1. Who we are
RapidRepair is an app that helps you troubleshoot household appliances. It is made by Brown Heuristics, the business of Nicholas Brown, a sole proprietor based in California, United States ("we", "us" or "our"). This policy explains what information RapidRepair collects, how we use and share it, how long we keep it, and the choices you have.
2. Information we collect
| Information | What it includes | When we get it |
|---|---|---|
| Account details | Email address, name, profile photo link, how you sign in (email and password, Google or Apple), your account ID and when you last signed in. With Sign in with Apple you can hide your email address; we then receive an address Apple creates that forwards to you. | When you create an account or sign in. Firebase Authentication handles passwords; we never see them. |
| Appliances and conversations | Appliance brands and model numbers, the type of appliance a photo showed (for example, a microwave), the problems you describe, RapidRepair's replies, links to manuals and your saved chat history. | When you use a diagnosis chat. Chats are saved to your account so you can return to them. |
| Photos | Photos you take or choose of a model plate, a part or an appliance. | When you use a photo feature. Photos are sent for analysis and then discarded; we don't store them. What a photo of an appliance or its model plate identifies (the brand, the model number and the type of appliance) is saved with that chat. |
| Live video and audio | Camera video, still frames and microphone audio during a Live session, and the captions shown on screen. | While a Live session is open. The video and audio are streamed to Google and not stored by us, and the captions stay briefly on your phone (see section 5). |
| Safety records | Safety warnings RapidRepair showed you, safety conditions you confirmed (for example, that an appliance is unplugged), risks you chose to accept before a step (for example, work near a capacitor in Live) and conversations it closed because of a hazard. | Created by our servers during a diagnosis or a Live session. You can't edit them. |
| Purchases and balances | What you bought and when, Google Play or App Store order and purchase details, your plan and its renewal date, your passes and your remaining Live time, a record of any free passes or access we give you, when we gave them and what they were used on, and a record of each renewal reminder we email you. We never receive your payment card details. | From Google Play or the App Store, and RevenueCat, when you buy, as you use Live, when we give you something free, and when we send you a renewal reminder. |
| Agreements, settings and activity | Which version of our Terms and this policy you accepted and when, your app settings, and a log of account activity such as app launches, sign-ins, agreements and settings changes, which includes your email address and name. | As you use the app. |
| Feedback | Your rating of an answer, any note you add, the appliance, and the question and reply you rated (with email addresses removed), stored with your account ID. | Only when you rate an answer while Improve AI Diagnostics is on in Settings. |
| Reports | When you report an answer as unsafe, wrong or offensive: the answer (in Live, the caption you reported), your question before it, the appliance, the reasons you picked and any note, stored with your account ID. | Whenever you send a report, whatever the Improve AI Diagnostics setting. |
| Usage counts | How many answers, Live sessions and lookups your account has asked for in the current hour and day, stored with your account ID. | Each time you use those features, only to stop automated or abusive use. |
| Support emails | Your email address and whatever you write to us. | When you contact us. |
| Device and technical information | App version, device model, operating system, language, Google Play Integrity results on Android or Apple App Attest results on iPhone, and crash details in app versions that have crash reporting turned on. Our cloud provider's request logs record IP addresses. | Automatically, to run and protect the service. |
We don't collect your precise location, your contacts or your advertising ID.
3. How we use it
- To provide RapidRepair: identify your appliance, answer your questions, find manuals and repair videos, run Live sessions and keep your history.
- To make repairs safer: show safety warnings, record the conditions you confirm and the risks you accept, close conversations when a hazard is detected, and keep Live from starting on an appliance it isn't offered for, such as a microwave.
- To handle purchases: deliver passes, Live time and plans, restore purchases and process refunds.
- To send notices about your plan: if you have a yearly plan, email you one reminder at your account's email address about five weeks before each renewal, with the renewal date, the price and how to cancel, and show the same reminder on your plan card in the app during the last six weeks. The law requires this notice; it isn't marketing.
- To protect the service: check that requests come from the genuine app, prevent fraud and abuse, and enforce usage limits.
- To support you: reply to your emails, fix problems you report, and give free passes or access when that helps, keeping a record of what we gave and what it was used on so your account stays accurate.
- To improve RapidRepair: review feedback and reports you choose to send, and investigate errors.
- To meet legal obligations: keep records the law requires and respond to lawful requests.
We don't sell your personal information, share it for cross-context behavioral advertising, show ads, or use it to make automated decisions that have legal or similarly significant effects on you.
4. How the AI handles your information
RapidRepair's answers come from Google's Gemini models. When you create an account, the app asks you to agree to this policy before you can ask anything.
- Questions: our servers send your question, the conversation so far, the appliance brand and model, and the relevant manual to the Gemini API.
- Photos: our servers send your photo to the Gemini API to read the model plate or examine the part, and then discard it. What a photo of an appliance or its model plate identifies (the brand, the model number and the type of appliance) is saved with that chat; the photo itself never is.
- Manuals: our servers download manuals from manufacturers' websites and store them with Gemini for up to 48 hours so follow-up questions are faster. Manuals don't include your personal information.
