are sent to our server and to two providers to obtain the result, and are not stored on any server.
There is no advertising, no tracking, no third-party analytics and no sale of data.
You can delete your account from the app, and with it everything we store on our server.

3. Your account

To create and maintain an account we need this data, which is stored on our server:

Your email address. It identifies your account and is used to sign in, confirm the address and reset your password.
Your password, encrypted. It is never stored as such: it is stored as a cryptographic digest that cannot be reversed, so nobody, ourselves included, can read it.
A name, if you want to add one. It is only used to greet you inside the app. You can change it or leave it empty whenever you want, from Account.
Your scan counters. How many of the 1 free identifications and of the 5 attempts you have used and, if you have a subscription, how many identifications you have made in the current month. For the month we only keep the current month's number: when a new one starts, it goes back to zero and no history is kept. And, for the daily cap, how many photos you have sent for identification today, whatever the result: only today's number, which goes back to zero every day at 00:00 UTC. They live in your account rather than on the device so that the limits are the same even if you change phone or reinstall the app.
Your subscription, if you have one. Which plan you have, until when it is paid for, whether it will renew and the identifier Apple gives that purchase. The app does not tell us this: RevenueCat, the service we use to manage purchases, tells us every time the subscription starts, renews, is cancelled, changes plan or is refunded. We use it to know whether you can identify cars and to show it to you in your account.
Your account dates. When you signed up, when you confirmed your email and when you last signed in.

This data is stored in the database we hold with Supabase, hosted in London (United Kingdom), and is kept for as long as you have an account. When you delete it, this data is deleted with it.

We do not ask for your surname, phone number, postal address, date of birth or payment details.

4. Data that stays on your device

The app stores the following in your device storage:

your collection: the make, model, generation, approximate years, estimated price, description and confidence level of each car you save, along with the date you saved it and whether you marked it as a favourite;
the photos of the cars you save, as a reduced copy of up to 1000 pixels on its longest side, inside the app folder;
your profile picture, if you set one: it is cropped square and reduced to 512 pixels, and never leaves the device;
your signed-in session, in the system keychain, so that you are not asked for your password every time you open the app;
the language you choose to use the app in;
the currency you choose to view prices and the latest exchange rates downloaded;
your answers to the initial questions and your favourite brands in the album, as explained in the next section;
whether we have already offered you notifications, so that we do not ask again.

Except for the session, which is used to talk to our server, this data is not sent anywhere and we have no access to it. While analysing a photo, the app also uses the device temporary cache, which the system itself clears.

If you have device backups enabled, such as iCloud, this data may be included in them, like that of any other app. Those backups are managed by Apple in your account, under its own privacy policy.

5. Initial preferences

The first time you open the app we ask you four questions, before any account is created. Each answer is used only for the following:

Which cars you like most: the brand album starts with the brands that match your taste.
Your age range: to check that you are at least 14. We only ask for the range, not your date of birth, and if you indicate that you are younger, the app does not let you continue.
Your favourite brand, if you want to name one: it becomes one of your favourite brands, which appear first and with a star in the album. From the album you can add or remove as many as you want by pressing and holding each brand.
How you heard about CarLens: it is stored so that you can check it in Settings.

Your answers and your favourite brands are stored only on your device, along with an indicator that you have completed the introduction: they are not sent to any server and are not linked to your account. You can change the answers whenever you want with "Repeat introduction", in Settings, and your favourites from the album.

6. Data that leaves your device

Only the data that is essential to provide the service leaves your device:

Your account data. Your email and password when you sign up or sign in, and your name when you change it.
The photo you want to identify. It is sent to our server and to our providers to identify the car and estimate its price, as explained in the next section.
Your session identifier. Each identification travels with your session token, so that we can check that the account exists and how many scans it has left. That token identifies your account, but it is not sent to Anthropic.
Technical connection data. As with any internet connection, our server provider receives your device IP address, the date and time of the request and technical data such as the operating system version.
Exchange rates. To convert prices, the app downloads the European Central Bank public exchange rate file at most once a day. It does not send any data about you; as with any connection, the Bank server receives the IP address.
Apple reports. If you have agreed to share analytics with developers in your device settings, Apple may provide us with crash reports and aggregated usage statistics that do not allow us to identify you.

