1. Who we are
Mechd Ltd ("we", "us") decides how the personal information described here is used, which makes us the "data controller" under UK data protection law (the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018).
Company: Mechd Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 17259958
Registered office: Unit A, 82 James Carter Road, Mildenhall, IP28 7DE
ICO registration: C1953272
Contact: info@mechd.co.uk
This policy covers the mechd.co.uk website and its forms, partner garages, the Mechd iPhone app and its web version, emails you send us, and the earlier version of the Mechd app.
2. Visiting this website
mechd.co.uk sets no cookies and uses no analytics, tracking or advertising. Its fonts and images come from mechd.co.uk itself. Like any website, our host Netlify receives your IP address, browser type and the pages you request, so it can deliver the site and keep it secure. Netlify keeps these logs for a short time under its own policy.
Launch list (now closed)
Before Mechd launched, you could join a list to hear when it was out. We're no longer adding anyone to it.
What we collect: your email address.
Why: to email you once to say Mechd has launched. Nothing else, and we won't add you to any other list.
Lawful basis: your consent. Withdraw it any time by replying "unsubscribe" or emailing info@mechd.co.uk.
How long: we delete the list within 3 months of sending the launch email. If you unsubscribe first, we delete your address within 30 days.
Partner garage form
What we collect: your garage's name, your name, email address and town, and your phone number and message if you give them.
Why: to reply to you and to work with your garage, as described in section 4.
Lawful basis: legitimate interests: replying to garages that contact us and working with them to improve Mechd.
How long: as set out in section 4.
Sent with every form
Netlify also records the time, your IP address, your browser type and the page the form was sent from, to filter spam and keep the forms secure. It checks submissions for spam using a filtering service (Akismet).
4. Partner garages
We ask independent garages to record car noises before fixing them, and to tell us what the fault turned out to be. This is how we test whether Mechd's suggestions are right.
Contact details
What we hold: your garage's name, the name of the person we deal with, business email address, phone number and town, and our emails with you.
Where we got them: from you, or, if we contacted you first, from your garage's own website or public business listing.
Why: to invite you to take part, arrange recordings, keep in touch, and set up your free partner garage listing.
Lawful basis: legitimate interests: working with garages to test and improve Mechd. You can object or ask us to stop contacting you at any time, and we will.
How long: if you take part, for as long as we work together and 2 years after. If you didn't reply or decided not to take part, we delete your details within 12 months of our last email. If you ask us not to contact you again, we keep only your email address on a "do not contact" list, so we don't email you by mistake.
Recordings and notes
What we hold: the recordings you send, what the fault was, what was done to fix it, and the car's make, model and year.
Personal information: we ask you to leave out number plates, customer names and talking. If anything personal does turn up in a recording or note, we delete or remove it.
Why: to test, train and improve Mechd. We do any training ourselves; recordings are never sent to Anthropic or anyone else to train their AI. We never publish or sell recordings, and we won't name your garage without asking.
How long: recordings are kept for as long as they're useful for testing and training Mechd. Your separate recording permission explains what you've agreed to.
5. The Mechd app
Mechd is an iPhone app for adults, with a web version we use for testing. It has no accounts. From version 2.2.0 of the iPhone app, results use credits bought through Apple (your first result is free, one per iPhone), and after a paid result you can choose to share the recording with us. Earlier versions and the web version don't use credits or sharing.
- Your recording stays on your phone unless you choose to share it. The app measures the sound on your device. After a paid result, you can choose to share the recording with us (see "Shared recordings" below). Lab mode, which is meant for partner garages, adds a "Save for test library" button. It's off unless you turn it on in iPhone Settings → Mechd, or, on the web version, by adding ?lab=1 to the address. It saves the recording, answers and result as one file through the share sheet, and we only receive it if you choose to send it to us. The file also includes your phone type and software version and anything you typed. If you send it to us, we add it to our private test library to test, train and improve Mechd (legitimate interests). We do any training ourselves; recordings are never sent to Anthropic or anyone else to train their AI. We remove anything personal that turns up, such as voices or number plates, and keep the recording for as long as it's useful for testing and training. Ask us at any time and we'll delete it.
- What we receive to give you a result: your answers to the questions, anything you type in the description box, your car's make, model and year if you enter them, and measurements of the sound (not the sound itself). Please don't type names, number plates or contact details into the description box. In the iPhone app we also receive your Mechd ID (see "Credits and payments"), so we can take a credit for the result.
