Privacy Policy
DropPin Vault ("the App") is built around a simple idea: the places you save belong on your device, not on someone else's server. This policy explains exactly what the App does and doesn't do with your information, in plain language.
The short version: Your saved spots, photos, tags, and notes stay in the App's local database on your phone. Nothing uploads unless you turn on Google Drive backup. Then your backup file goes straight to a private, hidden folder in your own Google Drive. Only you (and the App, on your behalf) can access it. We never see it. The App has no ads and needs no account for core features. The only cloud diagnostics are Firebase Crashlytics and Firebase Analytics (crash reports and basic app-activity signals, not advertising trackers).
1. Who We Are
DropPin Vault is developed by Erik Brown, an independent developer. There is no company, server infrastructure, or backend database operated on your behalf. The App is a self-contained piece of software that runs entirely on your device.
Contact: [email protected]
2. Information Stored Locally on Your Device
The core function of the App (saving locations, photos, notes, tags, and vehicle information) is handled entirely by a local database and local file storage on your phone. This data:
- Never leaves your device automatically
- Is never transmitted to Erik Brown or to any server we operate (because none exists)
- Is never sold, rented, or shared with advertisers
- Is fully under your control: you can view, edit, export, or permanently delete it at any time from within the App
This includes: saved location coordinates and addresses, photos you attach to a spot, notes and tags, vehicle names/colors/notes, linked Bluetooth device names or MAC addresses you choose to associate with a vehicle, and your App preferences (theme, default settings, and similar).
3. Optional Google Drive Backup
This is the one feature in the App that involves a third party for your Vault contents, so we want to be precise about it.
If you choose to connect Google Drive from onboarding or Settings, the App requests access to a single, narrow Google API scope:
https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive.appdata
This scope grants access to nothing but a hidden, application-specific storage folder ("appDataFolder") inside your own Google Drive account. It is invisible in your normal Drive file browser, cannot be seen or opened by any other app, and does not grant access to any other file in your Drive.
When Drive backup is on, the App periodically packages your Vault data (the same local database contents and photos described above) into a single backup file, and uploads it directly from your device to that hidden folder in your own Google Drive account. When you restore (typically shown once, on first launch, if a backup already exists), the App downloads that same file directly back to your device.
At no point does this data pass through, get stored on, or become accessible to any server operated by Erik Brown. The transfer happens directly between your device and Google's Drive servers, authenticated as you, using credentials only you control. We do not have a copy. We cannot read it. We cannot recover it for you if you lose access to your Google account. Only you and Google can do that.
You can disconnect Google Drive backup at any time from Settings → Data → Google Drive Backup. Disconnecting stops future backups; it does not delete the backup file already sitting in your Drive. You can remove that yourself from your Google Account's storage management, or the App's Disconnect confirmation will remind you of this.
4. Signing In With Google
Connecting Google Drive requires signing in with a Google account, using Google's own sign-in system (Android Credential Manager). This shares your basic Google account identity (your email address) with the App so it can show you which account is connected. That email is stored only in the App's local preferences on your device, purely for display. It is not sent anywhere by us.
5. Location Data
The App uses your device's location services to let you save where you are and navigate back to saved spots. Location processing for saving, navigating, and organizing spots happens on your device.
While using the App
When you use Snap, Pin, Quick Pin, Compass, or similar features while the App is open (or in the foreground), the App may request location access while you are using the App to capture or refine a fix and to show distance/heading back to a saved spot.
All the time (background location)
Some optional features continue to need a location fix after you leave the App screen. For those features, Android may ask for background location ("Allow all the time"). The App uses background location only when you have enabled the relevant feature, and only for that feature's purpose:
- Automatic Parking (Bluetooth Auto-Park): After your phone disconnects from a linked vehicle's Bluetooth, a background job may fetch your current location so the parked spot can be saved even if the App is not open.
- Active Tracking / live pin: While you are actively tracking a spot, a persistent notification and related updates may use location so distance and guidance stay current after you leave the App.
- Optional Motion & Fitness assist: If you turn on Motion-based assist for Auto-Park, the App may use recent motion/vehicle-exit signals together with location to improve when and where a park save is recorded (see Section 9).
Background location is not used to track you continuously for advertising, analytics products, or any purpose other than the parking / tracking features you enable. You can revoke location (or background location) at any time in your device's system App Settings; those features will stop working until permission is restored.
One technical exception to "everything stays on-device": to turn coordinates into a readable address (e.g. "123 Main St" instead of raw latitude/longitude), the App uses Android's built-in geocoding service, which (depending on your device) may send the coordinates to Google's geocoding servers to resolve an address. This is standard Android system behavior used by most location-aware apps, is governed by Google's own Privacy Policy, and is not something we collect, log, or have access to ourselves.
6. Nearby Devices / Bluetooth
Automatic Parking can optionally watch for your phone disconnecting from a vehicle you have linked in the App. To do that, the App may request permission to access nearby devices / Bluetooth.
- Bluetooth is used only to detect connect/disconnect events for vehicles you deliberately link (for example, your car's head unit or hands-free profile).
- Linked device names and identifiers (such as a Bluetooth MAC address) stay in the App's local storage on your device. They are not sent to Erik Brown, and they are not used for advertising.
- Bluetooth is optional. Pin, Snap, Vault, Compass, and the rest of the core App work without Bluetooth hardware or permission.
7. Notifications
With your permission, the App may show notifications so you can get back to a spot without reopening the App. Examples include a live Active Tracking / pin notification, timer or reminder alerts, and Auto-Park save confirmations. Notification content is generated on your device from your own Vault and tracking state. You can turn notification permission off in system settings; some features (like a sticky live pin) will then fall back to quieter behavior or ask you to re-enable it.