We use Google's paid Gemini API. Under Google's terms for paid services, Google doesn't use your prompts or responses to improve its products. Google keeps them for 55 days to detect abuse, authorized Google staff may review content that is flagged for abuse, and Google may process them in any country where it operates. See the Gemini API Additional Terms of Service.
AI can be wrong. Our Terms of Use explain how to use RapidRepair's guidance safely.
5. Live video sessions
- When you start Live, your phone streams camera video, still frames and microphone audio straight to Google's Gemini Live service over an encrypted connection, using a short-lived access key from our servers. The video and audio don't pass through our servers, and we don't record or store them.
- The captions of what you and RapidRepair say are kept on your phone during the session and for up to two hours after it ends, so you can pick the session up where you left off. After those two hours they're deleted from your phone (if the app isn't running then, the next time you open it), and signing out or deleting your account in the app also deletes them from that phone. For those same two hours, Google keeps the session, including what it saw and heard, so that it can be resumed.
- When a session ends, our servers send its captions to the Gemini API to write a short recap: what was checked, what was found and the next step. The recap is saved in that chat like the rest of your conversation, and RapidRepair reads it when you continue the chat. If the recap can't be written within those two hours, for example because your phone was offline, the captions are deleted anyway and that session has no recap. You can swipe a recap away to delete it.
- If you report a caption, the report sends that caption and your question before it.
- We keep a short record of each Live session: when it started, the appliance brand and model, any manual used, and your Live time balance. It's deleted with your account.
- Before capacitor work or turning off an appliance's gas, Live asks you to accept the risks, and on the gas screen to confirm the valve is off. Our servers record the warning you were shown and your confirmation as a safety record (see section 8). So that a confirmation can be recorded, our servers prepare those warnings when a session starts; a prepared warning you never confirm expires two hours later and is then deleted automatically, usually within a day.
- RapidRepair uses your camera and microphone only while you're using a feature that needs them. You can turn off either permission in your phone's settings at any time.
If other people are nearby: Live captures anything your camera and microphone pick up. Captions and recaps can include what other people nearby say if the microphone picks it up. Before you start, tell people nearby and ask their permission. Keep anyone who hasn't agreed out of the camera's view, and mute the microphone while they talk. Some states, including California, require everyone's consent before a private conversation is recorded.
7. How long we keep it
| Information | How long we keep it |
|---|---|
| Account details, chat history, settings, activity log, Live session records, feedback, reports and usage counts | Until you delete them or your account. You can delete individual chats at any time. |
| Photos, and Live video and audio | Not stored by us. Google keeps Gemini prompts and responses for 55 days to detect abuse. It also keeps a Live session for two hours after it ends, so that it can be resumed. |
| Live captions, kept only on your phone | Two hours after the session ends, or the next time you open the app after that. Signing out, or deleting your account in the app, deletes them from that phone sooner. |
| Manual copies stored with Gemini | Up to 48 hours. |
| Purchase records (our record of what your account bought or was given free, and RevenueCat's) | Kept after you delete your account for as long as we need them for refunds, fraud prevention, tax and accounting, generally up to seven years. Our record of each renewal reminder we sent (when, and for which renewal, not the email itself) is kept with them, to show it was sent. Google Play and Apple keep their own order records. |
| Safety records (see section 8): the warnings you were shown, the safety conditions you confirmed, the risks you accepted and any conversation closed because of a hazard, with the appliance, the hazard type and the support company and number you were given; and, for those conversations only, the server's notes on each answer. Stored with your account ID, the conversation ID and a coded form of your email address, and never with your name, your email address, your messages or the text of the answers. | Three years from the day your account is deleted, then deleted automatically. Held longer only if a legal claim about that repair has been made. |
| Live safety warnings prepared for a session and never confirmed | They expire two hours after they're prepared and are then deleted automatically, usually within a day. They aren't kept after you delete your account. |
| Your agreement record (see section 8): which versions of our Terms and this policy you accepted, when, on which platform (for example, Android or iPhone) and in which language. After you delete your account, the copy we keep is stored with your account ID and a coded form of your email address, and never with your name or your email address. | While you have your account, and for three years from the day your account is deleted, so we can show what you agreed to; then deleted automatically. Held longer only if a legal claim about RapidRepair has been made. |
| Server logs, including IP addresses | Up to 30 days. |
| Database backups | Deleted information can remain in backups for up to 7 days. |
| Emails you send us | As long as we need them to handle your request. |
8. Deleting your account and data
- In the app: open Settings, go to Account Management and tap Delete Account. If you haven't signed in recently, you'll be asked to sign in again. This deletes your sign-in account, profile, chat history, safety records, agreement records, activity log, Live session records, feedback, reports, usage counts and any school or district seat, and signs you out on every device. It also deletes any Live captions kept on the phone you delete it from. If you signed in with Apple, deleting your account also withdraws RapidRepair's access to your Apple Account.
- Without the app: follow the steps at rapidrepair.web.app/delete-account to ask us by email. We'll delete your account and data within 30 days of confirming the request.
- Only some data: delete chats from your chat list, or turn off Improve AI Diagnostics in Settings to stop sending feedback. Email us to delete anything else.
