Privacy policy

Last updated 5 November 2026

DashForge is a dashboard, datalogger and tuning companion for engine computers (ECUs). It connects to your ECU over USB or Bluetooth.

Data that stays on your device

• ECU data and datalogs. Readings from your ECU, datalogs, captured starts, dyno runs and saved tunes are stored on your device, in Documents/DashForge (and Download/MS3Dash for files from before the app was renamed). They're uploaded only if you use DashForge Track's cloud sync (below).
• Your setup files. The INI and MSQ files you give the app during setup are kept on your device.
• Settings. Your dashboards, warnings, units, adapter choice and map keys (Geoapify, Google) are stored on your device. The map keys are left out of Android backups.
• Unlocks. Unlock codes you enter, a random id for this install, and a fingerprint of your car's ECU (short hashes of a few engine settings, not the settings themselves) are stored on your device and left out of Android backups. Unlock codes and the car's fingerprint never leave your device by themselves, apart from the daily DashForge Plus check described here. A DashForge Plus or Pro key is sent once, when you activate it, with the install id (see "Activating DashForge Plus or Pro" below); a device with DashForge Plus also sends its Plus unlock code, which carries the install id, once a day while it's online, to ask whether the purchase has been upgraded to Pro (same section); starting the DashForge Pro free trial sends the install id too (see "The DashForge Pro free trial" below); and once you link DashForge Track, the install id goes with each DashForge Track request (below). A support request you choose to send (below) includes the install id, the car's fingerprint and whose codes this device holds (not the codes themselves), so support can help with an unlock. When the app starts, if it's online (and every 6 hours while it stays running), it downloads the public list of refunded unlock codes from api.appforged.cc, so a refunded DashForge Plus or Pro code stops working; the request carries no code, install id or position.
• Places. Your home and recent destinations, the route in progress (so navigation can resume after a power cut), and the lap timer's tracks and sessions are stored on your device and left out of Android backups.
• Map cache. Map tiles you've viewed are cached on your device for offline use. The cache shows the areas you've driven through.

Data sent to other services, and why

• Maps and routing (Geoapify). When you use navigation or a map on a dashboard, the app requests map tiles, search results, road names and routes from Geoapify, using the API key you enter. These requests include:
  • the map area you view;
  • your search text and destination when you navigate;
  • your exact position, for the name of the road you're on. This happens while the Nav screen is open, and in the background while it relays to a HUD.
• Outside temperature (Google Weather API). If you enter a Google Maps Platform key and the outside temperature is on (Menu ▸ Navigation), the app sends your position, rounded to about 1 km, to Google's Weather API. Only a phone or tablet asks: a car's head unit never contacts Google, and gets the reading from a phone connected as the HUD device over your local Wi-Fi. Without a key, or with the switch off, nothing is sent for it. Google's use of this data is covered by the Google Privacy Policy.
• DashForge Track (api.appforged.cc, our server). Only if you link a DashForge Track code (Menu ▸ Navigation ▸ DashForge Track). Our server runs on Cloudflare, and what it stores (your devices, your purchase's status and your synced files) is kept in the EU. Linking sends the code, a random install ID (our server keeps only a one-way hash of it) and your device's make and model, so you can see and remove your devices (up to three). Every later DashForge Track request (maps, sync, lap tracks and share links) carries the same install ID, so our server knows which of your devices it comes from. Then:
  • Maps: with DashForge Track as the map source, the map, search, road-name and route requests described above go to our server instead of straight to Geoapify, and our server passes them on to Geoapify. It counts requests per device per day, for its limits, and keeps those counts for a week; it doesn't keep your positions, searches or routes.
  • Cloud sync and backup: your dashboards, tunes, datalogs, captured starts, lap tracks, lap sessions and best laps are uploaded to our storage and shared between your linked devices. Datalogs and lap sessions hold ECU data and your GPS positions. Sync runs when you tap Sync, and by itself every 6 hours on Wi-Fi (an unmetered network) unless you turn that off. Above your allowance (1 GB), the oldest datalogs and lap sessions are deleted first; tunes, dashboards and tracks are kept until you delete them.
  • Lap timer: the app sends your position to find tracks near you. A track you submit (its name, start/finish line and sectors) is checked and then shown to other users near it.
  • Share links: a datalog or lap session you share as a link is uploaded, and anyone with the link can view it at share.appforged.cc until it expires (after 7 to 365 days, or never, as you choose) or you revoke it.
  • Cloud files page: a one-time code from the app opens your synced files in a browser at files.appforged.cc.
  • Monthly dashboard: "Import this month's dashboard" downloads that month's dashboard design from our server.
  • Purchases on the website: Stripe handles the payment, for DashForge Plus, DashForge Pro and DashForge Track (see "Purchases" below).
  • Purchases in the app: Google handles the payment, through Google Play (see "Purchases through Google Play" below).
• Buying in the app (Google Play, and our server). In DashForge from Google Play, buying, restoring and checking your purchases goes through Google Play on your device, and each purchase is then checked with our server, which unlocks it (see "Purchases through Google Play" below).
• The DashForge Pro free trial (api.appforged.cc, our server). Starting the 7-day free trial in the app sends our server a one-way hash of your device's Android ID, with the random install ID and your device's make and model. We keep only a keyed hash of it (a one-way hash made with a key only our server holds), to allow one trial per device, plus the trial's dates and a keyed hash of the install ID. We don't keep the make and model.
• Languages (dashforge.appforged.cc). If you pick a language other than English (Menu ▸ Dashboard ▸ Display ▸ Language), the app downloads the list of languages and that language's file from this website, and while the language is on, checks once a day for a newer version. These requests carry no account, install ID, position or ECU data; like any web request, they reach the server from your IP address. With English, nothing is sent for it.
• Update check (dashforge.appforged.cc). Once a day, when it's online, the app checks for a newer version by fetching a small file from this website. Nothing about you, your device or your car is sent, beyond what any web request carries (your IP address). You can turn it off in Menu ▸ Diagnostics & app ▸ Check for updates. On a copy from Google Play, the update itself comes from Google Play.
• HUD relay. If you use a second device as a head-up display, the head unit sends it ECU readings and the ECU's signature, your speed, and navigation state (your exact position, the road name and the route) over your local Wi-Fi. Until the HUD device answers, this is broadcast to the whole local network, and occasional broadcasts continue after that. It isn't encrypted, and it never leaves your local network.

