Privacy Policy

This policy explains what the Banter mobile app and this website collect, why, who processes it for us, how long it is kept, and the choices you have. Banter is operated by Banter for Car Enthusiasts LLC ("Banter", "we", "us"), Stony Brook, New York. If you have a question, write to privacy@carbanter.com.

1. Who this policy covers

This policy covers the Banter app for iPhone and Android and the website carbanter.com. It does not cover the forums, clubs, publications, video channels and other sites you open or connect through Banter. Each of those sites has its own privacy policy and terms, which apply when you use it, including when its pages are shown inside Banter. Banter holds five kinds of item (cars, motorcycles, RVs, boats and aircraft); everything in this policy applies to each kind alike.

2. What stays on your phone

Much of Banter works on your phone alone. The following is stored on your phone and is not sent to Banter's server:

• Your sign-ins to forums. You sign in on each community's own page, shown inside Banter by your phone's web engine. Banter does not see, read, store or transmit your password. The sign-in (the site's cookies) is kept by your phone's web engine and is never copied off your phone.
• Threads, posts and pictures from forums and other sites, your read state, your drafts, the headlines from publications and the titles and preview pictures of new videos from the channels Banter lists.
• Your garage: your cars, motorcycles, RVs, boats and aircraft, including the identification number if you enter one (a vehicle identification number, a hull identification number or a tail number), the kind, nicknames, photos, and any optional details you add, such as a boat's home port, an aircraft's home airport or a rig's home ZIP code. None of this is sent to Banter's server.
• Its history: service, modification and inspection entries, oil reports, performance runs and any files you attach, for each thing you own.
• Public data your phone reads for an item: recall notices, the tides at a home port, the latest weather report at a home airport, the active weather alerts for a home state, kept on the phone for a short while so the page opens quickly.
• Your settings: display mode, alert choices, communities you connected, topics you follow, and the record of what you open and read that orders your feed. You can clear that record in the app.
• Event reminders, which are scheduled by your phone itself.
• Recent answers from Facts for Banter, kept for up to a week so a repeat question costs nothing.

When Banter reads a community, the request goes from your phone directly to that site, inside your own signed-in session, one request at a time. Those sites receive what any visitor's phone sends, such as your network (IP) address, and handle it under their own policies. In the same way, your phone asks club calendars, publications and public services for public information: the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) for recalls and vehicle identification numbers; the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for the tides at a home port you enter; the Federal Aviation Administration's Aviation Weather Center for the weather report at a home airport you enter; the National Weather Service for the alerts of the state your home ZIP code is in; and YouTube's public channel feeds for the titles and preview pictures of new videos. A home port, airport or ZIP code travels to that agency as part of the request and nowhere else; the agency receives what any visitor's phone sends. Videos play on YouTube's own app or site, under Google's policies, never inside Banter.

"Start over" in Settings removes your cars, connections and settings from the phone. Removing the app removes what Banter stored on the phone.

3. What we collect and why

Your Banter account

Reading needs no account. To post in Banter's own community, send messages or receive alerts, you create a Banter account with your email address. We email you a six-digit code to sign in; there is no Banter password. With your account we store:

• your email address, used to sign you in and to send messages about your account;
• your public profile: the handle and display name you choose and, if you add it, what you drive, ride, tow, sail or fly in your own words, and the badge of your highest plan, which names its kind. Your profile is visible to other people who use Banter;
• sign-in records kept by our sign-in service, such as when you last signed in and the network (IP) address used;
• from version 1.2: that you answered the date-of-birth question when you chose your handle and, if you were under 18 at the time, the day you turn 18. The date of birth itself is not stored. Someone under 13 is turned away and the sign-in made a moment before is removed again. Members under 18 see the feed newest first and can message only people they follow who follow them back.

Like any server, ours records technical details of each request it receives, such as the time and the network address, in logs that our hosting provider keeps for a short period for security and troubleshooting.

