Privacy Policy
Effective November 4, 2026
BEV Monitor is an iPhone app that reads your electric car’s data through an OBD adapter you plug into the car. This policy explains what the app does with that data. In short: your data stays on your iPhone and, unless you turn it off, in a backup in your own iCloud Drive. BEV Monitor has no account and no server of its own. Unless you turn them off, the developer also receives anonymous daily counts of which screens and features you use, and your dash charge readings and diagnostic test logs. Other logs reach the developer only if you choose to send them.
What the app stores on your iPhone
- Readings from your car: charge level, battery and pack values, speed, odometer, temperatures, tire pressures and similar values, read through your OBD adapter. The app only reads; it never changes anything in the car, and it never reads your car’s VIN.
- Trips and charges the app records, including each trip’s route and each charge’s location when you allow Location, and the place names Apple Maps gives them.
- What you enter: your car’s model, year, battery size and nickname, your Home address, your home charger, charging start time and electricity rate, your tire pressure, charges you add or edit (times, costs and kWh), dash charge readings, and your settings.
- OBD logs, only while Settings → OBD2 adapter → Diagnostic logging is on (it starts off when you install from the App Store, and on for beta testers). A log records each connection’s requests to the car and its answers, and is kept for 60 days. Logs never include your car’s VIN or your position on the map. They can include your elevation from GPS, and a log of an adapter test includes the adapter’s Bluetooth name. With Diagnostic logging off, the app writes no logs.
All of this stays in the app’s storage on your iPhone. It’s included in your iPhone’s own backups, as for any app.
iCloud backup
BEV Monitor also saves a copy of your trips, charges, dash readings, what you entered and most settings (not OBD logs or your ABRP key) to your own iCloud Drive, at most once a day after a trip or a charge, and keeps the three most recent copies. A copy includes your trips’ routes, the places you drove and charged, and your Home address. It’s stored in your iCloud account, in a BEV Monitor folder you can see in the Files app, under Apple’s iCloud terms; the developer can’t see it. iCloud backup is on unless you turn it off in Settings → Your data → iCloud backup, and it works only when iCloud Drive is on. It’s how the app restores your history on a new iPhone or after you reinstall.
Sharing app usage
To learn which screens and features people use, so the app can be improved, BEV Monitor sends the developer one record a day of how it was used. It’s on unless you turn it off in Settings → Your data → Share app usage.
- What a record holds: how many times each screen, chart, ⓘ note and Settings screen was opened and each feature was used (for example the plug and Car location taps, CarPlay tabs and cards, how trips started and ended, how charges and dash readings were logged, sending a log or testing an adapter), how many errors happened, and how many minutes the live view, a live charge, the Live Activity and CarPlay were in use. It also holds which settings are on or off (never what they’re set to), which number leads the Vehicle tab, the CarPlay trip cards you show, and the app and iOS versions, iPhone model, car model and battery size, units, the kind of adapter (OBDLink or another), and whether the app came from the App Store or TestFlight.
- What it never holds: your location, routes, Home address, where your car is parked or any weather lookup; your car’s VIN or nickname, or anything you type; any trip, charge, battery or cost number; your Apple ID or name; or your adapter’s Bluetooth name.
- How it’s sent: after each day ends, through Apple’s iCloud, to BEV Monitor’s own iCloud database; only the developer can see it. No other company receives it. It’s sent only when your iPhone is signed in to iCloud; days not sent within 30 days are dropped.
- Anonymous: a record is labeled only with a random code the app makes for this installation, which isn’t tied to you, your iPhone or your car, plus the anonymous iCloud IDs Apple attaches (see the next section). Because nothing in it identifies you, the developer can’t pick out your records to show or delete them.
- Turning it off stops counting at once and deletes the days not yet sent from your iPhone. Records already sent stay.
Usage records are not sold, not shared, and not used for advertising or tracking.
