Vanperience
Vanperience

Privacy Policy for the Vanperience app

iPhone, CarPlay and Community · Version: 24 October 2026

In short

Vanperience plans trips and navigates you with your camper or motorhome, on your iPhone and in CarPlay. For that the app needs your location and sends places and routes to map, routing, weather and information services. Without these services, navigation does not work.

We show no ads, sell no data and use no analytics or tracking tools of our own. The app switches off the usage and crash reporting built into the Mapbox and Google map components (since test build 9244 of 10 October 2026, section 5.2).

The trip assistant sends your request, your vehicle data and your approximate starting point to Anthropic's language model (USA). This only happens when you use it and after you have agreed; we do not store your request (section 4.2).

Your private trips, photos and notes stay on your iPhone. The Vanperience Pro subscription runs through Apple; we never see payment data (section 5.7).

The community needs an account, via "Sign in with Apple" or a username and password. Posts appear without your name, and a person reviews them before they are published. You can delete your account and export your data in the app at any time.

1. Controller and contact

The controller is Tobias Haselbusch, Pützchensweg 32a, 53227 Bonn, Germany. For privacy questions write to kontakt@vanperience.com.

This policy covers the Vanperience app on iPhone, its CarPlay view, the subscription and the community. Our website and our enquiries to site operators have their own notice: https://vanperience.com/website-privacy.html

2. What stays on your iPhone

The app stores this data only on your device. We have no access to it:

Deleting: You delete most data in the app or by deleting the app. Note: favourites, home and work and vehicle credentials live in the keychain and survive deleting the app until you remove them in the app.

If you back up your iPhone via iCloud or a computer, the app data is included; Apple's terms apply.

If you share a route as a GPX or text file, you decide in the iOS share sheet where it goes.

Legal basis for storing and reading on your device: § 25(2) no. 2 of the German TDDDG, because it is strictly necessary for the functions you request.

3. iPhone permissions

The app only asks for permissions it needs for a feature. You can withdraw any permission in iOS Settings.

4. Our server

4.1 What the app fetches from our server

Our server api.vanperience.com runs at Hetzner Online GmbH in its data centre in Helsinki, Finland (EU). Hetzner processes data on our behalf. The older address api.camperpilot.eu points to the same server; the app uses it only as a fallback and for Tesla sign-in.

The app fetches:

With every request the server technically receives your IP address. It stores neither IP address nor coordinates nor search parameters: since 9 October 2026 it writes no access logs; the system log holds only start, stop and error messages and is deleted after seven days. The only exception is the hashed quota counter of the trip assistant (4.2). We do not link requests to your community account and build no movement profiles. Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR (providing the features) and (f) (secure operation).

If you enter another server address in Settings, place database, overnight sites and chargers go to that server; we are not responsible for it. Community, trip assistant, Kia and Tesla sign-in always go through our server.

4.2 Trip assistant (AI)

Only when you use it, and only after you have agreed in the app the first time. If you type a request in the trip assistant ("three days Baltic coast, quiet, with dog"), the app sends to our server: your request text (up to 600 characters), the app language, your preferences (such as length, region, pace), the vehicle data from your profile (drive type, dimensions, range, no number plate), your starting point or, if none is set, your device location rounded to three decimals (about 100 metres), the installation identifier and, if signed in, a one-way hash of your community account.

Our server forwards request text, preferences, vehicle data and start or current location to Anthropic's "Claude" language model so that it understands the request and, if you have a trip built, writes a suggestion from sites and sights in our database. Our contract partner is Anthropic Ireland, Limited (Dublin); processing takes place on Anthropic servers in the USA. Anthropic receives no installation identifier, no account hash and no IP address of yours, only our server's request. Anthropic acts on our behalf, is contractually barred from training its models on this data and, by its own statement, deletes requests and answers within 30 days; if its safety filters flag a request as abuse, up to two years. We base the transfer to the USA on the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses (Art. 46(2)(c) GDPR), which form part of our contract with Anthropic (section 9).

What we store: not your request text, not your location, not your IP address. For cost control our server counts requests per day per IP address and per installation; for that it stores only a keyed hash (HMAC with a secret random key) from which neither IP address nor identifier can be recovered. These daily counters are kept until we clean up the database; we are working on automatic deletion after seven days. For signed-in accounts we count trips per month by the account hash. We keep finished suggestions without any link to you and may show them to others as trip ideas.

