CarLens

Privacy policy

Last updated 2026-10-04

CarLens is an Android app for people buying a car in India. It is made by Shokeen Studio (Shivam Shokeen, Delhi, India), which is responsible for the data described here. Questions: [email protected].

1. Without an account

Browsing, searching, filtering, comparing and reading saved AI results need no account. The following is kept only on your phone and is not sent to us:

• your wishlist, recently viewed cars, recent searches, compare list, quiz answers and filters;
• the city you chose, and display settings such as text size and nav-bar style;
• a short on-device log of app errors, which you can open and share yourself from the Diagnostics screen. It leaves the phone only if you share it.

Uninstalling the app removes all of it. Signing out with "Forget this device", or deleting your account in the app, clears everything above except text size, which tips you have already seen and the error log. Those describe the phone, not you, and stay until you uninstall.

2. Your account

You need an account only to generate a new AI comparison or recommendation. When you create one we store:

• Email address and password. Handled by Supabase Auth. Your password is stored only as a one-way hash; nobody, including us, can read it.
• Display name and an optional profile photo you choose from your gallery. The photo is stored in a storage folder named after your account, and anyone who has its web address can open it. The app asks for photo access only when you pick one, and never uses the camera.
• Verification details. To verify your email we send a short code by email. We keep a hash of the code (never the code itself), the address it went to, when it expires and how many wrong attempts were made.
• AI usage record. How many AI results you have used, what kind (comparison or recommendation), when, and which saved result was shown, so the free limit can be applied.
• Account role (ordinary user or administrator).

We do not ask for your phone number. A phone check exists in the code but is switched off.

Your sign-in session is stored on your phone in encrypted storage. If you turn on fingerprint or face unlock, the check is done by Android; the app is told only whether it succeeded. Your biometric data never reaches the app or us.

3. Location

CarLens uses your city to work out road tax and on-road prices. You can pick a city by hand. If you tap "Use my location" instead:

• the app asks for approximate location only. It does not request precise or background location;
• your phone's location service finds a rough position, and your phone's geocoding service turns it into a place name. On most Android phones both are provided by Google Play services. If no geocoder is available, the app compares the position with its own list of cities, on the phone;
• the coordinates are then discarded. They are never sent to our servers or to analytics, and never written to a log;
• only the city (and its state) is kept, after you confirm it.

The city you chose is attached to analytics events (section 4), so we can learn, for example, which cars people in Delhi look at most.

4. Analytics and crash reports

We use PostHog, on its EU cloud, to understand how the app is used and to find crashes. It records:

• What you do in the app: app opened, screens viewed (including which car page), cars saved and unsaved, searches (the first 40 characters of what you typed, with anything that looks like an email address or a long number removed, and how many results it found), filters changed, comparison and quiz steps, sign-up, sign-in, verification and password-reset outcomes, and account deletion.
• Your city and state, as above.
• Failures: which of our services a failed request went to and its status, when a screen could not load, when you tapped "Try again", and the web address of any car photo that failed to load.
• Crash reports: the type of error, the place in our code where it happened, and the error message. Errors we report ourselves have email addresses and tokens removed first. Crashes PostHog captures automatically are sent as they occurred.
• Device and app details the PostHog library collects by default, such as phone model, Android version, app version, screen size and language.

Before you sign in, events are tied to a random identifier created on your phone. After you sign in, they are tied to your account's random ID. We do not send PostHog your email address or name. Like any web service, PostHog receives your IP address when the app connects to it.

5. AI comparisons and recommendations

The app never talks to an AI service directly. Requests go to our own server functions, which call Google's Gemini API.

• Comparison: we send the details of the cars you chose, taken from our catalogue, plus any priorities you set.
• Recommendation: we send your quiz answers: budget, fuel, car types and how you will use the car.

We do not send your name, email or account ID to Google. Results are saved and shown to other people who ask the same question. Saved results are stored against the cars or the answers, never against you. Google's terms for the Gemini API allow Google to use content sent through it to improve its services; what we send is car data and quiz answers, not personal details.

6. Emails

Verification codes and password-reset emails are sent through Resend, from [email protected]. Resend receives your email address and the message in order to deliver it. We do not send marketing email.

7. Ads and payments

CarLens shows no ads today. The app contains Google's Mobile Ads library, but it is switched off and does not start. Before we switch ads on, we will update this policy. If we do, ads would be shown only to free users, after Google's own consent screen where the law requires one, and Google would use your device's advertising ID.

The app also contains Google Play Billing for an optional one-time "support the developer" tip. It is switched off. If you ever use it, Google handles the payment; we never see your card or UPI details.

8. Who processes your data

Some car photos load from Wikimedia Commons, which, like any website, sees the IP address of the phone that loads them.

We do not sell or rent your data, and we share it with no one else except where the law requires us to.

9. How long we keep it

• Account data (section 2) is kept until you delete your account.
• On-phone data (section 1) stays until you uninstall, sign out with "Forget this device" or delete your account in the app (text size and the error log stay until you uninstall).
• Analytics and crash data stay in PostHog for as long as our PostHog project keeps data. Deleting your account does not remove them automatically, because they are tied to a random ID rather than your email. Email us and we will delete the analytics tied to your account.
• Saved AI results are kept, because other people read them. None of them identifies you.

10. Deleting your account

In the app: Account → Delete my account, then type DELETE. Without the app: email us. Both are explained, with exactly what is removed, on shokeenstudio.com/carlens/delete-account.

11. Your rights

You can ask us what we hold about you, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete it, by emailing [email protected]. You can change your name and photo in the app at any time. We aim to answer within 30 days.

12. Security

All traffic between the app and our services is encrypted (HTTPS). Passwords and verification codes are stored only as hashes. Database rules limit each account to its own records. Your sign-in session is kept in encrypted storage on your phone. No system is perfectly secure; if a breach affects you, we will tell you.

13. Children

CarLens is made for adults buying a car. It is not directed at anyone under 18, and we do not knowingly collect data from children. If you believe a child has created an account, email us and we will delete it.

14. Changes

If we change what we collect, we will update this page and the date at the top before the change reaches the app.