I made the Fuel Estimator free because the touring industry deserves good tools. We want to keep making it better, and to do that we need to learn what's working and what isn't — so we look at what's happening in aggregate. That's the whole story.
What we collect
Almost entirely aggregate, anonymous usage data. Specifically:
Pageviews (via Plausible Analytics, a privacy-first analytics service that uses no cookies)
How you arrived (referring URL, country, device type — nothing that identifies you personally)
What you do here at a pattern level (which vehicles are popular, which state corridors get calculated most, whether people override the preset MPG)
Error reports via Sentry, so we hear about bugs before you have to tell us
Donations, if you choose to make one, are handled entirely by Stripe on Stripe’s own page — your card details never touch this site, and we only see the amount and the name/email you give Stripe. Donations aren’t tax-deductible.
Feedback you choose to send. That's your message, the page you sent it from, your browser’s user-agent string, and an email address only if you type one in to hear back. It goes to our server logs and database (the most recent 500 submissions), and to Sentry’s feedback inbox so I get notified, so I can read and answer it.
Your IP address, held briefly as a rate-limit counter so nobody can hammer the service. These counters expire on their own within a couple of hours.
What we don't do
No accounts. You never sign up, so we never know who you are.
No email capture. You never need an email to use the tool. The only place one can go is the optional “contact me back” field in Feedback.
No third-party trackers. Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, and similar trackers aren't used here.
No selling your data. Period. This is a free personal project — not a data-harvesting funnel.
No fingerprinting. We don't try to identify you across sessions or devices.
Cookies
We don't set any cookies. Plausible Analytics (our only analytics provider) is explicitly cookie-free, which is one of the reasons we picked it. If you ever see a cookie consent banner on this site, something has gone wrong — please let us know.
Who else is involved
Running this tool requires a handful of services. Here's everyone who touches your data (all industry-standard, all linked for your own review):
Apart from anything you put in a feedback message, we don't keep data that identifies you, so there's nothing tied to you personally to share, modify, or delete. That said:
You can opt out of analytics entirely by enabling “Do Not Track” in your browser — Plausible respects it.
Sent feedback and want it gone? Email us and we’ll delete it.
If you have questions about what we do or don't do with data, email us (contact below) and we'll answer honestly.
We'll update the “Last updated” date at the top when meaningful changes happen. If we ever add something that meaningfully changes what data we collect (like email signup), we'll make sure you hear about it here before it ships.