7. The journey of a photo, step by step

You take a photo with the camera or choose one from your gallery. The app only uses the camera with your permission and, if you choose a photo from the gallery, it receives only that photo.
On your device, the app reduces the photo to a maximum of 1568 pixels on its longest side and compresses it again as JPEG. In that process the image metadata, such as the location some cameras record, is discarded.
The app sends the photo over an encrypted connection (HTTPS) to our server function, along with your session token.
The function uses that token to check who you are and whether you have a free scan left. If you do not, the photo is never analysed.
The function sends the image to the Anthropic API, where the Claude model analyses it and returns the make, model, generation, approximate years, an estimated price and a short description. That is the only destination your photo is sent to.
The function returns the result to the app and discards the image: it does not store it in any database or storage system.
If you decide to save the car, the result and a reduced copy of the photo are stored only on your device.

Bear in mind that a photo of a car may incidentally contain number plates or people who happened to be nearby. That image travels to Anthropic to be analysed and is not stored on our servers. We recommend framing the car and avoiding people in the shot.

Anthropic receives the image from our server, not from your device, so it does not receive your IP address or your account identifier.

8. Technical logs

Our server provider automatically logs the requests it receives, as any server does. Those logs may include:

the IP address you connect from;
the date and time of the request, the address it goes to and the result;
technical device data, such as the operating system version;
your internal account identifier, because it is part of the address of some requests;
if an identification fails, the text returned by the model, which describes the car. The photo is never logged.

We use these logs to keep the service working, detect abuse and resolve incidents. They are kept for the limited period set by our provider according to the plan we have contracted, and are then deleted.

9. Who processes data on our behalf

We work with the following providers, which act as data processors: they process data on our behalf, following our instructions and under their data processing terms.

Supabase. Hosts the database with your account and runs the function that identifies photos. The database is located in London (United Kingdom).
Anthropic. Receives the image and returns the car identification. Under its policy, it deletes API inputs and outputs within 30 days, unless it must keep them longer for security reasons or to comply with the law.
Resend. Sends account emails: the address confirmation and the password reset. It receives your email address, the content of those messages and the record of whether they arrived. It stores them in the United States, where Plus Five Five, Inc., the company behind Resend, is established.
RevenueCat. Manages subscription purchases: it checks them with the App Store, restores them when you ask and tells us when they change. It receives your CarLens account identifier, a random code that does not say who you are (never your email or your name), and the details of your App Store purchases: the product, the price and currency, the dates and the transaction identifiers. Like any service the app connects to, it also receives technical data about the connection and the device, such as the IP address, the system and app versions, and the language. RevenueCat, Inc. is established in the United States.

Apple is a different case: when you buy a subscription, it processes your payment data as an independent controller, under its own terms. We do not receive your name, your email or your payment details through Apple or RevenueCat: only the status of your subscription, that is, the plan, the dates and whether it has renewed, been cancelled or been refunded. We do not give your CarLens account identifier to Apple, but to RevenueCat, so that the purchase stays tied to your account.

You can read their privacy policies:

10. What we do not collect

CarLens asks for just what it needs to work. Specifically:

We do not access your location. The app does not request that permission, and location metadata is removed from photos before sending them.
We do not access your contacts, your microphone or the rest of your gallery.
We do not use your device advertising identifier and we do not track you across other apps or websites.
We do not include third-party analytics or advertising tools.
We do not build profiles or make automated decisions with legal effects on you.
We do not show advertising.
We do not sell or share your personal data for commercial purposes.
We do not use your photos to train artificial intelligence models.

11. Legal bases

Your account and identifying photos: performance of the contract you accept by using the app (Article 6(1)(b) of the GDPR and the UK GDPR), because it is the service you ask us for.
Account confirmation and password reset emails: performance of that same contract, because without them you could not use your account.
The scan counters: performance of the contract, and our legitimate interest in making sure the usage limits cannot be circumvented (Article 6(1)(f)).
Technical logs: our legitimate interest in providing a service that works, is secure and is not abused (Article 6(1)(f)).
Subscriptions, when they are available: performance of the contract. RevenueCat manages them on our behalf, and Apple processes your purchase data as an independent controller, under its own terms.
Notifications and Apple reports: your consent (Article 6(1)(a)), which you give in the system dialog or in your device settings and can withdraw there at any time.