Limits: daily and monthly limits apply per installation, per account and for total cost. When a limit is reached, the app says so; without a connection or when a limit is reached, the assistant reads your request on the iPhone with fixed rules, and nothing leaves your device.

Automatically generated: Suggestions are written by an AI language model. They are labelled as such in the app, may contain errors, for example about opening hours or road access, and are only suggestions; check them before you drive. We make no decision about you with them (section 10).

Consent: The first time you tap the assistant, the app asks whether your request may be processed this way. You can withdraw consent in Settings at any time; the assistant then works only with the fixed rules on the device.

Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR (creating the suggestion you requested) and (f) (cost control, abuse prevention). Storing the installation identifier on your iPhone: § 25(2) no. 2 TDDDG.

4.3 Cost control (without identifier)

So that map costs do not run away, the app fetches our feature switches at start (such as whether Google routes are allowed) and after each trip reports only the number of navigated legs. It sends no identifier, no location and no route; the server counts monthly totals only. Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (cost control).

5. Third-party services

The app calls the following services directly from your iPhone. Each provider technically receives your IP address and usual device data (such as iOS version and app name) plus the content named below. We pass on no names, e-mail addresses or account identifiers. The providers generally also process data under their own responsibility and decide themselves how long they keep it; details are in their privacy policies. Unless stated otherwise, the legal basis is Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR: without these requests the app cannot deliver a route, map or trip information.

We pass data only to the parties named in this policy and only as far as the feature requires. We choose these providers so that they protect data at least as this policy describes.

5.1 Maps, routes and search

Mapbox (Mapbox, Inc., USA): default for map and navigation. Routing: all route points, your current location if no start is set, your vehicle's height, width and weight, departure time, chosen exclusions such as tolls or ferries, language. Search along the route: search term or category, route geometry and your current location as reference. Guidance on iPhone and in CarPlay: start, destination, up to ten waypoints and, during guidance, your position continuously. Map: the displayed tiles. Mapbox privacy: https://www.mapbox.com/legal/privacy

Google (Google LLC, USA, or Google Ireland Limited): only if our server enables the Google component (currently off, section 5.2). Then: fallback routing if Mapbox returns no route; ferry and park-and-ride timetables; charger availability; fallback place search; Google navigation only if you enable it in Settings and accept Google's terms. Google is independently responsible for the Google Maps Platform. Google privacy: https://policies.google.com/privacy

HERE (HERE Global B.V., Netherlands): toll and vignette costs with every route calculation (start, destination, waypoints, departure and arrival time); fallback ferry connections (port coordinates, time); HERE map and HERE navigation only if you select them in Settings. HERE privacy: https://legal.here.com/privacy

TomTom (TomTom International B.V., Netherlands): parking and parking prices at the destination when you approach it or open the parking view (destination coordinates and arrival time); charger availability (charger coordinates); fallback search along the route (search term and route points). TomTom privacy: https://www.tomtom.com/privacy/

Apple (Apple Distribution International Limited, Ireland): address for your position: while the app is active, including in the background, it regularly sends your current position to Apple (about every 40 metres of movement), plus tapped map points and places along the route. Search-as-you-type: search text and a search area around your location; Apple Maps as last-resort routing. Speech recognition when not possible on the device (section 3). Apple privacy: https://www.apple.com/legal/privacy/

5.2 Map components (SDKs) from Mapbox and Google

The map and navigation come from components (SDKs) we build into the app. Mapbox: every map tile, route and search is a request to Mapbox (USA); Mapbox sees your IP address and an app key shared by all installations, no identifier that singles you out. The Mapbox SDK's own usage, location and crash reports ("telemetry") are switched off at app start, before the first map (since test build 9244 of 10 October 2026). Older test builds still sent these reports; please update.

Google: The app contains Google's map components (Maps and Navigation) but uses them only if our server allows it and you enable Google navigation in Settings. Until then the component gets no key and opens no connection to Google; its crash reporting is off. Apple's privacy report in iOS Settings may still list the data types declared by these components, because it describes the components, not our setting.

HERE: According to the information HERE ships with it, the HERE component collects no analytics data.

