FareCheck Privacy Policy
This policy explains how FareCheck and driverfarecheck.com handle information. FareCheck is published on Google Play by EaseAppSolutions ("we"), the developer name of ULANIK LTD, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 16467933), registered office 163a St Helen's Road, Swansea, SA1 4DQ, United Kingdom. We are the data controller for the uses we determine and describe in this policy: this means we are responsible for deciding why and how that information is used. Contact us about privacy at support@driverfarecheck.com.
The app descriptions below concern the release configuration, where screen-text diagnostic logging is disabled. Development and tester builds can write recognised screen text, including addresses, to Android's local diagnostic log. Those records differ from the release behaviour described below. If you send us diagnostic records, section 5 applies.
In short
- FareCheck reads ride offers on your screen to work out pounds per mile and pounds per hour. It does this on your phone.
- FareCheck does not automatically upload or save pictures of your screen or the text read from them.
- Your settings are stored on your phone.
- Google's text-recognition component inside the app sends Google limited technical data. It does not send your screen.
- We do not sell data, show adverts, or track you across other apps.
1. What FareCheck reads on your screen
When you start monitoring, Android asks whether you want to share your screen with FareCheck. It asks every time. While monitoring is on, FareCheck takes pictures of your screen and reads the text in them, using text recognition that runs on your phone. It looks for ride offers: the fare, times, distances and the rating shown on the offer. It uses these to calculate its figures and show them in a small floating box.
A picture of your screen can contain whatever is on it at that moment, such as the map, addresses, other people's names or ratings, or a notification. FareCheck handles each picture in your phone's memory only to find the offer, then discards it. FareCheck does not automatically upload screenshots or recognised screen text, and does not save them to your phone's storage. If you choose to email us a screenshot, we receive it as described in section 5.
The most recent offer's fare, platform, times, distances and the rating shown on it remain in the app's memory for its preview, including after monitoring stops. These values contain no names or addresses. They are not saved to storage and disappear when Android ends the app's process.
FareCheck reads the existing rating shown in each offer by your ride app. It may show a warning when that rating is below the limit you chose. FareCheck does not create a new rating, and it never accepts or rejects a ride for you: you decide.
You can stop monitoring at any time from the app, or from Android's screen-sharing controls.
2. Information stored on your phone
FareCheck stores your settings on your phone: your pounds-per-mile and pounds-per-hour limits, the platform fee percentage, what the box shows, night colours, how see-through the box is, where the box sits, the rating warning and keep-screen-awake. It also stores a few notes about its own state, such as whether Android stopped monitoring, a short message about the last screen-capture problem, and that you agreed to the notice about screen access.
If Android backup is switched on for your Google account, Android may include these settings in your phone's backup, which Google keeps for you. Uninstalling FareCheck deletes this information from your phone, but a copy may remain in your Google backup, which you manage through your Google account.
3. Technical data sent to Google by the text-recognition component
FareCheck reads text using Google's ML Kit. The reading itself happens on your phone. Separately, ML Kit sends Google limited technical information: device information (such as model and Android version), app information, identifiers for this installation of the app (which Google says are not intended to identify a person or a physical device), performance measurements, how the feature is configured, the size of its inputs and outputs, its version, event types and error codes. Google uses this for diagnostics and usage analytics. It is encrypted in transit, and Google says ML Kit does not pass it to third parties. It does not include pictures of your screen or the text read from them.
See Google's ML Kit data disclosure and Google's privacy policy.
4. Our website
Cloudflare hosts driverfarecheck.com and processes visitors' IP addresses and technical request information to deliver and protect it. We have not added advertising cookies, visitor-analytics scripts or forms. Cloudflare supplies a script that protects our email address from automated harvesting.
Cloudflare processes customer logs on our behalf and certain network information for its own purposes. Its privacy policy explains those roles. Contact us about data associated with visiting our website; we will involve Cloudflare where needed.
5. If you email us
If you email support@driverfarecheck.com, we receive your email address, your message and anything you attach. We use them only to reply and to deal with your request. Emails to this address pass through Cloudflare, which forwards them to our inbox. Our inbox is provided by Google (Gmail), which stores these messages for us. We keep your emails while we need them to deal with your request and any follow-up. We review them regularly and delete those we no longer need. You can ask us to delete your messages at any time.
Please remove other people's names, addresses and unrelated notifications from screenshots or logs before sending them, unless the detail is necessary to explain the problem. We use submitted material for your support request, not for advertising or model training. If it contains someone else's information, we minimise it or remove it when it is not needed for the request.
6. Permissions FareCheck asks for
- Screen sharing, to read ride offers. Android asks you each time you start monitoring.
- Display over other apps, to show the floating box.
