Privacy policy

Searching

When you search, the filters you enter (for example a make, a price ceiling, a zip code) are sent to our server to run the query. A zip code is used only to compute distances. We count search texts and recognized vehicle makes and models in aggregate, without any visitor identifier, to improve search and prioritize listing updates. The make and model of cars clicked through to dealers contribute to the same daily interest counts. Opening an older listing or following its dealer link can move its next fact check up the crawl queue; this stores no visitor identifier or viewing history. Other search filters are discarded after the response. We keep short-lived server logs (status codes, timings, error messages) to keep the service running; they are not used to identify or profile visitors. Calls to the agent endpoint (/mcp) are handled like searches on the site: the arguments are used to answer and are not stored beyond those logs.

The site can also ask your browser where you are, so the search starts near you and so we can tell whether your state is one we cover yet. Your browser asks your permission first and we never see a location you have not allowed. When you do allow it, your coordinates are rounded to about a tenth of a mile, sent once inside the request (never in a web address, so they reach no log) to find the nearest zip code, and not stored; only that zip code stays, in your own browser, for twelve hours. If you do not allow it we fall back to the rough city your connection reports, which is what your internet provider tells every website. The cookie and storage notice lists what is kept.

Accounts

Accounts are optional and free. Sign-in is provided by an authentication service that processes your email address, a one-time code or your Google sign-in, your IP address and browser details for the sign-in itself, and the session cookies that keep you signed in. The provider acts as our processor under its data processing terms. On our side an account record holds your sign-in id, email address, name and avatar if you provided them, the cars and searches you saved (with the price at the time you saved a car), your alert and newsletter preferences, and timestamps. Your searches are not recorded against your account; only the ones you explicitly save. Deleting your account (Manage profile on the account page) deletes the sign-in identity immediately and our records when the deletion event reaches us, normally within a minute.

Email

Waiting lists. If you choose a paid plan before it is available, or leave your email to hear when your area is covered, we keep the address you gave and the form's context: the plan and price or the state and zip, any comment you add, the page you came from, and the time. So we can act on the request and tell abuse from real interest, we also keep the request's technical details as they arrived: your IP address, browser identification, language, and the approximate location and network derived from the connection. Nothing is charged and no account is created. We use the address for that one notice and for nothing else, and delete the row when it is fulfilled or on request to the contact below.

We send email only for things you asked for: a confirmation link when you subscribe to the newsletter, the newsletter itself once confirmed, price-drop digests for your saved cars when you have an account and alerts on, and a receipt when you write to support. Every message has an unsubscribe link, and digests support one-click unsubscribe. Email is delivered by an email provider that processes the recipient address and message content as our processor. Delivery records are kept for a limited period for troubleshooting.

Support

A message to support stores the email address, name if given, topic, message and any link you include, so a person can answer it. Tickets are kept while the question is open and for a reasonable period after so a follow-up makes sense. Asking us to delete a ticket deletes it.

Analytics

We keep our own aggregate counters: page views by path, referring sites, countries, device classes, search texts, and clicks through to dealers. Counters carry no visitor identifier, no IP address and no query string, and are kept for a limited period. They cannot describe a person. We also use Plausible Analytics and Google Analytics 4 to understand how the site is used: pages visited, the referring site, country, device and browser type, and a few coarse events (a click on the support link, a step of the covered-area notice with the state, a newsletter signup's outcome). Plausible is cookieless, hosted in the European Union, and keeps no personal data. Google Analytics is provided by Google, which processes this data on our behalf under its data processing terms; it sets the cookies listed in our cookie policy and does not store IP addresses. We run it with Google signals and ad personalization turned off and do not use it for advertising, and in the EEA, the United Kingdom and Switzerland it runs without cookies until you accept Analytics. We keep Google Analytics data for 14 months. See Google's Privacy Policy and how Google uses information from sites that use its services. Both are the Analytics category of the cookie notice: measurement is on until you decline it, and turning Analytics off, in the notice or later through "Your privacy choices" in the footer, stops both at once and on every later visit, and the Google Analytics cookies are removed. Our own counters carry nothing that could identify you and are not affected by the switch.

Cookies and your choices

On your first visit a small notice in the corner asks about two categories. Essential covers what the site cannot work without and settings you make yourself: the session cookies set when you sign in, the record of your cookie choices, the light or dark theme you picked with the header switch, and abuse prevention (the bot check on sign-in and on forms, a rate limit on forms, and, after a newsletter signup, a cookie that holds no address and keeps the same browser from signing up over and over). Analytics covers the two analytics services described above: Plausible sets no cookies; Google Analytics sets two, only while Analytics is on. Your answer is stored as one small cookie plus a matching local-storage entry for a limited period, after which the notice asks again. "Your privacy choices" in the footer of every page reopens the preferences at any time. There are no advertising cookies. Details in the cookie policy.

Support payments

Optional support payments are handled by Ko-fi and Stripe on their own websites. We do not see your card details. Ko-fi sends us your display name, email address, message and amount so we can thank you and keep accounting records.

Hosting and processors

Our web host, like any web host, sees the technical details of a request (such as your IP address) to deliver pages and protect the service. Our hosting, sign-in, email and analytics providers (Google, for Google Analytics, among them) process data only on our instructions and may not use it for their own purposes.

Dealer data

Listings on this site are facts published by dealers on their own websites (vehicle, price, mileage, dealer name and address). That business contact information is displayed so you can reach the dealer. It is not personal data about you. Dealers who want a listing or a site removed can use the removal page.

Your rights

You can see and change what your account holds on the account page, export it by asking us, and delete the account yourself. Residents of the EU, UK, California and other places with privacy laws have rights of access, correction, deletion and objection; write to the address below and we will act within the time the law allows. We do not sell personal information and do not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising.

Children

The site is not directed at children under 13 and we do not knowingly collect their information. Accounts are for people 18 and older.

Changes

If this policy changes, the new version will be posted here with an updated date; account holders get an email for material changes.

Contact

Questions about privacy: hello@elowinlabs.com. See also the terms of use and the cookie policy.