ShadetreeShadetree Privacy Policy
The short version
Shadetree has no ads, no trackers, and no account to sign up for. Nobody buys your data, because there is nothing to sell. Your drives, diagnostics, locations, service history, and notes stay on your phone or in your own private iCloud. The sections below say exactly what leaves your phone, and when.
Looking up your maintenance guide
Once Shadetree knows what you drive, it works out a catalog ID for your car right here on the phone. That ID is the only thing it sends when it fetches your maintenance guide. It does not send your VIN, your name, your diagnostics, your drives, your location, your service records, or your notes. If that service is ever down, your live readings keep working.
Helping other owners
Cars differ in which readings they will answer, and nobody publishes a list. When the coverage switch in Settings is on, Shadetree reports the list of readings your car says it can give, which of them actually answered on your year, make, and model, one sample value so the number can be checked for sanity, and how long each reply was. The list of what your car supports is sent even when Shadetree cannot work out which car it is, because those are the ones it understands least. That list says what your car is capable of, never what it was doing. Your car shows up as a random token, never a VIN. It never sends your location, your drives, or your notes. Shadetree only ever asks your car questions. It never writes anything to it. Turn the switch off and nothing goes out.
Recording the weather on a drive
When a drive ends, Shadetree asks the National Weather Service, a public US government service, how warm it was outside, so a hot drive can be read as a hot day instead of a fault. It sends one rounded location, accurate to a couple of miles, and nothing else. No VIN, no readings, no trouble codes, no name, no ID. It asks once per drive and never while you are driving. If you say no to location, or the weather service has no station nearby, the drive simply carries no temperature and everything else works the same.
Ask
Tapping Ask about this car gathers what your car has reported and opens your default AI with it: Google unless you chose ChatGPT or Claude in Settings. Nothing else ever triggers it; data goes out only when you tap. Shadetree has no AI of its own and never sees your question or the answer, because the conversation happens in their app, not here. Once it is sent, your car data is in their hands and their privacy policy governs it, not this one. What goes across: year, make, model, engine, trouble codes, live readings, recorded drive readings and their recent trends, and where you stand on maintenance. The exact text is also copied to your clipboard on every send, so you can read every word of what went. Your VIN, chassis number, location, and notes are never included. Treat what any of them says as a place to start, not a diagnosis.
What stays on your phone
Shadetree keeps these in its own protected storage, which no other app can read: your VIN or Japanese chassis number, what car it is, your readings, your trouble code history, your drive samples and the GPS points that go with them, your maintenance state, which adapter you use, and the technical logs. Detailed drive samples are thrown out after 90 days. The summaries built from them stay until you delete the app’s data.
Scanning your VIN
The scanner reads your VIN using Apple’s on-device text and barcode recognition. The camera view is read as you point it. No photo is saved, and nothing goes to Shadetree or to an outside recognition service. You can skip the camera and type the VIN instead, or just the year, make, and model.
What syncs through iCloud
If you use iCloud, four things sync to your own private iCloud storage so they turn up on your other devices: saved places, the Nearby categories you picked recently, tire sizes you confirmed, and service records. The category history is only the categories. It does not include what you typed, where you were, or which businesses came back. Records tied to a car use a random ID instead of your VIN. To recognize the same car on your other devices, Shadetree may keep a scrambled, one-way version of the VIN in your iCloud Keychain, which cannot be turned back into the VIN. If you switch Apple Accounts, syncing pauses until you confirm the new account is yours.
Finding shops and parts
Nearby searches send the category you tapped and the area or city you are searching to Apple Maps. Shadetree does not file those searches in your car’s history. When you head to Amazon for a part, Amazon gets the search words you can see on screen, things like year, make, model, engine, trim, and the kind of part. It does not get your VIN, chassis number, diagnostics, location, or any Shadetree ID.
Australian vehicle lookup
If you tell Shadetree a car was originally sold in Australia, it can send that VIN to the Australian Government’s public Register of Approved Vehicles to pull up the public approval record. That is one lookup for that one car. Shadetree does not use the register to go fishing for other vehicles, and it does not put the web address holding your VIN into any log of its own. New Zealand identifiers are never sent to Motochek.
Sending your data somewhere else
Nothing is exported unless you ask for it. When you tap Export vehicle data, Shadetree asks first whether to include your VIN and your exact GPS points. You choose before the share sheet opens.
Turning things off
You can say no to location and still use diagnostics and all your readings. You can turn coverage reporting off in Settings whenever you like, and everything else works the same. Saved places, tire profiles, and service records can be deleted from the screens they live on. Settings has a Delete my iCloud copy button that removes everything Shadetree put in your iCloud and stops syncing until you turn it back on. Deleting the app wipes everything it stored on this phone, but not the iCloud copy, so use that button first if you do not want your data coming back on another device.
What this app is not
Shadetree adds to your car’s warning lights, your owner’s manual, safe driving, and a real mechanic. It does not replace any of them. Do not go digging through screens while you are driving. And a trouble code tells you what the car noticed, not which part to buy.
Contact
Shadetree is made by 1732 Studios LLC. Questions about this policy or the app can be sent to hello@1732studios.com.