Privacy Policy
The short version: RateAnchor is a freight-rate app for carriers. Your core business records stay on your device unless you choose a feature that sends specific information, such as the Co-Op, usage analytics, a story submission, a support message, or an export or share action. There are no accounts. Three features are optional and off until you turn them on: privacy-preserving usage analytics, the RateAnchor Co-Op, and sending us your story. We do not sell personal information, show ads, or use advertising identifiers. You can delete your data at any time — see rateanchor.app/delete-my-data.html.
1. Who we are and what this Policy covers
This Policy explains how Midnight Engine Labs LLC, a Florida limited liability company ("MEL," "we," "us," "our"), handles information in connection with the RateAnchor apps for iPhone and Android, the RateAnchor web version, and the website rateanchor.app (together, the "App"). Questions: privacy@rateanchor.app.
2. U.S. service
RateAnchor is currently offered for use in the United States. MEL does not currently market or offer RateAnchor to users in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom.
3. Your records stay on your device
Everything you enter or create — loads, quotes, Books entries, costs and settings, trucks, your Broker Book, lane memory, deadlines and rate-con readings — is stored in the App's private storage on your device. We do not receive it. It leaves your device when you send it somewhere yourself (for example sharing a load plan, exporting Books, saving a backup file or emailing a report), or when you turn on an optional feature that transmits the specific information described for that feature in Sections 7 to 9. Turning on such a feature is your authorization for those transmissions until you turn it off.
Your operating-system or device provider may separately back up App data according to your device and cloud-backup settings (for example iCloud Backup or Android backup). MEL does not control those backups.
4. Rate Con Checker and document reading
When you check a rate confirmation, you share or paste its text or file into the App and the reading happens on your device. The App never requests camera access, and nothing is uploaded to us for reading. On iPhone the reading uses Apple's on-device Vision framework. On Android it uses Google's ML Kit text-recognition library, which also runs on your device: Google states that ML Kit does not send your images, documents or the recognized text to Google, but that it does send Google technical metrics — device information (such as manufacturer, model and operating-system version), app information (package name and version), a per-installation identifier and performance metrics such as latency — which Google uses to measure performance, maintain and improve ML Kit, and detect misuse, under Google's own privacy policy.
5. Voice quoting
If you use voice quoting, your speech is turned into text by your device's or browser's speech service (Apple or Google) under their terms. We receive no audio.
6. Backups you create
Backup files you create are files you keep. We never receive them.
7. Optional: privacy-preserving usage analytics (off until you choose)
If you opt in, RateAnchor sends limited usage events — for example that the App was opened, which feature was used, that a screen error occurred (as a code, not a message), or that a setting changed — with values grouped into ranges (for example "2–5"), together with the App version, platform (iPhone, Android or web) and language.
Not sent: your loads, rates, names, numbers, brokers, locations or documents. RateAnchor's usage analytics use no third-party analytics SDK; these events go only to MEL's server. (Google's ML Kit metrics on Android are described in Section 4.)
The events are associated with a random app-generated identifier. The identifier is not your name, email address, phone number, advertising identifier or RateAnchor account identifier (RateAnchor does not require an account). MEL configures its analytics processing so that the identifier is not used to create a directly identified user profile: events pass through MEL's server, which does not forward your IP address and disables location lookup before passing events to our analytics provider, PostHog, and MEL does not link the identifier to your identity. PostHog's pseudonymous analytics profile is keyed to the random RateAnchor analytics identifier and is not intentionally enriched by MEL with a name, email address, advertising identifier, IP address or precise location; it exists so that your past events can be found and deleted when you ask. Analytics events may contain the App version, platform, language and the limited usage information described above.
Because the identifier persists until you reset it, we describe these analytics as pseudonymous rather than anonymous.
Two separate controls in Settings:
- Reset my analytics ID — creates a new identifier for future events; it does not delete past events.
- Delete my analytics data — asks MEL to delete the events associated with your current identifier, then resets it.
Retention: usage events are kept for up to 12 months, then deleted.
You can turn analytics off at any time in Settings.
8. Optional: the RateAnchor Co-Op (off until you choose)
What it is. Carriers who join share facts about booked loads so RateAnchor can calculate lane-level and market-level freight statistics for members.
What a contribution contains. For each booked load: the lane (city and state of origin, destination and any stops), equipment type, load details (mode, weight range, hazmat / TWIC / oversize flags, urgency, type of day), the week (not the date), loaded and total miles, the rate and rate per mile, how many days ahead it was booked, whether it was quoted for a broker or a shipper (the kind only), how much the rate moved from the first offer (when known), and how the load was confirmed (a rate con, or a booked shipper load).
What a contribution does not intentionally include. Co-Op contributions do not intentionally include direct identifiers such as your name, company name, MC or DOT number, VIN, plate number, broker name, shipper name, customer name, street address, ZIP code or exact load date, or your costs.
Three terms we use. A Raw Co-Op Contribution is the pseudonymous record received from your App. The Contributor ID is a random identifier created by the App that MEL does not intentionally link to your identity. Aggregated Market Statistics are statistical outputs derived from multiple contributors and designed so that individual contributors and individual load records cannot reasonably be singled out.
