Privacy Policy

Last updated: 19 September 2026

CarPedia respects your privacy. This policy explains what personal data we collect, why we collect it, and the rights you have over it.

1. Who we are

CarPedia ("we", "us") is the data controller for personal data collected through this website. If you have any privacy question or request, contact us via our contact page.

2. Personal data we collect

• Newsletter: if you subscribe, we store your email address so we can send you updates. You can unsubscribe at any time via the link in any email or by contacting us.
• Contact form: when you message us we store your name, email address, subject and message so we can reply.
• Reviews: if you submit a car review we store the name, rating and text you provide, so we can moderate and display it.
• Analytics: we use Google Analytics 4 to understand which pages are popular. This collects pages visited, approximate location (city level), device and browser type. IP addresses are anonymised by Google before storage.

We also keep our own basic visit statistics (pages viewed, country derived from your connection, device type and time spent on a page) to understand how the site is used. We do not store your IP address for this purpose, and we do not build advertising profiles.

• Security logs: our hosting provider may keep standard server logs (e.g. IP address, pages requested) for security and abuse prevention.

We do not collect sensitive personal data, and we do not build advertising profiles.

3. Why we use your data (lawful bases under UK GDPR)

• Consent — newsletter emails (withdraw any time by unsubscribing).
• Legitimate interests — replying to your messages, moderating reviews, understanding site usage, and keeping the site secure.
• Legal obligation — where we must retain or disclose data required by law.

4. Cookies

Cookies are small files stored on your device. We use:

• Strictly necessary: a session cookie for the admin area and a cookie-consent preference cookie (remembers your Accept/Decline choice). The public site works without the session cookie.
• Analytics: Google Analytics 4 cookies (_ga, _ga_*) to measure traffic. These are only about aggregate usage, not about identifying you.
• Advertising (future): if we enable an advertising partner such as Google AdSense in future, they may set their own cookies subject to their own privacy policy. This policy will be updated before that happens.

You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings at any time; declining analytics cookies does not affect your use of the site.

5. Who we share data with

We do not sell your personal data. We share it only with service providers who help run the site:

• Hosting provider — stores the site's files and databases.
• Google — Analytics (usage measurement); advertising partners only if enabled in future.

We may disclose data if required by law or to protect the site against abuse.

6. How long we keep data

• Newsletter emails — until you unsubscribe.
• Contact messages — for as long as needed to handle your enquiry, then deleted.
• Published reviews — displayed until you ask us to remove them.
• Analytics data — retained per Google's data-retention settings (currently 14 months).

7. Your rights

Under UK data-protection law you have the right to request a copy of your data, correct it, delete it, restrict or object to its processing, receive it in a portable format, and withdraw consent at any time. To exercise any right, use our contact page. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).

8. Children

This site is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect their data.

9. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The "Last updated" date above shows when it last changed; continued use of the site after changes means you accept the current version.