The app sends nothing else over the network.

Purchases

• Purchases through Google Play. If you buy in the app, Google handles the payment under the Google Play terms and Google's privacy policy, and acts as the seller. We never see your name, email address or card. Google tells our server the order number, what was bought, when, the price, and whether it's pending, paid, renewing, cancelled or refunded. The app sends our server the purchase's token from Google Play, with the random install ID and your device's make and model, so we can check it with Google and unlock it on up to three devices. We keep the token (encrypted), the order number, the product, its status and dates, the key or link code we made for it, and the devices it's on. We keep them while the purchase is active and for two years after it ends or is refunded. With each purchase the app also gives Google Play a one-way hash: of the random install ID, which Google uses to spot fraud, or, for an upgrade to Pro, of the purchase being upgraded, so we know which key it's for. Neither can be turned back into the ID or the key. To have the key or link code, its devices and the token deleted sooner, see Delete your DashForge account.
• Prices in your currency. Our website's buy page shows prices in pounds, euros or US dollars; which one it starts with is picked from the country your connection comes from, which our server reads for that page only and doesn't store.
• What's kept for a purchase on our website. Stripe handles the payment, for DashForge Plus, DashForge Pro, an upgrade from Plus to Pro, and DashForge Track, and acts as the seller of record. For each, we receive and keep your email address, Stripe's reference for you as a customer and for the payment, what you bought, the amount paid, its status (including a refund or a cancellation) and when. For DashForge Plus and Pro we also keep your key (encrypted) and the devices it's activated on (below), and an upgrade is kept with the Plus purchase it upgraded; for DashForge Track, your link code and linked devices (above). We never see your card details. These records are kept with your purchase; to have them deleted, see Delete your DashForge account (some have to be kept for tax and accounting).
• Signing in by email. The account page on our website has no password. When you ask to sign in, we email a sign-in link to that address, through our email provider, Resend. The link works once, for 30 minutes; we keep only a one-way hash of it. We send it only to an email address that bought something. Opening it signs you in for 30 days with a cookie that's needed for the account page to work (no tracking cookie); signing out ends it, and "sign out everywhere" ends every session. The checkout's success page can also sign you in, but only on the device and browser that paid (a short-lived cookie set when checkout starts), only once, and only when the purchase is your account's first; otherwise you sign in by email. To limit misuse, we count sign-in requests per email address and per network address, keeping only one-way hashes of them (never the address itself) for up to 2 days.
• Your key or code by email. When your payment goes through, we email your DashForge Plus or Pro key, or your DashForge Track link code, to the email address you bought with, through Resend, so you have a copy. We may send it to that address again, for example if you ask us to. Our server keeps only whether and when it was sent.
• Activating DashForge Plus or Pro. Entering a Plus or Pro key in the app sends it to our server with a random install ID (we keep only a one-way hash of it) and your device's make and model, so the key works on up to three devices and you can see and remove them on the account page. We keep these while the device is active; removing it (or a refund) deletes the hash and the model. Once a day while it's online, a device with DashForge Plus sends our server its Plus unlock code, which carries the install ID, to ask whether the purchase has been upgraded to Pro; if it has, our server sends back a Pro unlock code for that device. The check carries no email address, position or ECU data.
• The monthly design email. While you have DashForge Track, we email you a new dashboard once a month (as an attachment, or a download link that works for 60 days if it's large), through Resend. It's on unless you turn it off: sign in to the account page and turn off the monthly design email; each email says how. A subscription through Google Play gets no email (we have no address for it): its monthly dashboard is on the DashForge Track screen in the app.
• Our audit log. To look after your subscription and settle any dispute, our server keeps a log of changes to it and to your account: devices linked, activated and removed, free trials started, link codes replaced, data deleted, share links made and revoked, purchases, upgrades, refunds, chargebacks, cancellations, codes switched off, keys and codes emailed again, and sign-ins and sign-outs. Each entry has the time, who made the change (a device, the website, Stripe, Google Play or us) and ids, never your position, search text, IP address or email address. Entries are deleted after 2 years.

