Privacy Policy

Passenger Seat (“Passenger Seat,” “we,” “us,” or “our”), a product of Blargo, LLC, is a travel companion app that tells you about interesting places as you drive. This policy explains what information we collect, why we collect it, who we share it with, and the choices you have. If you have questions, contact us at hello@passengerseat.app.

A quick summary

• We use precise or account-linked location to find interesting places nearby, plan or follow a trip, and trigger road-aware narration while you use those features.
• We do not sell your personal information, use precise or account-linked location to target ads, or track you across apps. De-identified place and story examples and aggregate counts may be used to support Passenger Seat's own advertising and marketing.
• You may sign in with Apple, Google, or email. You can delete your account at any time from within the app; this deletes trips, stories, routes, feedback, device data, and identifiable operational records. A de-identified fact catalog and a de-identified Safety Acknowledgment record may be retained as described below.
• When you accept the Safety Acknowledgment and Terms of Use, we keep a limited record of that acceptance for legal and compliance purposes.
• Website analytics is optional. Google Analytics stays off unless you accept it, and you can change your choice at any time.

Information we collect

Account information. Depending on platform, you may sign in with Apple, Google, or email and password. We receive an account identifier, email address, and any name you choose to share. If you set a display name, we store that too.

Location. When you turn on Live Monitoring, start an Active Trip, or ask for a nearby story, the app uses your device's precise location to find places around you, determine progress along a route, and trigger narration at the right time. Live Monitoring and Active Trip can use location in the background if you allow it. Live Monitoring automatically pauses when it detects that you have parked or stopped moving. We use precise or account-linked location to provide and improve location-based app features, not to build advertising profiles or target ads.

Content you create and receive. Trips you plan, the stories and the spoken audio we generate for you, your listening history, and any thumbs up or thumbs down feedback you give.

Uploads and generated audio. Passenger Seat does not currently offer user file uploads. Spoken audio is generated by Passenger Seat, stored in a private bucket, and returned to signed-in clients through expiring links. Account deletion removes the link between you and the audio. A reusable copy may remain in the separate de-identified fact catalog described below.

Notifications. If you allow notifications, we store a device push token so we can tell you when a planned trip is ready. When an eligible free trial is started on iOS, Passenger Seat may ask for notification permission and, if you allow it, schedules an on-device reminder about 24 hours before the trial ends.

Messages and partnership inquiries. When you contact us or submit a partnership inquiry, we collect the email address, name, company or organization, partner category, and message you provide. The inquiry may also include the website page and non-personal campaign parameters that brought you there. We use this information to respond, evaluate the idea, understand which outreach is useful, and maintain appropriate business records. We do not send the form contents or your identity to Google Analytics. For abuse prevention, we also use a one-way keyed value derived from your network address to limit repeated submissions. An automated spam-screening provider may receive the email address, optional name, and message you submit.

Diagnostics, analytics, and quality data. To improve quality and fix problems, we log app events and details about how stories are generated, including the request sent to an AI provider, timing information, and the result. These records may be associated with your account, device, trip, or location for up to 90 days. After 90 days, Passenger Seat removes those identifiers and content-bearing fields while retaining limited aggregate operational measurements such as event type, model, timing, token use, app version, and date.

Website analytics. If you accept website analytics, Google Analytics measures page visits, referring and campaign information, app-store link clicks, device and browser information, and approximate geographic area. Passenger Seat does not send names, email addresses, phone numbers, precise location, form contents, or other direct identifiers in analytics events. Google Analytics may use cookies and similar browser storage after you accept. We store your analytics choice in your browser so the website can honor it on later visits from that browser.

Safety acknowledgment record. When you select Agree & Continue, we store your account ID, the server date and time, the exact acknowledgment version and text you accepted, and your app version, operating-system version, platform, and locale. We use this record only to document your agreement and for legal or compliance purposes. If you delete your account, the retained record no longer contains your account ID, exact acceptance time, operating-system version, or locale; the acceptance date, document and version, platform, app version, and acceptance method may remain.

How we use information

• To provide the core experience: finding nearby places and narrating stories about them.
• To save your trips, history, and preferences across sessions.
• To send you notifications you have opted into (for example, “your trip is ready”).
• To improve the quality of the stories and the app, and to troubleshoot issues.
• To use de-identified place and story examples and aggregate counts in Passenger Seat's own product demonstrations, social posts, advertising, and marketing.
• To provide support when you contact us.

