Privacy Policy

1. Who We Are

GarageWatts is operated by Building A New Box(“we”, “us”, “our”). We provide an EV cost-tracking service at garagewatts.com. This Privacy Policy describes how we collect, use, and protect information about you when you use our service.

If you have questions about this policy, contact us at info@garagewatts.com.

2. Information We Collect

Information you provide directly

• Account information: first name, last name, email address, and password (stored as a bcrypt hash — we never store plaintext passwords).
• Profile information: optional avatar photo.
• Vehicle data: make, model, year, trim, VIN, battery capacity, and initial odometer reading.
• Usage data you enter: odometer readings, state-of-charge snapshots, and charging session records (start/end time, kWh delivered, cost per kWh, charger type, location category).
• Payment information:billing is handled entirely by Stripe. We never see or store your credit card number. We store only the Stripe customer ID and subscription status returned by Stripe's API.
• Promo codes: if you apply a promotional code, we record which code was used and when.

Information collected automatically

• Log data: server logs may capture your IP address, browser type, pages visited, and timestamps for security and debugging purposes.
• Cookies and local storage: we use session cookies to keep you signed in. We do not use advertising cookies, tracking pixels, or fingerprinting technologies.

Information from third-party sign-in providers

If you sign in with Google or Apple, those providers send us your name, email address, and — if you have a public profile photo — an avatar URL. We do not receive your password or any payment information from those providers.

3. How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect to:

• Create and maintain your account;
• Provide, operate, and improve the GarageWatts service;
• Calculate and display cost-per-mile, efficiency, and savings metrics;
• Process subscription payments through Stripe;
• Send transactional emails (account confirmation, password reset, billing receipts) — we do not send marketing emails without your explicit consent;
• Respond to your support requests;
• Detect and prevent fraud, abuse, and security incidents;
• Comply with legal obligations.

We do not use your data to train machine-learning models that are made available to third parties, and we do not build or sell advertising profiles based on your usage.

4. We Will Never Sell Your Information

We will never sell, rent, license, or otherwise transfer your personal information to any third party for monetary or other consideration. This applies to your name, email address, vehicle data, charging history, and any other information you provide to us — now and in the future, regardless of any change in ownership or business model.

If Building A New Box is ever acquired, merged, or undergoes a similar business transaction, we will notify you by email before your personal data is transferred to or becomes subject to a different privacy policy. You will have the option to delete your account before any such transfer takes effect.

5. No Advertising — Ever

GarageWatts will never display advertisements. We are funded entirely by subscription revenue. We have no advertising partners, we do not participate in ad networks, and we do not share your data with advertising platforms. There are no sponsored posts, promoted content, or behavioral retargeting anywhere in the service.

We may include affiliate links to hardware products (such as OBD-II adapters and EV charging equipment) in documentation and setup guides. These links are clearly disclosed. Clicking them does not share any of your GarageWatts account data with the affiliate platform.

6. Information We Share

We share your information only in the following limited circumstances:

• Service providers: we use Supabase (database hosting and authentication), Stripe (payment processing), and Vercel (application hosting). These providers process data on our behalf under contractual obligations that prohibit them from using your data for their own purposes.
• Legal requirements: we may disclose information if required to do so by law, subpoena, or other governmental request, or when we believe in good faith that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights, protect your safety or the safety of others, or investigate fraud.
• With your consent: we may share information for any other purpose with your explicit consent.

We do not share your information with data brokers, analytics resellers, social media platforms, or any party whose business involves monetizing personal data.

7. Data Retention

We retain your account and usage data for as long as your account is active. If you delete your account, we will remove your personal information from our active systems within 30 days. Backups and audit logs may retain data for up to 90 days after deletion before being purged.

Stripe retains billing records independently in accordance with their own retention policies and applicable financial regulations.

8. Security

We take security seriously. Measures we use to protect your data include:

• TLS encryption for all data in transit;
• Encrypted data at rest (managed by Supabase / AWS infrastructure);
• Row-Level Security (RLS) policies on the database so each user can only access their own data;
• Passwords hashed with bcrypt — we never store or transmit plaintext passwords;
• Server-side validation on all data mutations.

No system is perfectly secure. If you believe your account has been compromised, contact us immediately at info@garagewatts.com.

9. Your Rights and Choices

Depending on your location, you may have the right to:

• Access the personal information we hold about you;
• Correct inaccurate information (you can update most information directly in your account settings);
• Delete your account and personal data;
• Export your data (available to Pro subscribers);
• Object to or restrict certain processing of your data;
• Withdraw consent where processing is based on consent.

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at info@garagewatts.com. We will respond within 30 days.

If you are located in the European Economic Area (EEA), United Kingdom, or California, you may have additional rights under GDPR, UK GDPR, or the CCPA respectively. We honor these rights for all users regardless of location.

10. Cookies

GarageWatts uses cookies solely for authentication — to keep you signed in between sessions. We do not use analytics cookies, advertising cookies, or any third-party tracking scripts.

You can disable cookies in your browser settings, but doing so will prevent you from staying signed in to GarageWatts.

11. Children's Privacy

GarageWatts is not directed to children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If we become aware that we have inadvertently collected such information, we will delete it promptly.

12. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we will revise the effective date at the top of this page. For material changes — particularly any that would affect how we share or use your data — we will notify you by email at least 30 days in advance.

Our commitment to never selling your data and never showing ads is permanent and will not be changed by any future policy update.

13. Contact Us

Questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy should be sent to: