Privacy
Policy.

The short version

• We collect what Platd needs to work: your email address (or your phone number, if you sign in with one), your sign-in settings, the plates you claim, the profile and car details you choose to add, and your messages.
• Personal details are hidden by default. Other people see your name, home area, status or car details only if you switch them on.
• Reading a plate from the camera or a photo, and understanding your voice, happen on your device. Those images and recordings are not sent to us.
• The beta does not use your location. Safety recording is off.
• We do not sell your personal information or share it for advertising. There are no ads, analytics or tracking in Platd.
• Platd staff cannot browse your messages. They see a message only when someone reports it, and a registration document only when you send one for review.
• You can delete your account in the app. Questions and requests go to [email protected].

1. Who we are and how to reach us

Bault LLC operates Platd and is responsible for your personal information. For privacy questions or requests, email [email protected]. For anything else, email [email protected]. The person responsible for privacy at Bault LLC reads [email protected].

2. What we collect

Your account

• Email address or phone number. You give us at least one: an email address, or a phone number if you sign in with one. We use an email address to sign you in, verify your account, help you recover it and confirm important changes, such as an email change or deleting your account. Phone numbers are covered under text messages below.
• Sign-in methods you choose. A password (we store only a one-way hash of it), an authenticator app (we store its secret encrypted), recovery codes (stored only as one-way hashes) and passkeys (we store the public part only; the private key stays on your device).
• Sign-in sessions. Each sign-in creates a session that lasts up to 30 days unless you sign out first. We store a one-way hash of the session token, when it was created, how you signed in and whether it has ended.
• One-time codes. Email and text codes are stored as keyed hashes and expire within 15 minutes. Expired codes and unfinished sign-in steps are deleted within a day.

Text messages (SMS)

• Your phone number, if you sign in with a phone number or add one to your account. We use it only to text you the one-time sign-in and security codes you ask for. We never send marketing texts and never use your number for advertising.
• We don't share your phone number or text-message consent with third parties for marketing. No mobile information will be sold or shared with third parties for promotional or marketing purposes.
• We store the number encrypted, along with a keyed fingerprint of it so we can recognize it without reading it, and a record of whether you have replied STOP. We never show it to other users.
• Message and data rates may apply. We send one text each time you ask for a code. Reply STOP to opt out and HELP for help. If you reply STOP, we stop texting that number until you reply START.
• Our text provider, Telnyx, receives the number and the text of the code (see section 8), sends it through mobile carriers and tells us whether it was delivered. We don't send your number to anyone else.
• Your number is erased when you remove it from your account or delete your account (section 13).

Your profile (optional)

• A display name, a home area (a place you type, such as a town, and its state or province) and a one-line status. All are empty unless you fill them in. The web app and older versions of the iPhone app also offer a short bio, which only you can see.
• Your name, home area and status appear on a plate's public profile only where you have switched on "show my name" for that plate. Your display name is shown to people you exchange messages with, your friends and people who have blocked you only if you switch on showing your name in your profile. Both switches are off by default.

Your plates and cars (optional)

• Each plate you claim (its state, province or territory plus its number), when you claimed it and, if the claim ends, when it ended.
• For each plate, the plate design you pick and, if you add them, the car's make, model, color and year. Car details are shown only if you switch them on for that plate.
• Accessibility symbol (optional). The accessibility symbol appears only if you turn it on for a plate, it is shown only on that plate's picture, and we never infer it or use it for anything else.
• Vehicle identification number (VIN), where the app offers it. You can choose to add your car's VIN privately to strengthen your claim. We store it encrypted and never show it to anyone. You see only that it is saved and its last four characters, and you can remove it. We also keep a keyed fingerprint of it, so a claim reviewer can tell whether two claims name the same VIN without seeing the VIN itself. To suggest the make, model and year, our server sends the VIN (and nothing else about you) to the free VIN decoder run by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The VIN is deleted when your claim on that plate ends.
• Registration documents, where the app offers it. You can send a photo or PDF of your registration so a Platd reviewer can confirm your claim. Before we store a photo, we re-encode it, which removes hidden information in the file. Only authorized reviewers can open it. The document file is deleted 30 days after the review decision. We keep a record of the decision and a fingerprint (hash) of the file.