Live Activities: The display of the running trip on the lock screen and in the Dynamic Island is rendered on your iPhone; nothing leaves your device for it.

5.3 Information along the route

Open-Meteo (OpenMeteo GmbH, Switzerland): weather and elevation profile with every route calculation: coordinates of start (often your location), destination and points along the route. The provider deletes logs after 90 days by its own statement. https://open-meteo.com/en/terms

OpenStreetMap query services (Overpass API): public servers of the OpenStreetMap community (overpass-api.de, overpass.kumi.systems, overpass.private.coffee, overpass.osm.ch), first overpass-api.de (FOSSGIS e. V., Germany), on failure the named mirrors: speed limits and roundabouts (your position continuously during navigation, about every 120 to 500 metres); clearance heights and weight limits (points along the whole route); motorhome sites, fuel stations, parking at the destination, ferries and sights (places along the route and at the destination).

Open Charge Map (Webprofusion Pty Ltd, Australia): chargers: points along the route, destination, parking at the destination and locations of sights.

Chargeprice (chargeprice.app, Austria): chargers along the route; for charging prices the place, country, operator and connector type of the charger plus planned charging time and time of day.

Wikipedia (Wikimedia Foundation, USA): sights on routes over 40 kilometres: points along the route; for popularity scores the article titles. Wikimedia privacy: https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Policy:Privacy_policy

Fuel prices, combustion vehicles only: The app fetches them via our server (4.1). The server obtains them from Tankerkönig (Germany, data of the Market Transparency Unit for Fuels) and the government fuel-price portals of France, Spain and Italy; the providers see only our server's address and the area queried, not you. For countries without a price source the app shows fuel stations without prices; locations then come from Apple Maps or OpenStreetMap (5.1, 5.3).

5.4 Voice prompts

Fish Audio (Hanabi AI Inc., USA) generates the default voice. The app sends the text of each prompt, such as turn instructions with street and place names or names of waypoints, and the chosen voice. Location and account identifier are not transmitted; Fish Audio does see your IP address. Fixed phrases are generated in advance at app start.

In Settings you can choose the iPhone voice. Then prompts are generated on the device and Fish Audio receives nothing.

Fish Audio does not state concretely how long it keeps the texts. For the transfer to the USA we are currently obtaining a data processing agreement with Standard Contractual Clauses from Fish Audio and are examining routing prompts through our server so that Fish Audio no longer sees your IP address. Until then: if you prefer, choose the iPhone voice. Fish Audio privacy: https://fish.audio/privacy/

5.5 Vehicle connections (optional)

Only if you connect a vehicle. The app uses vehicle data for departure charge level, range and charging planning. The manufacturer's or service's privacy policy applies to their processing. Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR.

Kia Connect via our server: You enter your Kia e-mail, Kia password and optionally a PIN. They stay in your iPhone keychain; to sign in, the app sends them once, encrypted, to our server in Helsinki, which signs in to Kia Connect (Kia Europe GmbH, Germany). On the server we store no password and no PIN, only encrypted session tokens (Kia session and refresh tokens) and a hash of your Kia e-mail for a daily budget of at most 150 requests per Kia account. With the session tokens the server fetches battery level, range, charging state, vehicle location and odometer of your chosen vehicles and caches the latest state linked to your community account so the app can show it immediately after a restart. So this data does not stay only on your iPhone. Between two requests the app extrapolates the state itself. If you disconnect the vehicle in the app or delete your account, we delete session tokens, vehicle list and cached state immediately.

Fiat / Uconnect (Stellantis, technically supported by Amazon Web Services in Ireland): username, password and PIN live in the keychain. The app fetches battery level, range, battery temperature, speed and charging state directly from Fiat; nothing goes through our server. On sign-in Fiat also sends name and e-mail; the app keeps only a user ID.

Tesla (Tesla, Inc., USA): You sign in on Tesla's page; the app never sees your password. Our server relays Tesla's response to the app and exchanges the one-time sign-in code for access keys without storing them. After that the app fetches battery level, charge limit, charging state and range directly from Tesla, every minute during navigation, otherwise every five minutes, including in the background. The data flows from Tesla to your iPhone; we do not receive it. The Tesla connection is currently enabled in test builds only.

