VoltGarage
Privacy
Last updated: 19 October 2026
- No account needed. We do not store your name, email, phone number or GPS location.
- Your entries stay on your phone and are backed up over an encrypted connection to our server in the European Union.
- Price sharing and usage data are optional and can be turned off in Settings.
- The free version shows Google ads; Pro does not.
- You can export your entries or delete them for good at any time.
Who we are
VoltGarage is published by OWL APP LTD, a company registered in England and Wales (number 16945604). "We" in this text means OWL APP LTD. Questions and requests: contact@owl-app.com.
Account and device key
On first launch the app creates a random key for your phone. Our server stores a one-way hash (sha256) of that key, never the key itself, and links your entries to it. The recovery code in Settings is this key; only you see it, so do not share it.
What we process and why
| Data | Why | How long |
|---|---|---|
| Your vehicle details, charge and expense entries (including station names), settings, Pro status | To run the app and back it up, so your entries come back on a new phone | Until you delete them. A backup unused for 24 months is deleted in the next weekly clean-up, unless your Pro is active. |
| Start and end time of a tracked charge | To learn your car's real charging speed and predict when it will be full | Inside the entry, until the entry is deleted |
| Community price: the price per kWh you enter at a station (with its currency) | The station price everyone sees. Others see the station's shared price, not yours. Kept under a pseudonymous tag made from your device key, not your name; only our server can match this tag to your device | Deleted when you turn off price sharing or delete everything |
| Your answer to "did the charger work" | To show whether a station works. Kept under a tag that changes daily | Up to 67 days: a weekly clean-up deletes answers older than 60 days |
| The place you pin for a new station you report, its type, power and name, and your confirmations | To add new stations to the map (published once 10 different people confirm). The pin is sent unrounded so the station appears in the right place. Stations you report and confirm are kept under a pseudonymous tag made from your device key | Unpublished reports, up to 187 days: a weekly clean-up deletes those older than 180 days. A published station stays on the public map. Pseudonymous confirmations are deleted when you turn off price sharing or delete everything |
| Your station busyness report (free chargers, full, or a queue) | To show how busy a station is right now. Kept under a tag that changes daily | Up to 9 days: reports older than 2 days are deleted when a new report comes in or in the weekly clean-up |
| Your points and any month of Pro you unlock with them | To keep the points you earn from busyness and "did it work" reports. A single number tied to your device key; which stations you reported is not linked to your points | Until you delete them |
| New-device counter: a daily-changing hash of your IP address | To stop someone opening many fake devices from one place and spoiling community data. Your IP address itself is not stored | Up to 9 days: a weekly clean-up deletes entries older than 2 days |
| Anonymous usage counts (e.g. how many charges were added today) | To see which features help. Not linked to anyone; only daily totals are kept | As totals |
| Crash reports (app version, Android version, screen name, error text and where in the code it happened; emails and long numbers masked) | To fix bugs | Up to 97 days: a weekly clean-up deletes reports once 90 days have passed since the error was last seen |
| Purchase details (Google Play subscription record) | To unlock Pro and verify the subscription with Google | While the subscription and the account exist |
| If you email support: your support code, phone model and Android version | To solve your problem | For the conversation |
Price sharing and usage data are on at first launch and can always be turned off in Settings > Privacy. Turning price sharing off also deletes the prices and station answers you shared before.
What stays on your phone
Receipt photos and screenshots are never sent to our server. If you pick your car's Bluetooth, its name and address are not sent to our server either. Two exceptions: a backup file you make yourself in Settings includes the Bluetooth choice, and if Android's Google backup is on, the app's data (receipt photos included) may go into the backup in your Google account. If you turn on drive detection, the phone only tells the app that you left a vehicle; no location is used.
Location
Your location is used on your phone to show nearby stations. To search for stations, only a version rounded to about 1 km, or the name of an area 11 to 55 km wide, reaches our server, and it is not stored. If we have no station data for that area, our server may ask Open Charge Map using the rounded location; your IP address does not go to them. If you report a new station, the place where you drop the pin is sent as it is (see the table above). If you ask for directions to a station, its location opens in Google Maps. The app does not use location in the background.
Ads
The free version shows Google AdMob ads; none in the first 10 minutes and none with Pro. Google may use your phone's advertising ID, approximate location and in-app interactions for ads. In the European Economic Area, the UK and Switzerland you are asked first, a "Do not consent" option is shown, and you can change your choice in Settings > Ad choices. You can reset or delete the advertising ID in your phone's Google settings. More: how Google uses data from partner apps.
Who we share it with
We do not sell your data. These providers help run the service:
- Cloudflare: our server and backup database (data in the European Union region), and this website.
- Hetzner: the server that prepares country average prices and the world station list and serves the station files through Cloudflare. It keeps no access logs and stores no personal data.
- Google: Google Play purchases and subscriptions, AdMob ads, Android backup (the recovery key and, if it is on in your phone, the app's data), and Google Maps for directions. If diagnostics sharing is on in your phone, Android also reports app crashes to Google Play.
- OpenFreeMap: map images. When you open the map, your phone's IP address reaches their servers.
Station details come from OpenStreetMap (ODbL) and Open Charge Map (CC BY 4.0) data. Some of these providers may also process data outside Europe under their own contractual safeguards. We may share information with authorities where the law requires it.
Your rights
- Access and portability: export all your entries as a file in Settings > Data.
- Deletion: Settings offers "Only from this phone" (the backup stays) or "Delete everywhere for good". Deleting for good also removes your entries on our server and your price and station reports.
- Objection: you can turn off price sharing, usage data and personalised ad consent.
- For any other request, write to contact@owl-app.com. Adding the support code from the app helps us find your entries.
- You can complain to the ICO in the UK, your country's data protection authority in the EU, or the Personal Data Protection Authority (KVKK) in Türkiye.
Legal basis
Storing and backing up your entries is needed to provide the service. Community prices, station and busyness reports, points, usage counts and crash reports rely on legitimate interest and can be turned off. In Europe, personalised ads rely on consent.
Children
VoltGarage is for vehicle owners and is not aimed at children under 16.
This website
voltgarage.app uses Google Analytics cookies only if you accept them in the bar at the bottom. If you do, the pages you open, the site you came from, your device and browser type, and your approximate location (city level) are sent to Google (USA). Location is estimated from your IP address; detailed data is kept by Google for up to 14 months. If you decline, nothing is measured and no cookie is set; you can change your choice at any time under "Cookie settings" in the footer. Fonts load from the site itself. Cloudflare, which serves the site, processes IP addresses to deliver it.
Changes
If we change this text, we update the date. If the change is important, we also tell you in the app.