Banter's own community and messages

When you post in Banter's own community, we store your threads and replies with your handle and the time. They can be read by anyone who uses Banter. When you message another member, we store the message so that only the two of you can read it. We also store:

• the people you block, so that they cannot message you;
• reports you make, with the reason you give, so that our moderators can review them;
• alerts about replies to your threads and new messages. An alert holds the other person's handle and the thread title, never the text of the reply or message.

Screening of what you write

Everything you write on Banter (threads, replies, photo posts and their pictures, comments and messages) is checked by an automated screening the moment you write it, so that content against the Community Rules is kept from other members. A short list of words is refused before the post is saved. The rest is read by the same AI service that writes summaries (Anthropic, see section 4), which answers with a category and how sure it is; your words and pictures are not kept by that service. We keep the screening's verdict and its cost as a moderation record (section 7), never a copy of the content beyond your post or message itself. A message between two members is read by a person only when one of the two reports it or the screening flags it. How the screening decides, and how to appeal, is on How Banter moderates.

Usage counts for summaries and answers

To keep the service fair and its cost under control, we count how many summaries, answers, fact lookups and analyses are requested each day. Each count is linked to a one-way fingerprint of a random identifier the app creates when it is installed; the count holds no text. Under Banter's levels, these counts are also used to apply each level's allowance.

Subscriptions

If you subscribe, the purchase is handled by Apple or Google. We do not receive your card or bank details. Through RevenueCat (see section 5) we receive the plan you bought (a plan for one kind of machine, or Full Garage), its renewal and expiry dates, and a purchase identifier, so the app can unlock what you paid for and restore it on a new phone. We keep one record of your plan, and one of each history report you buy.

Usage measurement and crash reports

Usage counts. With your agreement, the app counts named events such as "feed refreshed", "thread opened" or "photo posted", together with the kind of thing involved (a forum or Banter's own community, a photo, a plan) and a number where one applies (how many photos, how many topics). A count never holds your name, handle or email address, the text of a thread, post, message or caption, a car, or a picture. The counts travel under a random identifier made on your phone; no profile of you is built from them. The welcome screen tells you about this, and counting starts after you have read it; you can switch it off at any time in Settings, under "Share anonymous usage data". The counts are processed by PostHog (see section 5) and are not used to show advertising.

Crash reports. In the released app, when Banter crashes, a report of what the app was doing at that moment is sent to Sentry (see section 5): which screen was open, the last few steps the app took, the error, your device type, operating system and app version. Taps and the addresses of requests are stripped before the report leaves your phone, so a report never carries your messages, posts, photos or sign-in. Crash reports cannot be switched off, because a crash that nobody hears about cannot be fixed; the app says so in Settings.

Support and email

If you write to us, we keep your email and our reply so that we can help you and follow up.

Information we do not collect

• Passwords or sign-in cookies for any forum or other site.
• The text of threads or posts from third-party sites.
• Your precise location. Events are matched to what is in your garage, not to where you are. A home port, home airport or home ZIP code you choose to enter stays on your phone and is sent only to the public agency that answers for it.
• Your contacts, and payment card details.

4. Summaries, answers, facts and analysis

Banter can write for you: "Summary by Banter", "Ask Banter", "Facts for Banter", reply drafts and "Analysis by Banter". These are written by Anthropic, an AI service. Nothing is sent to Anthropic until you have agreed in the app's permission step and then ask for one of these features. You can turn them off at any time in Settings, under "Summaries and answers". From version 1.2 the app keeps a record of your agreement (the service named in the step, the wording you saw and when) with your choice on the phone and, when you are signed in, with your account; the record goes when you switch the feature off or delete your account. If the service behind these features ever changes, the app asks you again before anything is sent. Everything Banter writes carries a "Report" button; a report sends the text to a person on the Banter team and nothing else.

