For everyone

What happens to your report

From the moment you press send to the day the photo is deleted, and who can see what along the way.

3 min read · Updated October 27, 2026

You press send and the report leaves your phone. This guide follows it from there. None of it depends on your name, because ATAP never asks for one.

Sent. Your photo, the plate, what happened, the time and your location, if you shared it, go to ATAP.
Held. The report is stored against the plate. If nobody has proved they own that vehicle, it stays private.
The owner is told. A verified owner gets an email, and a phone notification if they turned it on. Reports on the same vehicle within 30 minutes are grouped, and the message goes after a wait of about 2 minutes. It links to the app and carries no photo, place or detail about you.
The owner replies, once. They can acknowledge the report, or dispute it and say why: it is not their vehicle, it did not happen, or another reason.
Staff look at disputes. A person at ATAP decides whether the report stands or is hidden.
The photo is deleted 90 days after the report. The written record stays.

The six stages of a report. A dashed line means the report is waiting for something.

If nobody has claimed the vehicle

Many vehicles will have no verified owner when you report them. Your report waits. When an owner proves the vehicle is theirs, with a registration certificate and a photo that a person at ATAP checks, they can see reports made before they joined, as long as the photos are still inside the 90 days. Nothing about an unclaimed plate is public anywhere on the site.

Who sees what

Who can see each part of a report
Part of the report	You, the reporter	The vehicle's owner	ATAP staff	Everyone else
The photo	Yesyou took it	Yesuntil it is deleted	Yesto review	No
The place, if you shared it	Yes	Yesas a map link	Yes	No
The time	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
What happened, and your note	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
The number plate	Yes	Yestheir own	Yes	No
That a device sent it	Yes	No	Yesa device record only	No
Your name, number or email	Nonever asked for	No	No	No

A filled square means yes. The table reads the same with the squares removed: every cell also says Yes or No in words.

A device record is a random code kept in a cookie on your phone. We store only a one way scramble of it, so we can limit abuse without knowing who you are. It is not your name, and it does not let us find you.

If you make an optional profile, sign in and choose to take credit, your reports are linked to that profile so you can earn recognition. Owners never see that link, and deleting your account removes it.

How you find out what happened

Open Your reports from the report page. It lists what was sent from this phone in the last 90 days, showing only the last four characters of each plate. Each one reads Received, Acknowledged by the registered owner, or Confirmed by our team. You can also ask for a notification when an owner replies. On an iPhone, notifications only work after you add ATAP to your Home Screen.

You are never shown a dispute. A disputed report still reads Received unless our staff uphold it, in which case it reads Confirmed by our team. This is on purpose. An owner disagreeing with a report should not feel like a mark against you.

How long things are kept

Report photo90 days
deleted 90 days after the report
Ownership documents30 days
deleted 30 days after a person at ATAP reviews them
Driver shift records180 days
a driver's typed name and shift times, deleted after 180 days
The record of a reportstays
what happened, when, the place if you shared it, and your note: kept, with no name or contact detail

One block is ten days. The scale ends at the longest promise we make.

The photo goes first because it is the part that can show a place and a person. The written record stays, so that owners and ATAP can see patterns over time. It holds what happened, when, the place if you shared it, and your note. It holds no name and no contact detail.

A report is a signal, not a verdict

An owner who reads a report knows it is one person's view of a few seconds on the road. That is why the owner can reply, and why staff review disputes.

Nothing is shown in public. The aim is a quiet word with the right person, not a mark against a plate.