Code or symptom/

Privacy policy

Short version: no accounts, no VIN storage, no advertising, and cookieless analytics only.

Last updated 23 August 2026

What we do not collect

  • No accounts. There is nothing to sign up for, so we hold no names, emails or passwords from site use.
  • No VIN storage. A VIN identifies one specific vehicle and often one specific person. VINs entered into our decoder are passed to NHTSA to decode, the result is returned to you, and nothing is written down. There is no page for your VIN, it is not logged, and it is not attached to any analytics event.
  • No advertising, and no cross-site trackers. If that changes, this page changes first, and the change will be dated.

What is stored in your browser

Two preferences, in localStorage, on your device only: your colour theme choice and whether you have turned on technician density. Neither is transmitted to us. Clearing your site data removes both.

Analytics

We use Cloudflare Web Analytics, which measures page views and performance. It sets no cookies, does not fingerprint your device, does not build a profile of you, and cannot follow you to other websites. We use it to see which pages are useful and which are slow.

We do not use Google Analytics or any advertising analytics product.

Server logs

Our host records standard request information — the page requested, timestamp, approximate region, and user agent — to keep the site running and to detect abuse. We deliberately exclude VIN parameters from anything we log ourselves.

Third parties

  • NHTSA. VIN decoding and recall lookups are relayed to United States government APIs. Those requests necessarily contain what you searched for. NHTSA's handling of that is governed by their own policies.
  • Google Fonts. Typefaces are loaded from Google's font CDN, which means your browser makes a request to Google carrying your IP address.
  • Cloudflare. The site runs on Cloudflare's network, which processes requests to serve and protect it, and provides the cookieless analytics described above.

Children

This is a vehicle reference site not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 13.

Your rights

Depending on where you live you may have rights to access, correct or delete personal information a site holds about you. In our case there is usually nothing to act on, because we do not collect it. If you want to check, emailprivacy@explainmycar.com.

Changes

If we add advertising or analytics, this page will be updated before those are switched on, and the date at the top will change.