What is sent depends on what you ask for:

• Summary ("Catch me up"): the text of the thread you are reading, and the car it is about.
• Ask Banter: your question, the car you ask about and, when you ask from a thread, that thread's text.
• Facts for Banter: the thread's title and section, the name of the car, and your question if you type one. The posts of the thread are not sent.
• Analysis by Banter: the history entry you choose, with its words and figures, the text of an attached performance file, and one picture or PDF (pictures are made smaller on your phone first). Nothing else from your car's history is sent.
• Reply drafts: the thread and your draft. Drafts are offered only where a community's rules allow them, and nothing is posted unless you confirm it.

The request goes from your phone to Banter's server, which passes it to Anthropic and returns the answer to your phone. Banter's server does not keep the text you send or the text that comes back, and does not write it to its logs; it records only the kind of request, whether it worked, its size and the usage count described above. Anthropic processes the text to produce the answer under its commercial terms with us. Anthropic's own retention and use of data sent through its service is set by those terms and its policies; see Anthropic's privacy information. For Facts for Banter, the service may search the web for the subject of the thread; the search words describe the car and the topic, not you.

Anything Banter writes is labelled "by Banter" and marked with a dashed line in the app. It can be wrong. Check important figures against their source.

5. Service providers

We use these companies to run Banter. They process information only to provide their service to us.

Supabase (United States)

Our server: Banter accounts and sign-in, the email that carries your sign-in code, Banter's own community, messages, blocks, reports, alerts and usage counts. Our server is hosted in the United States.

Anthropic (United States)

The AI service that writes summaries, answers, facts, drafts and analyses, as described in section 4.

Apple and Google

The app stores, which deliver the app, take payment for subscriptions, and deliver notifications to your phone.

RevenueCat

Keeps track of subscriptions bought through Apple and Google, so the app knows your level.

Expo (650 Industries)

Builds the app and delivers app updates to your phone. When the app checks for an update, Expo receives the request with technical details such as the app version and platform.

PostHog (United States)

Usage measurement, as described in section 3: named counts under a random identifier, only while your "Share anonymous usage data" switch is on.

Sentry (United States)

Crash reports, as described in section 3: what the app was doing when it crashed, your device type and app version, never your content.

Brave Search (when in use)

Facts for Banter may look up the subject of a thread with Brave's search service. Our server sends only the search words, which name the car and the topic; nothing that identifies you is sent.

Email delivery

If we use a separate service to send sign-in codes, it receives your email address and the code for that purpose only. We will name it here when it is in use.

GitHub

Hosts this website (see section 13).

The app also asks the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) for public vehicle and recall data. To decode a VIN, the VIN is sent to NHTSA's public service; recall checks send only the make, model and year. No account or personal details are sent.

6. When we share information

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it with anyone for advertising. We share information only:

• with the service providers listed above, to run Banter;
• with other Banter members, for what you choose to make public: your profile, and your posts in Banter's own community;
• with the person you message, for that message;
• with a forum or other site, when you post there yourself through Banter, under that site's rules;
• when the law requires it, or to protect the safety of a person, to prevent fraud or abuse, or to enforce our Terms of Use;
• with a buyer or successor if Banter's business is sold or reorganized, under this policy.

7. How long we keep it

• Account, profile, blocks, alerts and reports you made: until you delete your account.
• Posts and messages you wrote: until removed at your request or by our moderators. When you delete your account they stay, with your handle, name and car taken off them, so that other members' conversations stay whole.
• Text sent for summaries, answers, facts and analysis: not kept by Banter's server.
• Usage counts: daily counts without content, kept to manage allowances and costs, and deleted once they are no longer needed for that purpose.
• Subscription records: kept by Apple, Google and RevenueCat as long as they require for billing, tax and legal purposes.
• Support email: kept as long as needed to help you, and then deleted.
• Reports about content: a report another member made about your content is kept as a moderation record after the content is gone.
• Screening records: the verdict of the automated screening of each thing you wrote (a category, how sure the check was, what it cost; never the text) is kept for one year as a moderation record. Content the screening or a moderator hid stays hidden on our server so that an appeal can be read, and goes with your account or after one year.
• The age check and the permission record: with your account, until you delete it (the permission record goes earlier when you switch the feature off).
• Backups: where our hosting provider keeps backups of our server, copies are overwritten on its regular schedule.