How Co-Op information is used. MEL uses Co-Op contributions to calculate lane-level and market-level freight statistics. Individual contributions are associated with a random Contributor ID and are treated as pseudonymous contribution records. MEL uses minimum-contributor thresholds (at least five different contributors for a lane, and more for sparse or distinctive segments) and other aggregation or deidentification measures before publishing market statistics designed to prevent an individual contributor or individual load from being reasonably singled out.
MEL may publish, sell or license Aggregated and deidentified Market Statistics derived from Co-Op contributions, such as lane-level or market-level rate trends. MEL does not license individual contributor records or individual load records as a commercial data product. MEL does not attempt to reidentify contributors from Aggregated Market Statistics and contractually requires recipients of licensed statistics not to attempt reidentification.
Participation is optional and does not change what any member can see in the App. You may turn the Co-Op off at any time; turning it off stops future contributions. You may separately ask MEL to delete your previously submitted contribution records (Settings → Delete my past Co-Op contributions, or rateanchor.app/delete-my-data.html). Deletion of an individual contribution does not require MEL to withdraw or reconstruct previously created statistical outputs that no longer contain or reasonably relate to an identifiable contributor, where applicable law permits.
Retention. Raw Co-Op Contributions are retained for up to 24 months unless deleted earlier. After that period, MEL deletes the contribution record or retains only statistical information that has been aggregated and deidentified so that it is no longer maintained as an individual contribution.
Stored with. Supabase (database hosting), in the United States.
9. Optional: Share your story
What you can send. Answers to four short questions, two optional numbers (the broker's first offer and the rate you booked), how you know RateAnchor, and — only if you choose publication with your name — your first name, last initial, city and state, equipment and years in trucking; and, only if you type it, an email address for a reply.
Your choice decides what happens:
- "Yes — with my first name": we may show your story on rateanchor.app and in RateAnchor marketing with your first name, last initial, city, state and equipment.
- "Yes — without my identifying attribution": we may show your words without your name, city or other attribution. If you gave an email address for a reply, MEL still holds it with your submission.
- "No — just for the RateAnchor team" (or no choice): never shown anywhere.
- Your answer to "what would make RateAnchor better" is never shown.
- Published stories reflect the contributor's own experience. MEL may edit a story for length, spelling, formatting or clarity without materially changing its meaning. By submitting a story you grant MEL permission to publish it according to the option you selected, as described in the Terms of Use.
Stored with. Supabase. If you gave an email address, we send a thank-you and the RateAnchor team receives a notice through Resend (email delivery). Your email is used only to reply about your story. When you send a story, the App gives you a removal code; you can use it, or the email you gave, to have the story removed at any time by writing to privacy@rateanchor.app.
10. Network features that send limited lookup information
These requests send only the information needed for the lookup you start (for example an MC number or a VIN), in request bodies, not URL query strings, plus the routine technical information described in Section 11. Some lookup inputs can relate to a person, for example a sole proprietor's motor-carrier number.
- Market data: freight indexes (FRED / Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis), diesel prices (U.S. Energy Information Administration), produce truck rates (USDA) and RateAnchor's national reference rates. These requests include no lookup input.
- Version check: asks which App version is current, so we can tell you about updates. No lookup input.
- Public lookups you start: carrier and broker authority and safety records (FMCSA, including FMCSA's open data on data.transportation.gov), VIN details (NHTSA), weather and similar public data.
11. Technical information that internet requests create
Any request from the App to our website (rateanchor.app, hosted by Netlify) may cause Netlify to create limited technical and security logs, such as IP address, time, request status and the page or function requested. Under MEL's current Netlify configuration, request and function logs are generally available for approximately 24 hours to 7 days depending on the service tier; other aggregated operational metrics may be retained under Netlify's service settings. We do not use this information to identify you, and MEL's own functions do not intentionally keep these request logs.
12. Purchases and subscriptions
Purchases are made through Apple (App Store) or Google (Google Play) using your own Apple or Google account, under their terms. We never receive your card details. To confirm a membership, the App sends the store's purchase record to our server, which checks it with the store and returns the result: on iPhone, Apple's signed purchase record; on Android, the Google Play purchase token for each RateAnchor product the App holds. We do not keep it.
Google may send our server notifications about changes to the status of RateAnchor purchases. MEL verifies that each notification is authentic, uses Founding Operator-related purchase information only as necessary to administer the Founding Operator seat count and related refunds or reversals, and does not keep the notification after processing except for the limited seat record described below.
Founding Operator seat records. To enforce the Founding Operator purchase limit across both stores, MEL keeps a record for each qualifying paid purchase containing a one-way protected (hashed) representation of the store's transaction identifier, the store, the time the seat was counted and any recorded refund time (a refunded seat becomes available again). The record does not contain a name, email address, RateAnchor account, advertising identifier or device identifier, and MEL does not maintain a direct mapping between a seat record and the purchaser's real-world identity. Test purchases, promotional codes and offer-code redemptions are not recorded. MEL uses these records only to administer the Founding Operator limit, prevent duplicate or invalid seat counting, process refund-status changes, and address related payment or purchase disputes. Because MEL does not ordinarily keep these records by name, email address, device or RateAnchor account, MEL may not be able to associate a person-based deletion request with a particular seat record without collecting additional transaction information solely for that purpose. Seat records are kept while the offer remains open and for up to 24 months after it permanently closes, then deleted, unless longer retention is reasonably necessary for an unresolved payment dispute, legal obligation or litigation hold.
