Privacy

What changed, and when

Every version of the notice we have published. Nothing here is edited after the fact: an old version is what somebody was shown on the day, which is the only thing that makes this page worth having.

1. Version 3.4current

   Took effect 25 September 2026. A material change, so the people it affects were told before it took effect.

   • The website and its forms now run on Cloudflare, which already carried every request to the site. What you type passes through it on the way to our database in London, and we have set it up not to keep a copy.
   • Netlify no longer runs the website. We deleted the site we had there on 25 September 2026, including any early-access requests made through its form. It stays on the list because it ran the site until then.
   • An early-access request is now handled by Cloudflare rather than Netlify. Where it is stored, and who sends the emails, are unchanged.
   • Said that the website is served by a network with machines all over the world, rather than from the United States.

   A solicitor has not yet reviewed this version. We would rather say so than imply otherwise.

2. Version 3.3

   Took effect 23 September 2026. Not a material change.

   • Took two things off this notice that the early-access site does not do. Passing on an enquiry somebody made to a dealership through an AI assistant, and counting what happens on a dealer’s own website. They are still described wherever that service runs.
   • Described the earlier join-the-list form as closed. What it collected is still held for the same purpose and period, and can be deleted on request.
   • Reworded the summary of your rights, because two of them are buttons only where you have an account. On this site every right is a request, and each one now says what it does here.
   • Showed the retention periods for accounts, adverts, photographs, viewings, identity documents and dealer records only where that information can exist, and added the period for early-access requests.
   • Showed the paragraphs about adverts, vehicle records and selling a car only where those services run, including the list of messages that keep coming after you turn marketing off.
   • Removed a reference to a feature this site does not run from the section on who is responsible for your information.
   • Removed the earlier join-the-list form from this notice, because we deleted what it collected on 23 September 2026. The people who used it were told by email first.
   • Removed the list of motor dealers from this notice. We stopped using it on 23 September 2026 and are deleting every copy.

   A solicitor has not yet reviewed this version. We would rather say so than imply otherwise.

3. Version 3.2

   Took effect 22 September 2026. A material change, so the people it affects were told before it took effect.

   • Added the early-access enquiry form: we keep the email address you give us, the website address if you choose to give one, and the exact wording you acknowledged.
   • Said that we send you one acknowledgement and one internal notification to the Carqo team, and that we keep whether each was delivered.
   • Said that asking twice from the same address does not create a second record and does not send a second pair of emails.
   • Closed the earlier interest registration form. Details already given through it are still held and can still be deleted on request.
   • Said that giving us a website address is not permission for us to read that website.

   A solicitor has not yet reviewed this version. We would rather say so than imply otherwise.

4. Version 2.12

   Took effect 10 September 2026. A material change, so the people it affects were told before it took effect.

   • Corrected what the table says a dealership receives from an assistant’s enquiry: your name, and the email address or telephone number you gave, and your message.
   • The section about assistants already said this. The table did not, and the table is the part people check.
   • Added that a dealership can also have that enquiry delivered to their own system, so it reaches whoever answers rather than a screen nobody is watching.
   • Said that the delivery to their own system carries less than their Carqo screen does: not your name, not your contact details and not your message.

   A solicitor has not yet reviewed this version. We would rather say so than imply otherwise.

5. Version 2.11

   Took effect 10 September 2026. A material change, so the people it affects were told before it took effect.

   • Added a section about AI assistants passing on an enquiry, because dealerships can now let one do that.
   • Said what reaches us: your name, one way to reach you, your message, and which car it was about.
   • Said what does not: nothing about your device, your address or where you were.
   • Said that a dealership which has issued no key cannot receive one of these at all, and can withdraw a key at any time.
   • Said that we pass it on and answer nothing on the dealership’s behalf.
   • Said that we publish none of it, in any feed or file or interface a machine can read.
   • Said that after six months your name, your contact details and your message are erased together.

   A solicitor has not yet reviewed this version. We would rather say so than imply otherwise.

6. Version 2.10

   Took effect 9 September 2026. A material change, so the people it affects were told before it took effect.

   • Said that a dealership can put a small Carqo script on its own website, and that it counts what happens there.
   • Said that the script stores nothing on your device: no cookie, no identifier, and nothing to accept or clear.
   • Said that we keep the name of the event, the path of the page and the hostname you came from, and never your IP address or your browser details.
   • Said plainly what that means: we count arrivals and events and cannot follow one person between them.
   • Said that the script is on the dealership’s website rather than on ours, so blocking it there stops it.

