Privacy Policy

Information on your device

Vehicle details and plate text, saved parking addresses and street sides, approximate directions coordinates, reminder preferences, cached parking-sign data, and settings are stored on your device. Apple-managed app-group storage shares only what Alternate’s widgets and App Intents need.

Alternate does not intentionally send vehicle labels, license plates, parked locations, or raw sign text to the provider or PostHog.

Location and parking data

You choose an address and street side and explicitly save parking. Use current location requests location permission to help find your street. You can search by address without it. Location never saves or moves a parked car automatically. Saved coordinates are approximate directions locations, not a precise parked-car pin. Coordinates and parking addresses are excluded from analytics.

Alternate downloads regulations from NYC Open Data around the address you choose. Requests can expose ordinary connection information, such as an IP address and the requested area, to the data provider. Downloaded sign data is cached locally.

When you search for an address, intersection, or place, that query is sent to Apple through MapKit to return results. Choosing Directions opens Apple Maps with the saved approximate destination. Apple processes address-search and Maps requests, including connection and request information, under its own terms and Apple Maps privacy information. Search text is excluded from Alternate’s analytics.

Holiday and announcement requests

Alternate includes a bundled street-cleaning holiday calendar. Calendar adjustments in the app cover street cleaning only; other holiday parking rules may differ.

The app may request an informational announcement from NYC’s SweepNYC service. This request contains no car details or saved location; the provider can receive ordinary connection information such as your IP address. The source does not establish an effective date or citywide scope, so Alternate does not use it to change suspension dates or parking deadlines. For weather or emergency changes, check the official NYC updates.

Your chosen move time

To save a personal move reminder, you choose a future date and time, confirm that you checked every sign at your car, and tap Save. The chosen time is stored on your device with the parking session. It does not change curb rules or confirm that parking is allowed; an earlier known restriction still takes priority.

Optional analytics

Share analytics is on for new installations. Existing saved off choices stay off. When Share analytics is on, Alternate sends a fixed set of pseudonymous feature-use events directly to PostHog: an event name, random installation identifier, timestamp, limited coarse allow-listed values, and a setting that prevents person profiles. These values include the plan type and purchase or restore result.

Analytics excludes coordinates, parked spots, vehicle labels, license plates, street names, raw sign text, chosen move times, search text, notification contents, device details, locale, crash reports, session replay, and screen recordings. PostHog is configured not to retain the client IP address.

Our paid PostHog plan includes seven-year event retention. This is not a deletion schedule. Events can remain until deleted. You can turn off Share analytics in Alternate Settings at any time. See PostHog’s privacy information.

Website analytics

This website uses Google Analytics 4 to understand visits and page use. Google may set a first-party _ga cookie and receive a pseudonymous client identifier, pages viewed and interactions, the referring page, browser and device information, and approximate location derived from connection information.

Website analytics is separate from Alternate’s optional in-app analytics and is not controlled by the app’s Share analytics setting. The website does not intentionally send parked locations, vehicle labels, license plates, street names, raw sign text, chosen move times, search text, or notification contents to Google Analytics. See Google’s Privacy Policy or use the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on.

Settings configuration

When Settings opens, Alternate may request a fixed links configuration from PostHog using one constant identifier shared by every installation. It does not include your analytics request ID, device details, location, parked spot, vehicle information, or sign data.

The response can update approved support and policy links or show the App Store review prompt. It cannot change parking rules, purchases, reminders, the NYC data source, or your Share analytics setting.

Purchases, reminders, and service providers

Apple processes StoreKit purchases and provides the entitlement information needed to unlock features; Alternate does not receive full payment-card details. Move reminders are scheduled locally.

Apple processes platform, address-search, Maps directions, purchase, notification, backup, and extension data. PostHog processes fixed Settings configuration and optional analytics. NYC Open Data and its hosting providers process parking-data requests; NYC’s SweepNYC service processes informational announcement requests.

Retention, deletion, and choices

Saved on-device information remains until you remove it, delete Alternate, or iOS removes it. You can remove a chosen move time without deleting the vehicle or its parking session.

You can withdraw permissions in iOS Settings, turn off analytics, remove vehicles and parking sessions, or delete the app.

To request access or deletion associated with the random analytics installation identifier, email support@alternatenyc.com. Additional verification may be needed because Alternate has no account and does not collect identifying account information.

Security, children, and your rights

Alternate uses Apple platform protections and strict analytics allowlists, but no system is completely secure. Protect your device and avoid sensitive information in vehicle labels. Alternate is not directed to children under 13.

Depending on where you live, you may have rights to access, correct, delete, restrict, object, receive a copy, appeal, or complain to a regulator. Email support to exercise applicable rights.

Changes and contact

This policy may change with the service. The effective date will be revised and material changes communicated where required.

Privacy questions: support@alternatenyc.com.