- Notifications, to tell you that monitoring is running or has stopped.
- Internet access. Text recognition itself runs on your phone. Google's text-recognition component uses the internet only to send the technical reports described in section 3.
FareCheck does not ask for your location, contacts, photos, camera or microphone.
7. Who receives information
We do not sell or rent information or share it with advertisers or data brokers. Recipients for the activities described here include:
- Google: technical data from ML Kit (section 3), your phone's backup if you use Android backup, and emails you send us (section 5).
- Cloudflare: hosting our website, and forwarding emails sent to our support address.
- Authorities, if the law requires us to share information.
8. Information processed outside the UK
Information received by Google or Cloudflare may be processed outside the UK, including in the United States. Screen content processed only on your phone is not transferred abroad by FareCheck.
For transfers covered by their US certifications, Google and Cloudflare state that they use the UK Extension to the EU–US Data Privacy Framework. Other transfers may use adequacy arrangements or approved contractual safeguards, as applicable. See Google's transfer safeguards and Cloudflare's transfer information. These explain the providers' arrangements; they do not mean every transfer uses the same mechanism. Contact us to request further details or a copy of applicable safeguards.
9. How we keep information safe
Our website is served over an encrypted connection (HTTPS). Google says ML Kit's technical reports are encrypted in transit. FareCheck does not automatically upload screen content.
10. Why we are allowed to use this information
UK data protection law requires a lawful basis for using personal information. For the activities we control, the bases are:
- On-device offer reading and display (section 1): legitimate interests in providing the requested offer-analysis tool and helping drivers assess offers. Processing stays on the phone, with the limited memory retention explained above.
- Local settings and operating state (section 2): legitimate interests in remembering the driver's choices, operating monitoring and explaining capture failures.
- Including ML Kit and its technical reporting (section 3): legitimate interests in operating and maintaining reliable on-device text recognition. Google's own processing is also explained in its linked privacy information.
- Website delivery and security (section 4): legitimate interests in making the website available and protecting it from misuse.
- Ordinary support enquiries (section 5): legitimate interests in answering questions, investigating reported problems and resolving requests.
- Data-rights requests and legally required disclosures: compliance with applicable legal obligations.
Legitimate interests do not override your rights automatically. The use must be necessary and balanced against its effect on you. You can object to these uses, as explained in section 13.
Screen access is optional, but monitoring cannot work without it. You can decline or stop it. This technical permission is separate from the legal bases described here.
11. How long information is kept
- Screen pictures and recognised text in the release configuration: used temporarily in memory for reading and checking offers, then discarded; not saved as files or diagnostic logs.
- The most recent offer's extracted values, including a recognised rating: kept in memory for the preview until replaced by a later offer or Android ends the app's process.
- Settings and operating state: until replaced, cleared or removed by uninstalling. Android backups are managed separately through your Google account and may remain afterwards.
- ML Kit technical data: kept by Google under Google's policies.
- Website information: Cloudflare's published retention criteria take account of the processing purpose, sensitivity, risk and legal obligations; it does not give a single period for all website-related information. Any customer logs we use are kept only as needed to investigate delivery or security issues and meet applicable legal requirements. Contact us about a particular record or deletion request.
- Emails you send us: while we need them to deal with your request and any follow-up, reviewed regularly and deleted when no longer needed.
Where a specific legal requirement prevents deletion, we retain only what that requirement needs and explain any restriction when responding to your request. We cannot recover offer content already discarded from memory.
12. Children
FareCheck is made for private hire drivers. It is not intended for children.
13. Your rights
Under UK data protection law you can ask to see the personal information we hold about you, to correct it, to delete it, to restrict or object to how we use it, and to receive a copy in a portable form. Email us at support@driverfarecheck.com.
These rights depend on the circumstances. Data portability applies to personal information you provided where processing is automated and based on consent or a contract; it does not apply to every record. A right of access may still apply when portability does not.
Your right to object: where we rely on legitimate interests, you may object for reasons relating to your situation. We must then stop that processing unless we can demonstrate overriding compelling grounds or it is needed for legal claims. Email us with the use you object to and your concern.
You do not need a FareCheck account to make a request. We may ask for the information reasonably needed to identify the relevant record and confirm your identity. We do not automatically collect or keep a record of rides. Screenshots you send us are handled as described in section 5. We will explain what we can locate and act on, and any lawful limit on your request.
You can also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk.
14. Changes to this policy
We update this policy whenever FareCheck changes how it handles information, before the change reaches the app, and we change the date at the top of this page.
15. Contact
EaseAppSolutions, 163a St Helen's Road, Swansea, SA1 4DQ, United Kingdom.
Email: support@driverfarecheck.com