The short version
- There are no accounts. The app never asks for an email address, phone number or password, and nicknames work fine.
- The family details you enter (names or nicknames, scores, the trip) are saved on our server so every device in your car can share them. They're tied to a random car ID, not to you.
- Your location never leaves your device.
- The browser version never contacts the AI. In the iPhone and iPad app, some games send a few details to Anthropic's AI, Claude, to write questions and stories.
- No ads, no analytics, no tracking, and we never sell or share data for marketing.
- A grown-up can delete the whole car, for every device, at any time.
This policy covers the RoadTripKit app for iPhone and iPad, the RoadTripKit web app, and this website (together, "RoadTripKit"). RoadTripKit is made and run by Jon Olson ("we", "us"). Questions go to roadtripkit@springmillai.com.
What RoadTripKit stores
RoadTripKit is built around a "car": one family's shared game. A grown-up starts the car and other devices join it with a car code. The car has a random ID that isn't linked to anyone's email, Apple ID or advertising ID.
What you enter, saved in the car
| Data | Why |
|---|---|
| Family name, and each person's name or nickname, role (kid or grown-up), level and color | To show who's playing and keep score |
| Kid and parent codes, stored only as a scrambled hash | To keep siblings out of each other's points and kids out of grown-up mode |
| Optional "fun facts" about a person (entered in the iPhone and iPad app) | To write personal questions for How Well Do You Know? |
| Trip destination, route (the states you'll drive through), which state the car is in, when it entered and left each state, which device watches for state lines, arrival time, and pit-stop countdowns | Trip Passport stamps, welcome rounds and the "Are we there yet?" card |
| Game play: plates spotted and by whom, Bingo squares, ABC Hunt words, answers in live trivia and How Well Do You Know? rounds, Would You Rather votes, Tic-Tac-Toe matches, puzzle progress, points, approvals and trip story chapters | To run the games and the scoreboard |
| Questions written by the AI for your car, including recent ones already played (app only) | So later rounds can use them with no signal, and don't repeat questions |
| Car rules: screen-time budgets, minutes played on each device, quiet hour, approval settings | The grown-up controls |
| Device names (like "Maya's iPad"), random device IDs, who's playing on each device, and when that last changed | The device list on the Family & devices screen |
| Trip Pass and Family Lifetime purchases: Apple's transaction ID, which one was bought, when, and whether Apple refunded it. We never see your Apple ID, name or payment details. | To unlock them for every device in the car, and to restore a purchase into a new car |
This data is saved on our server so the devices in your car can sync, and a copy is kept on each device so games keep working with no signal. Only devices that have joined your car, with its code or invite link, can see it, so share the code only with your family. A grown-up can issue a new code at any time: the old code and links stop working for new devices, and devices already in the car stay in until they're removed or the car is deleted.
Our database also records when each car was created and last changed, and its current car code. We suggest using first names or nicknames. Please don't enter things like full names, addresses, schools or phone numbers in names, fun facts or game answers.
Passed along, not saved
While devices are connected, our server passes some things between them without saving them: which devices are online right now (device ID, device name, who's playing and whether it's the driver's phone), and co-pilot alerts like "Look left!". This is held in memory only while the device is connected.
On your device only
Each device keeps a copy of the car so games work with no signal, plus things that are never saved on our server: whether it's the driver's phone (shared with the car only while connected, as above), the last car code it saw, puzzles in progress, and the words typed into Mad Libs (never saved, and never sent to us or to Claude). On the web, this is kept in your browser's local storage. Neither this website nor the web app uses cookies.
Camera
In browsers that support it, the Join screen can use your camera to read a car's QR code. The picture is read on the device and never saved or sent anywhere.
Location
If a grown-up turns on automatic state lines, that one device reads its GPS location to notice when the car crosses into a new state, by checking the location against state borders built into the app. On a device marked as the driver's phone, RoadTripKit reads the device's speed so games stay locked while the car is moving.
This works the same in the app and in a browser. Your location is processed only on your device. It is never sent to us or anyone else. The only things saved to the car are which state the car is in and when it entered and left each state, the same as when you tap "Crossed into…" yourself. You can turn location off at any time in your device's or browser's settings, and every game still works.
AI features (iPhone and iPad app only)
A device using the browser version never contacts the AI: it plays with built-in questions and stories, and our server refuses AI requests from browsers. In the iPhone and iPad app, some games use Claude, an AI model made by Anthropic, PBC, to write fresh content. When you use one, our server sends Anthropic only what that game needs:
- Trivia Showdown (and trivia packs downloaded for your route): the name of the place, usually a US state.
- Mad Libs: the story theme picked from the list. The words you fill in are never sent.
