Last updated 7 October 2026. This notice covers the GoVantage app on Android and iPhone. It adds to our main privacy notice, which explains everything else we do with personal data.
1. Who we are
GoVantage Ltd (company number 14382911), Unit 4, Trentham Lakes South, Stanley Matthews Way, Stoke-on-Trent ST4 8GA is responsible for the personal data the app collects. Questions about privacy: privacy@govantage.uk.
2. Who the app is for
Customers who hire a van from us, the drivers on their accounts, and the GoVantage team who hand vans over and take them back. It is not meant for anyone under 18.
3. What the app collects, and why
- Your account: your name, email address and phone number, the business you drive for, and your sign-in. Your password is checked by our server and never kept on the phone; the app keeps only a sign-in token, in the phone's secure storage (the iOS Keychain or the Android Keystore).
- This device: its name and model, the operating system and the app version, so you can see where you are signed in and sign a device out. The app also makes a random identifier for this installation, so a signed-in session stays tied to this phone.
- Photographs: of the van at collection and return, for weekly checks and damage reports, and of your driving licence and documents when you apply. The app uses the camera only while you are taking a photo, records no video and never uses the microphone.
- Photos from your library: only the photo you choose, when you choose to add one.
- Location: when you photograph a van during a check, the app records roughly where the photo was taken (to within about 100 metres), as evidence of where the check happened. Only while you take the photo, only if you allow location access, and never in the background. Switch it off in Account → Photographs → Record where photos are taken, or in your phone's settings.
- Checks and signatures: mileage, fuel, tyre and condition readings, notes, damage marks and the signatures drawn on screen at a hand-over. They become part of the hire record.
- Your application and documents: the answers and documents you give when you apply to hire, as described in the main privacy notice.
4. What the app does not do
The app shows no adverts and contains no advertising or third-party analytics tools. It does not track you across other companies' apps or websites, and it does not sell or share your data for advertising. If we ever add usage analytics, it will stay off until you agree to it in the app.
5. Permissions on your phone
- Camera: asked the first time you take a photo. Without it you can still add a photo from your library where a check allows it.
- Photos: on Android the system photo picker shares only the photo you pick; on iPhone, asked the first time you add a photo from your library.
- Location while using the app: asked the first time you photograph a van with location recording on. Saying no changes nothing else.
- Notifications: if the app asks to send you notifications about your hire, you can say no, or turn them off at any time in your phone's settings.
You can change any of these in your phone's settings at any time.
6. What is kept on your phone
So the app works without a signal, it keeps drafts of checks, photos waiting to upload and a saved copy of pages such as this one in its own private storage, which other apps cannot read. These are left out of device backups and transfers to a new phone. Uninstalling the app removes them; anything not yet sent is lost if you uninstall before it has gone.
7. Our lawful bases
We use this data to provide your hire under our contract with you or your business, to meet legal duties (tax and road traffic law), and for our legitimate interests in keeping vans, drivers and records safe and accurate, including evidence of a van's condition. The location of a photo is collected only with your permission and can be switched off.
8. Who we share it with
Only the people and companies listed in our main privacy notice, such as insurers, payment providers and, where the law requires it, the authorities. The app sends its data over an encrypted connection to our own servers.
9. How long we keep it
- Hand-over and return checks, with their photos, signatures and readings: six years after your last hire or payment, as evidence in case of a claim.
- Driving licence, identity and address documents: while your account is open; they are deleted with the account.
- Device and sign-in records: while the device stays signed in; removed when you sign it out or your account is deleted.
10. Deleting your account
Delete your account in the app: Account → Privacy & legal → Delete my account. Without the app, go to govantage.uk/delete-account and we email you a link to confirm. Nothing happens for 14 days, so you can change your mind. A van still on hire, money owed either way or an open damage case has to be settled first. Your sign-in, contact details and documents are then erased; invoices, payments, signed agreements and hand-over checks are kept for six years with access restricted, as the law requires, and then deleted.
11. Your rights
You can ask to see, correct, export or erase your data, object to or restrict how we use it, and withdraw any consent. Download a copy of your data from your account, or email privacy@govantage.uk; we reply within one month. You can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk.
12. Changes
When this notice changes we update the date at the top, and we tell account holders by email when a change affects them.