Privacy Policy
Last updated Draft: 7 placeholders to complete before launch
VINDecoder360 collects as little as possible. There are no accounts, no cookies and no third-party analytics or tracking scripts. The VINs and vehicle details you enter are sent to NHTSA's public API to fetch your results, our own server logs record 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, show your results and count decodes |
| 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), the page you came from and time | On every request, in our server logs | To deliver pages, keep the site secure, diagnose faults and count visits |
| 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 logs. We also keep our own log of decodes: the VIN, the vehicle it decoded to, the time, the page you came from, and your IP address and browser type. We use it to count decodes and to find decodes that went wrong. 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 and to count and check decodes, and we never publish them.
Do we use cookies or tracking?
No. The site sets no cookies and carries no third-party analytics, advertising or social-media trackers, and nothing runs in your browser to measure you. We count visits and decodes only from our own server logs, described above. 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, Hetzner Online GmbH in Germany, which runs the servers the site and its logs are stored on (Hetzner's privacy policy (opens in a new tab)).
- 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 logs (IP address, browser type, page addresses and times): 30 days.
- Our decode log: the IP address and browser type are removed after 30 days; the VIN, the decoded vehicle and the time are kept.
- Daily counts of visits and decodes, which contain no personal information: kept.
- 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.