Honest Mechanic Privacy Policy

Contacts

Support: support@honestmechanic.ai

Privacy and data deletion: privacy@honestmechanic.ai

General contact: hello@honestmechanic.ai

App Identity And Accounts

Honest Mechanic does not require an account with an email address and password. The app assigns an anonymous owner and uses a device-linked identity to connect scans, results, history, chats, reports, consent records, feature disclosures, and usage counters.

On compatible devices, reinstalling the app on the same physical device may recover the same anonymous owner when the protected device identity remains available.

Recovery is not guaranteed between phones or after a device reset, loss of protected storage, or changes to platform-provided identifiers.

Information We Collect

• Anonymous owner id, device-linked identity information, app language, local settings, legal consent versions, feature disclosure versions, device/app metadata, and basic diagnostic logs needed to operate the app.
• OBD-II vehicle data, including VIN when needed, VIN masked or hashed where possible, make/model/year when available, diagnostic trouble codes (DTCs), readiness monitors, PID samples, PrePurchase samples, Guardian samples, freeze-frame or diagnostic evidence when available, and scan/result history.
• Workflow and report data, including Quick Scan, DTC-only, PrePurchase, Guardian, mechanic report summaries, result summaries, limitations, and shareable report context.
• Help Chat and Result Chat messages, responses, conversation context, deterministic FAQ interactions, result context sent to chat, and AI usage metadata such as request type, timestamps, usage counters, and entitlement periods.
• Optional voice and microphone data when you start a voice feature, including spoken input, transcription text, app response text, and related processing metadata depending on the selected voice mode.
• Plan and purchase data, including plan id, entitlement periods, quota status, usage counters, and store purchase, product, transaction, and entitlement identifiers. The Free plan is permanently available at no charge and is not a trial. Optional purchases are processed by the applicable app store. Honest Mechanic does not receive or store your payment card details.
• We may collect repair shop or partner contact information submitted through registration or early access forms, such as shop name, contact name, email, phone, city, state, and message, to review and respond to partnership or shop access requests.

Permissions And Feature Data

OBD-II, Bluetooth, and nearby devices: we use Bluetooth or nearby-device permissions to find and connect to your OBD-II adapter. Nearby adapter discovery may require location permission on some devices. Honest Mechanic uses location permission only for adapter discovery, not for GPS tracking.

Microphone/voice: we use the microphone only when you start voice chat or another voice feature, to transcribe your question and answer in the app. Spoken input may be processed by Honest Mechanic services or AI generation, transcription, or speech providers depending on voice mode.

Guardian: Guardian monitors vehicle signals while active and the adapter remains connected. It may save session context, critical events, Guardian samples, and diagnostic evidence. Guardian does not replace attentive driving.

How We Use Information

• Create scans, results, vehicle history, report summaries, mechanic reports, and shareable explanations.
• Support Quick Scan, DTC-only, PrePurchase, Guardian, Help Chat, Result Chat, deterministic FAQ, optional voice, and AI-assisted explanation workflows.
• Keep conclusions tied to available evidence, show limitations, and help you prepare for conversations with a seller, mechanic, or service advisor.
• Operate app access, plans, entitlement periods, usage counters, quota status, diagnostics, support, security, and reliability improvements.
• Provide permanent Free plan access, validate optional purchases, restore purchases, provide purchased access, support users, maintain accounting records, protect service security, and prevent fraud.
• Respond to support, privacy, and data deletion requests.

Service Providers

We may use service providers for hosting/API infrastructure, database storage, logging and monitoring, AI generation, AI transcription or speech processing when applicable, and app store services. These providers process information for app operations, security, support, purchase processing, and service delivery.

Sharing And No Sale

We do not sell personal or sensitive user data. We may share information with service providers that help operate Honest Mechanic, when required by law, to protect users or the service, or in aggregated or de-identified form that is not intended to identify you.

Retention And Deletion

We retain data while needed to provide scans, results, history, reports, chats, Guardian evidence, usage counters, purchased access, support, security, debugging, and legal compliance. You can request deletion by emailing privacy@honestmechanic.ai. Include your anonymous user id from Settings when available. The durable identity system does not prevent you from requesting deletion.

Deletion covers stored scan, result, chat, report, AI usage, and app metadata tied to that anonymous owner where technically possible. Certain purchase, product, transaction, entitlement, accounting, security, and fraud-prevention records may be retained when legally necessary or needed to restore access. A device-linked identity may help recover the same anonymous owner after reinstalling on the same compatible physical device, but recovery is not guaranteed between phones or after a device reset, loss of protected storage, or changes to platform-provided identifiers.

Security

We use reasonable technical and organizational measures, including HTTPS for production traffic, server-side secret handling, and log practices intended to avoid raw VINs where possible, raw secrets, payment fields, and unnecessary raw user text. Honest Mechanic does not receive or store payment card details entered through app store services.

Children And Minors

Honest Mechanic is not intended for children. Do not use the app if you are not old enough to operate a vehicle or legally consent to these terms in your location. We do not knowingly collect information from children.

Changes To This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy. If required legal versions change, the app may ask you to accept updated Terms, Privacy Policy, or safety disclaimer versions before continuing.