Privacy Policy
Last updated Draft: 9 placeholders to complete before launch
VINDecoder360 collects as little as possible. There are no accounts, no cookies and no analytics. The VINs and vehicle details you enter are sent to NHTSA's public API to fetch your results, our hosting provider may log technical data such as IP addresses and page addresses, and we never sell information.
Status of this policy
Who is responsible for your information?
VINDecoder360 is operated by TODO(owner): legal entity name, TODO(owner): registered address. For any privacy question or request, email support@vindecoder360.com.
What information do we process?
| Information | When | Why |
|---|---|---|
| VINs you enter | When you decode a VIN | To decode it and show your results |
| Make, model and year you choose | When you use the recall lookup or browse model pages | To fetch the matching NHTSA recall and complaint data |
| IP address, browser type, requested page address (URL) and time | On every request, in server and hosting logs | To deliver pages, keep the site secure and diagnose faults |
| Your email address and message | When you email us | To reply to you |
Decode results live at addresses that contain the VIN (for example /vin/ followed by the VIN), so the VIN also appears in those technical logs. We don't ask for your name, and you don't need an account.
What happens to a VIN when you decode it?
- Our server checks the VIN's format and calculates the check digit and model-year code itself.
- Our server sends the VIN to NHTSA's public vPIC API to retrieve the decoded vehicle details, and sends the resulting make, model and year to NHTSA's public recall and complaint APIs. These requests come from our server, not from your browser.
- The results may be cached by our servers and hosting provider for up to 30 days, so repeated lookups don't have to call NHTSA again.
NHTSA is a U.S. government agency and handles the requests it receives under its own policies. A VIN identifies a vehicle rather than a person, but we treat the VINs you enter with the same care as other information: we use them only to produce your results.
Do we use cookies or tracking?
No. The site sets no cookies, runs no analytics and carries no advertising or social-media trackers. We don't build profiles of visitors or follow you across other websites.
Who do we share information with?
- NHTSA, which receives the VIN, or the make, model and year, needed to answer each lookup.
- Our hosting provider, which runs the servers and may keep technical logs. TODO(owner): name the hosting provider and link to its privacy policy.
- Authorities, if the law requires us to disclose information.
We don't sell, rent or trade information, and we don't share it with advertisers or data brokers.
How long do we keep information?
- Cached decode and recall results: up to 30 days.
- Server and hosting logs: TODO(owner): state the retention period set by the hosting provider.
- Emails: as long as needed to deal with your message, then deleted. TODO(owner): confirm the retention period.
What are your rights?
Depending on where you live, you may have the right to ask what information we hold about you, to have it corrected or deleted, or to object to how it is used. Email support@vindecoder360.com and we will respond within the time the law requires. You may also complain to your local data-protection authority. TODO(legal): list the laws and authorities that apply.
Children and changes to this policy
The site is a general information service and isn't directed at children. If we change how the site handles information, we will update this page and the date at the top.