Privacy Policy

Last updated October 2, 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 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.
• 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 are shown as notifications created on your device; we do not collect push notification tokens. 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 use analytics, advertising or crash reporting services.

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);
• Google Maps Platform, GasBuddy, Tankerkönig and E-Control (station prices, as described above) and MapTiler (maps in the app);
• 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.