- Subscriptions: deleting your account doesn't cancel a Google Play or App Store subscription. Cancel it first: in Google Play, or on iPhone in Settings, then your name, then Subscriptions. Once your account is deleted, we can no longer send you the yearly plan's renewal reminder.
Safety records are an exception. If the app warned you about a hazard, asked you to confirm a safety condition or accept a risk, or closed a conversation because of a hazard, we keep a copy of those records for three years from the day your account is deleted, and then they are deleted automatically. This is the record that answers a claim that the app told someone to do something unsafe, and it outlives your account because that kind of claim usually arrives after the app is gone. It holds the warning shown, your confirmation, the appliance, the hazard type, the support company and number you were given, and, for those conversations only, the server's notes on each answer: what kind of answer it was, the part it named, how many steps it had, and whether a step restored power, water or gas. It does not hold your name, your email address, your messages or the text of the answers. Your account ID, the conversation ID and a coded form of your email address are stored with it so a record can be matched to you if you make a claim. We hold a record past three years only if such a claim has been made.
So is your agreement record. We keep a copy of the record of your agreement to our Terms and this policy for three years from the day your account is deleted, and then it is deleted automatically. It lets us show what you agreed to if a claim about RapidRepair arrives after your account is gone. It holds which versions you accepted, when, on which platform and in which language. It does not hold your name or your email address. Your account ID and a coded form of your email address are stored with it so it can be matched to you if you make a claim. We hold it past three years only if such a claim has been made.
Other records are kept after deletion for the periods shown in section 7.
9. Your choices and rights
- See and correct your information: your profile and history are in the app. Email us for a copy of your information or to correct it.
- Improve AI Diagnostics: this setting, under Privacy in Settings, controls whether rating an answer sends feedback to us. It's on by default. Reports you send reach us whatever this setting says. It doesn't change how your questions are sent to the AI to answer them.
- Camera and microphone: you can turn off RapidRepair's camera or microphone permission in your phone's settings (on iPhone, Settings, then Apps, then RapidRepair). Photo and Live features won't work without them.
- California residents: we honor requests to know, access, correct and delete personal information, and we won't treat you differently for making one. We don't sell or share personal information as California law defines those terms, and we don't give it to others for their own marketing.
To make a request, email us from the address on your account so we can confirm it's you. We aim to respond within 30 days, and always within 45 days.
10. Security
- Information is encrypted in transit, and Google Cloud encrypts it at rest.
- We limit how often one account can use the features that cost us money to run, so automated or abusive use is refused for a while.
- Database security rules limit each account to its own information. Only our servers write safety records, and only our servers and our own admin tool write purchase records. The app can write neither.
- We use Firebase App Check, with Google Play Integrity on Android and Apple App Attest on iPhone, to detect requests that don't come from the genuine app.
- Our database keeps short-term backups so information can be recovered after an error.
No system is completely secure. If a breach affects your personal information, we'll notify you as the law requires.
11. Age requirement
RapidRepair is only for people 18 and older. Each time you open the app, it asks Apple (on iPhone) or Google Play (on Android) whether the person using the phone is 18 or older. The answer is an age range, never a birth date. The app uses it only to decide whether RapidRepair can be used on that phone: it isn't sent to our servers or to anyone else, and it isn't kept after the check. If Apple or Google Play says you're under 18, the app won't let you in, and if an account is signed in, it offers to delete it. Where they can't answer, for example on an iPhone older than iOS 26, we rely on your confirmation, when you agree to our Terms, that you're 18 or older. We also ask Google Play to block users it identifies as minors, and RapidRepair is rated 18+ on the App Store. We don't knowingly collect information from anyone under 18. If we learn that we have, we'll delete it. If you believe someone under 18 has an account, please email us.
12. Users outside the United States
RapidRepair is run from the United States, and our service providers may process information in the United States and other countries. If you use RapidRepair from the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, we rely on these legal bases: providing the service you asked for, our legitimate interests in keeping it safe and secure and preventing abuse, your consent for optional feedback, and our legal obligations. You can ask to access, correct, delete, restrict or port your information, object to processing, withdraw consent at any time, and complain to your local data protection authority.
13. Website and Do Not Track
Our website doesn't use analytics, advertising or tracking cookies. Its policy pages load fonts from Google Fonts, which receives your IP address. Because we don't track visitors across other sites, we don't respond differently to browser Do Not Track signals.
Other companies may be able to collect information about your online activity over time and across different websites when you use RapidRepair: Google receives your IP address when a policy page loads its fonts, as described above, and when you play a video in the app, YouTube's embedded player may collect information about your activity, including through cookies, under Google's privacy policy (see section 6).
14. Changes to this policy
We'll update this policy when our practices change. For material changes, we'll change the version number and effective date above, and the app will ask you to agree to the updated policy before you can keep using it. If you don't agree, the same screen lets you sign out or delete your account. Earlier versions are available on request.
15. Contact us
For questions, requests or complaints about privacy:
Brown Heuristics (Nicholas Brown), maker of RapidRepair
Email: brownsheuristic@gmail.com
California, United States