The plain-English privacy policy.

Last updated November 2, 2026

Who we are

CarLifeOS ("we") makes shop management software for independent auto repair shops. We are based in Bayside, New York. For anything in this policy, write to hello@carlifeos.com.

Two kinds of data

CarLifeOS handles personal information in two different roles, and the promises differ:

• Our customers: shops. When a shop signs up we collect what the account needs: the names and email addresses of the owner and staff who get logins, the shop's business details, and the email you exchange with us. If you pay us, payment details go to our payment processor; we never store card numbers.
• The shop's customers. A shop's records live in CarLifeOS so the shop can run its counter: its customers' names, phone numbers, vehicles, service history, estimates, invoices, and check-ins. That data belongs to the shop. We process it only to provide the service to that shop, we never sell it, and we never use it for advertising. If you are a customer of a shop that uses CarLifeOS, your relationship is with the shop: ask them about your records, and we will help them answer.

What this website collects

Nothing. carlifeos.com has no forms, no analytics, and no advertising trackers; every "book a demo" button is a plain email link. If you email us, we receive what you send and use it to reply.

What the service collects

For signed-in shops: account details (name, email, role), the business records staff enter while working, and the technical logs we need to keep the service running and secure. The service uses essential cookies only: they keep you signed in and remember preferences like your theme. There are no advertising cookies anywhere, in the site or the service.

The assistant

When a shop uses the OS assistant, the messages it sends are processed by the AI provider connected to that shop's account, under that provider's terms. The shop chooses the provider and can disconnect it at any time.

Who we share data with

The infrastructure the service runs on, and nothing beyond it: database hosting (netcup, with a backup copy at Neon), file storage and backups (Amazon Web Services), email delivery (Postmark), web hosting and networking (Cloudflare, netcup), and the AI provider a shop connects for its assistant. Each processes data only to do its job. If a shop connects a Google account, the shop's appointments are also written to that account, at the shop's choice; see Google user data. Past that, we disclose information only when the law requires it, or to a successor if the business is ever sold, who would be bound by the promises on this page.

How we protect it

Encrypted (HTTPS) connections between your browser and CarLifeOS, per-shop data isolation on every lookup, role-based logins, and a permanent audit log of changes. New York's SHIELD Act requires reasonable safeguards for exactly this kind of data; this is how we meet that bar.

Your data is yours

Every week CarLifeOS writes the shop's customers, vehicles, and repair history to plain spreadsheet files the shop can download, and a fresh export can be triggered any time from Settings. A shop that leaves takes everything with it. When an account closes, we return or delete its records on request, keeping only what the law requires us to keep.

Google user data

A shop admin can connect a Google account to CarLifeOS so the shop's appointments appear in Google Calendar and the shop's own calendars appear beside its appointments. Connecting is optional and can be undone at any time. This section covers the information CarLifeOS receives from Google through that connection ("Google user data"), and nothing else on this page loosens it.

On connecting, CarLifeOS reads only the account's address and its list of calendars. Nothing is copied in either direction until an admin picks a sync direction ("CarLifeOS to Google", "Google to CarLifeOS", or "Both ways"), and no calendar's events are read until an admin ticks that calendar.

The three permissions we ask for

• Make one calendar and manage the events in it (calendar.app.created). CarLifeOS makes one calendar in the account, named after the shop's legal name (or "CarLifeOS appointments" if that is blank), and keeps the shop's appointments in it. It writes into that calendar and no other.
• See the list of calendars (calendar.calendarlist.readonly), read-only. CarLifeOS uses it to show which Google account is connected and to let an admin pick which calendars to show.
• See events (calendar.events.readonly), read-only. CarLifeOS uses it to show events from the calendars an admin picked as busy blocks, so nobody double-books, and to follow an appointment when someone moves it in Google Calendar.

What we read from Google

• The connected account's email address, and its list of calendars (names and colors).
• From each calendar an admin has ticked: each event's title, description, start and end time, its link in Google Calendar, and who created it (a display name or email address, which can belong to someone outside the shop who sent an invitation). Reads cover events from 31 days ago to about 400 days ahead.
• In "Both ways", the times of the shop's own appointments in the calendar CarLifeOS made, so a move made in Google comes back into CarLifeOS.

We do not keep attendees, locations, attachments, or conference links.

What we write into Google

In "CarLifeOS to Google" or "Both ways", each of the shop's appointments becomes an event in the calendar CarLifeOS made, carrying the customer's display name; the services, with the concern text the shop typed for each; the vehicle's year, make, model, trim, and license plate; the technician; the status; and the start and end time. A time hold with no customer carries the hold's title instead. We never write the customer's phone number, email address, notes, or prices. Cancelling or deleting an appointment removes its event.

