Last updated: October 2026 · Beta
Who we are
@plate is operated by Heavy Lift Ventures Inc. (formerly Pulpo Partners Inc.), a Delaware corporation, 1649 Valencia Street, San Francisco, CA 94110. Heavy Lift Ventures Inc. is the controller of the personal information described here, and the address for any notice about it. "We" and "us" mean Heavy Lift Ventures Inc..
What we collect
Your mobile number (verified by one-time code), plate number and state, car make/model/color, a photo of your plate, and the approximate location when a nudge is sent (rounded to ~100m). If you verify a plate with a vehicle registration document, or show one to claim a plate someone else already registered, the document is read and immediately discarded — we keep only whether it matched the plate, the state read from it, and the outcome. If you ask to share a car someone else registered, they see the last four digits of your number with the request, and never the rest. If you choose to, an email address and a home area (see below).
An email address is optional. When you add one we send a single link to confirm it, and nothing else is sent to it until it is confirmed. After that we may send a weekly summary of your plates and groups — only in a week when there is something to tell you — and other non-urgent notices. Every email says why you are getting it, names Heavy Lift Ventures Inc. and our postal address, and has a one-tap unsubscribe link that needs no sign-in; you can also turn the summary off in Settings. We do not share your email with other users, sell it or use it for advertising. Our email provider, Resend, delivers it for us. Your email is not a way to sign in, but a confirmed email is how you can get back into your account if you lose your number: we send it a code, and changing or removing a confirmed email takes a code first.
Home area
A home area is optional. If you give one, we keep the address you typed, so we can show it back to you, and a point for it rounded to about 100 m — never the precise location. It is used only for your own features, such as street-cleaning reminders for your block and groups near you. It is never shown to anyone else, never shared, and never used when anyone looks up a plate: nobody who scans or searches your plate can learn where you live from @plate. You can change or remove it in the app at any time, and removing it deletes it.
Text messages
@plate sends SMS for three things: one-time login codes, an invitation when another user shares a plate with you, and — where push notifications are unavailable — a notice that someone has nudged your plate. Message frequency varies and depends on your own activity; most people receive only a few messages per month. Message and data rates may apply. Reply STOP to any message to opt out, or HELP for help.
How we use your data
To deliver nudges, verify plate ownership, prevent abuse, and improve the product. We do not sell your data. We do not use it for advertising.
Location data
Location is stored when you send a nudge, rounded to ~100m before storage, and never shared with recipients at more than that. It is also stored when you mark where you parked (see Where you parked). When you scan a plate, or tell a group your spot is opening, your phone's location is used, and not stored, to tell which of your parking groups are within about 300 m of you, and to check that you are near a group when you add a car to it.
Where you parked
In the @plate iPhone app you can mark where your car is parked — yourself, or with a Shortcuts automation you set up. We keep the exact location, the time, and who parked it, for that one spot only: parking again replaces it, and we never keep a history of where a car has been. The people who hold the plate with you see it, and the app tells you who before it is shared; you can keep any one park to yourself. Nobody else can see it — not people who scan or search the plate, not your parking groups. We use it to show the car on your map and to remind everyone who can see it about street cleaning on that block, using the city's published schedule; the location is matched on our servers and is not sent to the city. It is deleted when you head out or mark the car moved, when the car's holders change or the plate is released, when your account is deleted, and in any case after 14 days. If you tell a parking group your spot is opening, the group sees the group's own address, never your location, and the message is deleted after ten minutes.
Parking groups
A parking group is a list of the cars that belong at a place — a building, a lot, a street — run by the person who created it and any admins they choose. Members can link plates they hold. The group's owner and admins can also add a car by scanning its plate with the @plate camera, near the group: the photo is used to read the plate and is not kept, and the group keeps only the plate number and state. A group's list does not say who a plate belongs to. Everyone in the group can look up whether a plate belongs there and can see the list of plates and the notes their holders left; the note field says so where it is written. Only the owner and admins see the cars added by scanning, who the members are, and the record of look-ups. If your plate was added to a group this way, you will be asked whether to keep it there once you register the plate on @plate. Choosing Remove takes it off the list and stops that group adding it again. You can also email help@atplate.com to have a plate removed from a group without an account.
Plate look-ups
When a plate is looked up on @plate — read by the camera, searched for, or checked against a parking group — we keep a record of which plate, which account asked (none, if you were signed out), and when. The record never includes where you were, the photo, or your IP address. It is not shown to other users, is used only to answer legal obligations and to investigate abuse, and is deleted after 30 days.
Data retention
During beta we retain your account data, plates and nudge history for as long as your account exists. The photo of your own plate is stored privately and is readable only through short-lived signed links. A photo attached to a message is stored at an address that cannot be guessed and is shown only inside that message's thread; anyone the thread reaches can open it. Vehicle registration documents submitted for verification are never stored at all. We are building automatic deletion of plate photos and expired nudges; until it ships, email us and we will delete them on request.
Your rights
In Settings you can download a copy of your data (your profile, plates, messages and groups, as one file) and delete your account. Deleting locks the account at once and removes it after 30 days: your plates pass to their co-owners or are released, groups you run pass to an admin or a member or are closed, and your photos are deleted. Messages you sent stay readable to the person you sent them to, with nothing that names you — they never carried a name. Within those 30 days you can ask us to put the account back. You can release any plate at any time in the app, and opt out of texts at any time by replying STOP.
Law enforcement requests
We hand over information about an account only in response to valid legal process — a subpoena, court order or warrant — served on Heavy Lift Ventures Inc., or where the law otherwise requires it or someone is in immediate danger. We tell the affected person when we are allowed to. We do not volunteer account information to anyone, and we do not build special access for anyone.
Contact
Heavy Lift Ventures Inc. · 1649 Valencia Street, San Francisco, CA 94110 · help@atplate.com