Privacy Notice

Who handles your information

Auto Visionary (AV) operates this community app. Contact AV management at automotivevisionary@gmail.com for privacy questions, complaints or rights requests, including when you cannot sign in. This notice describes the app’s current processing; accepting the terms does not waive your data protection rights.

Event listings and separate organisers

AV’s role in handling app information is separate from the role of an event organiser. Displaying a listing or processing an attendance response does not, by itself, make AV, app moderators, programmers, developers or app hosting providers the event organiser or host.

Staff access to event responses is described below. An independent organiser may separately collect information when you contact it, book or attend; check its privacy information for that processing. A listing does not itself authorise unrestricted sharing of your personal information with an organiser. Any disclosure must have an appropriate lawful basis and be explained where required.

What we collect and why

We collect account and contact details, a protected password hash, application answers, referral relationships, a live car photo and recognised registration text to register you, assess access and prevent duplicate or abusive applications. We also process profile details and images, uploads, comments, likes, event responses, friendships, blocks, messages, delivery/read status, reports, moderation records, terms acceptance and notification preferences to provide and protect the community.

Activity timestamps support online/last-active indicators. We also record account-linked usage information, including an approximate cumulative total of time spent with AV visible and focused. The usage and misuse-detection section below explains this processing. Technical information includes IP addresses, session identifiers, device/browser information and push subscriptions. IP-derived identifiers support abuse prevention and event-location access limits. Sharing a connection can affect these limits. Camera and push permissions are controlled separately by your browser; neither grants unrestricted access to your device.

Processing necessary to provide your requested account and features is based on performance of our agreement. Application review, proportionate moderation, security and abuse prevention rely on legitimate interests, balanced against your rights. Where a legal obligation applies, we may process information to meet it. Optional marketing or external promotional use requires separate consent where applicable; you can withdraw it without losing core membership.

Device, connection and app usage: protecting AV

We use certain account, technical and usage data to help detect, prevent and investigate misuse and protect the legitimate interests of AV and its members. These interests include account and community security, preventing fraud and spam, protecting restricted member information and event locations, enforcing fair-use rules and keeping the service reliable.

This data includes IP addresses and IP-derived access identifiers, session identifiers, device/browser information, push subscriptions, activity timestamps, online status and approximate app-usage duration. Device usage in this context means the device’s interaction with AV, not monitoring how you use the rest of your phone or other apps.

Connection and usage information may be considered when investigating suspected attempts to evade security, membership or event-location controls, including attempts involving VPNs, proxies, private relays or shared connections. We assess relevant evidence in context; using a privacy tool is not, by itself, proof of misconduct.

We use relevant information proportionately and assess it in context. Protecting AV’s interests does not override members’ data protection rights or authorise unrestricted surveillance, unrelated monitoring or disclosure.

Usage tracking and misuse detection

AV records account-linked activity timestamps, online and last-active status, approximate cumulative in-app screen time and push-subscription information. Screen time is estimated from periodic activity signals while AV is visible and focused; it is not a precise measure of attention. We also hold records created by your use of community features, including message delivery/read status, connection requests, reports and moderation actions, as described above.

We use this information to operate the community, understand service usage, protect accounts and help detect or investigate misuse such as spam, automated activity, scraping, harassment and attempts to evade restrictions. Authorised admins and managers may review relevant usage information and community statistics for these purposes, subject to their access permissions. Access to private messages remains limited as explained in this notice; usage tracking does not create a general staff inbox.

For proportionate security, misuse detection and service management, we rely on our legitimate interests in protecting members and operating a reliable community, balanced against members’ privacy and other rights. We limit information and access to what is necessary for those purposes. Agreement to the Terms is not consent to unrestricted monitoring or unrelated uses.

Long screen time, frequent visits or an unusual activity pattern is not, by itself, proof of misuse. Staff must consider relevant context before making a membership decision. Screen-time totals do not automatically blacklist or suspend an account. Existing automated message checks and rate limits may restrict individual actions; you can ask management to review a disputed restriction.