- Where it goes: to our server (run by Netlify) and on to Anthropic, whose AI writes the result. We don't store your requests or results on our server, apart from anything you choose to send us under "Did this help?" (below). Anthropic deletes them within 30 days. The only exception is if its automated safety checks flag a request as breaking its usage policy, when it can keep that request for up to 2 years. It does not use them to train its models. Before your first result, the app asks your permission to send this to Anthropic. If you choose "Not now", nothing is sent. The result is written by AI, but it doesn't make any decision about you. You decide what to do about your car.
- Daily limit: to stop misuse, we count how many results, feedback answers, sharing requests and free first credits each connection sends each day. We never store your IP address itself, only a scrambled version of it that changes every day, used only for that count and deleted after 2 days.
- On your phone: the app keeps a few things on your phone to make it easier to use:
- the car you last entered, so you don't have to type it again;
- that you've given permission to send for a result, so it doesn't ask every time;
- History: your past results, with your answers, anything you typed, your car, and whether each result used a credit or was free. The recordings themselves aren't kept;
- a list of your credits on the Credits screen: what you've bought (the app gets this from your Apple account through RevenueCat), your free credits, and each credit used, with what Mechd suggested for that result;
- your breakdown number, and the name you gave it, if you add one, so a "Don't drive" result can show a button to call it;
- any reminders you set with "Remind me to book it in". In the iPhone app, your phone's own notifications show the reminder. On the web version, you get a calendar file to add to your own calendar;
- your Appearance choice (automatic, light or dark), and that you've seen the welcome screen;
- if you share a recording, its share ID, the date, and what Mechd suggested, so the app can ask what the garage found and you can delete it;
- the "What did the garage find?" reminder, if you allow notifications. Your phone shows it, and nothing is sent to us;
- your Mechd ID, in the iPhone's keychain (see "Credits and payments");
- that this copy of the app has had its free first result.
Your car is only sent to us as part of a request for a result. Your Mechd ID is sent to us only when the app gets a result, claims your free first credit or a sharing reward, or deletes your data, and when you email it to us as a support code. RevenueCat also uses it to keep your credits (see "Credits and payments"). Nothing else on this list is ever sent to us or anyone else. Settings → Delete everything on this phone deletes all of it except your Mechd ID, so your credits are kept; it doesn't delete recordings you've shared. Settings → Delete my data deletes all of it, including your Mechd ID, your credits and the recordings you've shared from this phone (see "Delete my data"). Apart from your Mechd ID, it's also removed if you delete the app, or clear the website's data on the web version. A reminder you've added to your calendar stays there until you delete it. For recordings you've shared from another phone, email us the share IDs.
Lawful basis: sending this information is necessary to give you the result you ask for under our terms of use (contract). The daily limit relies on our legitimate interests in protecting Mechd from misuse. We ask your permission before your first result so you know where your information goes before anything is sent. If you change your mind, just don't ask for another result. Deleting the app clears your choice.
The App Store
You download Mechd from Apple's App Store, which Apple runs under its own privacy policy. We don't receive your Apple ID or any details that identify you. Apple may show us anonymous, combined figures, such as how many people downloaded Mechd, and crash reports from people who have chosen to share them with app developers.
Credits and payments
From version 2.2.0 of the iPhone app, each result uses one credit. Your first result is free (one per iPhone). You buy further credits from Apple through the App Store.
- Who takes the payment: Apple, under its own terms and privacy policy. We never receive your card details, name, email or Apple ID.
- What RevenueCat receives: RevenueCat runs our in-app purchases. From Apple it receives a record of each purchase: what was bought, when, the price and currency, the App Store country, and Apple's transaction number. It links this to your Mechd ID (see below). That ID isn't linked to your name or Apple ID. Like any online service, it also receives your IP address and basic details of your phone, such as the iPhone model and iOS version, when the app checks your credits.
- Your Mechd ID: the app creates a random ID for you and keeps it in your iPhone's keychain. If iCloud Keychain is on, Apple syncs it, encrypted, to your other devices on the same Apple account. We can't read your iCloud Keychain. It lets your credits come back if you reinstall Mechd or move to a new iPhone, with no sign-in. We use it only for your credits, and to send a sharing reward to the right person.
- What our server does with it: it sends that ID to RevenueCat to take a credit for each result, give it back if the result fails, or add a free credit. We don't store the ID itself, only the scrambled forms described below.
- One result per credit: so that each credit gives only one result, we keep a record of each paid request under a random code the app makes for it. The record holds nothing else: not your Mechd ID, your car or anything you typed. We delete these records after 2 days. The same code, with the date, goes to RevenueCat with the credit it takes, so there it sits next to your Mechd ID, as part of RevenueCat's record of your credits.