Enode (Enode AS, Norway) and Tronity (Tronity GmbH, Germany): only with your own partner credentials, kept in the keychain. The app fetches battery level, range and charging state directly from the service; nothing goes through our server.

What stays on the iPhone: For Fiat, Tesla, Enode and Tronity, vehicle data only travels between app and service; we do not receive it. For Kia it goes through our server (see above). Disconnecting: You disconnect Kia and Tesla in the app; the credentials are then deleted from your iPhone. Disconnecting Fiat, Enode and Tronity will follow in one of the next versions; until then their credentials are only on your iPhone, not with us.

5.6 Links to other websites

Some features open a website in the browser, such as ferry booking, vignettes, park4night or Google Maps. The app sometimes passes the place and name of a site, port codes or the travel date in the address, never your current location. The website operator's privacy policy applies.

5.7 Vanperience Pro subscription (purchases via Apple)

You buy the subscription through Apple's in-app purchase. Apple handles payment and is responsible for payment data; we see neither payment method nor billing address. Apple only tells the app whether and until when a subscription exists, whether the trial is running, and a transaction identifier. These details stay on your iPhone. Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR (performing the subscription). What Apple processes is described in Apple's privacy policy.

6. Community

6.1 What we store

Photos cannot be uploaded at present. Once the feature is enabled, section 6.9 applies to them.

6.2 Who sees what

Published posts are public: everyone can read them in the app, also without an account, and technically they can be fetched via our API. Visible are site name, rating, visit date, text and date, without name and without account identifier.

The provider sees all posts and reports for review.

Hetzner stores the data on our behalf (section 4). Otherwise we pass community data on only when the law obliges us, for example on an order by an authority or on suspicion of a criminal offence endangering life or safety (Art. 18 DSA).

6.3 Sign-in

Sign in with Apple: Apple confirms your sign-in to our server and transmits an identifier. What Apple processes is governed by Apple's privacy policy.

Username and password: You can create an account with us without Apple. We store the username (3 to 32 characters, normalised) and the password only as a hash (Argon2id with a random salt), never in plain text, never in logs. Optionally you can add an e-mail address. It serves only to reset the password: we then send you a one-time code valid for 30 minutes from our mailbox kontakt@vanperience.com at STRATO (Germany). The address is not visible to others and is not used for newsletters. Without an e-mail address no reset is possible. To prevent abuse, ten wrong passwords lock the account for 15 minutes, and per account we send at most three reset mails in 15 minutes; we do not store your IP address for this. We reject common passwords from a public list; this check runs only on our server. Sign-in tokens are valid for 30 days, signing out deletes them immediately; after a password reset all existing sign-ins end. All account data is held in our community database at Hetzner in Helsinki (Finland, EU).

Further sign-in methods, once offered (e.g. passkeys): we will then process the additional data needed and describe it here before the method goes live.

6.4 Purposes and legal bases

6.5 Reports by e-mail

If you report content by e-mail, we process your name, e-mail address and the content of the report to handle it and reply (Art. 6(1)(c) GDPR with Art. 16 DSA). We name you to the author only if strictly necessary in exceptional cases, for example a report for infringement of your copyright. Retention: six months after closure; longer while proceedings are pending.

6.6 Retention

6.7 Export and deletion

Export: In the app under Community → "Prepare community data export" you receive your community data as a file (JSON).

Deletion: In the app under Community → "Delete community account". Your private trips on the iPhone remain. Your subscription remains until you cancel it with Apple.

You can additionally disconnect "Sign in with Apple" in your Apple Account settings.

6.8 Planned features

Wishes and votes, price and site reports, a display name and a founder status are planned but not yet in the app. Before we enable any of these, we describe here which data is processed for it and, where necessary, ask for your consent.