Service providers we share information with

We use trusted service providers to run Passenger Seat. They process information only to provide their service to us:

• Apple (Sign in with Apple, push notifications, and any in-app purchases).
• Supabase and Vercel (account authentication, database, private audio storage, backend, and web hosting).
• OpenAI (to generate story text and spoken audio; it receives place, public source, route or location context needed for that request, and may screen ordinary website messages for spam. High-confidence crisis messages bypass the AI spam classifier).
• Google Maps and Places, and Wikipedia (route, mapping, landmark, and public reference information).
• Sentry and TelemetryDeck (app diagnostics and product analytics), RevenueCat (purchase entitlement management), and Google Analytics (optional website analytics, loaded only after you accept).
• Brevo (to deliver support messages, partnership inquiries, invitations, and replies).

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it for cross app tracking or targeted advertising.

Data retention and deletion

We keep your information while your account is active. You can delete your account at any time from Settings. Deleting your account removes your account record, sign-in identity, display name, device push tokens, purchase entitlements, trips, route points, saved and discovered stories, feedback, links to narration audio, and identifiable app and generation events. You may also use the delete account page or email hello@passengerseat.app to request deletion.

Passenger Seat keeps a separate de-identified fact catalog so it can know that an area or subject has already been researched, count generation and reuse, and reuse good stories instead of generating the same fact again. The catalog may contain generated story text, public-source links, a location rounded to a coarse area, aggregate counts, date-only first and last use, and reusable narration audio. It contains no account ID, device ID, trip ID, route or location sequence, exact location, or exact timestamp, and it cannot be joined back to your deleted account. Passenger Seat may use catalog entries and aggregate counts in its own product demonstrations, social posts, advertising, and marketing. Those materials will not identify a person or include an account, device, trip, route, exact location, or exact time. Passenger Seat will not attempt to re-identify anyone from this catalog, use it to track a person, or combine it with other data for identification.

Passenger Seat also keeps daily totals for approved product actions, such as trips created and facts heard. Those totals contain only a date, a fixed metric name, and a count—not an account or device ID, event payload, location, session, trip, or individual activity sequence.

While an account remains active, Passenger Seat keeps identifiable first-party analytics and AI-generation diagnostics for up to 90 days. Older records are stripped of identifiers, coordinates, prompts, and generated content; limited aggregate operational measurements may remain. Account deletion removes the identifiable records immediately.

We may retain the de-identified Safety Acknowledgment acceptance record after account deletion for as long as reasonably necessary to document the agreement, resolve disputes, enforce our terms, or comply with legal obligations. It has no account ID, exact acceptance time, operating-system version, or locale. We do not use that retained record to recreate your account or for advertising. Email us to request a copy or ask about retention of that record.

We keep support messages and partnership inquiries for as long as reasonably necessary to respond, evaluate a potential relationship, maintain appropriate business records, protect the service, or meet legal obligations.

Your choices

• Location: you can turn location access on or off in your device's Settings app. If you turn it off, the app cannot find nearby stories.
• Notifications: you can turn notifications on or off in your device's Settings app.
• Account: you can delete your account in the app at any time. The limited Safety Acknowledgment record may be retained as described above.
• Website analytics: analytics storage is denied by default, and Google Analytics does not load unless you accept. You can decline or later change your analytics choice. If you withdraw consent, the website clears Google Analytics cookies it can access and reloads without Google Analytics.

Children

Passenger Seat is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them.

Security

We use reasonable measures to protect your information. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security.

Your California privacy rights

If you are a California resident, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA), gives you certain rights regarding your personal information:

• Right to know the categories and specific pieces of personal information we collect, use, and disclose.
• Right to delete the personal information we hold about you.
• Right to correct inaccurate personal information.
• Right to opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information.
• Right to non-discrimination for exercising any of these rights.

The categories of personal information we collect are described above: identifiers (such as your Apple user identifier and email), precise location, app activity and content you create, device push tokens, diagnostics, and acknowledgment records including app and operating-system details. We collect this information for the purposes described in this policy. We do not sell or share your personal information, and we do not use it for cross context behavioral advertising.

To exercise any of these rights, email us at hello@passengerseat.app and we will respond as required by law. You may also use an authorized agent to make a request on your behalf.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. When we do, we will revise the date at the top. Significant changes may be communicated in the app or by email.

Contact

Questions or requests about your privacy: hello@passengerseat.app