We do not process the data that stays on your device, such as your collection, because we have no access to it.

12. International transfers

The database with your account is hosted in London (United Kingdom), a country the European Commission considers to provide an adequate level of protection.

The images being identified are processed in the United States, which is where Anthropic analyses them.

Account emails and their content are sent and stored by Resend in the United States, so they leave the European Union.

Supabase, Anthropic and Resend are companies established in the United States and may access the data from there in order to provide us with the service. These transfers rely on the EU-US Data Privacy Framework and its UK extension, where the provider is certified under them, or on the standard contractual clauses approved by the European Commission, together with the corresponding UK addendum, which form part of their data processing terms.

If you have a subscription, your CarLens account identifier and the details of your purchases are processed by RevenueCat, established in the United States, so they leave the European Union.

That transfer relies on the data processing agreement we have signed with RevenueCat and on the safeguards for international transfers it includes.

13. Retention periods

Your account data: for as long as the account exists. When you delete it from the app, it is deleted from our database, along with your name, your scan counters and your subscription details. Deleting the account does not cancel the subscription: you do that in your iPhone settings.
The photo you identify: we do not keep it. It is processed in memory and discarded as soon as the result is returned.
Our providers: apply their own retention policies, summarised in section 9.
Technical logs: the limited period set by our provider according to the plan we have contracted, as explained in section 8.
The data on your device: until you delete it or uninstall the app. Deleting your account does not delete your collection or its photos, which remain on your device.

14. Your rights

You have the right to access your data, to rectify and erase it, to restrict or object to its processing and to request its portability, as well as to withdraw at any time any consent you have given.

Some of them you exercise directly in the app:

Change your name: in Settings, under Account.
Delete your account: in Settings, under Account, with the "Delete account" option. It is really deleted and cannot be undone. Your collection and your photos, which live on the device, stay there until you delete the app.
Delete a car from your collection: from its detail screen, with "Delete from collection". Its photo is deleted with it.
Remove your profile picture: by tapping your picture, in Account.
Withdraw permissions: the camera, photos and notifications are turned on and off in your device settings.

We handle the rest by email. Write to us at carlens.support@gmail.com to:

Access your data or request a copy (portability): the app does not export your data yet, so we send it to you ourselves.
Change your email address: it cannot be changed from the app; we do it for you when you ask us from the address you want to change.
Object to a processing activity or ask us to restrict it: tell us which one and why.

We will reply within one month of your request, extendable in the cases the law provides for. To protect your account, we may ask you to write from the registered email address.

If you believe we have not handled your data properly, you can lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority: in Spain, the Agencia Española de Protección de Datos (AEPD); in the United Kingdom, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO); and elsewhere in the European Union, the authority of your country.

Agencia Española de Protección de Datos

Information Commissioner’s Office

15. Children

CarLens is not aimed at children under 14, which is the minimum age Spanish law sets for a minor to consent to the processing of their data on their own. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children under that age.

That is why, the first time you open the app, we ask for your age range, before any account is created. If you indicate that you are under 14, you cannot continue. It is a statement by you: we do not verify age in any other way.

If you believe a child under 14 has created an account, write to us at carlens.support@gmail.com and we will delete it.

16. Security

All the app connections are encrypted with HTTPS.
Your password is stored encrypted with a digest function and cannot be recovered in clear text.
Your signed-in session is stored in the system keychain, which the device protects and isolates from other apps.
The database applies row level security: each account can only read and change its own data, and the free scan counter cannot be modified from the app.
The access keys to our providers are stored only on the server and are never included in the app.
Photos are not stored on our servers, which keeps exposed data to a minimum.

No system is infallible, but we review these measures to keep them up to date.

17. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy when the app or the law changes. The date of the last update appears at the top of the document. If the changes are significant, we will tell you in the app before they take effect.

18. Contact

For any question about this policy or about your data, you can contact us by writing to carlens.support@gmail.com.

Owner: Óliver Álvarez
Tax ID: 35623134K
Address: Xose María Cao 39, 27891 Cervo, Lugo, España

carlens.support@gmail.com