Privacy Policy

Who we are

MilePal is made by Plantburgh Products LLC, a Pennsylvania company owned by Plantburgh LLC ("we", "us"). Questions: contact@plantburgh.com.

What the app keeps, on your phone only

• Where and when you drove: the route, start and end points, times and miles of each drive.
• What you add: places you name, business purposes, clients or jobs, notes, tolls and parking.
• Your vehicles and odometer readings, your settings and your plan status.
• Money you add: expenses and income, categories, stores and payers, fuel, 1099 forms, estimated payments, store rules and your business details (name, line A/B, EIN if you add one).
• Receipt photos you take or pick, and the text the phone reads from them.
• Lines from bank, card or earnings files you import. The app reads the file on the phone and keeps the lines; it never signs in to your bank or any app.
• A backup email address, if you save one.
• A random phone ID made by the app, used only to match a VIP or team code to your phone.

Location, including in the background

MilePal uses your location to record drives, including when the app is closed or not in use, so drives are logged without you opening it. It only records while you are driving, and only while tracking is on (by the switch, your work hours or your calendar). Turn tracking off and nothing is recorded or registered with your phone.

Calendar (optional)

If you turn on Calendar, the app reads appointments on your phone to turn tracking on around them and to fill in a drive's business purpose. It only reads; it never changes your calendar and never sends it anywhere.

What leaves your phone, and when

• Google Play: buying Pro and checking your purchase goes through Google Play. Google's billing library may send Google diagnostic information about the purchase process. See Google's privacy policy.
• Google Maps: when you open a drive's page, the app asks Google Maps for the map picture of that drive's area. Google sees the area shown and normal device and app information, not your log, purposes, places or notes. See Google's privacy policy.
• Street names: Android's own address lookup (Google's, on most phones) is asked for the start and end point of a drive to show a street or place name.
• Android backup: if Google backup is on for your phone, Android may copy the app's data, including where you drove and your money lines, to your own Google account. Receipt photos are left out of it (Android stops backing up an app past 25 MB); they are in the backup file you save from the app. You control this in your phone's settings.
• Drive backup (off unless you turn it on): if you turn on Settings > Backup > Back up to my Google Drive automatically, the app saves your whole log, including where you drove, your money lines and receipt photos, to a hidden folder in your own Google Drive that only MilePal can open (Google's "app data" folder), when you open the app, at most once a day, keeping the last 3 copies. It goes from your phone to your Google account; Plantburgh never receives it. Turn it off and tap Delete my Drive copies, or remove MilePal in Google Drive > Settings > Manage apps, to delete them. See Google's privacy policy.
• Web dashboard (only if you open it): with Drive backup on, the app also saves a small dashboard file (your drives this year and last, their places, neighborhoods and start and end points, labels and miles, and each drive's route; dollar amounts only on Pro; no receipts) to the same hidden Drive folder. The dashboard page at milepal.web.app/dashboard reads it in your browser after you sign in with Google. It goes from your Drive to your browser; Plantburgh never receives it. The map shows OpenStreetMap tiles, so OpenStreetMap sees the map area shown.
• Changes you make on the web (only if you do): when you edit a drive on the dashboard page, the change is saved as a small file (milepal-edits.json) in the same hidden Drive folder. Your phone reads it the next time MilePal opens, makes the change and records it in your log's edit history, then empties the file. The dashboard file also carries each drive's notes and that edit history. Plantburgh never receives any of it.
• Your log in the browser (only if you start one): without an Android phone you can keep your drives on the dashboard page instead. They are saved in a file (milepal-web-log.json) in the same hidden Drive folder, read and written by your browser; Plantburgh never receives it. To check Pro there, MilePal's server looks at whether your account holds a team seat.
• Reports by email (Pro, off unless you turn it on): on the schedule you pick, the app sends that period's report (a PDF and an Excel file) to MilePal's server, which emails it to the address you chose and keeps no copy of the files. We keep when the last report went, and for each address you add whether it confirmed or asked to stop. A new address gets one email asking it to confirm before any report goes to it, and every report has a link to stop them. To check Pro, the server asks Google Play about your subscription, or checks your VIP code or team seat.
• Receipt scanning: the phone reads the receipt with Google ML Kit on the device. The photo and its text are not sent anywhere. ML Kit sends Google diagnostics about how the feature ran (device model, app version, timing, error codes), not the photo or text. See Google's privacy policy.
• Backup email: "Email backup" opens your email app with the backup attached and your saved address filled in. Nothing is sent until you press Send in your email app.
• Files you share: a report, CSV, receipt photo, Tax-time package or backup goes only where you choose to send it.

