Privacy policy.

This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, and protect your personal data when you use the Road Charge Pilot app or the roadchargepilot.com website (together, the "Service"), and your rights under UK data protection law.

1. Who we are

The data controller is Road Charge Pilot Ltd, a company registered in England & Wales (company no. 17531657), registered office 352 Blackgate Lane, Holmes, Preston, Lancashire, PR4 6JJ. You can contact us, or our privacy officer, about privacy matters at hello@roadchargepilot.com.

2. What we collect, and why

Location data

The core of the Service is detecting when your vehicle enters a chargeable zone. To do this, we collect your device's location, including in the background while the app isn't open. Most of the time this uses low-power geofencing; when you're near a zone boundary, the app briefly switches to more precise GPS location to confirm whether you've actually crossed in. This is necessary to provide the Service. Without it, the app can't do what it's designed to do.

Motion and activity data

To tell driving from walking or cycling, the app reads your phone's motion activity (for example "walking" or "in a vehicle") alongside your location. It's used on your device only; we don't send it to our servers or share it.

Account information

We use Sign in with Apple, Google Sign-In, or an email address and password (all through Firebase Authentication) to identify your account. We receive a unique identifier and, depending on how you sign in and what you choose to share, your name and email address. If you sign in with a password, Firebase Authentication keeps it in a form we can't read.

Vehicle information

Vehicle registration number, and (either looked up automatically via the DVLA Vehicle Enquiry Service and DVSA MOT History API, or entered manually if a lookup isn't available) make, model, fuel type, first registration date, tax due date and MOT due date. This is used to work out whether a charge is likely to apply to your vehicle in a given zone.

Crossing history

When a zone crossing is confirmed, we store the zone, the date and time, the location it was confirmed at, the compliance outcome, the payment deadline, and (once you mark it) the date and time you told us you'd paid. This is your record of chargeable crossings and their payment status.

Subscription status

Subscription and free-trial status is managed by our subscription provider, RevenueCat, linked to your account identifier. We don't receive or store your payment card details. Those are handled entirely by Apple or Google.

Messages you send us

If you use the contact or feature-request form on our website, or email us directly, we'll hold the name (if given), email address, and message you send, in order to respond to you. The form uses Cloudflare Turnstile to check that a person, not a bot, is sending the message.

Your visits to our website

When you visit our website, our hosting provider receives technical information such as your IP address and browser type, as it would for any website. If you agree to it in our cookie banner, cookies also collect information about how you use the website (see section 7).

3. Who we share data with

We share data with the following third parties, solely to provide the Service:

• DVLA (Vehicle Enquiry Service) and DVSA (MOT History API): sent your vehicle registration number, to retrieve official vehicle data;

• Google Firebase / Google Cloud: hosts our authentication, database (in the London, UK region), and backend functions;

• RevenueCat: manages subscription and free-trial status;

• Apple and/or Google: process your subscription payment and provide sign-in, depending on your device;

• Stadia Maps: supplies the map images on the app's Live Map screen. Your device fetches them directly from Stadia Maps, which receives your IP address and the area of the map you're viewing;

• Resend: delivers messages sent through our website's contact form;

• Cloudflare: hosts our website, and runs Cloudflare Turnstile, which checks that messages sent through the contact form come from a person, not a bot;

• Usercentrics (Cookiebot): runs our website's cookie banner and keeps a record of the choices you make in it.

Our website also shares information about your visits with Google (through Google Tag Manager) and the other providers named in our cookie banner, but only if you agree to statistics or marketing cookies (see section 7). If you play a YouTube video on our website, YouTube (part of Google) also receives information about your visit, again only with your consent. We don't sell your data, and nothing from the app is ever shared for advertising.

4. Legal basis for processing

We process most of your data because it's necessary to provide the Service you've signed up for (performance of a contract), including location, vehicle, and crossing data. Where the app stores or account platform requires a specific consent for location access, we rely on that consent, which you can withdraw at any time through your device settings (though the Service won't work properly without it). We handle contact-form messages under our legitimate interest in responding to you, and check them with Cloudflare Turnstile under our legitimate interest in keeping the form free of spam and abuse. We only use statistics and marketing cookies on our website, and only play YouTube videos on it, with your consent, which you can withdraw at any time from our cookie banner.

5. How long we keep data

Crossing history is kept for as long as your account is active, so you have a full record of what's been paid. A low-level technical log used only to detect approaching zones is capped and automatically pruned, and isn't kept as a historical record. Contact-form messages are kept as long as needed to handle your enquiry. If you delete your account, we delete the personal data associated with it, other than anything we're required to keep for legal or accounting reasons.

You can delete your account at any time in the app, under Settings > Delete account. That deletes your account and everything synced to it from our servers straight away, and clears the app's data on your phone. It doesn't cancel your subscription, which you manage with Apple or Google. If you no longer have the app, see how to delete your account.

6. International transfers

Our database and backend functions run in Google Cloud's London (europe-west2) region. Some of our providers (including Apple, Google, Cloudflare, RevenueCat, Resend and Usercentrics) may process data outside the UK/EEA as part of their own global infrastructure, under their own appropriate safeguards such as the UK's International Data Transfer Addendum or equivalent standard contractual clauses.

7. Cookies and tracking

Our website

Our website uses cookies and similar technologies. Some are needed for it to work, such as remembering your cookie choices and checking that the contact form is being used by a person (see section 3). We only use the others if you agree to them in our cookie banner:

• Statistics: to understand how people use the website, so we can improve it;

• Marketing: to measure and improve our advertising.

These are loaded through Google Tag Manager and set by Google and the other providers named in the banner. The banner, run by Cookiebot, lists each cookie, who sets it and how long it lasts. You can change your choice or withdraw your consent at any time from the "Cookie settings" link at the bottom of every page.

Some pages may include videos from YouTube, shown in YouTube's privacy-enhanced mode. Nothing is loaded from YouTube until you press play. Playing a video lets YouTube (part of Google) set its own cookies and similar technologies on your device and receive information such as your IP address, so we only play it once you've agreed to marketing cookies: if you haven't, the video asks you first, or you can watch it on YouTube instead. Google's use of this information is covered by Google's privacy policy.

Our hosting provider also keeps standard technical server logs (like any website), which we don't use to track you individually.

The app

The app doesn't use cookies, and it doesn't track you across other companies' apps or websites.

Do Not Track

Our website relies on the choices you make in its cookie banner rather than on "Do Not Track" signals. The app doesn't track you, so there's nothing for a "Do Not Track" setting on your phone to turn off.

8. Your rights

Under UK GDPR, you have the right to:

• Access the personal data we hold about you;

• Ask us to correct inaccurate data;

• Ask us to delete your data (or delete your account yourself);

• Object to, or ask us to restrict, certain processing;

• Request a copy of your data in a portable format.

To exercise any of these, email hello@roadchargepilot.com. You also have the right to complain to the UK's data protection regulator, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).

9. Children

The Service isn't directed at children, and we don't knowingly collect data from anyone under 18.

10. Security

We use reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect your data, including access-controlled cloud infrastructure and encryption in transit. No system is completely secure, but we work to keep your data safe.

11. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. If we make material changes, we'll update the "Last updated" date above and, where appropriate, notify you in the app.