Privacy Policy

This policy explains what information the PickCharge app collects, how it’s used, and the choices you have. It describes the App as it currently works.

Last updated: 2026-10-14

1. Information we collect

Location. With your permission, the App uses your device’s location to find charging stations near you and estimate whether you can reach them. Location is:

• Sent to our backend server as part of each search request, so it can return nearby stations. It is used to answer that request and is not saved to our database. Because the coordinates are part of the request address, they can appear in the standard short-term request logs kept by our hosting provider, Render, for operations and troubleshooting. These logs are not linked to any account or identity, because the App has no accounts.
• Cached on your device only, never on our servers, so the App can show your area immediately the next time you open it without waiting for a fresh GPS fix. This cache is deleted if you clear the App’s data or uninstall it.

You can deny or revoke location access at any time in your device settings. Without it, or if you’re outside the App’s coverage area of Portugal (mainland, the Azores, and Madeira) and Spain (mainland, the Balearic and Canary Islands), the App falls back to a default location in Porto, Portugal, and you can still search manually.

Vehicle profile. The vehicle you select and your current and target battery percentage are stored only on your device. They are not stored in an account or on our servers, as the App has no accounts. This information is sent to our backend with each request so it can calculate reachability, cost, and charging time estimates for that specific trip; it is not stored there.

Electricity supplier. If you choose your electricity supplier (CEME) plan for final-price estimates, that choice is stored only on your device. The plan’s identifier is sent with Premium estimate requests so the backend can add that supplier’s prices; it is not stored there.

Subscription status. PickCharge is free to use. PickCharge Premium, which adds vehicle-specific recommendations and estimates, is a Google Play subscription. If you have one, the App sends its Google Play purchase token with its requests to our backend. The backend only checks the token for Premium features, verifying it directly against Google’s own subscription record through the Google Play Developer API; free features ignore it. This token is not a payment method or card number. It’s an opaque reference Google generates. Google handles all payment processing and holds your actual payment details; we never see or store them.

Android Auto. In the car, PickCharge uses the same location, vehicle profile, supplier choice, favourites and Premium status already on your phone, in the same way as described here. It collects nothing extra.

Favourite stations. Stations you save with the star are stored only on your device.

Alerts (Premium). If you turn on an alert, the App asks for permission to show notifications and then registers this device with our backend. We store:

• a random device identifier the App creates for alerts, not linked to your name, Google account or phone number;
• the push token Google Firebase Cloud Messaging gives the App, so we can deliver notifications to this device;
• your Google Play purchase token, or review access code, and when we last checked it, so we can confirm once a day that the device still has Premium and pause alerts if not;
• the App’s language, for the notification text;
• for each alert: the station, the connector type of your car, when it was created and when it ends, when it last notified you, and, for price alerts, the station’s last known price. Price alerts are kept in step with your favourite stations, so the backend knows which stations you saved while price alerts are on.

This data is used only to send the alerts you asked for. It isn’t linked to your location, and we never send location for alerts.

Feedback you send. If you use Settings > Send feedback, the App sends your star rating, any comment you choose to write, your platform, such as Android, and the App’s language. This is stored in our database so we can read it and improve the App. It isn’t linked to your name, your subscription, or your location. Please don’t put personal information in the comment.

App preferences. Your language choice, whether price alerts are on, and whether you’ve already seen the onboarding screens and tips are stored only on your device.

We do not collect: your name, email address, phone number, or any other account or contact information. The App has no sign-up or login.

2. How we use information

Location and vehicle profile data are used exclusively to answer your in-app requests: finding nearby stations, and estimating reachability, cost, and charging time for your selected vehicle. Feedback is used only to understand and improve the App. Alert data is used only to deliver the alerts you turned on. Your subscription purchase token is used solely to verify you have Premium before answering a Premium request and, for devices with alerts, to re-check that once a day. It’s checked against Google’s records and briefly cached in our server’s memory, for up to 10 minutes, to avoid checking with Google on every single request; it is not written to a database. We do not use any of this data for advertising, and we do not sell it to third parties.