   A solicitor has not yet reviewed this version. We would rather say so than imply otherwise.

7. Version 2.9

   Took effect 9 September 2026. A material change, so the people it affects were told before it took effect.

   • Said that we read a dealership’s own website when somebody asks us to check how well machines can read it, and that we keep what we found and short extracts showing why.
   • Said we honour that site’s robots.txt before every page, and that a site asking crawlers to stay away is not read at all.
   • Said we never copy photographs and never keep a registration number, and that where a plate is on a page we record only that one was there.
   • Said that phone numbers, email addresses and postcodes are removed before anything from a scanned page is stored.
   • Said plainly that a page title could carry somebody’s name, that no pattern reliably finds one, and that what protects it is how little text we keep rather than a filter.
   • Said what we keep about a dealer who asks for a report, and that they can ask us to delete it or tell us to stop.

   A solicitor has not yet reviewed this version. We would rather say so than imply otherwise.

8. Version 3.0

   Took effect 8 September 2026. A material change, so the people it affects were told before it took effect.

   • Made consumer and business interest registration complete on first submission, without a confirmation link.
   • Described the registration receipt and the internal email sent to Carqo when a new interest record is stored.
   • Kept older confirmation links usable until they expire, while making clear that registration no longer depends on them.

   A solicitor has not yet reviewed this version. We would rather say so than imply otherwise.

9. Version 2.8

   Took effect 8 September 2026. A material change, so the people it affects were told before it took effect.

   • Said that we count how many people arrive and roughly where from: a search engine, a social network, a link somebody posted, or straight to us.
   • Said we keep the name of a search engine or a social network where that is where you came from, and never the name of any other site, because another site can say something about you.
   • Said we keep the page you landed on as a kind of page rather than as the address, so a registration you typed into a free check is never part of it.
   • Said none of it identifies anybody and none of it puts anything on your device, which is why you are still not asked to accept anything.
   • Said that if your browser sends Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control, nothing is counted, and said plainly that not every browser offers either setting.
   • The section describing how we measure the site now appears from the first day the site is up, rather than only once the marketplace opens.

   A solicitor has not yet reviewed this version. We would rather say so than imply otherwise.

10. Version 2.7

    Took effect 30 August 2026. A material change, so the people it affects were told before it took effect.

    • Added what we record about an enquiry: whether it looked like a real approach to buy the car, and the short list of reasons behind that. We keep the reasons, never the words of the message.
    • Said that we count how often an advert appears in search results, alongside the view count we already described. Both are numbers per advert per day and neither says who.
    • Said that we count what people search for, as totals rather than as searches belonging to a person, including searches that found nothing.
    • Said all of it is deleted with the enquiry, the advert or the account it belongs to.

    A solicitor has not yet reviewed this version. We would rather say so than imply otherwise.

11. Version 2.6

    Took effect 30 August 2026. A material change, so the people it affects were told before it took effect.

    • Said what we keep when you appeal a decision: what you wrote, and what we decided about it. The previous version described the decision and never the answer to it.
    • Left it under the same heading as reports rather than giving it its own, because a decision and the answer to it are one thing and a person looking for both should find them together.

    A solicitor has not yet reviewed this version. We would rather say so than imply otherwise.

12. Version 2.5

    Took effect 30 August 2026. A material change, so the people it affects were told before it took effect.

    • Said that we count what people search for and enquire about, grouped by make, price band and postcode area, to work out which cars the marketplace is short of.
    • Said the counts identify nobody, and that a group too small to report without identifying somebody is left out altogether.
    • Said nothing is stored: the counts are worked out when somebody at Carqo asks for them, so deleting a saved search removes it from every future count.
    • Corrected the trade prospect entry, which said the list was held outside the database. The contact details still are; where Carqo has got to with a business is now a row in the database, and a named individual’s details never enter it.

    A solicitor has not yet reviewed this version. We would rather say so than imply otherwise.

13. Version 2.4

    Took effect 29 August 2026. A material change, so the people it affects were told before it took effect.

    • Added the record of whether you told us you are selling privately or as a business. The previous version described how we work it out when you have not said, and never described what we keep when you have.
    • Said that what is kept is the exact wording you were shown when you answered, not only which answer you gave, because the wording is the record of the statement you made.
    • Said it is kept for as long as the account exists and goes with the account.
    • Put a note beside the question itself on the selling pages, which had none.

