Privacy Policy

Garage Guide · Effective date: 9 October 2026

This policy explains what Garage Guide (“the app”, “we”) collects, why, who can see it, and how you can delete it. The app is run by Rashed Al-Fahad (individual developer), Kuwait. Questions: support@garageguidekw.com.

1. What we collect

Your account

• Phone number: to sign you in with a one-time code. You can use the app without an account to browse shops.
• Name (optional): shown to shops in a short form, such as “Faisal A.”, never your full name.
• Language (Arabic or English): so the app, notifications and messages reach you in your language.

Your location

• When you allow it, the app uses your device location to show nearby shops, distances and your area. Searches send your position to our server to sort results; it is not stored.
• If you choose “Near my location” for a quote request, that point is saved with the request so shops can see how far you are. Shops never see the exact point.
• You can always choose an area instead of sharing your location.

What you add

• Cars (brand, model, year): to fill in quote requests and reviews.
• Favorites: the shops you save.
• Reviews: your rating, comment, the service and car you choose, and up to 5 photos. Reviews and their photos are public, under your short name.
• Quote requests: your car, the service, your description, quick tags, up to 5 photos, and the area or distance. A request and its photos are seen only by you, the shops you send it to, and our team.
• Reports: when you report a review, the reason and your note.

If you own a shop

• Shop details you enter (name, description, phone, WhatsApp, address, location, hours, services, prices, brands, photos) are public in the app.
• A commercial license photo you upload to claim a shop is private: only you and our team can see it.
• We keep a record of which parts of your shop you change and when, so our team can check listings.

Notifications

• We keep your notifications (for example a new offer or a reply to your review) in the app.
• If you allow push notifications, we store a device token from Google Firebase Cloud Messaging so we can send them to your phone.

Shop statistics

• When someone views a shop or taps Call, WhatsApp or Directions, we add one to that shop’s daily count. These counts are not linked to you.

2. Your phone number and shops

• When you choose a shop’s offer, your name and phone number are shared with that shop only, so it can contact you about the job. The other shops that sent offers never see your number, and no shop sees it before you choose.
• When you call or message a shop on WhatsApp from the app, the shop sees your number as with any call or message.

3. How we use your information

To run the app: sign-in, search, quote requests and offers, reviews, notifications, and showing shops to customers. To keep it safe: moderating reported reviews, checking shop claims and edits, and preventing abuse. We do not sell your information, and we do not use it for advertising.

4. Who handles your information

• Our team can see account and shop information when needed to support you, check claims and moderate content.
• Supabase hosts our database, sign-in and file storage (in Frankfurt, Germany, in the European Union: Supabase region eu-central-1).
• Meta (WhatsApp) delivers your sign-in codes.
• Google: Google Maps shows maps and opens directions; Firebase Cloud Messaging delivers push notifications if you allow them.

Some of these providers may process data outside Kuwait. They act on our instructions and only for these purposes.

5. How long we keep it

• We keep your information while your account exists.
• Backups: to protect against data loss, our primary database and its backups are hosted in Frankfurt, Germany (European Union). In addition, every night an encrypted copy of our database and files is kept on a secured server in Kuwait: daily copies for 30 days and monthly copies for 12 months. Information you delete can remain in these backups until they expire (up to 12 months), and is not used for anything else.

6. Deleting your account

In the app: Account → Privacy & delete account → Delete my account. This immediately deletes:

• your profile (name, phone number, language), cars and favorites;
• your reviews and their photos;
• your quote requests and their photos, with the offers on them;
• your shop license photos, notifications and devices.

What stays:

• Shops you own stay listed, without an owner; you can ask us to remove them.
• Reports you made stay, without your name.
• Offers your shop sent on other people’s requests stay part of those requests.

You can also ask us to delete your account by WhatsApp or email, without opening the app. How, what is deleted and what we keep: garageguidekw.com/legal/delete-account-en

7. Your choices and rights

You can view and edit your name, cars, reviews and requests in the app, turn off location and notifications in your phone’s settings, and delete your account at any time. To ask for a copy of your information or anything else, contact support@garageguidekw.com.

8. Security

Data is sent over encrypted connections. Access rules in our database let each person see only what they should (for example, only the shops you chose can see your request). Backups are encrypted, and the key to restore them is kept offline.

9. Age

Garage Guide is for people 18 and older.

10. Changes

If we change this policy, we will update the date above and tell you in the app before important changes apply.

11. Contact

Rashed Al-Fahad (individual developer) · Kuwait · support@garageguidekw.com · +965 9003 6430