- The free first result: you get one free credit per iPhone. So that it's given only once, even after "Delete my data" or reinstalling, we use Apple's DeviceCheck. Before your iPhone gets its free credit, we ask Apple to set a marker for it. If Apple can't set it, you don't get the credit yet, and the app tries again the next time you open it. The marker is a single on/off setting that Apple keeps for Mechd. It says nothing about you, and we don't keep any details of your iPhone ourselves. We use it only for the free first result, to stop the offer being claimed again and again (our legitimate interests). If you bought your iPhone second-hand and didn't get a free first result, email info@mechd.co.uk with your support code and we'll add one. We also keep a scrambled form of your Mechd ID, with the date.
- Why: to sell credits and keep track of them (contract), and to keep the accounting records the law requires (legal obligation).
- How long: RevenueCat keeps purchase records while we use its service. We keep sales records for 6 years, as UK tax law requires. They hold no names.
- If you delete the app or get a new iPhone: if iCloud Keychain is on, your Mechd ID and credits come back when you install Mechd on any iPhone signed in to the same Apple account. If it's off, email info@mechd.co.uk with your Apple receipt (it shows an order ID) and the support code for your new copy (Settings → Credits → Lost credits? fills it in for you), and we'll put back any unused credits you paid for, if we can find them. The support code is your new Mechd ID. We use the order ID and support code only to deal with what you've emailed us about, such as putting back lost credits or giving a credit back for a result that went wrong.
- Delete my data: Settings → Delete my data deletes your shared recordings, your record at RevenueCat and the record that you've had a free first credit. It removes your Mechd ID from this iPhone and from iCloud Keychain, and clears everything Mechd keeps on this phone. Unused credits are lost, so use them first or ask Apple for a refund. Apple's sales reports, which we keep for 6 years as the law requires, don't include your Mechd ID. Your record at RevenueCat can take up to 30 days to be deleted. Everything else is deleted straight away. It doesn't remove the free-credit marker Apple keeps for this iPhone, so a free first result isn't given again. That marker holds nothing about you.
Shared recordings
From version 2.2.0 of the iPhone app, after a paid result, the app asks whether you'd like to share the recording. It's off unless you turn it on, and it asks again each time. If you share it and later tell us what your garage found, you get one free credit.
- What we receive: the recording exactly as you played it back (up to 10 seconds), your answers, anything you typed in the description box, your car's make, model and year if you entered them, the result, the sound measurements, and which version of the iPhone app you used. If you later tell us what the garage found, we also receive your answer, whether the noise stopped, and any words you type under "Something else".
- What we don't receive: your name, email, phone number or IP address. A recording can pick up voices and other sounds nearby, so please don't talk while you record, and don't share a recording if someone else can be heard talking. If we find anything personal in a recording, we delete or remove it.
- How it's kept: under a random share ID, such as 7K3P-9QWD-M2XA. Separately, we keep a scrambled form of your Mechd ID. It's used only to make sure the free credit goes to the phone that shared the recording, and it never leaves our server.
- Why: to test, train and improve Mechd's suggestions. We do any training ourselves. Shared recordings are never sent to Anthropic or anyone else to train their AI, and we never publish or sell them.
- Lawful basis: your consent, which you give each time you share, including for what you tell us about the repair. You can withdraw it at any time by deleting the recording (see "How to delete it"). Any free credit you've had is yours to keep. Deleting stops us using the recording from then on, but it can't undo testing or training we've already done with it. If a recording picks up someone else, such as a passenger talking, we rely on our legitimate interests in improving Mechd, and we delete or remove their voice when we find it.
- Where it's kept: in Netlify's storage. We may copy it to our private test library (GitHub and our own computers). Before a recording goes into our test library, we listen to it and remove anything personal. The scrambled code for your phone never goes into the library.
- How long: for as long as it's useful for testing and training Mechd. We review shared recordings at least once a year and delete any we no longer need. Ask us at any time and we'll delete it, including from our test library if it has gone in.
- How to delete it: in the app, open the result in History and tap "Delete shared recording", or tap Settings → Delete my shared recordings (or Delete my data). You can also email info@mechd.co.uk with the share ID. Credits you've already received are kept.
"Did this help?"
Under each result the app asks whether it helped. In the web version and versions of the iPhone app before 2.2.0, it also offers to email you once to ask what the garage found. From version 2.2.0, you tell us that by sharing a recording instead (see "Shared recordings"). Both are optional.