Sharing readings and logs with the developer
To make the app’s charge level match your dash on more cars, BEV Monitor sends the developer, through Apple’s iCloud, your dash charge readings, and the logs of diagnostic tests you run (Read All and adapter tests, which exist only while Diagnostic logging is on). The first time, it also sends the readings you saved earlier. It’s on unless you turn it off in Settings → Improve accuracy → Share readings; if you turned it off before, it stays off. You can also send any single OBD log yourself with Send to Developer; logs of drives and charges are only sent that way.
Each one carries your car’s model, and its year and battery size if you set them, the app’s version and a random code for this installation of the app, and never your name, email address or your car’s VIN. Readings never include your location; logs can include what the OBD logs section above describes. Apple also attaches anonymous IDs for your iCloud account and device, which don’t reveal who you are. Apple stores them in BEV Monitor’s own iCloud database; only the developer can see them. Turning Share readings off stops automatic sending. To have readings or logs you sent deleted, write to bevmonitor@gmail.com.
When data leaves your iPhone
Data leaves your iPhone only in these cases:
- Apple Maps turns your trips’ start and end points and your charges’ locations into place names, and your Home address into a point on the map, when you set it. Apple Maps also draws the maps of your trips’ routes and of the Car location card, which shows where your car last parked; Open in Maps hands that spot to the Maps app.
- Apple Weather (WeatherKit):
- The Weather card looks up the forecast for the town where your car last parked, at most every 30 minutes while you have the Vehicle tab open. Apple Weather is sent that town’s location (Apple Maps finds it by the town’s name near where you parked), or, if no town is found, your car’s last parked spot rounded to about 6 miles (10 km).
- Trip wind: when you open a recorded trip, the app looks up the wind and rain along it. Apple Weather is sent the areas the trip passed through, rounded to about 6 miles (10 km), and the trip’s times.
- A Better Routeplanner (ABRP), only if you turn on ABRP live data in Settings and enter your own ABRP key and token (kept in your iPhone’s Keychain). While the app reads your car, it sends ABRP your car’s charge level, power, speed, location, heading, elevation, battery voltage and current, temperatures, climate power, odometer, tire pressures, and whether it’s parked or charging, about every 10 seconds. ABRP’s own privacy policy covers what it does with them. ABRP live data is off unless you turn it on.
- When you share something yourself: an OBD log, an exported backup, or your dash readings, through the iOS share sheet to the app or person you pick. An exported backup includes your trips’ routes, the places you drove and your Home address, so share it only with people you trust.
- Your iCloud Drive, for the iCloud backup above, unless you turn it off.
- To the developer through iCloud: the usage records, readings and test logs described above, unless you turn them off, and any log you send yourself.
- TestFlight (beta testers only): Apple’s TestFlight sends crash reports, and any feedback or screenshots you choose to submit, to the developer. Apple’s TestFlight terms cover these.
The developer doesn’t sell or share your data, doesn’t use it for advertising or tracking, and has no access to it except the usage records, readings and logs described above.
Permissions
- Bluetooth: to connect to your OBD adapter.
- Location (while using the app, including while it records a drive in the background): to record each trip’s route and show your heading, and, if you turn on ABRP live data, to send your position to ABRP. The app never asks for Always.
- Motion & Fitness: to measure each trip’s climb with the barometer.
- Notifications (optional): to ask for your dash’s charge reading, and to remind you to plug in, if you turn those on.
You can turn any of these off in iOS Settings → BEV Monitor. The app keeps working with less detail.
Deleting your data
Delete the app to delete everything it stored on your iPhone. iCloud backups stay in your iCloud Drive until you delete them in the Files app (iCloud Drive → BEV Monitor). Readings and logs you sent the developer are deleted on request at bevmonitor@gmail.com. Usage records are anonymous, so they can’t be found and deleted on request; turning Share app usage off deletes the ones not yet sent. Data you shared with ABRP or with others is covered by their policies.
Children
BEV Monitor is not directed at children.
Changes
If this policy changes, the new version will be posted here with a new effective date.