Privacy
Last updated 18 October 2026. Pilot version.
Nearside is designed so that your information stays with you. This page says plainly what the app keeps, what leaves your phone, and when.
What stays on your phone
Your profile, lesson log, journey dates, revision bank, walkaround checks and reports, operator list, document wallet entries and card photos are stored in your phone’s browser storage. They are not uploaded to Nearside. Export under Me gives you a file of everything; Start over deletes it from the phone.
What leaves your phone, and why
- Your voice. When you use a voice feature, the sound is sent to Microsoft Azure Speech in its North Europe region to be turned into text. Microsoft does not keep the audio.
- Transcripts and questions. To mark a spoken answer, tidy a dictated lesson or answer a help question, the text and the relevant question are sent to Anthropic’s Claude service through Nearside’s own server. Anthropic does not use this to train its models. Nearside does not store the transcripts.
- Tuning recordings, only if you opt in. If you switch on “Help improve recognition” under Me, a copy of each spoken exam answer and its transcript is stored in Nearside’s storage in the European Union, labelled with your pilot code only, to tune recognition for different accents. These are deleted automatically after 180 days and you can switch the setting off at any time.
- Usage counts. Nearside’s server counts how many times each pilot code uses the voice and AI services each day, and how many devices connect, to manage costs and report on the pilot. No names, content or locations are recorded.
What Nearside never sees
Your licence, CPC and tacho card photos, your walkaround reports and photos, your notes and your operator’s details. Emailing a report is done by your own phone’s mail app.
Cookies and tracking
The app and this website use no advertising or analytics cookies and no third-party trackers. The app stores a pilot code on the phone so it is not asked for again.
Your rights
Because your data is held on your own phone, you control it directly. For anything held by Nearside, which during the pilot is limited to opt-in tuning recordings and usage counts, write to support@nearside.ie and it will be deleted on request.
Who is responsible
Nearside, Kildare, Ireland. Contact support@nearside.ie.