Usage tracking does not record your screen contents, keystrokes, browsing outside AV or activity in other apps. We do not use these usage records for advertising or sell them to advertisers. Browser or device behaviour, connection interruptions and multiple devices may affect measurement accuracy.

Automated behaviour checks and manager review

To protect accounts, restricted information and the community from misuse, AV checks patterns in supported app actions. These include requests for community data, profile openings reported by your browser, successful event-location reveals, the number of different message recipients, denied requests for restricted resources, and attempts blocked by existing rate limits or repeated-message protections. Records contain your account identifier, action category, time, counts and relevant target identifiers; the scanner does not copy private message text, photos or precise event locations into review records.

Checks can create a private manager review flag with a summary of the triggering activity. Managers can record context and an outcome. Flags are not findings of misconduct or evidence of someone’s motives. Browser-reported activity can be incomplete or inaccurate. VPN use, shared connections and high screen time alone do not trigger these checks. Flags do not automatically suspend or blacklist accounts. Excessive community-data requests may be temporarily rate-limited to protect the service, and existing access controls and message protections still apply.

These checks use the proportionate security and misuse-prevention purposes and legitimate-interests basis described above. Access to the review queue is limited to managers. Activity counters are retained for up to 24 hours; flags and review notes for up to 30 days from creation. Expired records are removed during subsequent app activity, so physical deletion may occur later if the service is idle. Account erasure and your rights to object, challenge inaccurate records and request human review remain as described in this notice.

Location checks when revealing an event

When you press Get Location, AV requires a one-time device-location security check before revealing an event location. The explanation appears before the browser permission request and identifies the manager reporting involved. If you choose Allow check, your browser supplies latitude, longitude, estimated accuracy and a timestamp. AV uses these in memory to compare your position with a stored map of UK police stations. There is no continuous or background location tracking. We do not store your exact device coordinates for this check or send them to external map services.

A qualifying result can create a private manager review flag if the estimate, allowing for accuracy margins, is within 0.1 miles of a mapped police-station point. The flag records your account, event, time, approximate distance, reported accuracy and any matched station name and map identifier. A station match can therefore reveal your approximate vicinity to managers even though your exact coordinates are not retained. Flags and review notes follow the 30-day retention and subsequent-cleanup rules above. A short-lived request token prevents reuse of the same location submission.

This optional device-location processing is based on your consent. You can decline browser permission or disable it for future checks, but the event location will remain hidden until the check completes. Other membership features remain available. No proximity flag is raised merely because permission is declined or positioning fails. You can ask management to withdraw consent and assess deletion of retained proximity results. Rights and any necessary legal-retention exceptions are explained below.

Positions are supplied by the device and can be inaccurate or falsified. Distances are straight-line estimates, not driving distances. The station map can be incomplete or outdated; being nearby does not establish someone’s occupation, affiliation or intentions. These flags do not automatically restrict accounts. Station data is © OpenStreetMap contributors, available under the Open Database Licence.

Who can see what

Approved members can see community profiles, profile media, online/last-active status and approved community posts. Admins and managers can review applications, private contact information, car verification photos and plate text, referrals, reports and individual event responses. Other members see aggregate attendance information. Verification photos do not appear on public profiles. A referral code identifies the referring member during application review.

Message access in the app is limited to the participants and the applicable friendship/block rules. AV’s servers can decrypt messages for delivery and automated anti-abuse checks; this is not end-to-end encryption. There is no general staff inbox for browsing all member conversations. Authorised technical access or disclosure may nevertheless be necessary for investigating abuse, operating the service or complying with a valid legal requirement. Reported material may be reviewed by management. Access must be limited to what is necessary for the purpose.

Encryption and its limits

HTTPS protects data in transit. Message text and message attachments are encrypted at rest using AES-GCM with a service-held key. Passwords are hashed, not stored as readable passwords. We do not claim that every database field, profile image or verification photo uses this same application-level encryption. Private photos are protected by authenticated access controls. The browser processes plate text recognition locally; the confirmed photo and plate text are then submitted to AV.