Team seats (only if you join or buy a team)

Solo: your log stays on this phone. Team: we keep your Google name and email, your seat, and the reports you choose to send, for 90 days.

• Expenses you mark "For my team" go in the monthly report PDF you send, with their receipt photos.
• Only people on a team sign in, with Google. MilePal's own server (Google Firebase, run by Plantburgh Products LLC) keeps your Google name and email, which team and seat you hold, invites, and the monthly PDF and CSV you choose to send to your team. Your drives and locations never leave your phone.
• The team's owner and its managers (up to 5 drivers the owner picks) can see who holds each seat and read and download the reports drivers send. Nobody on the team can see your drives, places or anything else on your phone.
• Reports you send are deleted from the server 90 days after you send them; you can delete them sooner.
• Each report also carries its month's totals (drives, miles, business miles and deduction), so the owner and managers see the team's miles without opening every file. They are deleted with the report. "Send my report to my team each month" is off unless you turn it on. The owner may hold a seat on their own team, on the same Google account.
• When you agree to the Terms, the app keeps the version, a fingerprint (SHA-256) of the exact text, and the time. If you're signed in, our server keeps that record too, with your email, the app version and the network address it came from, even after you delete your account, as proof of what you agreed to.
• To help you, MilePal staff (Plantburgh Products LLC) can look up your sign-in, your team, your seat and your reports' totals. Every look-up is logged and kept 180 days. Staff never see your drives or places: they aren't on our server.
• Seat packs bought in the app are paid through Google Play. Our server checks each purchase with Google and keeps the purchase token, pack size and paid-through date; Google keeps the payment details.
• Seats bought on our website are paid through Stripe, which collects the billing address needed for sales tax. We never see your card number.
• If a manager asks to own a team, or a team changes owner, we email the owner at their Google email.
• Delete your team account in the app (Settings, Account or Team), on the Account tab of MilePal account, or at milepal.web.app/delete.

Ads on the free plan

The app contains no ad software and no ad trackers. On the free plan, a small "From Plantburgh" card links to our other apps and to partner offers (some partner links earn us a commission); tapping one opens your browser with only the name of the screen it came from. To keep that card current, a free-plan app reads a public list (milepal.web.app/promos.json) about once a day; the request carries nothing about you or your log.

On MilePal's online account pages (milepal.web.app), the free plan also shows ads served by Google AdSense, beside the same cards. Google may use cookies or device identifiers to pick and measure those ads, as described in how Google uses information from sites that use its services; in the EU, UK and Switzerland the page asks for your consent first. Your drives are never part of it: the page only tells Google that an ad space exists. Pro, team seats and VIP hide every ad, and the Google script is never loaded for them.

What we never do

We do not sell, rent or share your data. We do not run a server that stores your drives, and we cannot see your log. The team server holds only what is listed under Team seats.

Keeping and deleting your data

Your log stays on your phone until you delete it. Delete single drives in the app, or uninstall the app to remove everything it stored on the phone. Copies you shared or saved elsewhere, and Android's backup in your Google account, are yours to delete there. Because we never receive your data, there is nothing for us to delete on our side.

Your choices

• Turn tracking off at any time on the Drives tab.
• Turn off Calendar, or remove location, activity or calendar permission in Android settings.
• Turn off Android backup for the app in your phone's Google settings.

Children

MilePal is not meant for anyone under 18.

Changes

If this policy changes, we will update this page and the date at the top. The app shows the same policy under Settings > Privacy. See also the Terms of Use.