Privacy Policy
Lefty plans driving routes with fewer risky left turns. To do that it needs to know where you are and where you're going, for as long as it takes to plan and guide the trip. This policy explains what we collect, what we don't, and the choices you have. We wrote it to be read, not skimmed.
1. Who we are
EzPanda Inc. ("EzPanda", "we") is an Ontario corporation based in Toronto. We are the organization responsible for personal information handled by Lefty under Canada's Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA). Contact: ezpandaofficial@gmail.com.
2. What we collect and why
| Information | Why | Where it goes | Kept for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Your current location and heading | To centre the map, plan routes from where you are, and guide you turn by turn | Sent to our routing server only as part of a route request. Not written to disk on the server. Apple's map and search services receive it when you search or view the map. | Not stored by us |
| Destinations you search or select | To plan the route | Sent to Apple (search) and to our routing server (route). Recent destinations and saved places are stored on your phone only. | On your phone until you delete them |
| Intersection reports and arrow answers | To confirm which signals have left-turn arrows, improving routes for everyone | Stored on our server: intersection coordinates, your travel direction, the time, the answer, an optional note, and a one-way hashed device code | Indefinitely as part of the map data; the device code cannot be reversed to identify you |
| Road event reports (police, crash, hazard, stalled vehicle, construction, closure, heavy traffic) | To warn other drivers nearby for a short time | Stored on our server: the event's location, the kind, the time and a hashed device or account code; shown to nearby drivers without any identity. Each event expires within minutes to hours unless other drivers confirm it. | Up to 8 hours active; the log is kept for 30 days |
| Contributor points and rank | To show your standing | Computed on our server from your reports, keyed by the same hashed device code | As above |
| Trip history (distance, duration, top speed, destination name) | To show your past trips | Your phone only | Until you delete it in Settings |
| Account (optional): name, email, sign-in provider | To recognise you on another iPhone and to let you delete your account | Firebase Authentication (Google) stores the sign-in; Sign in with Apple lets you hide your email. We never see your password. | Until you delete your account in Settings › Account |
| Saved places and settings, when signed in | To sync Home, Work, favourites, units and route preference between your iPhones | Firebase Cloud Firestore (Google), one record per account, readable only by you | Until you delete your account; deleted immediately with it |
| Subscription status | To unlock Lefty Plus | Apple processes payment and verifies the subscription on your device. We receive no payment details and run no billing service of our own. | For the life of the subscription plus accounting retention |
| Left turns a Lefty route went around | To show drivers how often the community's data changed a route ("routed around them N times this week") | Stored on our server: the intersection's location and the time only, with no device code, account or route | 7 days |
| App diagnostics | To find and fix problems, especially with CarPlay | Sent to our server: short status lines from the app (for example "CarPlay connected" or "map following the car"), the app build, and a random diagnostics code that is separate from your report code and your account. A line can include the location of a "That felt risky" tap. | While we use it to fix problems; we will stop collecting it once CarPlay testing ends |
| Support emails | To answer you | Our mailbox | Up to two years |
3. What we do not do
- We do not store your location or your route on our servers. A route request is answered and forgotten, apart from the anonymous list of left turns it went around (section 2). Standard web server logs may record the request time and your internet address for up to 30 days for security.
- We do not show advertising in the app.
- We do not sell, rent or trade personal information.
- We do not share data with insurers, employers or data brokers.
- We do not build a profile of where you go.
- We do not track you across other apps or websites.
4. Location permission
Lefty asks for location access "while using the app", and for permission to keep using it in the background so guidance continues with the phone locked and the CarPlay map follows your car. Lefty uses location in the background only while it is guiding a trip or showing on your car's screen. You can decline either; the map still works and you can search, but Lefty cannot plan a route from your position or guide you without location. You can change this at any time in iPhone Settings › Privacy & Security › Location Services › Lefty.
5. The arrow question and reports
During a trip, when you are stopped at a signalized left turn on your route, Lefty may ask whether that left turn is protected (a green arrow or a flashing green advance). Answering is optional, the question appears at most a few times per trip and never while moving, and you can turn it off in Settings › Your standing (the first time it appears it offers that choice). Your answer, the intersection's location, your travel direction and the time are stored so that, once several drivers agree, the intersection can be marked as confirmed. Reports are linked to a random device code created on your phone, stored hashed on our server. If you are signed in, reports are keyed by your account identifier instead, also hashed, so your points and rank follow you to a new iPhone; the routing server still never stores your name or email. Deleting the app deletes the code on your phone; existing reports remain as anonymous map data.
6. Service providers
- Apple (maps, search, App Store payments, TestFlight): Apple's privacy policy applies to those services.
- Google Cloud: our routing server runs in Google's Toronto region. Google does not access the data.
- Firebase (Google): optional accounts (Authentication) and synced places and settings (Cloud Firestore). Google processes this data under its Firebase data-processing terms. Sign in with Google uses Google's sign-in service.
- Cloudflare: this website and our domain's network security.
- Expo: builds and delivers the app; no user data.
7. Where data is stored
Our servers are in Canada (Google Cloud, Toronto), including for drivers in the United States. Firebase and Apple may process data in the United States and elsewhere under their own safeguards.
8. Your rights and choices
- Access and correction. Email us to ask what we hold that relates to you. Because reports are anonymous, we may need the device code from your phone's Settings to find them.
- Deletion. Settings › Delete local data removes saved places, trip history and reports stored on your phone. Settings › Account › Delete account removes your account and everything synced to it, immediately and without contacting us. Email us to request deletion of reports on our server tied to your device code.
- Withdrawing consent. Turn off location access, stop answering the arrow question, or delete the app.
- Complaints. Contact us first. You may also contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.
9. Children
Lefty is for licensed drivers and their passengers and is rated for users 17 and older. We do not knowingly collect information from children.
10. Security
Connections use HTTPS. The routing server accepts route requests and reports only; it holds no account data. Account data lives in Firebase, protected by per-user access rules so that only you can read your record. Device codes are stored hashed. We review access to the server and keep the software current.
11. Drivers in the United States, including California
Lefty is offered in Canada and the United States. This section adds to the rest of this policy for drivers in the United States.
- What we collect and who receives it. Section 2 lists the categories of personal information Lefty collects, and section 6 lists the service providers that process it for us. To review, correct or delete your information, see section 8 or email us.
- Do Not Track. Lefty does not track you across other apps or websites over time, so the app and this website work the same way whether or not your browser sends a Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control signal. We do not allow other companies to collect information about your activity across websites through Lefty, other than the providers in section 6 that run the services we use.
- No sale or sharing. We do not sell personal information, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioural advertising, as the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) defines those terms. We use your precise location only to provide the routes, guidance and alerts you ask for.
- California requests. California residents may ask what personal information we hold about them and ask us to correct or delete it, by emailing us with "Privacy" in the subject. We will not treat you differently for making a request. We do not disclose personal information to others for their direct marketing (California Civil Code section 1798.83).
12. Changes
We will post changes here with a new effective date and, for material changes, note them in the app.
13. Contact
EzPanda Inc., Toronto, Ontario, Canada. ezpandaofficial@gmail.com