6.9 Site photos (applies once uploading is enabled)

If you send a photo of a campsite or motorhome site, the app first removes location and camera metadata (EXIF) and downsizes the image. Sent to our server: the image, an optional caption, month and year taken, the identifier and name of the site, the version of the terms you agreed to, and a transaction identifier against duplicate uploads. The server strips metadata again, checks format, size and duplicates, creates small variants and sets the photo to "in review". A helper program (AI image model) pre-screens and flags possible violations; a person approves or rejects. Others only ever see an approved variant, never the original. We store with the photo: your account, review state, reasoning if rejected, timestamps and a hash of the image (duplicate check). The files are kept on our server at Hetzner in Helsinki (Finland, EU). Sections 6.2 (who sees what), 6.4 (legal bases: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR for operation, (c) for reports and reasons, (f) for abuse prevention), 6.6 (retention: files until withdrawal or account deletion, records of rejected or withdrawn photos with reasoning for six months) and 6.7 (export and deletion) apply to photos. If you delete your account, we delete your photos with it; only if you expressly agree when deleting do approved photos remain without any link to you. Site operators see approved photos of their site in the operator portal, without your name.

7. If you write to us

If you send us an e-mail or feedback via TestFlight, we process your address, the content and your details to reply to you (Art. 6(1)(b) or (f) GDPR; for privacy and DSA requests (c)). Our mailbox kontakt@vanperience.com is operated by STRATO (Germany). We keep e-mails as long as needed to handle them, usually at most twelve months after closure. Requests about your privacy rights and our replies are kept for three years as evidence. If you write to us as a site operator, the notice at https://vanperience.com/website-privacy.html#operators also applies.

8. Beta testing via TestFlight

While the app is distributed via Apple's TestFlight, Apple processes installations, sessions, crash reports and your feedback, among other things. We see these details in Apple's developer portal. If someone invited you by e-mail, we also see name and e-mail address; via a public link you take part without name and e-mail. If you send feedback via TestFlight, Apple shows us your screenshot, text, device, iOS version and build plus your e-mail address so we can reply; replies go by e-mail because TestFlight has no reply channel. What Apple stores itself is in Apple's privacy policy for TestFlight. Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) and (f) GDPR (running and improving the test).

9. Recipients and transfers outside the EU

Processors (process only on our instructions): Hetzner Online GmbH (server, Helsinki, Finland); Anthropic Ireland, Limited (language model for the trip assistant, processing also in the USA); Fish Audio / Hanabi AI Inc. (voice prompts, USA; agreement requested, see 5.4); STRATO AG (mailbox, Germany).

Independent providers that receive data directly from your iPhone: the services in section 5; Apple for subscription, TestFlight and sign-in; Kia Europe GmbH, Stellantis, Tesla, Enode AS, Tronity GmbH for vehicle connections.

Transfers to third countries:

Users in Switzerland: This policy applies to you accordingly under the Swiss Data Protection Act (FADP); the controller is the person named in section 1.

We sell no data and pass no data on for advertising.

10. No automated decisions; labelling of AI

We make no decisions based solely on automated processing that have legal effect on you, and we build no profiles (Art. 22 GDPR). A person decides on community posts. Trip assistant suggestions are generated by an AI language model; they are labelled as automatically generated in the app (Art. 50 AI Act) and decide nothing about you.

11. Your rights

You have the right of access (Art. 15 GDPR), rectification (Art. 16), erasure (Art. 17), restriction of processing (Art. 18), data portability (Art. 20) and objection to processing based on legitimate interests (Art. 21). You can withdraw permissions such as location, microphone or camera in iOS Settings at any time. You can withdraw your consent to the trip assistant in Settings at any time with effect for the future (Art. 7(3)).

Quickest way: export and delete community data directly in the app. For everything else write to kontakt@vanperience.com. Because we usually store no e-mail address for community accounts, we cannot readily match an e-mail to an account; we then help you identify your account securely (Art. 11(2) and Art. 12(6) GDPR). We reply within one month.

You can complain to a data protection supervisory authority (Art. 77 GDPR), for example the one responsible for us, the State Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information of North Rhine-Westphalia, Postfach 20 04 44, 40102 Düsseldorf, Germany.

12. Do you have to provide data?

No, you are under no legal or contractual obligation. But without location the app cannot navigate, without vehicle data it cannot plan properly, without an account you cannot send community posts, and without consent it cannot create an AI trip suggestion.

13. Minimum age

You may use the community from age 16 (see terms of use).

14. Changes

We update this policy when the app, its services or the law change. The current version is in the app and on our website. If something material changes in the community or the trip assistant, we tell you in the app. We send earlier versions on request. The German version (https://vanperience.com/datenschutz-iphone.html) is the authoritative one.