Privacy Policy

PLAYRIOT LLC (“we,” “us,” or “our”) operates the DealShield mobile application (“App”). This Privacy Policy explains what we collect, how we use it, and what rights you have.

1. About DealShield

DealShield is an AI car-buying coach that scores deals against market data, scans dealer contracts and finance worksheets for hidden fees and add-ons, calculates true out-the-door pricing, and provides real-time negotiation coaching. Analysis runs on your device or via API calls that, by default, strip personally identifying information before anything leaves your phone. One optional feature — Photo Analysis, described below — sends contract photos as-is, and only if you turn it on.

2. Information we collect

• Authentication (optional). DealShield can be used without signing in. If you choose Sign in with Apple, we receive a stable opaque user ID and, if you share it, your email or Apple’s private relay address. We never see your Apple ID password.
• Deals you save. Vehicle make, model, year, mileage, price, dealer name (if entered), and your notes — stored locally on your device. Signing in does not sync your deals across devices.
• Contract scans (default). When you scan a contract or worksheet, your phone reads the text off the image on-device, strips personal details — your name, address, SSN, and account numbers — and sends only that cleaned-up text to our AI inference service to detect add-ons, markups, and tactics. The photo itself never leaves your phone on this path. Extracted line items are stored locally with your deal.
• Photo Analysis (optional, off until you turn it on). If you enable Photo Analysis — asked once before your first scan, changeable anytime in Settings — the contract photos themselves are sent to our AI provider so the model can read numbers directly off the page. This is the most accurate option, especially for tilted or blurry photos, and it means the photo — which typically shows your name, address, and signature — is transmitted. Photos are sent over TLS through our server for analysis. Apple purchase proof accompanies the request to our server, but is removed before the request goes to the AI provider. See the service and retention details below.
• Live Coach audio. When you enable Live Coach, the microphone captures audio. Speech is transcribed on-device by Apple’s speech recognition and matched against a tactic detector locally. Audio is never written to disk and never transmitted to our servers. You are responsible for your state’s recording-consent laws; DealShield prompts you to confirm before each session.
• Market comparison queries. When you score a deal, the make/model/year/zip is sent to our market-data services to fetch comparable listings. Our server links request records and temporary results to a coded Apple download ID, or a coded network address for older app versions, to check access, handle retries, limit abuse, and control service costs. A coded ID is not anonymous.
• Apple purchase checks. Online AI and market requests can send Apple-signed proof of your DealShield download and purchases to our server. The proof includes Apple transaction identifiers, product and purchase dates, and access status. We verify it with Apple to protect paid access and the free scan allowance. We keep a coded download ID, free/paid status, request fingerprints, timestamps, outcomes, and cost records. We do not save the raw signed proof in this ledger or send it to Google, Perplexity, or Auto.dev. Apple handles payment; these checks do not give us your Apple password or payment card details.

3. What we don’t collect

• We don’t track you across other apps or websites.
• We don’t use third-party analytics SDKs.
• We don’t store Live Coach audio recordings, ever.
• We do not sell your deal data or give it to dealerships, lenders, or auto-industry data brokers. Online features send data to the service providers described below.
• We do not access your contacts or device location. We read the contract photos you choose or capture, and the ZIP code you enter for market lookups.

4. Third-party services

• Sign in with Apple. Authentication is handled entirely by Apple, governed by Apple’s privacy policy.
• Apple speech recognition & Vision. On-device speech-to-text for Live Coach and on-device OCR for contract scanning. DealShield itself never sees your audio.
• AI inference & market data. We use third-party AI providers (currently Google’s Gemini for contract analysis and Perplexity / Auto.dev for live market listings). Contract text — and contract photos, when you have enabled Photo Analysis — is sent over TLS. Apple purchase proof and our coded buyer ID are not included in these provider requests. Contract content itself may identify you, especially in photos. For Google, we use the paid Gemini API with standard request logging turned off. Google’s paid-service terms say prompts and replies are not used to improve its products, but Google may keep separate safety logs for a limited period. Perplexity’s Chat Completions API policy says it does not retain request or reply content or use it for training; it keeps billing metrics. Auto.dev receives vehicle search details, including the ZIP code you provide, and keeps usage records under its own policy. Our Delete AI history control does not erase records held by these providers. See Google’s API terms, Perplexity’s API privacy rules, and Auto.dev’s privacy policy.

5. Data retention

Saved deals remain on your device until you delete them or remove the App. Our AI protection service caches successful replies for up to one hour so a retry can return the same result. Shared market comparisons are cached for up to 12 hours. The protection ledger keeps coded identifiers, request fingerprints, access status, outcomes, timestamps, and cost records across server restarts. Detailed records in the active database are removed after 90 days by an hourly cleanup job. A coded marker that your free scan was used remains while we enforce that allowance; it contains no scan, purchase details, or activity dates. The ledger does not contain raw Apple proofs, contract photos, or contract text. AI replies may contain information extracted from your contract. Live Coach audio is not stored by our servers.

Recovery copies. Database backups omit the links between your Apple download and AI check history. They keep unlinked service records and the minimal free-scan-used marker described above. Restoring these backups does not restore those deleted history links. Our server rebuilds cache recovery files hourly from replies that are still active; expired or deleted replies are removed from those recovery files on the next successful rebuild. A service failure may delay cleanup. This is removal from usable recovery files, not a promise of immediate physical erasure from storage hardware. These controls do not erase provider-held records.

6. Your rights & deleting your data

You can delete any saved deal in the App at any time. Use Settings → Delete Account to remove your optional sign-in account, or email us for help. In version 1.6.4 and later, use Settings → Delete AI history to clear your active online AI history and cached replies after Apple verifies your app download. For earlier versions, email us for help. No DealShield sign-in is required. This removes the link between your Apple download and detailed check records. Unlinked service cost records remain until their 90-day expiry, so deletion cannot reset service spending limits. A coded free-scan-used marker remains if you have used that allowance. These controls do not cancel Apple purchases. New online checks create new history. Uninstalling does not erase server records. Contact us about access to or deletion of these records; do not email your password or signed Apple proof.

7. Security

Data in transit is protected with TLS. We minimize what we collect precisely so there is little to expose.

8. Children

DealShield is not directed to children under 13 and we do not knowingly collect data from them.

9. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as the App evolves. Material changes will be reflected here with a new “last updated” date.

10. Contact

Questions about privacy? Email [email protected].