In short
- You sign in with Google. Your cars, readings, trips and charges are backed up to your OttoTrail account so they come back on a new phone.
- OttoTrail has no ads and no analytics, crash reporting or advertising tools. We never sell your data.
- Readings carry the phone’s location, taken only while it’s connected to your car.
- Charging invoices you upload and questions you ask in Analyze are read by Google Gemini.
- You can delete your account and everything in it from the app. How it works.
On this page
1. Who we are
OttoTrail is an electric-car trip logger made by AshterNext, an independent developer in India (Maalik Bagwala). “We” in this policy means AshterNext. Questions go to malik@ashternext.com.
2. What we collect
Your account
You sign in with your Google account. We receive and keep your name, email address, the address of your profile photo and Google’s ID for your account.
Your car, from the OBD-II adapter
- Battery and drive data: state of charge, odometer, battery health, pack voltage and current, temperatures, cell voltages, the 12 V battery and cycle count.
- The vehicle identification number (VIN), which names your car and lets OttoTrail recognise it when you reconnect.
- The adapter’s name and Bluetooth address, so the app can reconnect.
Location
- While the app is connected to your car, each reading it keeps (about one per kilometre) is stamped with where the phone was: its coordinates, their accuracy, the matching Plus Code and a place name.
- Places you save, such as Home, with their tariff, and where each charge happened.
- In the route planner, the start and destination you pick. If you choose Current location, the phone’s position is used as the start.
Location isn’t read at any other time.
What you add
- Readings you type in by hand, battery notes, car details such as the registration number, tariffs and settings.
- Charging invoices: the PDF or photo you upload and the details read from it, such as the operator, station, energy, amounts, taxes and the vehicle number printed on it.
- Analyze attachments: photos and PDFs you attach. Photos are re-saved without their metadata, but the time and place they were taken are kept with the attachment, along with any text read from them.
- Questions you ask in Analyze and the answers.
Service records
For each request to Google Gemini we log which feature made it, the model, how long it took, its size and any error. You can see these records for your own account.
3. What stays on your phone
- Adapter recordings. When Record every connection is on, each session with the adapter is saved as a file: the commands sent, the car’s replies (which can include the VIN) and the decoded readings. Recordings are never uploaded. You can delete them in the app, or share one yourself with Android’s share sheet.
- Text reading. Text in photos and PDFs you attach is read on the phone, by Google ML Kit on Android and Apple’s Vision on iPhone.
- Calculations such as trips, charge detection, the battery score and cost per kilometre run on the phone.
4. How we use your data
- To show your log, trips, charges, battery and costs in the app.
- To back up your account and bring it back when you sign in again.
- To read your invoices and answer your questions in Analyze.
- To plan routes and find chargers along them.
- To keep the service working and stop misuse, such as rate limits.
We don’t use your data for advertising, don’t build profiles for anyone else and never sell it.
5. Who helps run OttoTrail
- Supabase hosts your account, database and uploaded files. Each account can only reach its own data.
- Google sign-in confirms who you are when you sign in.
- Google Gemini reads charging invoices (the whole file you upload) and answers Analyze questions. For a question it receives your question, the car’s name, your saved place names and a summary of your trips: times, area names, distances and charges. It doesn’t receive coordinates. Requests go from our server, not your phone.
- Google Maps Platform suggests places as you type, looks them up and computes routes. It receives what you type and the start and destination coordinates.
- Your phone’s geocoder (Google’s on Android, Apple’s on iPhone) turns a reading’s coordinates into an area name.
- Google Fonts serves the app’s typefaces the first time they’re needed. Google receives your IP address and basic device details, as with any web request, and no car or personal data.
- ChargeZone and Statiq: our server reads their public station lists to plan routes. None of your data is sent to them.
When you open a charger in a network’s app or in Google Maps, that app receives the station or its location from the link, and its own privacy policy applies.
Android Auto shows the same data as the phone app on your car’s screen. OttoTrail sends nothing extra.
Device backup: if Android backup is on, your phone may include OttoTrail’s data in your own Google backup. Your phone’s settings control this, and we have no access to it.
6. Permissions
- Nearby devices (Bluetooth) to find and connect to your OBD-II adapter. OttoTrail tells Android it never uses Bluetooth scans to work out your location.
- Location, while using the app to record where readings are taken and for Current location in the route planner. While connected to your car, readings continue with the phone locked, and the app shows its Reading the car notification. OttoTrail never asks for location all the time. On Android 11 and older, Android also needs this permission to scan for Bluetooth devices.
- Notifications for that reading notification.
- Camera and photos, through the system camera and picker, only when you scan or attach an invoice or photo.
7. Your car
OttoTrail only reads from your car. It blocks commands that clear fault codes, write to or reset modules, or change their diagnostic session.
8. How long we keep it
We keep your data while you have an account. When you delete your account, it’s deleted straight away, apart from short-lived backups at our hosting provider, which roll over. Delete your account lists exactly what goes.
9. Your rights and choices
- Delete your account and its data in the app or by email.
- Sign out to remove the account’s copy from a phone, keeping your backup.
- Delete adapter recordings in the app.
- Turn off Bluetooth or location for OttoTrail in your phone’s settings.
- Ask us for a copy of your data, or to correct it, at malik@ashternext.com.
10. Children
OttoTrail is not directed at children under 13 and we don’t knowingly collect their data.
11. This website
ottotrail.ashternext.com has no cookies, analytics or third-party scripts. Its fonts are served from the site itself. Our host, Vercel, keeps standard server logs.
12. Changes to this policy
If this policy changes, the new version will be posted here with a new date.
13. Contact us
- Developer
- AshterNext (Maalik Bagwala), India
- malik@ashternext.com