Salina Labs
Official Legal Documentation
Privacy Policy for DriveAssist
DriveAssist is developed and operated by Salina Labs ("Salina Labs", "we", "us", or "our"). We build automotive software under a strict privacy by design architecture. This Privacy Policy explains how your information is processed, encrypted, stored, and protected when you use the DriveAssist mobile application ("Application", "Service").
Core Privacy Guarantee: Zero-Knowledge & Zero-Cloud Speech
DriveAssist is built so that you own your data. Private contacts, custom wake words, and destination shortcuts are protected using hardware-backed AES-256-GCM encryption on your device. Speech recognition is executed 100% on-device without cloud audio streaming. Salina Labs does not possess the keys to decrypt your vault or inspect your driving activity.
1. Scope of Android Permissions & Data Processing
DriveAssist requests specific Android operating system permissions strictly to provide hands-free driving utilities, in-cockpit navigation, and emergency assistance. We do not sell, rent, monetize, or broker your personal information to third parties.
| Android Permission | Functional Purpose | Data Handling & Storage Scope |
|---|---|---|
| ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION & ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION | Calculates real-time vehicle speed, compass bearing, odometer distance, weather telemetry, road hazard checks, and automated parking spot coordinates. | Real-Time Driving Telemetry: Vehicle speed, live GPS heading, odometer distance, and active driving routes are processed strictly in local volatile RAM and stored in local device database tables. Real-time driving tracking is never transmitted to Salina Labs servers. Saved Destinations & Parking Pin (Location Hub): User-saved places (e.g., Home, Work) and saved vehicle parking coordinates remain on-device by default. If you subscribe to DriveAssist Pro and optionally enable Cloud Sync, saved destination coordinates and your last parked pin are encrypted client-side using hardware-backed AES-256-GCM before transmission to your private, encrypted Firebase Firestore backup. Salina Labs has zero access to decrypt your coordinates. Road Routing, POI Details & Corridor Hazard Checks: When you tap a map point-of-interest, request a route path, or allow Habit Intelligence (after your explicit consent) to check a learned commute corridor above your configured confidence threshold, origin/destination coordinates and bounding-box waypoints are transmitted securely over TLS 1.3 to OpenStreetMap, Overpass API, and Project OSRM endpoints strictly to retrieve road polyline geometry, posted speed limits, road hazard annotations (speed cameras, school zones, railway crossings, construction/closures), driving distance, and travel duration. These queries are stateless, ephemeral, and contain zero personal identifiers, names, phone numbers, or user account tokens. |
| RECORD_AUDIO & FOREGROUND_SERVICE_MICROPHONE | Powers hands-free wake word detection and speech recognition while driving mode is active. | 100% on-device speech processing via Android's local recognizer (EXTRA_PREFER_OFFLINE = true). Audio buffers are processed in 80ms chunks in temporary RAM and immediately overwritten. No audio recordings are saved to storage or transmitted over networks. |
| READ_CONTACTS | Resolves contact names and telephone numbers for the Quick Call Hub and VIP Speed Dials. | Processed strictly on-device to match voice calling requests and render speed dial cards. Your device address book is never synced to external servers or copied to cloud databases. |
| POST_NOTIFICATIONS (Android 13+) | Delivers high-priority driving safety alerts, Emergency SOS status updates, and foreground trip recording controls. | Local system notifications only. No continuous telemetry or driving trip logs are transmitted externally. |
| CALL_PHONE & SEND_SMS | Executes direct speed-dial calls and background Emergency SOS distress dispatches upon driver request. | Triggered strictly upon user tap or verified emergency voice alias (e.g., "Help", "Mayday"). SMS messages with live GPS coordinates are sent directly via Android SmsManager to pre-designated emergency contacts. |
| BLUETOOTH & BLUETOOTH_CONNECT | Detects pairing and disconnection with vehicle infotainment systems or Bluetooth car stereos. | Used strictly to trigger automated driving mode and record the vehicle's parked GPS coordinates upon Bluetooth disconnection. |
2. Advertising Identifiers & Commercial Trackers
DriveAssist is completely ad-free. Our software build configurations explicitly remove and block advertising identifier permissions at the manifest compilation level:
- No Google Advertising ID: The permission
com.google.android.gms.permission.AD_IDis removed using manifest strip rules (tools:node="remove"). - No AdServices Tracking: The permission
android.permission.ACCESS_ADSERVICES_AD_IDis explicitly stripped. - Zero Commercial Telemetry: DriveAssist contains zero third-party advertising SDKs, behavioral trackers, or data-broker profiling libraries.