8. Deleting your account and data

You can delete your Banter account inside the app at any time: open Garage, then Settings, then Account, then "Delete my account". This deletes, from our server, your account and sign-in, your profile (handle, name and car), your blocks, the reports you made and your alerts. Threads and replies you wrote in Banter's own community, and messages you sent, are not deleted: they stay with your handle, name and car taken off them and are shown as from "Deleted member", so that the replies other members made in your threads and the other side of each conversation are not lost. To have a particular thread, reply or message of yours removed as well, write to support@carbanter.com before or after deleting your account. Nothing else of yours is kept, apart from copies in backups until they are overwritten. Alerts already in other members' inboxes that name your former handle stay until they clear them.

Deleting your account does not cancel a subscription bought through Apple or Google. Cancel it in your App Store or Google Play settings (see how to cancel).

To remove what is stored on your phone, use "Start over" in Settings or remove the app. If you cannot use the app, write to privacy@carbanter.com from the email address of your account and we will delete it for you.

Your accounts on forums and other sites are separate. Disconnecting a community in Banter does not change or delete your account on that site.

A short version of this section, for the app stores, is at carbanter.com/delete-account.html.

9. Your choices and rights

• Summaries and answers: turn them on or off in Settings. If they are off, nothing is sent to Anthropic.
• Notifications and alerts: choose them per kind of event in the app, and in your phone's settings.
• Communities: connect or disconnect any community in the app.
• Profile and posts: change your handle, name and car in the app, under Account. To remove a single thread, reply or message of yours, write to support@carbanter.com; deleting your account takes your name off them but does not remove them (see section 8).
• Access, correction and deletion: you can ask us for a copy of the personal information we hold about you, or ask us to correct or delete it. Write to privacy@carbanter.com. We will answer within the time the law sets, and within 45 days at the latest, and may need to confirm that the request comes from you.

Depending on where you live, including some U.S. states, you may have further rights under local law, such as the right to know what we collect, to correct or delete it, to opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information for targeted advertising, and to appeal our answer. We do not sell personal information or share it for targeted advertising. We will not treat you differently for using your rights. To use any right, or to appeal a decision, write to privacy@carbanter.com.

10. Children

Banter is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. You must be at least 13 to use Banter, or 16 where local law requires an older age. From version 1.2 the app asks for your date of birth when you choose a handle; someone under 13 is turned away and nothing about them is kept. The date itself is not stored (see section 3). For members under 18 the app applies its rules for younger members: the feed is shown newest first, with no ordering by what they read, and messages are possible only with people they follow who follow them back; we use their information only to provide Banter. If you believe a child under 13 has given us personal information, write to privacy@carbanter.com and we will delete it.

11. Security

• All connections between the app, our server and our providers are encrypted.
• Records on our server can be changed only by the person they belong to, under access rules enforced by the database. Private records, such as your alerts, blocks and reports, can be read only by you, and messages only by their two people.
• Keys for the AI service are held on our server, never in the app.
• Forum passwords are never handled by Banter, so they cannot leak from us.

No system is perfectly secure. If we learn of a breach that affects your personal information, we will tell you and the authorities as the law requires.

12. Where information is processed

Banter is run from the United States, and our server and providers process information in the United States. If you use Banter from another country, your information will be transferred to and processed in the United States.

13. This website

carbanter.com uses no cookies, no analytics and no advertising. It is hosted by GitHub Pages. GitHub logs and stores visitors' IP addresses for security purposes, under the GitHub General Privacy Statement.

14. Changes to this policy

We will update this policy when Banter changes what it collects or who processes it. The effective date at the top shows the latest version. If a change is significant, we will tell you in the app or by email before it takes effect.

15. Contact

Banter for Car Enthusiasts LLC
Stony Brook, New York
Email: privacy@carbanter.com

For help with the app, write to support@carbanter.com.