Encryption does not prevent a recipient from copying a message, protect an unlocked or compromised device, guarantee against every security incident or prevent lawful disclosure. Message sender/recipient identifiers and timestamps are necessary service records. Filtering examines message text and compares recent messages; it is not a promise to detect every harmful message or inspect every attachment’s contents.

Optional app unlock

If you enable Unlock on open, we store your passkey’s public credential and verification counter, your unlock preference and short-lived session verification records. Face ID, fingerprints and device passcodes are handled by your device or credential provider; AV does not receive or store them. Your AV password remains a fallback. You can turn this option off in Settings.

Providers, marketing and external sharing

Hosting, database, storage and notification providers process the information needed to operate AV under appropriate arrangements. The current app uses Sites hosting and Cloudflare-backed storage and databases; browser/operating-system push services handle enabled notifications. Email delivery may use a configured delivery provider when available. Provider infrastructure may process data outside the UK; applicable transfer safeguards must be in place where required.

We do not authorise third-party marketing through the required registration checkbox. Before giving a partner your details for its own marketing, AV must offer a separate optional choice stating the named recipient, the exact data, purpose and contact channel. No such sharing is enabled by this registration agreement. You may refuse or withdraw marketing consent without affecting membership. Verification photos, plates and private messages are not supplied for marketing.

Likewise, identifiable uploads will not be used for external promotion without separate permission. We may disclose necessary information to service providers, professional advisers or competent authorities where there is a lawful basis, valid legal requirement or need to protect legal rights. Community privacy rules never obstruct lawful reporting or disclosure.

Retention and account deletion

Account information is retained while needed to operate your account. The app currently stores a cumulative screen-time total and recent activity timestamps linked to your account, rather than a recording of each screen visit. These records follow the account lifecycle and deletion process below; cumulative totals cover the period since tracking began. Relevant information may be retained for a specific investigation only where necessary, with the restricted access and review requirements below. If you delete your account, access is deactivated and sessions are revoked. We retain your account data for 60 days so you can reactivate by signing in and confirming. After that window, the app’s next cleanup removes the account, its stored uploads and messages. Processing may not occur at the exact expiry minute. Ask management if you require earlier erasure; requests are assessed under applicable law.

To enforce a manager-approved blacklist after account deletion, AV retains minimal keyed hashes of the normalised email address and phone number separately from the deleted account. These are personal data used for matching attempted registrations, not a copy of your photos or messages. They are retained while the blacklist remains necessary and in force, with a review date recorded; you may challenge a match or request a review through management. Deletion is not permission for unlimited retention. Where legally necessary, a limited record may need to be preserved separately for an outstanding complaint, security investigation, legal obligation or legal claim. Only necessary information should be retained, with restricted access, a documented reason and a review/deletion date. This exception does not authorise keeping all photos or chats indefinitely. We will explain a refusal or partial refusal of an erasure request unless legally prohibited. Content lawfully copied by recipients or separately published with your permission may be outside AV’s control.

Event observations expire after 30 minutes and clear after the event. Other operational records are retained only while necessary for their stated purpose. Essential sign-in cookies keep you authenticated; browser storage may support the installed app. This agreement does not authorise advertising trackers.

Your right to object to usage tracking

You can object to usage processing based on legitimate interests for reasons relating to your situation by contacting automotivevisionary@gmail.com. We will assess your request and stop that processing unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds that override your interests, rights and freedoms, or the information is needed for legal claims. We will explain the outcome. You may also request access, correction, restriction or erasure where applicable and challenge inaccurate usage information or a decision based on it.

Your choices and rights

You can edit profile details, block members, report content, manage browser camera and push permissions, or request deletion in Settings. A camera photo is required for a new application; withdrawing camera permission prevents further capture but does not itself delete an existing photo. Contact management to request access, correction, erasure, restriction, portability where applicable, or to object to processing based on legitimate interests. You can request human review of a restriction or disputed automated flag.

We may ask for proportionate identity verification before responding. Rights depend on the circumstances and applicable law; we normally respond within one month, with any permitted extension explained. You can complain to the UK Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk. Contacting AV first is welcome but not required.