Privacy Policy

Information I collect

None through the app. DriveIn has no account or sign-in of its own and no server of its own. It doesn't collect your name, email address, contacts, location, device or advertising identifiers, browsing history or what you watch, and it contains no analytics.

DriveIn is a player. It doesn't come with any videos, channels or playlists; it plays what you choose to add.

What is stored on your device

To work, DriveIn keeps this on your device only:

• Your library - the playlists, media servers, provider accounts and network shares you add, their channel and title lists, your favourites, Home layout, watch progress and what you've watched. The library database is protected until you first unlock your device after a restart and isn't included in device backups.
• Passwords and sign-ins - passwords, server sign-in tokens and links that can contain a sign-in are kept in your device's Keychain, set to stay on this device only. DriveIn never stores your media server password; it keeps the token the server gives it instead.
• Your videos - files you import are kept in DriveIn's own folder, which you can see in the Files app. Files you play from where they are stay where they are.
• Artwork and downloads - posters, channel logos and video frames are saved in a cache (up to 300 MB) so they load faster, along with subtitles you download.
• The car browser - your bookmarks, open tabs, recently visited pages and the websites' own data, such as cookies and sign-ins. You can clear these in the browser at any time.
• Your free minutes - how much of the free time on the car's screen you've used, kept in the Keychain so it survives reinstalling the app. It holds a number of minutes and nothing else.
• Settings - your playback, subtitle and car preferences, and whether you've accepted the safety notice and these terms.

Who DriveIn connects to

DriveIn connects only to these, and only to do what you ask:

• The sources you add - the addresses of your playlists, streams and channel logos, your Plex, Jellyfin or Emby servers, your provider accounts, network shares (SMB, FTP, SFTP, WebDAV) and media servers on your network. DriveIn sends your sign-in only to the server it belongs to, and reports your watch progress back to your media server so your other apps stay in step. Those servers are run by you or by whoever provides them, under their own policies.
• Plex and Emby sign-in - if you sign in with a Plex account, DriveIn talks to plex.tv to sign in and find your servers. If you use Emby Connect, it talks to connect.emby.media to sign in.
• OpenSubtitles.com - only when you search for subtitles. DriveIn sends the title, the season and episode, your subtitle languages and a fingerprint of the video file (a hash of a few bytes, used to find exact matches), and your OpenSubtitles sign-in if you've added one. OpenSubtitles handles this under its own privacy policy.
• Websites you open in the car browser, and the sites on its start page, to fetch their icons. Websites handle your visit under their own policies.
• Apple - for purchases (the App Store), speech recognition when your language can't be recognised on the device, and iCloud if you turn on sync.

DriveIn also works on your local network. When you turn on casting, it announces itself on your network under the name you choose so other apps can send it video, and it serves your videos to the car's screen or an AirPlay screen you pick.

Permissions

DriveIn asks for these only when you first use the feature that needs them, and each stays on your device:

• Location and motion - while CarPlay is connected, DriveIn uses your iPhone's speed (or, without it, motion activity) to tell when the car is moving, so video can leave the car's screen. Only the speed is used. Your location is never stored or sent anywhere.
• Microphone and speech recognition - when you tap the microphone to search by voice. Speech is turned into text on your device where your language allows; otherwise Apple's speech recognition is used, under Apple's privacy policy. Nothing is recorded or stored.
• Camera - to scan a QR code that holds a playlist link. Nothing is recorded or stored.
• Photos - you choose videos to import, or a photo of a QR code, in Apple's picker; DriveIn sees only what you choose, never the rest of your library.
• Local network - to play from servers on your network and to receive videos other apps cast to it.

Screen mirroring

When you start mirroring, iOS shares your iPhone's screen with DriveIn's mirroring extension, which sends it to the car's screen. The picture goes from your iPhone to your car and nowhere else, and it isn't recorded or stored. Everything on your screen is shown in the car while mirroring is on, including notifications, so you may want to turn on a Focus first.

iCloud sync

Sync is off until you turn it on. When it's on, DriveIn keeps playlists you added by link, network shares (without their passwords), favourites and watch progress in step between your iPhone and iPad through your own iCloud account, under Apple's privacy policy. A playlist link can include a provider's sign-in, and that link is synced as it is. Media server sign-ins and passwords are never synced. I can't see anything in your iCloud.

Purchases

DriveIn Pro is sold through the App Store. Apple handles payment under its own privacy policy, and DriveIn checks your subscription on the device with Apple. I never receive your payment details or your Apple Account.

Third-party code

DriveIn contains no third-party analytics, advertising, attribution, crash-reporting or tracking software, and it doesn't use App Tracking Transparency because it doesn't track you. It plays video with VLC (MobileVLCKit and FFmpeg), which runs on your device and sends nothing to anyone.

Apple may give me aggregated, anonymous statistics, such as download numbers, or crash reports from people who choose to share analytics with app developers in their device settings. These don't identify you.

Support and this website

If you email support@karanfadnavis.com or use the contact form on this website, I receive your email address, your name if you give it, and your message. I use them only to reply and to improve the app, keep them only as long as needed for that, and never sell or share them. Please don't send passwords or full playlist links: I'll never ask for them.

DriveIn's Privacy Policy and Terms links open pages on this website. Like any website, its hosting provider receives standard technical information such as your IP address and browser type, which may be kept briefly in server logs for security. This website doesn't use cookies, analytics or tracking.

Keeping and deleting your data

Everything DriveIn stores is on your device, so you're in control of it:

• Remove a source, server, account or share in the Library to delete it and its sign-in.
• Clear the car browser's history and website data in the browser.
• Turn off iCloud sync in Settings.
• Delete the app to remove its data from that device. iOS can keep an app's Keychain items, such as the free-minutes count, after the app is deleted.

Children

DriveIn doesn't collect personal information from anyone, including children. What it plays depends entirely on the sources you add.

Your rights

Because the app collects no personal data, I hold nothing about you from using it. If you've contacted me, you can ask to see, correct or delete that correspondence at any time. Depending on where you live, you may have rights under laws such as Australia's Privacy Act 1988, the EU and UK GDPR, India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act or California's CCPA, and I'll honour those requests. I don't sell or share personal information.

If you're unhappy with how I've handled a privacy concern, you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner or your local data protection authority.

App Store privacy label

Because the app collects no data, its App Store privacy label is Data Not Collected.

Changes to this policy

If DriveIn's handling of data ever changes, I'll update this page and its effective date before the change ships, and mention material changes in the app's release notes.

Contact

Questions about this policy or your privacy? Email support@karanfadnavis.com or send a message:

Karan Fadnavis - Sydney, Australia