Privacy, without the fine-print fog.

This policy covers the PlateMail iOS app, API, and website. PlateMail is operated by William Martin.

We process your email address, verification status, account identifier, your declared age band (13–17 or 18 and older), and the credentials or session information needed to sign you in. Email verification confirms access to that email address. It does not verify your legal identity or vehicle ownership. We ask for an age band rather than your date of birth. That band is private account information, not displayed to other drivers.

Installation identifiers, request identifiers, security events, and rate-limit information help keep sign-in reliable, prevent duplicate sends, investigate abuse, and protect the service. Keep verification codes and session credentials private.

We store the state and plate text you enter, your messages and replies, timestamps, plate subscriptions and removals, reports, blocks, receipt preferences, and support requests. This information is used to deliver mail, operate your mailbox, and moderate the service.

Anyone can add the same state and plate text to their account and read that plate’s available notes and replies, including older mail. Senders can also see their own Sent history. Authorized moderators can review content and associate it with an account and verified email for support or abuse handling. PlateMail does not verify vehicle ownership or provide a directory of verified drivers.

PlateMail is available from age 13. Messages sent by an account in the 13–17 age band, and messages delivered to that account, including replies, require moderator approval before delivery. Review can also delay mail in shared inboxes and does not guarantee that every harmful message will be caught.

Authorized moderators can read queued content and account information to perform that review. Do not use it to target, identify, or pursue a young person.

Multiple accounts can follow the same plate. Removing a plate only unsubscribes your account; it does not remove other people or erase the mailbox’s history. If you add it again, available older notes and replies can appear again.

Reports, blocks, moderation, and account deletion can affect which content remains available. Removing a plate is not account or content deletion. Read about account deletion.

If you choose Use my location, iOS asks for permission to suggest a US state. The app uses Apple’s location and reverse-geocoding services; those services may process your location under Apple’s terms. You can choose a state manually at any time.

PlateMail’s API does not receive or store your coordinates for this feature. The selected state preference is saved on your device. When you add a plate or send a note, the state you choose manually or accept from a location suggestion is also stored with that activity, so this coarse location can be linked to your account for app functionality. PlateMail does not use this feature to track a vehicle, display another person’s location, or record a trip.

Cloudflare runs the PlateMail API. Neon provides database and authentication infrastructure. Verification emails use Neon’s default delivery or our configured transactional email provider, Resend, which processes the recipient email address and one-time code to deliver the message. Apple provides iOS platform services and app distribution. These providers process information needed to supply their services, and infrastructure may process information in the United States or other locations where providers operate.

We do not sell PlateMail account or message data. PlateMail does not use an advertising identifier or third-party advertising tracking in the iOS app. We may disclose information when required by law or to respond to a legitimate safety or security concern.

The PlateMail website is hosted on Vercel. Hosting and security systems may process IP addresses, browser information, request URLs, and timestamps. Website processing is separate from the PlateMail app’s optional state suggestion.

We keep account and service data while needed to operate your account and mailbox, unless you delete it or moderation removes it. You can initiate account deletion in PlateMail → Settings → Account → Delete account. Deletion removes your plate subscriptions, personal data, and associated content from the active service. Other accounts’ subscriptions and unrelated notes remain.

If a banned account is deleted, we retain a keyed hash of its normalized email address to prevent immediate re-registration with the same address. This is pseudonymous data, not anonymous data; it can be matched when the same email is used again. The hash expires after 90 days and is removed by scheduled cleanup. The ban-suppression record contains no plaintext email. Limited moderation records may retain the action taken and its timestamp with personal account references removed. Backups and security records can have separate lifecycles; information legally required to be retained is handled separately. Deletion cannot remove a screenshot or other independent copy someone has already made.

For help with access, correction, or deletion, email platemailapp@gmail.com. We may ask you to confirm control of the account before sharing or changing its information. Do not send passwords, verification codes, or identity documents in an initial message.

PlateMail is for people aged 13 and older. People under 13 must not create an account or use the service. If you believe someone under 13 has provided information, contact our privacy team so we can investigate and remove the account where appropriate.

We update this page when our handling changes. The date at the top identifies the current version; important changes may also be communicated in the app or through your account.