3. Third-party services

• Google Play Billing handles your subscription purchase and all payment processing. We never see or store your payment details; see Google’s Privacy Policy for how Google handles that information.
• Google Firebase Cloud Messaging delivers alert notifications to your device. Firebase receives the device’s push token and each notification’s text and station, as described in Google’s Privacy Policy. The App only registers with it once you turn on an alert.
• Map tiles are loaded directly from OpenStreetMap’s tile servers to display the map. This causes your device to make a direct network request to OpenStreetMap for each map tile, which may log your IP address as described in OpenStreetMap’s privacy policy.
• Charging station data, including locations, connectors, live availability, and prices, is sourced from MOBI.E, Portugal’s national EV charging network, through the National Access Point operated on behalf of IMT, the Instituto da Mobilidade e dos Transportes, and in Spain from Mapa REVE, run by Red Eléctrica. This is public infrastructure data, not personal data.
• Crash reporting by Sentry. If the App crashes or hits an unexpected error, a report is sent to Sentry containing the error details and basic device and app information: device type, OS version, and App version. We don’t intentionally include your location or vehicle profile in these reports.
• Analytics by PostHog, hosted in the EU. We record a small number of anonymous usage events: a vehicle profile being saved, a recommendation being shown and on which screen, the Premium screen being opened and from where, a Premium plan being selected, a subscription starting, an electricity supplier being chosen (the supplier’s name only), the price statistics screen being opened, a station being saved as a favourite, an alert being turned on or a notification being opened, and its type (never the station), and standard app lifecycle events such as the App being installed, updated, opened, or sent to the background. Each event includes standard device and app information, namely device type, OS version, and App version, and a random identifier PostHog generates on your device. We use this to understand whether the App’s core feature is actually useful. None of these events include your location or which vehicle you selected. As with any network request, PostHog receives your IP address; see PostHog’s privacy policy.
• Navigation apps. If you tap to navigate to a station, the App opens Google Maps or Waze with that station’s coordinates as the destination. From then on, that app’s own privacy policy applies.
• Hosting by Render. Our backend server and database are hosted by Render, which processes requests on our behalf as described above.

4. Data storage and retention

We do not operate user accounts. Your location, vehicle profile, and preferences are stored only on your device, for as long as the App is installed, until you clear its data or uninstall it. Our backend server processes your location and vehicle profile in memory to answer each request and does not write them to a database. As noted in Section 1, request coordinates can appear in our hosting provider’s short-term request logs. Your subscription purchase token is cached in server memory only, for up to 10 minutes, and isn’t written to a database unless you turn on alerts. Alert data is kept while the alert is active; an alert that has fired or expired is deleted 7 days later, and a device’s record, including its push token and purchase token, is deleted 30 days after it last had an alert. Turning price alerts off removes those alerts straight away, and you can cancel any alert in the App. Feedback you send is kept in our database for as long as it’s useful for improving the App.

5. Your rights

Because your location and vehicle profile are stored only on your device and never in an account we control, you can access, change, or delete this information at any time directly in the App, for example on the vehicle setup screen, or by clearing the App’s data or uninstalling it. If you are in the European Economic Area, you have rights under the GDPR, including access, correction, deletion, portability, and objection. Contact us using the details below with any request. Because feedback and request logs aren’t linked to any account or identity, we usually can’t tell which entries came from you. If you want a feedback comment removed, tell us what it said and roughly when you sent it.

6. Children’s privacy

The App is not directed at children and we do not knowingly collect information from children under 16.

7. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as the App changes. We’ll update the “Last updated” date above when we do; material changes affecting how your data is used will be called out in the App’s release notes.

8. Contact us

Questions about this policy or your data: support@pickcharge.eu