8. Wear OS Companion (Optional)
If you install the optional Wear OS companion and pair a watch with your phone, the App may sync limited state between phone and watch. For example: whether Active Tracking is on, theme/color preferences for the watch UI, and quick actions such as Quick Pin or Quick Track. That sync uses Google Play Services / Wearable APIs between your own devices. Watch companions do not create a separate account with us, and your Vault contents are not uploaded to a DropPin Vault server (none exists).
9. Motion & Fitness (Optional)
If you enable Motion & Fitness assist for Automatic Parking, the App may use Android Activity Recognition / motion signals as a backup cue (for example, a vehicle-exit or walking transition) to help capture a more accurate park location around Bluetooth disconnect. This permission is optional, used only for that assist feature, and does not send a continuous fitness profile to us.
10. Sharing a Location Into the App
When you share a place from Google Maps (or another maps app) into DropPin Vault (for example, using that app's own Share button and choosing DropPin Vault from the list), the shared text sometimes contains a shortened link (such as a maps.app.goo.gl link) rather than the coordinates directly. To find the real location behind it, the App makes a single, direct request from your device to that link's own server to follow it. That is the same thing that would happen if you tapped the link yourself in a browser. That request goes straight from your device to that service (typically Google's); it is not routed through, logged by, or visible to us.
11. Camera & Photos (Snap / OCR)
Photos you take or attach to a spot are saved to local storage on your device and referenced by the local database. They are never uploaded anywhere unless you've turned on Google Drive backup (see Section 3), in which case they travel the same direct-to-your-own-Drive path as everything else.
12. On-Device Text Recognition
The App can read text from photos (for example, parking garage level signs) using on-device text recognition. This processing happens entirely on your device using a bundled recognition model. No image or extracted text is sent to any server for this feature.
13. Home-Screen Widgets
Optional home-screen widgets (for example Everyday Quick Pin / Quick Track shortcuts, and Premium widgets such as Dashboard, Vault Favorites, and Tag Filter) read Vault and tracking state from local storage on your device so you can act without opening the full App. Widget content is not uploaded to a DropPin Vault server. Widget theming may follow your in-App Appearance settings on your device.
14. Voice Input (Dictation)
Tapping the microphone icon on any text field hands off to your device's own default speech-recognition app (the same one used system-wide for dictation) to transcribe what you say into text. The App itself never records audio or has direct access to it; it only receives the transcribed text back once you're done speaking. Depending on your device and which speech-recognition app it uses, that transcription may happen entirely on-device or involve sending audio to that app's own servers (commonly Google's). Either way, this is standard Android system behavior governed by that app's own privacy practices, not something we collect, log, or have access to ourselves.
15. Optional Premium & Google Play Billing
When Premium is offered through Google Play, purchase and entitlement are handled by Google Play Billing. Google processes the payment. Erik Brown does not receive or store your credit card number. Play may share limited purchase/entitlement signals with the App so Premium cosmetics can unlock on your device. Refunds follow Google Play's policies. Premium does not unlock access to your Vault contents for us; your spots stay on your device (and optionally in your own Drive backup).
16. Automatic Diagnostics & App Activity (Firebase)
To keep the App stable and understand basic usage in aggregate, it includes Google Firebase Crashlytics and Firebase Analytics. For Google Play Data Safety and transparency forms, this means the App may collect:
- Crash logs / crash reports (Crashlytics): If the App unexpectedly stops working, a technical stack trace, device model, OS version, and App version may be sent to Google's Firebase servers so the underlying bug can be fixed.
- App activity / analytics (Analytics): Basic, aggregate usage signals such as app opens and session length, used only to understand how the App is used overall. Not used to build advertising profiles.
Neither of these tools is used for advertising. The App explicitly disables Android's advertising ID and Google's ad-attribution permissions, so this diagnostic data cannot be linked to you for ad targeting, and we don't use it for that purpose. This diagnostic data is processed by Google under Firebase's own privacy terms, not collected or stored on a DropPin Vault server of our own.
Separately, if you use the in-App Report a Problem feature, you choose what to send by email (typically to [email protected]). That email may include device model, App version, recent diagnostic log lines, and other details you review before sending. It is not automatic background collection.
17. What We Don't Do
- We don't operate a server that stores your Vault data.
- We don't sell, rent, or share your data with advertisers or data brokers.
- We don't show ads or use advertising identifiers.
- We don't require an account to use the App's core features. Google sign-in is only ever needed for the optional Drive backup.
- We don't use Bluetooth, background location, notifications, Wear sync, or motion signals for advertising.
18. Your Choices
| To do this | Do this |
|---|---|
| Delete all local Vault data | Settings → Data → Factory Reset, or uninstall the App |
| Stop and disconnect Google Drive backup | Settings → Data → Google Drive Backup → Disconnect |
| Delete a backup already in your Drive | Manage it directly from your Google Account's storage, or Google Drive's own app settings |
| Revoke the App's Google account access entirely | Google Account → Security → Third-party access |
| Turn off location, background location, Bluetooth, camera, notifications, or motion permissions | Your device's system App Settings |
| Contact the developer | [email protected] |
19. Children's Privacy
The App is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children.
20. Changes to This Policy
If this policy changes in a meaningful way, we'll update the effective date at the top of this page. Continued use of the App after a change means you accept the updated policy.
21. Contact
Questions about this policy or how the App handles data can be sent to:
Please use this address (the same one listed in Google Play Console) for privacy questions, support, and problem reports. It is a normal, deliverable email address, not an obfuscated form.
DropPin Vault. Privacy Policy. Effective August 31, 2026