Privacy Policy
Effective date: July 7, 2026
KnownCars is a community site where owners of electrified vehicles share
reviews and document issues. We collect only what we need to run the site:
we don't run advertising or analytics trackers, and we never sell your
personal information. This page explains what we collect, why, and the
choices you have.
Information you give us
- Account details. When you register we collect a username, an
email address, and a password. Passwords are stored only as secure
cryptographic hashes — we cannot see them. If you enable two-factor
authentication, we store the secret needed to verify your codes.
- Content you post. Reviews, ratings, issue reports, discussion
responses, and the cars you add to your profile are public and
are displayed together with your username.
- Feedback and reports. If you use the feedback page to suggest
a car, send feedback, or report content, we receive what you write plus the
contact email you optionally provide. These messages are delivered to our
admin inbox.
Information collected automatically
- Log and security data. Like almost every website, our servers
record the IP address, browser type, and pages requested for each visit. We
use IP addresses to rate-limit abusive traffic, and we record failed login
attempts and temporary account locks to protect accounts.
- Account activity. We store your registration date, last login
time, and email-verification status to operate your account.
Cookies and local storage
- Session cookie (essential) — keeps you signed in as you move
between pages and protects forms against cross-site request forgery.
- Remember-me cookie (optional) — set only if you tick
"remember me" at login, so you stay signed in between visits.
- Theme preference — your light/dark mode choice is saved in
your browser's local storage and is never sent to our servers.
We do not use advertising, analytics, or cross-site tracking cookies.
How we use your information
- To operate your account and display your public contributions.
- To send transactional email only: verifying your email address and resetting
your password. We do not send marketing email.
- To prevent abuse: rate limiting, login-attempt lockouts, and moderation of
reported content.
Who we share data with
We never sell personal information. A small number of service providers process
data on our behalf to run the site:
- Fly.io — hosts our application and database in the United
States.
- Brevo — delivers our transactional emails (verification and
password-reset messages), so it processes the email addresses we send to.
- Content delivery networks (jsDelivr, Cloudflare cdnjs) — your
browser loads some fonts, styles, and scripts directly from these CDNs, which
receive the standard request data (such as your IP address) involved in
serving any web asset.
We may also disclose information if required by law, or to protect the rights and
safety of our users and the site.
Data retention
We keep your account information for as long as your account exists. Server logs
and security records are kept for a limited period and then discarded. If you ask
us to delete your account, we will remove your personal information; your public
posts will be deleted or anonymized so they are no longer linked to you.
Your rights and choices
- You can view and edit your reviews, posts, and profile details, and change
your password, at any time while signed in.
- You can ask us to access, correct, export, or delete the personal information
we hold about you. Depending on where you live (for example the EU/UK under
GDPR, or California under the CCPA), these may be legal rights — but we honor
such requests from everyone, wherever you live.
- To make a request, contact us through the
feedback page and include an email
address we can reply to. We may need to verify that you control the account
before acting on a request.
Security
All traffic to KnownCars is encrypted with HTTPS, passwords are stored as salted
hashes, and you can add two-factor authentication to your account from the
Security page. No online service can guarantee perfect security, but we work to
protect your data with industry-standard measures.
Children
KnownCars is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect
personal information from them. If you believe a child has created an account,
please contact us via the feedback page
and we will remove it.
Changes to this policy
If we make material changes to this policy — for example, if we ever add
analytics or advertising — we will update this page and its effective date. Your
continued use of the site after a change means you accept the updated policy.
Contact
Questions about this policy or your data? Reach us through the
feedback page — include your email
if you'd like a reply.