Polarity Parking, Inc. — License Plate Camera (ALPR) Usage and Privacy Policy

Effective Date: Aug 1, 2026 · Version 1.0

Some properties that use Polarity Parking have cameras that read license plates. This policy explains what those cameras collect, who may look at it, how long we keep it, who we share it with, and what you can ask us to do about it.

We publish this because California Civil Code §1798.90.51 requires anyone who operates an automated license plate recognition system to maintain a usage and privacy policy and post it publicly. It applies to every property we serve, in every state — not only in California — because the same commitments are the right ones everywhere.

The short version: license plate reads are used to run parking at the property where they were taken. We do not sell them. We do not contribute them to any nationwide plate-sharing network. We do not give any government agency standing or bulk access to them. We delete them on a schedule that runs automatically, and you can ask us to delete yours sooner.

What this policy covers

1. Authorized purposes
2. Who may access this information, and their training
3. How we monitor the system for compliance
4. Sharing and transfers — and what we will never do
5. Official custodian
6. Accuracy, and how to correct an error
7. How long we keep it, and how it is destroyed
8. Security safeguards
9. Your rights, and how to complain

Authorized purposes

Cal. Civ. Code §1798.90.51(b)(1)

We collect and use license plate information for these purposes and no others:

• Matching a vehicle at a property to a paid parking session, a resident permit or an approved guest registration.
• Confirming when a vehicle arrived and departed, so a parking session can start and end accurately.
• Identifying vehicles parked at a property without an active session, so the property can decide how to respond.
• Resolving a dispute about a parking session or an overstay fee, including as evidence when a parker asks us to review a charge.
• Protecting the safety and security of a property when there is a specific, identified incident.
• Diagnosing and repairing our own camera and software faults.

We do not use license plate information to build profiles of drivers, to infer where a vehicle goes when it is not at a property we serve, or for advertising or marketing of any kind.

Who may access this information, and their training

Cal. Civ. Code §1798.90.51(b)(2)

Access is limited to two roles:

• Property administrators at the specific property where the plate was read. A property administrator can see plate information for their own property only.
• Polarity platform administrators, who may access plate information across properties strictly to operate, support and repair the service.

No other role has access. Property staff who are not administrators, portfolio users, residents, guests and towing partners cannot view plate information in our system. Before receiving access, every authorized user must be trained on this policy, on the limits in the “Sharing and transfers” section below, and on the rule that a plate-to-owner lookup may only be performed under a permissible use listed in the federal Driver's Privacy Protection Act (18 U.S.C. §2721(b)). Access is reviewed when a person's role changes and revoked when it ends.

How we monitor the system for compliance

Cal. Civ. Code §1798.90.51(b)(3)

Compliance is built into the software, not left to instruction alone:

• Every view, search, export and deletion of plate information writes a permanent entry to an access log recording who acted, when, on which record and for what stated purpose. Those entries cannot be edited or deleted.
• Any request that would convert a plate into a registered owner's name or address requires the operator to select a specific Driver's Privacy Protection Act permissible use first. The system will not perform the lookup without one.
• Bulk exports are recorded in the access log with the number of records exported.
• The automated deletion described below logs each run.
• We review the access log for unusual patterns and investigate anything that does not match an authorized purpose.

Sharing and transfers — and what we will never do

Cal. Civ. Code §1798.90.51(b)(4)

We do not sell license plate information. We do not trade it, license it, or contribute it to any commercial or nationwide plate-sharing network. Our system has no mechanism to do so. We share it only in these situations:

• With the property where the plate was read, and only that property.
• With the vendors that operate our cameras and store our data, who may process it only to provide that service to us and never for their own purposes. Cal. Civ. Code §1798.90.55(b) expressly provides that data hosting is not a sale, sharing or transfer.
• With a licensed towing partner, and only for a specific vehicle at the moment a property has authorized a tow. Cal. Civ. Code §1798.90.55(b) likewise excludes towing services from “sale, sharing or transfer”.
• When we are compelled by a valid subpoena, warrant or court order, or where disclosure is required by law.

