Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

Keel ("Keel", "we", "us") is a car-shopping decision tool operated from the United States and reachable at drivekeel.com. For any privacy question, or to make a request about your data, contact us at hello@drivekeel.com. We are the data controller for the information described here.

2. What we collect

• Your preferences. The priorities, weights, budget, and settings you enter so Keel can score cars for you.
• Cars and workspace data. Listings you save, cars you add by URL, comparisons you build, notes, financing and deal figures you enter, and any shared workspace you create or join.
• A device identifier. If you use Keel without an account, we generate a random anonymous ID stored on your device to keep your data yours across sessions. It is not linked to your real-world identity.
• Your email — only if you choose to sync. To save your work across devices, you can add an email and sign in with a one-time magic link. We store that email to authenticate you.
• IP address, for protection only. We process your IP address transiently to enforce rate limits and defend the service against abuse. We do not use it to build a profile of you.
• Basic technical logs. Standard server logs (request times, error traces) needed to keep the service running and secure.

3. What we do not collect

• No payment card or bank information — Keel does not take payments and does not sell vehicles.
• No government ID, driver's license, or Social Security number.
• No third-party advertising or cross-site tracking. There are no ad-network pixels or trackers on Keel following you around the web.
• No sale of your personal information — ever, to anyone.

4. How we use it

We use your information only to provide and improve Keel: to score and compare cars against your priorities, to save and sync your work, to authenticate you when you sign in, to keep the service secure and within rate limits, and to respond when you contact us. We do not use it to advertise to you, and we do not make automated decisions that have legal effects on you.

5. How we store and protect it

Your data is stored in our database hosted on Supabase (PostgreSQL) in the United States. Access is restricted at the row level so that, by design, one person's data is not readable by another. When you delete something, we soft-delete it — it is marked inactive and hidden immediately, then purged on our retention schedule. We use industry-standard encryption in transit. No system is perfectly secure, but we hold data to the minimum and guard access to it.

6. Who we share it with

By default, nobody. We do not sell or share your personal information, and we never share your data for cross-context behavioral advertising. We may sell, license, or disclose aggregated or de-identified information that does not identify you and cannot reasonably be linked to you or your device — broad patterns in what shoppers as a group prefer, shared with partners like dealers and manufacturers to help them understand the market, never to target you. Beyond that, we rely on a small set of infrastructure providers who process data only to run Keel on our behalf, under contract, and cannot use it for their own purposes:

• Supabase — database and authentication.
• Vercel — application hosting and delivery.
• Data and AI providers — a vehicle-listings provider and an AI provider that help generate results. We send them the query needed to answer your request, not your identity.

The one time your information reaches a dealer is when you choose to contact one about a specific car — you start that, and only then. We may also disclose information if required by law, or to protect the rights and safety of our users and the service.

Our data promises

• We will never sell your name, contact information, VINs, precise location, or any other personal information — no individual profiles, no leads.
• Any aggregate insight we share or sell is drawn only from groups large enough that no individual is identifiable. Keel already applies this standard internally: behavioral signals only become shared patterns once at least 5 distinct users contribute them, and the same floor applies to anything shared outside.
• We commit to maintaining de-identification, and any recipient is contractually prohibited from attempting to re-identify the data.
• We are disclosing this from launch — before any such sharing happens — so it is never a surprise or a reversal of an earlier promise.

7. Cookies and local storage

Keel does not use third-party advertising cookies. We use your browser's local storage to hold your device identifier and a cache of your work so the app is fast and works offline. If you sign in, we use a strictly necessary cookie or token to keep you authenticated. That is the extent of it.

8. Your rights

Wherever you live, we extend the same core rights to everyone: to know what we hold, to get a copy of it, to correct it, and to delete it. You can view and export your data from within Keel, and you can erase it entirely at any time. Depending on your location — for example under the EU/UK GDPR or the California CCPA/CPRA — you may also have rights to restrict or object to certain processing, to data portability, and to be free from discrimination for exercising these rights. Because we do not sell or share your personal information, and aggregated or de-identified data is not personal information under those laws, there is nothing to opt out of on that front. To make any request, use the in-app controls or emailhello@drivekeel.com; we will respond within the time your law requires.

9. How long we keep it

We keep your data for as long as you use Keel. When you delete something, or ask us to erase your account, we remove your personal data from active systems and purge soft-deleted records on our retention schedule (routinely within 90 days), except where we must keep limited records to meet legal obligations or resolve disputes. Aggregated, de-identified information that cannot be tied back to you may be retained to improve how Keel scores and compares cars, and may be shared or sold as described in Section 6.

10. Children

Keel is not directed to children under 16, and we do not knowingly collect their data. If you believe a child has used Keel, contact us and we will delete the information.

11. Changes to this policy

If we change this policy in a way that affects you, we will update the date at the top and, for material changes, tell you before it takes effect. Continuing to use Keel after a change means you accept the updated policy.

12. Contact

Questions, requests, or concerns: hello@drivekeel.com.