Messages and conversations

• Messages you send and receive, with the time, the sender and recipient accounts, the plate a message was addressed to (if any), the plate design shown at the time and whether it was a reply.
• Message requests. The first message to someone new is a request, and we record whether it is waiting, accepted or declined.
• Read state. When you open a message, we record it so your unread count is right. We never show it to the sender.
• Messages to unclaimed plates. If you message a plate nobody has claimed yet, we hold the message for up to 90 days and deliver it to whoever claims that plate. You can withdraw it while it waits. If nobody claims the plate in time, it expires unread and we delete its text. Records of held messages that ended keep no text and are deleted 30 days later.
• Heads-ups on heated drafts. If a draft looks heated or threatening, Platd may suggest calmer wording or show a warning before you send. You can always send your original. If you cancel or don't decide, we delete the draft's wording within about a minute, and keep only a record that a heads-up happened and what you chose. If you send it, the wording stays with the message you sent.

Friends and blocks

• Friendships, which start from a conversation you have both replied in, or from a single-use invite code you share. We store invite codes only as keyed hashes. Codes expire after 7 days, and unused codes are deleted 30 days after they expire or are revoked.
• The accounts you have blocked.

Reports

• When you report a message, we keep a copy of that message, the category you chose (for example harassment or a threat), any note you add and whether you asked for contact to stop, plus a record of when the report was filed and reviewed. Platd staff review reports, and reports of threats are shown to them first. If the reported message was sent after a heads-up about threatening wording, staff can see that too.

Claim reviews

• If you ask us to review someone else's claim on your plate, we keep the registration photo you send, the decision and the reason given, and a log of who viewed the photo and when. Before we store a photo, we re-encode it, which removes hidden information in the file, such as where and when it was taken.

Notifications

• In-app updates, for example when a review or report has been decided.
• Push notifications on iPhone. If you allow them, we store your device's push token, the Apple environment it belongs to, the session it is linked to and whether notifications are on. Notifications never contain message text. They say "Open Platd to check your inbox" or show a count.

Security and abuse prevention

• To stop guessing, flooding and plate scanning, we keep short-lived counters (for example, how many plates an account has looked up in the last hour). They are stored under a keyed one-way hash of your account or network address, never the address itself, and are deleted automatically once their time window (at most a day) has passed.
• Our server logs record the kind of request and which part of the service was used. They are designed not to record message text, plates, email addresses or your network address. Our hosting providers keep their own technical logs, which can include network addresses (see section 8).

If you contact us

• If you email [email protected] or [email protected], we keep the email and our reply so we can help you.
• If you test Platd through Apple's TestFlight, Apple shares with us the feedback, screenshots and crash reports you choose to send, along with the details Apple attaches to them.

3. What we don't collect

• Location. The beta does not ask for or collect your location. Friend location sharing and safety recording are not part of the beta.
• Camera images used to read a plate. Plate reading happens on your device (Apple's on-device text recognition on iPhone; a reader that runs in your browser on the web). The image is not uploaded. Only the plate you confirm is sent.
• Your voice. Speech features run on your iPhone using Apple's on-device speech recognition. Audio is not sent to us.
• Contacts, your photo library, advertising identifiers or analytics. Platd contains no analytics, crash-reporting or advertising tools of its own. If you choose to share analytics with app developers in your iPhone settings, or send feedback through TestFlight, Apple may share crash reports with us.
• Government records. We do not look up plates or people in any motor vehicle or government registry. The only outside lookup is the optional VIN decoding described above, which returns car details, not personal details.
• Payment details. Platd is free during the beta and takes no payments.

