Privacy Policy

Accounts and sign-in

Account records include your email address, display name, password hash and verification status, plus profile information you submit. Email supports sign-in verification, password recovery and requested account functions, such as emailing a finder shortlist. The sign-in cookie, cc_session, is HttpOnly, SameSite=Strict and Secure in production, with a default lifetime of one day. It is functional authentication storage, not permission for optional analytics.

Contact messages and public contributions

Contact submissions store your name, email, subject and message in the admin inbox so we can handle your request and reply. Signed-in submissions use your account identity. Contact email is for that conversation, not analytics or marketing consent. Vehicle photos you upload can be public; reviews, comments and ratings may also be displayed with your contributor name. Votes and moderation records support community features and abuse handling. Avoid including faces, readable registration plates, addresses or other personal information in public submissions.

AI car finder

When you use the finder, your answers are sent to our API and, when AI is configured, to its Azure OpenAI model endpoint to form questions or recommendations. This is separate from optional analytics; finder answers are not analytics fields. Do not submit sensitive information. Provider processing, logging and retention depend on the applicable service terms and deployment settings. We have not verified a no-retention guarantee for that external processing. Requesting an emailed shortlist uses your account email.

Optional first-party analytics

Analytics starts only after an explicit opt-in. The functional preference cc_analytics_consent stores only "granted" or "denied". It does not automatically expire; change it in Privacy settings or clear this site's browser storage. Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control override an opt-in. If the preference cannot be read, analytics stays off.

With permission, cc_vid holds a random browser identifier in local storage and cc_sid a random per-tab identifier in session storage. Events can contain public page paths without query strings or fragments, referrer origin only, visible time, a vehicle panel label, and bounded activity counts or up to four vehicle configuration identifiers. Search outcomes contain token and result counts, not search text. Account emails, contact messages and finder answers are excluded. Requests omit authentication cookies and the browser's automatic referrer.

The analytics API derives coarse device and browser categories, a daily IP hash, and a country where lookup is available. New events do not store the raw IP or full user-agent string. These identifiers are pseudonymous, not a promise of anonymity. Turning analytics off removes this browser's analytics identifiers and stops further tracking, including in other open tabs when they receive the storage change. It does not recall requests already sent or erase records already stored on the server.

Functional storage and retention

Selecting a vehicle configuration saves up to four versioned references under cars4real.shortlist.v1 in this browser's local storage. Each reference contains only brand, model, year, trim and, when needed, variant. No account or analytics permission is required. Cached prices, specifications, reviews, finder answers and account details are not stored in the shortlist. Restoration loads current catalog facts. These functional choices do not automatically expire. Clear the shortlist or this site's browser storage to remove them; open tabs synchronize changes.

Shared shortlist links contain those vehicle references, not an account identity. Anyone with the link can open it; the URL can appear in browser history and hosting logs. Opening a shared list does not replace your saved selection until you choose "Use this shortlist" or "Use and compare". Sharing does not send an email or require sign-in. Browser storage and clipboard failures are reported in the interface.

The analytics container-creation code requests a 90-day retention period; the effective setting on an existing deployment has not been verified by this publication, so automatic deletion after 90 days is not guaranteed here. Existing analytics, account, contact and moderation records, service logs and backups may have different retention arrangements. A request to review or remove retained data can be made through the contact action below.

External media and services

Vehicle images may load from external hosts such as Wikimedia. Loading an external image discloses connection information to its host. Opening a YouTube video, embedded media or an external source can involve the provider's cookies and processing under its own policies. Optional analytics permission does not control those independent services. Hosting and security services also receive the connection data needed to serve and protect the site; their operational logs are distinct from the optional analytics described here.

Questions and data requests

Contact admin in the footer for privacy questions, corrections, access or deletion requests. Include enough context to identify the request, but never send a password or recovery token. Identity checks and applicable retention obligations may affect what can be provided or removed. This notice describes the implementation; it is not a certification of legal compliance.