Privacy Policy

Last updated October 8, 2026

Penny Sentry helps you find cheaper gas nearby and track game prices. This policy explains what the Penny Sentry website (pennysentry.com) and the Penny Sentry app for iPhone and Android collect, why, and what you can do about it. In short: we use your location only to find nearby gas station prices, we keep your favorites and price alerts on your device, and we do not sell your data, show ads or track you across other apps and websites.

Location

The app asks for your location to show gas stations around you. The website asks only when you press the location button.

• Each search sends the coordinates you search around to our server, which looks up stations and prices and sends the answer back. We do not store your searches in our database or link them to an account. Our hosting provider keeps short-lived server request logs, which include the address of each request and therefore its coordinates.
• To find stations, our server passes the search coordinates (not your identity) to the price sources for that area: Google Maps Platform and GasBuddy, and in Germany and Austria the official Tankerkönig and E-Control price services.
• If you turn on live prices (the Dynamic Island, Lock Screen or Android notification) or price drop alerts for favorite stations, the app also uses your location in the background. Live prices refresh the nearby stations as you move. Price drop alerts are checked on your device when you arrive near a favorite station. You can turn both off in the app, or change location access in your phone's settings at any time.
• While live prices are on and notifications are allowed, each refresh also sends your phone's push notification token, fuel type and language. Our server keeps the token with the last position and the cheapest price it told you about, so it can send you a notification when the cheapest price nearby changes. Turning live prices off stops these notifications, and the record is deleted after 30 days without a refresh.
• The map and the place search in the app come from MapTiler, which receives the map area you view and the text you search for.

What stays on your device

Your favorite stations, price drop alerts, fuel type, preferred maps app and language are stored only on your phone. Price drop alerts for favorites are shown as notifications created on your device. The only notifications our server sends are the live price changes described above. If your phone connects to an OBD-II Bluetooth adapter where that feature is available, the fuel level is read and kept on your device.

Usage records

When you tap Directions, we record the station, fuel type and price shown, the maps app you chose, the platform and your device's user agent string. When you follow a link to a store on the website, we record the link, the page it came from and the user agent. These records are not linked to you or an account and contain no IP address. We use them to understand which features are used. We do not show ads or use an advertising identifier to track you across other companies' apps and websites.

The mobile app uses Google Analytics and Firebase Crashlytics. Analytics records which screens and features you use, including how long live prices (the Dynamic Island, Lock Screen, or Android notification) and price drop alerts stay turned on. Crashlytics records a crash stack, the device model, and the operating system version so we can fix failures. These reports use an app instance identifier. They are not linked to your account or email, and they do not include an advertising identifier, station names, or your location.

The website uses Google Analytics through Firebase. It records which pages you open, as the page path and title. It does not record what you type into search, a ZIP code, map coordinates, your email, or an account id. These reports use a browser identifier stored in a cookie. They are not linked to your account, and they are not used to advertise to you.

Penny Sentry stores, on its own servers, how a visit or app open started, when that can be known. On the website that is the referring site, or the campaign parameters on the link (source, medium, campaign, content, and term). The first arrival is stored in this browser and is kept separate from the current visit. Later pages on this site do not replace it. The stored values are those campaign fields, not the full address. A download button records the store, the page, and where the button sat. That click is not an install and not the first time the app opens. The app records its first open, later sessions, and the first time you search this area or open directions. A campaign is attached only when the link that opened the app included one. An install that does not carry a campaign is reported as unknown. These records do not include an IP address, an email address, an account, a station name, or a location, and they do not connect a website visitor with a person using the app. They are not sent to Google Analytics.

A campaign link on the invite page can be attached to the first open of the app for one hour, when the store does not pass the link through. For that hour we keep a hash of the network address together with the time zone and the operating system, and the campaign fields above. We do not store the network address. The match is deleted when the app opens or when the hour ends. It can be wrong when two people share a network. The website skips this match when the browser sends Global Privacy Control.

The website skips these reports when the browser sends Global Privacy Control.

Accounts

You can use Penny Sentry without an account. If you create one on the website, we store:

• your email address, and your name and profile picture if you sign in with Google or Apple, or your Steam ID if you sign in with Steam;
• your sessions, with the IP address and browser user agent they were created from, to keep you signed in and protect your account; sessions expire after 30 days;
• what you choose to save: your game watchlist and price alerts, your fuel discount programs, your home ZIP code and fuel type.

We email you sign-in codes and, if you set them up, game price alerts. If you import your Steam wishlist, we read the game IDs, priorities and dates from your public Steam wishlist.

Service providers

We share data only with providers that run Penny Sentry for us, and only what each one needs:

• Vercel (website hosting) and Railway (servers and database);
• Cloudflare (image storage) and Better Stack (uptime checks);
• Mailjet (sign-in codes and price alert emails);
• Expo, Apple Push Notification service and Firebase Cloud Messaging (delivering live price notifications to your phone);
• Google Analytics and Firebase Crashlytics (website pages and app usage, and crash reports, as described above);
• Google Maps Platform, GasBuddy, Tankerkönig and E-Control (station prices, as described above) and MapTiler (maps in the app);
• OpenStreetMap (website map tiles). Your browser sends your IP address, website origin and requests for the visible map area to the tile service. A configured alternative map provider receives those requests instead.
• Google, Apple and Steam, if you sign in with them.

Opening directions hands the destination to Apple Maps, Google Maps or another maps app you choose, under that app's own privacy policy. We may disclose information if the law requires it.

How long we keep data

Account data is kept until you delete your account. Server request logs are kept for a limited period by our hosting provider and then deleted. Anonymous usage records are kept to compare usage over time.

Your choices and rights

• Turn off location, live prices or notifications in the app or in your phone's settings. Without location you can still search by ZIP code, city or address.
• Remove games from your watchlist and change your fuel settings on the website.
• To see, correct, export or delete your account data, email support@pennysentry.com from the address on your account. We delete an account and everything linked to it within 30 days.

Depending on where you live (for example in the European Union, the United Kingdom or California), you may have further rights, such as to object to processing or to complain to a data protection authority. We process your data to provide the service you ask for and, for security and usage records, in our legitimate interest in running it reliably.

Children

Penny Sentry is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect their data.

Changes

If we change this policy, we will update it on this page and change the date above. Significant changes will also be announced on the website or in the app.