Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

TheCarDudeOBD ("we", "us", "our") operates the website at thecardudeobd.com and the associated community forum. We are the data controller for personal data collected through this site.

If you have any questions about this policy or how we handle your data, contact us at our contact page.

2. What data we collect

We collect the following categories of personal data:

• Account data — username, email address, first name, last name, and optional phone number when you register.
• Profile data — bio, vehicle details (year, make, model, notes) that you choose to add to your public profile.
• Content data — forum posts, replies, reactions, and direct messages you create on the platform.
• Technical data — IP address, browser user-agent, and session tokens collected automatically when you use the site.
• Analytics data — anonymised page-view and interaction data collected via Google Analytics 4 (only with your consent).

3. How we use your data

We use your personal data to:

• Create and manage your account and authenticate you when you log in.
• Display your public profile and forum activity to other users.
• Send transactional emails (email verification, password reset).
• Enable community features such as forum posts, replies, reactions, and direct messages.
• Moderate content and enforce our community guidelines.
• Improve the site through anonymised analytics (with consent).
• Comply with legal obligations.

4. Legal basis for processing (GDPR)

Under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), we process your data on the following legal bases:

• Contract — processing necessary to provide the service you signed up for (account management, forum access).
• Legitimate interests — security, fraud prevention, and platform moderation.
• Consent — analytics cookies and any optional marketing communications. You may withdraw consent at any time.
• Legal obligation — where we are required to retain or disclose data by law.

5. Cookies and tracking

We use strictly necessary cookies to maintain your login session. With your consent, we also use Google Analytics 4 cookies to understand how visitors use the site. You can manage your cookie preferences via the consent banner shown on your first visit, or by clearing your browser cookies at any time.

6. Data sharing

We do not sell your personal data. We may share data with:

• Infrastructure providers — hosting and database services used to operate the platform.
• Google Analytics — anonymised usage data (with consent).
• Law enforcement — where required by applicable law or court order.

7. Data retention

We retain your account data for as long as your account is active. If you delete your account, your personal data is removed from our systems within 30 days, except where we are required to retain it for legal or compliance purposes. Forum posts and replies you authored are deleted alongside your account.

8. Your rights

Under GDPR you have the right to:

• Access — request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
• Rectification — correct inaccurate or incomplete data.
• Erasure — request deletion of your data ("right to be forgotten").
• Restriction — ask us to limit how we process your data.
• Portability — receive your data in a structured, machine-readable format.
• Objection — object to processing based on legitimate interests.
• Withdraw consent — at any time for consent-based processing.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us. We will respond within 30 days.

9. Security

We implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data against unauthorised access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction. Passwords are stored using a secure one-way hashing algorithm and are never stored in plain text.

10. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we will update the "Last updated" date at the top of this page. Continued use of the site after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

11. Contact & complaints

For any privacy-related queries, please use our contact form. If you are not satisfied with our response, you have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority (in Ireland: the Data Protection Commission).