How we use it

• To show the shop's Google events on its CarLifeOS calendar, so staff can see who is busy and avoid double-booking.
• To keep the shop's appointments current in its Google calendar, and to follow appointments moved there.
• To show which Google account is connected and which calendars are shown.
• "Make it a booking." If a staff member turns a Google event into a booking, the event's title and description are copied into that appointment's note. From then on the note is part of the shop's records like any other note, which the shop's staff and its assistant can read.

We use Google user data for nothing else: not for advertising, not to build profiles, and not in any other product.

The assistant

When the OS assistant books or moves an appointment, all it can learn from Google is that a technician's time is taken during a given window on a connected Google calendar, so it does not double-book. That busy time goes to the AI provider the shop connected for its assistant, only to answer that request. The assistant never receives an event's title, description, or creator, the names of any calendars, or the Google account's address.

CarLifeOS does not use Google user data, or data derived from it, to develop, improve, or train generalized or non-personalized AI or machine-learning models.

Who can see it

Every signed-in staff member of the shop sees the events from the ticked calendars on the shop's calendar, with their title, description, link, and creator, so an admin should tick only calendars the whole shop may see. Only the shop's admins can connect an account, choose calendars and the sync direction, or disconnect. Nobody at another shop can see any of it.

No one at CarLifeOS reads Google user data, except at the shop's request to help with a support question, where it is needed for security (for example, investigating abuse), or where the law requires it.

How we protect it

The long-lived key Google issues for the connection (a refresh token) is stored encrypted with AES-256-GCM under a key that belongs to that shop alone. The short-lived access tokens it produces are held in memory only and never written down. Traffic between your browser and CarLifeOS, and between CarLifeOS and Google, travels over HTTPS. The rest of the Google user data is kept in the CarLifeOS database with the shop's other records, separated by shop on every lookup.

Who we share it with

We do not sell Google user data. We share it with no one except: the infrastructure providers listed under "Who we share data with", which store and carry it for us only to run the service; the shop's AI provider, limited to the busy times described above; where it is needed for security or the law requires it; or, if the business is ever sold or merged, the successor, and only with the shop's explicit consent first.

How long we keep it, and how to delete it

• We keep stored events only while they are needed for the calendar. Unticking a calendar, or switching to "CarLifeOS to Google", deletes the events stored from that calendar, and an event deleted in Google is deleted here at the next sync.
• Disconnect. An admin can disconnect at any time from the calendar settings. CarLifeOS then revokes its access at Google and permanently deletes the stored Google user data (the account's address, the calendar list, the events, and the encrypted token) from its live database straight away.
• Revoke from Google. Anyone can remove CarLifeOS's access from their Google Account at any time, at myaccount.google.com/permissions. CarLifeOS then cannot read or write anything in that account, and deletes the stored events at the next sync; disconnecting in CarLifeOS removes the rest.
• Ask us. A shop can ask us to delete its Google user data at hello@carlifeos.com, and we will do so within 30 days.
• Backups. Deleted data can remain in our encrypted backups until they age out, within 90 days.
• What stays in Google. The appointments CarLifeOS already wrote stay in the shop's Google calendar after a disconnect, because it is the shop's calendar. Delete that calendar in Google Calendar to remove them.

Limited Use

CarLifeOS's use and transfer to any other app of information received from Google APIs will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. That means:

• We use Google user data only to provide the calendar features described above, which the shop can see and switch off.
• We never sell it, and never transfer it to advertising platforms, data brokers, or information resellers.
• We never use or transfer it to serve ads, including retargeting and personalized or interest-based ads.
• We never use or transfer it to decide creditworthiness or for lending.
• We never use it, or anything derived from it, to develop, improve, or train generalized or non-personalized AI or machine-learning models.
• No person reads it except with the shop's permission, for security, or as the law requires.

Your choices

Shops can ask us to show, correct, or delete their account information at hello@carlifeos.com. Customers of a shop should contact the shop, and we will help it respond. Nobody gets marketing email from us without asking for it, and anything you opt into will have a working unsubscribe.

Children

Neither this site nor the service is directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect their information.

Do Not Track

We do not track visitors across other websites, so a Do Not Track signal changes nothing here: there is no tracking to turn off.

Changes

If this policy changes, the new version is posted here with a new date, and changes that meaningfully affect shops are announced to them directly.