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What your mileage app knows about you: reading the privacy label

How to read an App Store privacy label for a mileage tracker, what Data Used to Track You means, and what the labels of three popular apps said on August 21, 2026.

A mileage app knows where you were, when, and for how long, every day of the year. That is the product. The question is who else gets to know, and the App Store privacy label is the fastest way to find out. Here is how to read one, and what three widely used apps disclosed when we checked.

The three sections

Every app on the App Store has a privacy section on its listing, filled in by the developer and shown as up to three cards.

Data Used to Track You. Data that is linked with data from other companies’ apps and websites for advertising or measurement, or that is shared with a data broker. Apple’s definition of tracking is specific: it is about combining your data across apps and sites owned by different companies. If this card is present, the app (or an SDK inside it) is doing that, and on iOS it must ask your permission through the tracking prompt.

Data Linked to You. Data collected and tied to your identity, through an account, a device identifier, or other means. Location linked to you means the developer has a location history with your name on it.

Data Not Linked to You. Data collected but, according to the developer, not tied to your identity. Crash reports and aggregate usage often sit here.

A fourth possibility is a card that says Data Not Collected. That means the developer declares it collects nothing at all from the app.

What to look for in a mileage app

Location is unavoidable; the app needs it. The questions are:

  • Is location under Linked to You? If so, the developer holds a named location history.
  • Is anything under Used to Track You? Location, identifiers or usage data in that card means your driving contributes to advertising or measurement across companies.
  • Is there a required account? An account is how data gets linked to you. Some apps cannot run without one.
  • Which third-party SDKs are inside? Analytics, attribution and crash-reporting kits each receive something. The label summarises the result; the privacy policy usually names the vendors.

What three apps disclosed

Checked on August 21, 2026. Labels change; look again before relying on this.

MileIQ. The App Store label lists a Data Used to Track You section. The app requires an account. Pricing on the company’s website was $13.99 a month or $139.99 a year after 40 free drives.

Everlance. The App Store label also lists a Data Used to Track You section. An account is required. The website listed annual plans between $69.99 and $99.99 after 30 free automatic trips a month.

Driversnote. The company’s privacy policy names Google Analytics, Branch and BugSnag among the services it uses. Branch is an attribution and deep-linking service; BugSnag is crash reporting. An account is required. Pricing was $11 USD or $16 CAD a month for Pro on the web, with an optional iBeacon at $40 USD or $54 CAD.

None of this is a judgement on the apps’ quality as trackers. It is what they tell Apple and their users about data, and it is the kind of thing worth knowing before handing over a year of movements.

Why location data is different

A grocery app that tracks you knows what you buy. A mileage app that tracks you knows where you sleep, where you work, which clients you visit and when, and which clinic you drove to on a Tuesday. Combined across apps and websites, that is a detailed portrait, and it is the sort of data that gets subpoenaed, breached or sold.

The tax authority does not need any of it beyond the logbook you produce. Neither does your employer. The log is the deliverable; the raw location history is yours.

What a clean label looks like

An app that collects nothing shows Data Not Collected. An app that syncs through your own cloud account (iCloud, for example, in the private database tied to your Apple ID) can still show that, because the developer never receives the data; it moves between your devices through Apple’s infrastructure.

Beyond the label, two things are worth checking. Does the app work without an account? And does the developer publish what is inside the app: which SDKs, which network calls? A developer who says “no third-party SDKs and no server of our own” is making a claim you can hold them to.

How to check any app in two minutes

  1. Open the App Store listing and scroll to App Privacy.
  2. Note which of the three cards appear and what is under each.
  3. Tap See Details to see the data types by purpose.
  4. Open the privacy policy and search for “analytics,” “advertising,” “third part” and “partners.”
  5. Install it and see whether it runs without signing up.

If step 2 shows a Used to Track You card on an app whose only job is to count kilometres, ask yourself why.

Odie’s privacy manifest declares no tracking and no collected data types. It has no third-party SDKs and no network code of its own; the Apple services it uses are MapKit, CLGeocoder and CloudKit, and the optional iCloud sync goes through your private iCloud database, which can be turned off. It does not require an account.

Sources

Written by the Odie team. Not tax advice; your accountant knows your situation.

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