3. Offline Voice Architecture & Speech Privacy
We enforce a strict offline acoustic pipeline within the application:
- LocalSttEngine: Speech recognition is initialized with explicit flags enforcing on-device processing. Spoken audio buffers are streamed through the AudioStreamMultiplexer in volatile RAM and immediately discarded.
- Non-Intrusive Voice Activity Detection (VAD): Real-time acoustic energy filtering isolates spoken commands without continuously muting or ducking cabin media playback.
- Isolated Model Directory: Acoustic intent models and grammars reside exclusively in
context.noBackupFilesDir, preventing unencrypted duplication to Google Drive or Android cloud backup mirrors. - Immediate Audio Cutoff: An Android
ACTION_AUDIO_BECOMING_NOISYbroadcast receiver terminates Text-to-Speech playback immediately if vehicle Bluetooth or auxiliary cables disconnect, preventing cabin echoes.
4. Zero-Knowledge Cryptographic Vault Architecture
DriveAssist provides a built-in Security Vault for sensitive driver data (emergency contacts, custom voice aliases, and private destinations):
- Hardware-Backed AES-256-GCM: Cryptographic keys are derived on-device and stored within the hardware secure element (Android Keystore, StrongBox, or Trusted Execution Environment).
- BIP-39 Standard Recovery Seed: Initial vault setup generates an industry-standard 12-word cryptographic recovery phrase. This seed phrase is the exclusive mathematical key capable of restoring an encrypted vault.
- Zero-Knowledge Principle: Salina Labs servers and customer support staff do not receive, store, or log your master key or recovery seed phrase. If you lose your master credentials, Salina Labs cannot decrypt or restore your data.
5. Optional Cloud Synchronization (DriveAssist Pro Exclusive)
Active DriveAssist Pro subscribers may optionally enable cloud backup to synchronize preferences, pins, and custom shortcuts across personal devices. Free tier users operate in a 100% air-gapped, on-device local mode with zero cloud synchronization traffic:
- Client-Side Encryption Before Transit: All vault records, custom wake words, Location Hub pinned destinations (including latitude and longitude coordinates), vehicle parking spot pins, UI visualizer configs, and whitelisted preferences are encrypted on your physical device using AES-256-GCM before transmission over secure TLS 1.3 channels.
- Encrypted Payload Storage: Payloads stored in Google Firebase Firestore consist exclusively of encrypted ciphertexts. Salina Labs has no technical mechanism or keys to inspect, read, or analyze your synchronized records or saved places.
- Optional Commute Habit Models: If you explicitly enable habit cloud backup in Cortex, learned commute departure patterns are serialized and client-side encrypted. Live driving GPS routes, speed logs, and odometer breadcrumbs are strictly excluded from cloud backups.
- Delta Synchronization: Synchronization operations transfer minimal differential payloads based on modified timestamps to preserve mobile cellular bandwidth and battery life.
6. Dedicated Cortex Hub, Data Retention & Scheduled Trip Computers
DriveAssist separates real-time vehicle gauges (Control Center → Drive Telemetry) from routine learning and data governance (Control Center → Cortex) under strict privacy-preserving principles:
- 100% Local Vector Clustering: Cortex analyzes recurring commute corridors, departure windows, frequent call targets, and media app launches using 16-dimensional spatiotemporal feature vectors and Bayesian scoring purely on your local device. Raw GPS breadcrumbs are never uploaded to any remote server.
- SQLCipher Hardware-Backed Vault: All learned routines, node-branch knowledge graph edges, and historical telemetry compaction records are encrypted at rest with 256-bit AES encryption bound to your hardware-backed Android Keystore Master Key.