4. What other people can see

• Anyone who knows a plate, including people who are not signed in, can see whether Platd knows that plate, its plate design, and only the details its holder has switched on.
• People you message see your message and the plate it was sent to. They see your name only where you have switched it on. They never see your email address or your other plates.
• We never show your email address, your other plates, a list of who holds which plates, read receipts, typing indicators or online status.
• Friends see the profile details you have chosen to share.
• If you delete your account, people you talked to keep their conversations with you, shown as from a "Former Platd user".

5. How we use your information

We use it only to:

• run Platd: sign you in, deliver messages (including held messages), show the details you choose to share, keep conversations, friends and blocks working, and send notifications;
• show heads-ups on heated drafts, using a rule-based check on our own server (drafts are not sent to any outside AI or moderation service);
• review claims, registration documents and reports;
• keep Platd and its users safe and secure, stop abuse and enforce our Terms of Service;
• send the account emails you need, such as sign-in codes and security notices, and, if you sign in with a phone number, the texts that carry your sign-in and security codes (we do not send marketing email or text messages);
• answer your questions and requests, and improve Platd from the feedback you send;
• meet legal obligations.

We don't use your messages to train AI models.

6. When a plate changes hands

If a plate moves to another account (for example, after a claim review or when an account is deleted):

• earlier messages stay with the people who sent and received them, and the new holder cannot see them;
• replies to earlier conversations still go to the original participants;
• your profile, car details, VIN and friendships do not move with the plate.

7. Who at Platd can see what

• Staff use a separate manager app with limited roles. A claim reviewer can see the claim review or registration document in front of them. A trust reviewer can see a reported message and the report. Views of claim photos and reports are logged.
• The person whose claim is being reviewed does not see the other person's registration photo.
• Staff cannot browse inboxes or search messages, and there is no map of anyone.
• Authorised Platd staff can look up accounts and plates to provide support, review reports and disputes, and keep Platd safe. They still cannot read your messages unless a message is reported, and every lookup is logged.
• The people who run Platd's infrastructure can technically reach the database for maintenance, backups and recovery. Access is limited to that purpose.

8. Service providers

We use these providers to run Platd. They process data on our behalf, only to provide their service to us.

Our small team also uses software tools to build and operate Platd, including GitHub for code, Linear for tracking work, and AI assistants from Anthropic and OpenAI. We keep personal information out of these tools wherever we can. When we triage beta feedback or reports with an AI assistant's help, it may process the content of that feedback or report.

9. No sale, no ads, no tracking

• We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it for targeted or cross-context behavioral advertising.
• There are no ads in Platd.
• We do not track you across other apps or websites. Our website uses no analytics and sets no tracking cookies.

If this ever changes, we will update this policy and tell you before the change applies to you.

10. Legal requests and safety

We disclose information only when we believe in good faith that the law requires it (for example, a valid court order or subpoena), or that it is needed to prevent serious harm to someone. Platd is not a police service, and we do not share reports with the police on our own unless someone's safety is at serious risk. Unless the law forbids it or it would put someone at risk, we will tell you about a legal request for your information before we disclose it.

11. If Platd is sold or reorganized

If Bault LLC or Platd is involved in a merger, acquisition, financing or sale of assets, your information may be transferred as part of that deal. It will remain covered by this policy, and we will tell you before it becomes subject to a different privacy policy.

