Privacy Policy
Split Drive is built so that the people you meet can never see where you are. This page explains what the app does with personal information, how your location is protected, and the choices you have. Split Drive is made by Redbrook Labs, run by Tyler Montgomery. Questions? Email support@redbrooklabs.com.
What other people can see
- The name you chose to show (your display name or your first name).
- The city you’re in. Never a street, an address or a map pin.
- How long each place takes to reach, and how you’re getting there (drive, walk, bike or transit).
- Your photo, only if you choose to share it, and only with people allowed to see it by your settings.
They never see your exact location, your route, your email address or your contacts. People who aren’t your friends and aren’t in your group see only your username.
How your location is protected
- Your location is encrypted (AES-256-GCM) on your phone before it leaves it.
- The key that unlocks it exists only inside the invite link. It is never stored on our servers, so the database cannot read your location.
- A meetup can only be opened by people who are in it. Meetups can’t be searched, listed or guessed.
- Your friends’ phones unlock your location in memory only to work out fair travel times. It isn’t shown, saved or sent anywhere else.
- To show your city, your location is rounded to about 1 km and Apple Maps is asked only for the city name.
- Your location is updated only by you, while the app is open: when you create or join a group, and when you tap “Search from my location”. Nothing runs in the background.
- A one-time meetup deletes itself, at a time its creator picks or after its first meetup. A permanent group stays until you delete it, and still holds only the last location each person chose to share.
- Groups hold up to 10 people. The host can remove people, and anyone can leave.
What we store, and where
Only on your phone: your appearance settings, your list of groups and chosen places, and the invite keys (kept in the iOS Keychain).
In the cloud (Google Firebase):
- Your account ID from Sign in with Apple, and your username.
- The name you chose to show, and, if you choose, your first name for friends.
- A small profile photo, if you set one, shared according to your photo settings.
- Your friends, friend requests and blocked list, and reports you make about other people.
- Your favorite places and, inside each group, the encrypted location, optional encrypted photo and plan.
- Your phone’s notification token, so we can send you notifications you’ve allowed.
- A device check from Apple (App Attest) that proves requests come from the real app, which helps stop abuse.
- If you email us, including through Report a bug or Request a feature in the app, we receive your email address and what you write. In-app messages also include your app version, iOS version and device model to help fix problems. We use these only to reply and improve Split Drive.
Never collected by Split Drive: analytics, your contacts, your location history, or anything about other apps on your phone.
Ads and Split Drive Plus
Free accounts see a small banner ad from Google AdMob. The ads are non-personalized: Split Drive does not ask to track you across other apps, and never gives advertisers your name, account, contacts or location. Google may still collect basic device and ad-interaction data to deliver and measure ads, under its own privacy terms. Where required, you’ll be asked for your consent first, and you can change it later in Settings. Split Drive Plus is a yearly subscription handled by Apple that removes the ads. We don’t see your payment details.
Who else is involved
- Apple: Sign in with Apple, Apple Maps for place search, travel times and city names, your device location, App Attest, and subscriptions.
- Google Firebase: sign-in, the database that holds groups and favorites, notifications, and our server functions.
- Google AdMob: the banner ad shown to free accounts. Plus members never load it.
- Google’s icon service: a business’s logo is fetched from Google’s public icon service. Only the business’s website address is sent, nothing about you.
- Business websites: a place’s photo is the picture its own website shares for its link. Only that website is contacted, and nothing about you is sent.
These services handle data under their own privacy terms.
Contacts
“Send to a contact” uses the iPhone’s built-in contact picker. Split Drive receives only the one phone number you tap and never has access to your address book.
Your choices
- Choose whether friends see your display name or first name, whether your photo shows to friends and group members, and whether people can find you by username.
- Leave or delete any group in the app. If you are the only person in a group, you can delete it.
- Turn off location for Split Drive at any time in the iPhone Settings app.
- Block or report anyone from their profile.
- Delete your account in Settings. This permanently removes your account, favorites, profile and the groups you started.
Things to know
- Anyone who has your full invite link can join your meetup, so send it only to the people you plan to meet. Invites expire after one hour.
- Your friends see which places are fair for you all, so they can tell roughly how far each place is from you in travel time, though not where you are.
- Place searches and travel time requests go to Apple Maps.
- Reports about other people are reviewed by us and kept for as long as needed to keep Split Drive safe.
Children
Split Drive is not directed at children under 13, and we don’t knowingly collect their information.
Our commitments
- We use your information only to run Split Drive and to find places during a meetup you chose to start or join.
- We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it with advertisers.
- We do not use your location for anything outside a meetup.
- When you delete your account, your account data and the groups you started are deleted.
- If this page changes in a way that affects your privacy, we will tell you in the app before it takes effect.