- Granular Pillar & Retention Controls: You retain absolute control over habit collection and retention windows (30, 60, 90, or 180 days). You can independently enable or disable data collection for Navigation, Calls, Media, Trips, and Weather, or permanently purge any category or all logs at any time.
- Informed Consent & Customizable Alert Thresholds: Proactive route and hazard comparisons require your explicit prior consent in the app. You can customize your Proactive Route Alert Threshold (25%–90% habit score, default 50%) and Route Delay Sensitivity (+10% to +50%, default +20%) at any time.
- Scheduled Trip Computers: Auto-start and auto-stop schedules for your daily driving sessions are stored locally under Drive Telemetry. Scheduling for the Current Drive slot is free for all users, while multi-slot scheduling (Trip A and Trip B) is available for DriveAssist Pro subscribers. All sessions feature automatic idle pause and local session archival into your private vault.
7. Third-Party Infrastructure Sub-Processors
DriveAssist utilizes trusted platform providers solely to support essential application infrastructure:
| Provider | Infrastructure Function | Data Handled |
|---|---|---|
| Google Firebase (Firestore & Auth) | Account authentication and optional Pro multi-device encrypted backup storage. | User email/UID and client-side encrypted AES-256 ciphertexts (vault contacts, shortcuts, saved places, and UI preferences). |
| Google Play Services & Google Maps SDK | Vector map rendering, tile display, and location services. | Real-time device coordinates processed per Google Play Services terms. |
| OpenStreetMap, Overpass API & Project OSRM | Turn-by-turn road polyline geometry, driving distance, travel duration, posted speed limits, and road hazard annotations. | Stateless origin/destination coordinates and bounding-box queries transmitted over HTTPS. No persistent identifiers, habit profiles, or user accounts. |
| Open-Meteo Weather API | Ambient temperature, precipitation, wind speed, and severe weather hazard telemetry. | Stateless latitude and longitude coordinates transmitted over HTTPS with zero user identifiers. |
| RevenueCat | In-app purchase receipt validation and Pro subscription entitlement verification. | Anonymous purchase tokens and store transaction identifiers. No contacts or location coordinates are shared. |
| Cloudflare (Pages & CDN) | Secure web hosting, global CDN, and DDoS protection for the salinalabs.dev website, including these policy and support pages. | Standard web request metadata (IP address, user agent, and request timestamps) processed transiently per Cloudflare's privacy policy. No application data, contacts, or location coordinates are shared. |
8. Data Retention, Portability & Deletion Rights
You maintain absolute ownership and control over your personal data under global data protection frameworks, including the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA/CPRA):
- Recently Deleted Retention (90 Days): Accidentally deleted contacts are moved to an isolated local retention bin for 90 days, after which they are permanently shredded from device memory.
- In-App Cloud Purge: You can purge all remote cloud backups instantly by navigating to Control Center > Data Control > Purge Cloud Backups.
- Permanent Account Deletion: You can delete your account directly inside the application under System Info > Danger Zone > Permanently Delete Account. This immediately purges your cloud database records and invalidates your authentication credentials.
- Web-Based Deletion Request: If you cannot access your mobile device, submit an account deletion request by emailing support@salinalabs.dev from your registered email address. All user records will be permanently purged within 30 days.
9. Policy Updates & Notice of Material Changes
We review and update this Privacy Policy as our features evolve and statutory requirements require. When changes occur:
- The "Last Revised" timestamp at the top of this policy will be updated immediately.
- For material modifications that impact how personal data is processed, DriveAssist will display an in-app notice or status banner at least 30 days prior to the effective date of the revision.
- Continued use of DriveAssist following the effective date of an updated policy constitutes acceptance of the revised terms.
10. Children's Privacy
DriveAssist is an automotive application designed strictly for licensed motor vehicle operators. We do not knowingly collect, process, or solicit personal information from individuals under the age of 16.
11. Data Controller & Contact Information
For questions, privacy inquiries, or data protection requests regarding this policy, contact our compliance team:
Salina Labs
Attention: Privacy & Data Protection Officer
Tunapuna-Piarco, Trinidad & Tobago
Direct Contact: support@salinalabs.dev
Studio Website: https://salinalabs.dev