The video on our home page. Nothing loads from YouTube until you press play. When you do, the video plays in YouTube's player (from youtube-nocookie.com), and Google's use of that data is covered by the Google Privacy Policy.

Support requests

Nothing is sent to us automatically. Each of these opens your email or share app, and you send it yourself.

• Send details to support builds a zip on your device, and you choose what goes in:
  • a diagnostics log, cleaned of Bluetooth addresses, network addresses and destinations;
  • device and ECU information, including the unlock status (whose codes this device holds, not the codes themselves, the install id and the car id);
  • this session's setup timeline and connection trace;
  • screenshots;
  • check reports;
  • your INI and your tune. From the setup screen these start ticked, because they're the files you just gave it; from anywhere else they start unticked.
• Send my verified INI (offered after a successful setup): the INI, the ECU's signature and firmware version, the check results, and your device's make and model. It's used to add that firmware to the app.
• Share diagnostics: the same cleaned diagnostics log, plus the auto-tune log.

We use what you send only to answer your request (and, for a verified INI, to add that firmware to the app), and keep it for 12 months.

Your choices

• Deny location permission: navigation, GPS speed and the trip computer stop working. The ECU dashboard still works.
• Turn off the outside temperature, or don't enter a Google key.
• Delete logs and tunes in the app. Uninstalling removes the app's settings, keys and map cache; your logs and tunes in Documents/DashForge stay, so a reinstall doesn't lose them, until you delete that folder.
• DashForge Track: turn off the automatic sync (DashForge Track ▸ Sync by itself), revoke share links, remove a linked device, or delete everything you've synced (DashForge Track ▸ Delete my data from the cloud). That deletes your synced files, tracks and best laps; tracks you submitted to the shared track list stay in it, and your email and purchase record stay with your subscription. To have those deleted too, see Delete your DashForge account.
• Turn off the monthly design email on the account page of our website, or write to support@appforged.cc.
• To have support emails deleted, write to support@appforged.cc.

Children

DashForge isn't directed at children.

Changes

We'll update this page when the app's data use changes. The date at the top says when it last changed.

Contact

AppForged LTD (registered in Scotland, company number SC885016) is the controller of the personal data described here, registered with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) under number ZC282272. Write to support@appforged.cc.

If you're unhappy with how we've handled your data, you can complain to the ICO at ico.org.uk.