Privacy policy

Effective 26 September 2026 · applies to the Turnabout app on Android and iOS.

The short version

• There is no account: no email address, phone number or password is ever asked for.
• Your carpool is shared only with the people who joined with its code.
• Turnabout never uses your location.
• The app is free and shows ads from Google AdMob, which uses your device's advertising identifier.
• Anonymous usage statistics show which features help families; they never include names or anything else you type.
• You can delete your data at any time in More → Delete my data.

What the carpool stores

Turnabout keeps your carpool in Google Firebase (Google LLC), on Google Cloud servers in the United States, so that every family sees the same thing. It stores:

• a random, anonymous user identifier created by Firebase Authentication for each phone;
• the carpool's name, the name each parent chooses to show and the family they belong to;
• each family's name and the first names of the kids in the carpool;
• the trips (name, time and school days), how turns go round, and the days off;
• swap requests and answers, with who asked, who answered and when, and any note;
• each day's trip updates ("on my way", "picked up", "dropped off") and which kids are not riding;
• the carpool's six-letter code and time zone.

This data is visible only to the members of your carpool. When someone leaves, their name is removed and their family keeps its turns until the carpool changes them. When the last person leaves, or deletes their data, the carpool is deleted.

Reminders

Driving reminders are scheduled on your phone from the schedule it last saw. No push notification token is collected, and reminder settings are not uploaded.

Advertising

Turnabout shows banner and occasional full-screen ads through Google AdMob. To serve and measure ads, Google collects your device's advertising identifier (Android Advertising ID; on iOS the identifier for vendors — Turnabout does not ask for permission to track you across other companies' apps), your IP address for approximate location, and how you interact with ads. In the European Economic Area, the UK and Switzerland you are asked for consent before personalised ads are shown, and you can change your choice in More → Ad privacy choices. You can also reset or limit your advertising identifier in your phone's settings. Google's use of this data is described at policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.

Usage statistics

Turnabout uses Google Analytics for Firebase (Google LLC) to count how the app is used — for example how many carpools are set up, how many parents join, and how many swaps are asked and taken. These events carry a random app-instance identifier, your device model, operating system and app version, and an approximate location (country or region) derived from your IP address. They never include names or anything else you type. In the European Economic Area, the UK and Switzerland they are used only as far as you allow in the privacy message. Google keeps this event data for a limited time (at most 14 months).

Crash reports

If the app crashes, Firebase Crashlytics sends a technical report: the error, the device model, the operating system and app versions, and a random installation identifier. Reports are used only to fix bugs.

Children

Turnabout is made for parents. It is not directed to children, and we do not knowingly collect data from children. Kids' first names are entered by their parents, only to show the carpool's own schedule.

Your rights

You can see everything in your carpool in the app itself, and delete your data with Delete my data (see how deletion works). For any question or request — including access, correction or deletion under the GDPR, the CCPA or other privacy laws — write to [email protected]. The legal bases we rely on are performing the service you ask for (the shared carpool), our legitimate interest in fixing crashes, and your consent where the law requires it for advertising and usage statistics.

Changes

If this policy changes, the new version will be posted here with a new effective date.