13. Support and other communications
If you email support@rateanchor.app or privacy@rateanchor.app, we use your message and email address to help you or to handle your request. Optional diagnostics in a "Report a problem" email are only what you see in the draft before you press send. Our email is hosted by Google (Google Workspace). We keep support messages as long as needed to help you and will honor applicable deletion requests subject to legal, security, fraud-prevention, dispute and legitimate recordkeeping exceptions.
14. The website
rateanchor.app has no ads and no advertising trackers. If you use the launch-notification form or another website form, we use what you entered only for that purpose; you can unsubscribe by replying to any message or emailing us.
15. Service providers
We use these providers, each only for its role and under its own terms:
| Provider | Role |
|---|---|
| Netlify | Website hosting and RateAnchor's server functions |
| Supabase | Database hosting for Co-Op contributions and stories |
| PostHog | Usage analytics (only if you turn them on) |
| Resend | Delivers story notices and thank-you emails |
| Google (Google Workspace) | Hosts our support and privacy email |
| Apple, Google | App stores, purchases, and on-device speech recognition; Apple's and Google's servers confirm purchases for our server, and Google delivers purchase notifications to it |
| Google (ML Kit, Android only) | On-device rate-con text recognition; receives the technical metrics described in Section 4, never your documents |
Except for the specific information you choose or authorize RateAnchor to transmit through the optional features described in this Policy, our service providers do not receive a copy of your locally stored RateAnchor business database.
16. Public and government data
RateAnchor displays public data from U.S. government sources (FMCSA, NHTSA, EIA, FRED, USDA, BLS) and published market averages. These sources receive only the public lookups you start.
17. Retention, in one table
| Information | Kept |
|---|---|
| Your on-device records | On your device until you delete them or uninstall (your own device backups may keep copies) |
| Usage events (optional) | Up to 12 months |
| Raw Co-Op contributions (optional) | Up to 24 months, unless deleted earlier; afterwards only aggregated and deidentified statistics |
| Stories (optional) | Until you ask us to remove them, or we no longer need them |
| Support messages | As long as needed to help you, subject to the exceptions in Section 13 |
| Founding Operator seat records | While the offer is open, then up to 24 months after it permanently closes (longer only for an unresolved dispute, legal obligation or litigation hold) |
| Host request logs | Generally about 24 hours to 7 days, under Netlify's service tier |
When MEL deletes information from an active database, residual copies may remain temporarily in encrypted provider backups until those backups expire through the provider's ordinary retention cycle. MEL does not restore deleted information from a backup except where reasonably necessary for disaster recovery, security or legal purposes.
18. Security
We use HTTPS in transit and access controls designed to restrict database access to authorized systems, administrators and service providers as necessary to operate RateAnchor. No system is perfectly secure; keep your device protected and your backups safe.
19. Age requirements
RateAnchor is for adults in commercial or business decision-making and is not intended for anyone under eighteen (18). We do not knowingly collect information from minors. If you believe a minor has sent us information, contact privacy@rateanchor.app and we will delete it.
20. Your choices and deleting your data
- Delete individual records in the App, clear the App's data, or uninstall.
- Turn usage analytics and the Co-Op on or off in Settings at any time.
- Reset my analytics ID (future events get a new identifier) and Delete my analytics data (past events deleted) are separate controls in Settings.
- Delete my past Co-Op contributions is a separate control in Settings.
- Remove a story with its removal code or the email you gave; ask us to delete support messages: privacy@rateanchor.app.
- Full steps: rateanchor.app/delete-my-data.html.
21. U.S. privacy rights
Depending on where you live and whether an applicable privacy law applies to MEL and the relevant processing, you may have rights to access, correct, delete or obtain a copy of certain personal information and to opt out of certain processing.
MEL does not sell personal information and does not use personal information for targeted or cross-context behavioral advertising.
To submit a privacy request, use the controls provided in RateAnchor where available or contact privacy@rateanchor.app.
Before fulfilling certain requests, we may take reasonable steps to verify that the requester is the person associated with the information or is authorized to act for that person. Because RateAnchor does not require an account, verification may rely on control of an app-generated identifier, deletion credential, submission receipt or email address associated with the information. We will not request more information than reasonably necessary to verify a request.
Authorized agents may make requests where applicable law permits. If we deny a request, we will explain the reason and provide instructions for any appeal right required by applicable law.
We will not discriminate against you for exercising an applicable privacy right.
22. Changes to this Policy
We will post changes here with a new version number and effective date, and tell you in the App before material changes take effect.
23. Contact
Midnight Engine Labs LLC · Florida, USA · Privacy: privacy@rateanchor.app · Support: support@rateanchor.app