12. How long we keep information

• Sign-in codes (email and text) and unfinished sign-in steps: valid for at most 15 minutes, and deleted within a day after they expire.
• Sessions: up to 30 days, or until you sign out.
• Abuse-prevention counters: deleted automatically once their time window (at most a day) has passed.
• Held messages: up to 90 days while waiting; the text is deleted when one expires or is withdrawn, and the remaining record 30 days later.
• Wording of a cancelled or undecided draft: deleted within about a minute.
• Friend invite codes: 7 days, and the record of an unused code is deleted 30 days after that.
• Registration documents: the file is deleted 30 days after the review decision.
• VIN: until you remove it, your claim on that plate ends or your account is erased.
• Messages and conversations: kept for the people in them. Messages cannot be unsent, so a message you sent stays with its recipient, including after you delete your account.
• Your account, profile, plates, friends and blocks: until you change them or delete your account.
• Reports, claim reviews and their decisions: kept as long as needed to keep Platd safe, handle disputes and meet legal obligations, including the registration photo a decided claim review was based on. They keep only the information they captured at the time. We do not delete them automatically today.
• Emails you send us: as long as needed to help you.
• Backups: before changes to the database we take a backup copy, which is kept privately by the operator, and our database host keeps a short restore history. Deleted information can remain in these copies until they are deleted. We use backups only to recover from failures.

13. Deleting your account

You can delete your account in the iPhone app, under Settings. We send a code to your email to confirm it is you. If you use only the web app, email [email protected] from your account's email address and we will delete it for you.

• Straight away, you are signed out on every device, your devices stop getting notifications, and your profile and car details are hidden. Your plates stay reserved for you but stop accepting new conversations, and unused friend invite codes are revoked.
• Your account is fully erased 30 days after you confirm. Until then, you can restore it by signing in to the iPhone app again with an email code.
• When it is erased, we delete your email address, your phone number if you gave us one, sign-in methods, profile, car details, VIN, registration documents and their review records, claim-review photos that were not part of a decided review, friends, blocks, notifications, held messages and drafts. Your plates are released, so someone else can claim them. Your email address can be used for a new account.
• What stays: conversations you were part of stay with the other people in them, shown as from a "Former Platd user". Reports and review decisions keep the limited snapshot they captured, so we can keep Platd safe. We keep a deletion record with no personal details in it.

14. Your choices and rights

• Edit or hide your profile and car details at any time. Hidden details are not shown to anyone.
• Decline message requests, block people and report messages.
• Turn notifications off in the app or in iPhone Settings.
• Sign out on any device.
• Delete your account in the iPhone app, or by email if you use only the web app (section 13).

Depending on where you live, including several US states and Canada, you may have the right to ask what personal information we hold about you, to get a copy of it, to correct it, to delete it, and to withdraw consent or object to some uses. We honor these requests for everyone who uses Platd, wherever they live. Email [email protected]. We will confirm it is you, usually by asking you to write from your account's email address, and we aim to respond within 30 days. If we can't do what you ask, we will explain why. You can appeal a decision by replying to it. We will not treat you differently for using these rights.

If you are in Canada and are not satisfied with our answer, you can contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada or your provincial privacy regulator.

15. Children

Platd is not for children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect information from them. If you are under 18, you need a parent's or guardian's permission to use Platd. If we learn that an account belongs to someone under 13, we will close it and delete its personal information. If you believe a child under 13 is using Platd, email [email protected].

16. Where your information is stored

Platd's servers and database are in the United States. If you use Platd from Canada, your information is stored and processed in the United States, where it may be accessible to courts and authorities under US law.

17. How we protect information

• All connections to Platd are encrypted in transit.
• Passwords, recovery codes, session tokens and sign-in codes are stored only as one-way hashes. Authenticator secrets and VINs are stored encrypted.
• On iPhone, your sign-in session is kept in the iOS Keychain. On the web, it is kept in your browser's storage on that device, along with a few preferences. Platd does not use advertising or tracking cookies.
• Staff access is limited by role, and sensitive views are logged.

No system is perfectly secure. If a security incident affects your personal information, we will tell you and the authorities as the law requires.

18. Changes to this policy

We will update this policy when Platd changes. If a change matters, we will tell you in the app or by email before it applies to you. The effective date at the top shows the current version.

19. Contact

Bault LLC, a Wyoming limited liability company
Bault LLC, 926 Diablo Avenue, STE A1024, Novato, CA 94947, United States
Privacy: [email protected]
Support: [email protected]