- How Well Do You Know?: the hot-seat player's role, level and fun facts. Their name is not sent; the questions come back with a placeholder, and your device fills the name in.
- Trip story chapters (written automatically at each state line): the family name, the state, and that leg's events: who spotted which plates, who got Bingo, who won trivia or How Well Do You Know?, and the words found in ABC Hunt, as typed. These include the names or nicknames you entered, so the story can say who did what.
Requests go from our server, not from your device, so Anthropic doesn't receive your IP address or device details. Your car's ID and car code are never sent. Under Anthropic's commercial terms, Anthropic does not train its models on this data and keeps it only for a limited time. See Anthropic's privacy policy. AI-written content can be wrong, so treat trivia facts as a game, not a reference.
Everyone in a car shares one game. So if any device in your car uses the iPhone or iPad app, that device may send the car's details listed above to Claude, including things entered on browser devices (for example, the story chapter at each state line), and every device in the car shows what Claude wrote. To avoid AI entirely, have everyone in the car use the browser version. With no signal, the app uses the same built-in questions and stories as the browser.
Technical data
Like any internet service, our server sees the IP address of each request. We use it, in memory only, to limit how often one network can request AI content or look up car codes, and we don't save it to our database. Our hosting providers keep standard request logs for a short time for security and troubleshooting. They include IP addresses and the addresses requested, which can include your car's ID or a car code. Our own logs record which AI game ran and how many words went in and out (not what they said), and error messages for troubleshooting.
RoadTripKit has no analytics, advertising or crash-reporting software, and no third-party tracking.
Who we share data with
We don't sell personal information or share it for advertising. We use these service providers to run RoadTripKit, and they handle data only on our behalf:
- Railway hosts the app's server and database in the United States.
- Anthropic writes AI content in the iPhone and iPad app, as described above.
- Cloudflare hosts this website.
- Google (Gmail) holds the support inbox.
- Apple distributes the iOS app and handles Trip Pass and Family Lifetime payments. Apple may share anonymous app statistics with us if you've opted in on your device.
We'll disclose information if the law requires it, or to protect someone's safety.
If you email us
If you write to roadtripkit@springmillai.com, we receive your email address and whatever you include, such as your car code. We use it only to help you, and keep it as long as needed to do that.
Children
RoadTripKit is made for families with children, and it's meant to be set up by a parent or guardian. A grown-up starts the car and decides what goes in it. We don't ask children for contact details, and RoadTripKit has no chat, no messaging between families, and no way to search for other families' cars.
Kids can type a few things while they play. ABC Hunt words are saved in the car like everything else, and in the app they can appear in the story chapters Claude writes; Mad Libs words stay on the device. A parent or guardian can see the car's people, scores, trip and story in the app, and remove a person from the player list in Family & devices (their past scores, finds and story mentions stay in the car's history). Deleting the car removes everything. If you believe a child has given us personal information without a parent's knowledge, email roadtripkit@springmillai.com and we'll delete it.
How long we keep it, and how to delete it
We keep a car's data until a grown-up deletes it. To delete it, open grown-up mode, go to Family & devices and tap Delete this car for everyone. This removes the car's data and car code from our server straight away, and every device in the car forgets its copy the next time it opens the car with a connection (saved puzzle progress stays on a device until you clear the site's data or delete the app). We keep only the random car ID and the date it was deleted, so a device that was offline can't bring the car back, and the record of any purchase made for the car (above), so you can restore it into a new one. Our hosting provider's backups may hold a copy for a short time longer before they expire.
Tapping Remove this device from the car, deleting the app, or clearing your browser's data for the site clears that device's copy but leaves the car for everyone else. The device's name stays in the car's device list until the car is deleted. If you can't open the app, email us your car code and we'll delete the car for you.
Your rights
Depending on where you live (including California, the EU and the UK), you may have the right to access, correct, delete or export your personal information, or to object to how it's used. You can do most of this in the app. For anything else, email roadtripkit@springmillai.com with your car code. We'll respond within 30 days and won't treat you differently for asking. If you're in the EU or UK, you can also complain to your local data protection authority.
For EU and UK users: we process car data to provide the games you asked for (performance of a contract), and IP addresses for security and abuse prevention (legitimate interests). Data is processed in the United States.
Security
All traffic between RoadTripKit and our server is encrypted with HTTPS. Car IDs are random, car code lookups are rate limited, and you can replace a car code at any time. Kid codes are there to keep siblings out of each other's points; they aren't a security feature, so don't treat them like passwords.
Changes to this policy
If we change this policy, we'll post the new version here and update the date at the top. If a change affects how we use data you've already given us, we'll give notice before it takes effect, on this site and in the app's update notes.
Contact
Jon Olson, RoadTripKit
roadtripkit@springmillai.com