What we receive: your Yes or No, with the suggested cause, how urgent the app said it was, your two answers and your car's make, model and year if you entered them. Not the recording, and not anything you typed in the description box. If you also give your email address, we receive that too.
Why: to check whether Mechd's suggestions are right. If you give your email, we send you one email, about a week later, asking what the garage found. We won't send you anything else or add you to any list.
Lawful basis: legitimate interests (testing and improving Mechd) for the Yes or No; your consent for your email address. You can withdraw it at any time by replying to our email or writing to info@mechd.co.uk.
Where it's kept: in Netlify's form storage, with a copy sent to our email inbox (Google Workspace).
How long: we delete your email address, and our emails with you, within 2 months of sending the follow-up email (and in any case within 3 months of receiving your address), or within 30 days if you ask us to. What you tell us about the repair we keep without your email address, as testing data, for as long as it's useful. A Yes or No on its own doesn't identify you, and we keep it as testing data.
6. Emails you send us
If you email us, we use your message and email address to reply and to deal with what you asked (legitimate interests). We keep emails for as long as we need them for that, and delete them within 2 years unless they relate to something in sections 3 to 5, which have their own time limits.
7. The earlier Mechd app
An earlier version of the Mechd app ran in 2026. It can no longer be downloaded from the App Store or Google Play, and no member of the public ever paid for it. In October 2026 we deleted all account data from it: email addresses, passwords, saved vehicles and diagnosis history.
That app also used a few outside services: AppsFlyer for app install measurement, RevenueCat for app store subscriptions, Stripe for website payments, Resend for account emails, Supabase for accounts and saved data, Anthropic for results, Netlify for hosting, Meta for advertising measurement on our old website (with consent), and Google Fonts and jsDelivr, which delivered the app's fonts and code and so saw your IP address and device type. The garage finder used a postcode you typed in. Your phone looked it up with postcodes.io, a UK postcode lookup, and our server sent its map point to Google Places to find nearby garages. The app never used your phone's GPS, and we didn't store the postcode or its map point. From version 2.2.0, the iPhone app uses RevenueCat again, for credits. The app uses Anthropic, as described in section 5. Apart from that, we no longer send any of these services anything. They may still hold limited records under their own retention policies; email us if you'd like us to ask them to delete yours.
8. Who handles your information for us
We use these service providers. Each works under a contract that requires it to keep your information secure and use it only on our instructions:
These companies are based in the United States, so your information may be processed outside the UK. Where that happens, it is protected by the UK's data adequacy arrangements for certified US companies (the UK–US "data bridge") or by the UK's International Data Transfer Agreement or Addendum.
We do not sell, rent or share your information with anyone for their own marketing. We would only share it with others if the law required us to.
9. Your rights
Under UK data protection law you have the right to:
- get a copy of the personal information we hold about you;
- have it corrected if it's wrong;
- have it deleted;
- restrict how we use it, or object to us using it (including where we rely on legitimate interests);
- withdraw your consent at any time, where we rely on it (the launch list, your email address for the follow-up, and recordings you share);
- receive information you gave us in a format you can take elsewhere.
To use any of these rights, email info@mechd.co.uk. We'll reply within one month.
If you're unhappy with how we've handled your information, you have the right to complain to us. Email info@mechd.co.uk or write to the address in section 14. We'll confirm we've received your complaint within 30 days, look into it, keep you updated, and tell you the outcome without undue delay. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO): ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint, or call 0303 123 1113.
10. Cookies
This website sets no cookies, so there's no cookie banner. The app sets no cookies either. It keeps your car, your permission choice, History, your breakdown number, any reminders, your Appearance setting, the IDs of recordings you've shared, your credit history and your Mechd ID (in the keychain) only on your phone, as described in section 5.
11. Security
We protect personal information with appropriate technical and organisational measures, including encryption in transit (HTTPS), access only for people who need it, and keeping as little as we can. If a breach is likely to put your rights at risk, we'll tell the ICO within 72 hours and tell the people affected without undue delay.
12. Children
Mechd is meant for adults. We don't knowingly collect information from anyone under 18. If you think a child has sent us their details, email info@mechd.co.uk and we'll delete them.
13. Changes to this policy
We'll update this policy when what we do changes. If a change matters to people we hold information about, we'll tell them before it takes effect. The current version is always at mechd.co.uk/privacy.
14. Contact us
Email: info@mechd.co.uk
Post: Mechd Ltd, Unit A, 82 James Carter Road, Mildenhall, IP28 7DE