Dude: Find My Car is provided by Itomic Digital Pty Ltd. This policy covers Dude and its testing builds. Feature availability depends on your installed version. There are no Dude accounts, advertising or cloud parking storage.
Location and permissions
Dude uses precise location to save parking spots and guide you back. Saved records include coordinates, time, accuracy, vehicle type and how the spot was saved. Widgets read the same local records.
Automatic parking is optional. If enabled, it uses background location and motion/activity information to detect journeys and possible parking stops. It keeps a limited decision checkpoint, not a complete journey history. You can turn it off in Dude's settings or revoke permissions in your phone's settings. Notifications, sound and vibration provide optional feedback.
Local storage and deletion
Parking history and settings stay on your phone. Parking records, remembered address lookup points and field reports are excluded from cloud backup and are not automatically uploaded as a history collection. Parking history has no automatic age expiry. New installations keep the newest 10 saved locations by default. You can choose another positive limit or Unlimited. Upgrades preserve your existing choice. Reset settings restores the limit to 10 while retaining existing locations; the next successful save applies that limit. Lowering a limit through Settings asks before immediately deleting older locations. Automatic and manual saves count across all vehicles. Nearby replacement is separate and may keep fewer locations. Deleted locations cannot be recovered from Dude. You can also delete individual locations or all saved locations through a confirmation dialog.
Replace nearby saves is enabled by default. A qualifying new manual or automatic save can permanently replace older precise parking points for the same vehicle within 25 metres. Approximate estimates and fallback reference points do not initiate replacement. Location quality checks apply; nearby spaces, properties or floors may still be combined. Turn this setting off to keep future visits separately. Enabling it does not clean up existing history. A deleted record's identifier may remain to prevent delayed callbacks restoring it. Other settings and diagnostic reports are not deleted by parking-history replacement, count limits or deletion.
While Street addresses is enabled, Dude separately remembers up to 100 lookup points and their returned labels on this phone to avoid sending repeated requests for nearby visits. This cache keeps the original lookup coordinates and reported accuracy, provider, fetch/expiry time and a replacement-order counter. It does not keep a vehicle, saved-visit identifier, visit times/counts or route history. Google entries can be reused for up to 180 days from the original lookup. Reusing an entry does not extend its expiry or move its lookup point. Expired entries cannot label a new visit and are removed when the cache is accessed. Older entries can be evicted when the 100-entry limit is reached. Labels already attached to saved locations remain with those locations.
Deleting, replacing or pruning saved locations normally keeps remembered addresses. Use Forget remembered addresses in Settings to clear this cache and queued lookup requests. Delete all saved locations also offers an optional Also forget remembered addresses choice. Forgetting invalidates outstanding results so they cannot recreate the forgotten cache. It keeps any saved locations and their existing address labels unless you also delete those locations. Future saves or lookups you request can remember addresses again while lookup is enabled.
Removing app data or losing your phone can permanently lose your history and remembered addresses. There is no parking-history backup or restore service.
Street addresses
Street addresses adds estimated street numbers and labels from Google. First-run setup shows the Street addresses switch on beside an explanation and a Google privacy link before you finish setup; you can turn it off there. Opening setup alone sends no address request. Existing installations keep their choices. You can turn Street addresses off in Settings at any time. Enabling it later asks you to review Google's processing before new lookups begin.
Dude first checks for a suitable remembered address on this phone. Otherwise, it sends the saved coordinates over an encrypted connection to Google. Google also receives your IP address and app identity under its privacy policy. Itomic operates no address routing server and receives no parking coordinates through this direct lookup. The label is an estimate and may identify a neighbouring property or area; it does not verify the exact vehicle, property or parking bay. Saved measurement coordinates and accuracy are never changed to match an address.