We do not give any government agency, including any federal immigration authority, routine, standing or bulk access to license plate information, and we do not participate in any program that provides such access. Where the law permits us to do so, we will tell the affected person when their plate information has been demanded through legal process.

Official custodian

Cal. Civ. Code §1798.90.51(b)(5)

The official custodian responsible for implementing this policy is the Chief Executive Officer, Polarity Parking, Inc.. Questions, complaints and requests under this policy may be sent to support@polarityparking.com and will be directed to the custodian.

Accuracy, and how to correct an error

Cal. Civ. Code §§1798.90.51(b)(6), 1798.90.53

Plate reading is optical and it is not perfect. Characters are confused ( 0 and O, 1 and I, 8 and B, 5 and S ), plates are obscured, and weather and angle degrade a read. We handle that as follows:

• A read below our confidence threshold is flagged for human review and does not by itself trigger any action against a vehicle.
• A read is never the sole basis for a charge to someone we do not already have a payment relationship with. We do not bill a stranger on the strength of a camera.
• A parker who believes a read is wrong may contact us at support@polarityparking.com. After we verify that the plate is theirs, we will tell them what we hold, correct any error we find, and reverse anything that followed from it.
• Corrections and deletions are recorded in the access log.

How long we keep it, and how it is destroyed

Cal. Civ. Code §1798.90.51(b)(7)

We keep a plate read for no more than 30 days. Our standard retention period is 30 days; an individual property may choose a shorter window, and no property may choose a longer one.

• An automated job runs daily and permanently deletes every plate read that is past its property's window. This is not a manual process and it does not depend on anyone remembering.
• The one exception is a read connected to an open matter — a disputed charge, an unpaid balance, a tow or a legal claim. That read is not kept whole. The plate and any image are erased on the normal schedule and only a one-way cryptographic fingerprint, the timestamp and the property remain, which is the minimum needed to substantiate the matter. When the matter closes, the remaining record is deleted.
• Each deletion run is recorded in the access log, so we can show what was destroyed after the records themselves are gone.

Security safeguards

Cal. Civ. Code §§1798.90.51(a), 1798.90.52, 1798.82

License plate information is held under the following protections:

• Plate text is encrypted at rest. It is never stored in readable form in our database, and our own engineers cannot read it out of a database backup.
• Plate images are stored only on storage that encrypts objects at rest. Our software refuses to record an image against storage that does not.
• All transmission between cameras, our vendors and our servers is encrypted in transit.
• Lookups run against a one-way cryptographic fingerprint of the plate rather than the plate itself, so plate text does not appear in query logs.
• Access is limited to the two roles named above and every access is logged permanently.
• Cameras are configured for license plates only. Audio capture is disabled, and face detection and facial-recognition analytics are disabled. We do not collect biometric identifiers.
• A breach affecting license plate information is a reportable breach under Cal. Civ. Code §1798.82, and we will notify affected individuals as that section requires.

Your rights, and how to complain

Cal. Civ. Code §1798.90.53; Tex. Bus. & Com. Code Ch. 541

For any vehicle you own or lawfully drive, you may:

• Ask whether we hold license plate information about your vehicle, and what it is.
• Ask us to correct information you believe is wrong.
• Ask us to delete it. We will delete every record we hold for that plate, except a record connected to an open matter, which is reduced to the minimum described under “How long we keep it” and deleted when that matter closes. We will tell you what was deleted and what was kept, and why.
• Ask how the information was used, and who it was shared with.

Send any of these to support@polarityparking.com. We will verify that the plate is yours before we act — which protects you, since we will not tell a stranger where your car has been. If you are not satisfied with our response, you may escalate to the official custodian named above, and you retain any rights you have under Cal. Civ. Code §1798.90.54 or applicable Texas law.

Changes to this policy

If we change this policy we will update the version and effective date above and post the new text here before the change takes effect. Material changes to how we use or share license plate information will be described in the update.

Contact

Questions, complaints and requests about license plate information: support@polarityparking.com. You can also write to Polarity Parking, Inc. — 5900 Balcones Dr, #27771, Austin, TX 78731.

This policy sits alongside our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service, and controls where it speaks more specifically about license plate information than they do.