Privacy Policy for EZKnow

App name: EZKnow Bundle ID: com.kirsulab.ezknow Publisher: KirsuLab LLC Contact: hello@kirsulab.com

EZKnow is a community fuel-price map: drivers report prices and station status, and everyone sees the live result. This policy explains exactly what the app collects and why. In short: browsing the map needs no account; reporting needs a phone number (so every report is answerable); your location is used to show nearby stations and — at the moment you submit a report — to verify you are actually at the station. Your phone number and your location are never shown to other users and are never sold.

1. Browsing without an account

You can open the map, see stations, prices and community status without signing in. In that mode EZKnow collects no account data. The anonymous analytics and crash reporting described in section 6 still apply.

2. Your account (phone number)

To report prices, save vehicles or favorite stations, you sign in with your phone number, verified by a one-time SMS code (Google Firebase Authentication). We use the number solely as your sign-in identity and to make reports accountable — an anti-abuse measure that keeps the map honest. It is not displayed to anyone, not used for marketing, and not shared with other users. During sign-in, the service may verify the app via a silent Apple push notification or a reCAPTCHA challenge to protect against automated abuse.

3. Location

• While you browse, your device location is used on the device to center the map, compute distances and sort stations "closest first". It is not persisted to our servers while browsing.
• When you submit a report, the GPS coordinates at that moment are sent together with the report and checked on the server to confirm the report was made at the station. This is the mechanism that makes prices trustworthy. The coordinates are stored with the report record, which is server-only: other users never see it, and the app itself has no way to read another user's report coordinates or movement history.
• Location permission is optional. If you deny it, the map still works — you can search and browse manually; reporting requires it, because presence at the station is what a report attests.

4. What you contribute

Reports (fuel grade, price, availability, queue length), saved vehicles and favorite stations are stored in our database (Google Firebase / Cloud Firestore) under your account. What other users see is only the aggregate and anonymized result: a station's current price and status, and a recent history of reports shown without any identity. Your contribution counters (reports made, streak days, reporter rank) are shown only to you.

5. Notifications

If you favorite a station and allow notifications, we use Firebase Cloud Messaging to send price and status alerts for that station. The notification permission is requested only when it first becomes useful — after you save a favorite — and you can revoke it any time in system settings.

6. Analytics and crash reporting (Firebase)

EZKnow uses Google Firebase services, with Google acting as our service provider:

• Firebase Analytics — anonymous, aggregated usage events (for example, "a report was submitted"), a randomly generated app-instance identifier, device model, OS version, app version, language and a coarse region derived from your IP address (the IP itself is not stored by us).
• Firebase Crashlytics — on a crash, a diagnostic report: the stack trace, device state (model, OS version, memory, app version) and a random installation identifier.
• Firebase App Check — a device-attestation token (Apple DeviceCheck) that proves requests come from the genuine app; it carries no personal data.

This data is not linked to your real-world identity, is not sold, and is not used for advertising. Google processes it under its own privacy and security terms — see the Firebase privacy documentation and the Google Privacy Policy.

7. Advertising (Google AdMob)

The free version of EZKnow shows one banner at the bottom of the map, and offers an optional rewarded video ("watch an ad for an ad-free day"). Ads are served by Google AdMob, which — as an advertising provider — processes data from your device to select and measure ads. Depending on your region and choices this can include your advertising identifier (a resettable ad ID), coarse location derived from your IP address, device model and OS version, the app you are using, and interactions with the ad.

• In the EEA, the UK and Switzerland a consent screen appears before ads are shown; declining personalised advertising is a real option.
• On iOS EZKnow does not request the App Tracking Transparency identifier and does not track you across other companies' apps or websites; ads are non-personalised unless Apple's and Google's frameworks establish consent otherwise.

Google's handling of advertising data is described in the Google Privacy Policy and Google Advertising Privacy & Terms.

8. Permissions

• Location — nearby stations, distances, and report verification (sections 3).
• Notifications — price alerts for favorites, only if you opt in (section 5).
• Internet — the live map data, reports, analytics and ads described above.

No contacts, no camera, no microphone, no photos.

9. Deleting your account and your data

Profile → Delete account removes your account immediately and permanently: your profile, saved vehicles and favorites are deleted, and your sign-in (including your phone number) is removed from Firebase Authentication. Reports you contributed remain part of the community record — a station's price history must stay truthful — but they are anonymized at deletion: the link to your identity is replaced with a neutral tombstone, so nothing connects them to you. You can also request deletion by writing to the address below.

10. Data retention

Account data lives as long as your account does (section 9). Analytics and crash data are retained by Google/Firebase under our project's retention settings and used only in aggregate.

11. Children's privacy

EZKnow is a general-audience utility for drivers and is not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children.

12. Data sharing and selling

We do not sell your data. Firebase (Google) processes the data above on our behalf. Advertising data (section 7) is shared with Google AdMob as an advertising provider. There are no other recipients.

13. Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, the updated version will be posted at this address with a new effective date.

14. Contact

Questions about this policy or your data? Contact KirsuLab LLC at hello@kirsulab.com.