Your choice covers new manual and automatic saves, unlabelled retained locations you view in the saved list, and deliberate Retry requests. Requests run only while Dude is open; background saves wait for a foreground session. Lookup starts no additional location tracking and does not block a parking save. Opening an existing label makes no new lookup. Labels are retained locally with Google Maps credit; the separate remembered-address cache is described above.
Google is the only address lookup service in the current version. A failure, no-match or exhausted quota keeps parking intact. Temporary failures and quota or rate limits can leave work queued for a later foreground retry. There is no guarantee that an address is available. Turning Street addresses off stops new requests and cache reuse, cancels current work and clears queued requests. Existing labels and remembered addresses remain until deletion, expiry or explicit forgetting as described above. A request already received by Google cannot be recalled. Reset settings disables Street addresses and clears its consent without deleting saved locations, remembered addresses or field reports.
Earlier testing builds used Geoapify or LocationIQ for optional addresses under their Geoapify privacy policy or LocationIQ privacy policy. Current versions no longer contact those services for addresses. Historical native labels may remain in local storage for preservation, but retired-provider labels are hidden.
Optional saved-location map
Saved locations normally opens as a local list. Choosing Map loads an online Google map on both iPhone and Android, with pan and pinch-to-zoom. There is no additional loading confirmation. Returning to List keeps map browsing optional. Google attribution is displayed on the map; Map information contains processing details and a privacy link. Dude does not silently switch suppliers if loading fails. Earlier testing builds used Apple Maps on iPhone or Geoapify raster maps.
Requests can reveal map areas containing saved points or places you view. Google receives network/device/app information, including IP address, and its SDK can process map interactions, usage and diagnostic information under the Google privacy policy. See Google's Android SDK disclosure and iOS privacy information. Dude disables the iOS map SDK's optional abnormal-termination reporting. This does not disable all supplier-managed processing and is separate from Dude's disabled Firebase reporting. Older Apple/Geoapify map builds use their Apple Maps privacy information or Geoapify privacy policy.
Dude draws saved pins locally and does not upload the saved-history collection to Itomic or a map service. The viewed regions can nevertheless reveal places you have saved. Map browsing starts no new phone location tracking or address lookup, and does not change saved measurements, target selection or history.
Internet is needed; offline coverage is not guaranteed. Native map services manage their own caching and diagnostics; Dude does not provide downloadable offline map packs. Older Geoapify builds keep a limited in-memory tile cache. Return to List, close the saved view or leave Dude to close the active map. Requests already sent and supplier-managed processing cannot be recalled. Map failure does not delete parking records; the local list and radar remain available.
Optional reports
You can start a local diagnostic report, stop it, delete it or choose to share it. Standard reports describe app behaviour and permission, connection and accuracy categories, without coordinates or raw sensor traces. They stop after 60 minutes or 2 MB. Up to three reports are kept; reports older than seven days are removed when you manage recordings.
Private debug builds also offer separately consented Detailed reports containing precise travel and sensor readings, limited to 30 minutes or 50 MB. These are unavailable in release builds. Reports are never automatically uploaded; shared copies remain with their recipients.
External services and feedback
Opening Directions shares that saved destination with the maps app you choose. You can remember a preferred app in Settings; this setting alone sends nothing. The external app's own privacy and route/offline availability rules apply. Store update checks contact Apple or Google and involve ordinary network/device information. Those providers process information under their own policies.
Dude's Firebase Analytics and Crashlytics reporting are disabled in the current version. If reporting is introduced, we will explain what it collects and update this policy before enabling it.
Apple may provide the developer with TestFlight crash, usage and feedback information under its privacy terms. If you send us an email, report or screenshot, we receive what you include to respond and investigate. Avoid sharing a parking location unless necessary.
Your choices and contact
Change permissions and optional settings at any time. Ask about, correct or request deletion of information you have sent to Itomic at [email protected]. We cannot retrieve parking history stored only on your phone. We use support correspondence to handle your request; information may need to be retained for an unresolved issue or legal obligation.
We will update this policy when Dude's data handling changes.