    A solicitor has not yet reviewed this version. We would rather say so than imply otherwise.

14. Version 2.3

    Took effect 26 August 2026. A material change, so the people it affects were told before it took effect.

    • Added a section about Carqo Live, which carries live video and audio of you to the people watching, and keeps a replay where the host chose to keep one. The previous version did not mention it.
    • Named the two services that carry it, both Cloudflare, and said what each receives: the live audio and video, and the recording where one is kept.
    • Gave them their own rows rather than folding them into the Cloudflare row that was already there, because that one carries requests and stores nothing, and these hold video of a person.
    • Said that nothing has been sent to either of them. Carqo Live is not switched on, and no session has ever run.
    • Said that a question asked in a session is a message, and is treated as one.
    • Said that nothing in a session reaches a model. We do not analyse what you say or how you look.

    A solicitor has not yet reviewed this version. We would rather say so than imply otherwise.

15. Version 2.2

    Took effect 25 August 2026. A material change, so the people it affects were told before it took effect.

    • Narrowed what we say about AI. The previous version said we do not permit our provider to train on your content. We can say what WE do, and we were not in a position to promise what they are contractually forbidden from doing, so we now say exactly what we send, what we never send, and that the terms are being confirmed.
    • Rewrote the section on your age. It said an account is for people aged 18 or over, and nothing checked. It now says the paid and contractual parts of Carqo are for adults, that a seller passes an identity check against a document carrying a date of birth, and that we do not ask your age or verify it.
    • Said that your account, your listings, your messages and every document you upload are kept in London, and that this is our choice rather than something the law requires.
    • Named Cloudflare, which carries requests to and from the site and answers the www address, and said that it keeps no account, document or message.
    • Said where photographs and documents are stored now that it is decided: the same London project as the database, in a private area nothing on the public web can reach.
    • Gave a period to two things that had none: the vehicle records we cache from DVLA and DVSA, and safety reports once they are closed.
    • Corrected the one-line summary above the Age section, which still said you have to be 18 to hold an account after the section itself stopped saying it.
    • Put back the sentence saying the website you are reading is served from the United States. It went out with the London rewrite and it is still true.
    • Stopped saying we look at the camera serial number and the location inside your photograph files to spot a trader. We do not, and we never have: every photograph is rebuilt from its pixels when you upload it, so none of that survives to be looked at. What we actually compare is a fingerprint of the picture.

    A solicitor has not yet reviewed this version. We would rather say so than imply otherwise.

16. Version 2.1

    Took effect 25 August 2026. A material change, so the people it affects were told before it took effect.

    • Added a section about the Carqo app, because Carqo has one. The previous version of this notice described the website only.
    • Said what the app asks your phone for: your photo library, and only when you tap to add a photograph or a document.
    • Said what it does not ask for: your location, your contacts, the camera, an advertising identifier, and no analytics or crash reporting of any kind.
    • Said that the app keeps one thing on your phone, the token that keeps you signed in, in the phone’s own keystore.
    • Said that when you download your data in the app, your phone’s share sheet decides where it goes and we are not told what you chose.

    A solicitor has not yet reviewed this version. We would rather say so than imply otherwise.

17. Version 2.0

    Took effect 24 August 2026. A material change, so the people it affects were told before it took effect.

    • Rebuilt as a privacy centre: a one-screen summary, the full notice, and a page in your account where the rights are buttons rather than an email address.
    • The notice is now generated from a register of what Carqo actually does, so it cannot describe something that is not running or omit something that is.
    • Added sections covering identity verification, phone numbers and the diverted call, messages, photographs and camera data, payments, AI, automated decisions, fraud checks and where your information goes. Each appears only once that part of Carqo is switched on.
    • Added a complaint form, so complaining does not mean finding an email address.
    • Said plainly that messages are not end-to-end encrypted and that we can read them when one of you reports the other.
    • Said which suppliers are outside the UK, and which contracts are still being confirmed, rather than implying all of them are settled.

    A solicitor has not yet reviewed this version. We would rather say so than imply otherwise.

18. Version 1.1

    Took effect 9 August 2026. Not a material change.

    • Added our ICO registration number.

    A solicitor has not yet reviewed this version. We would rather say so than imply otherwise.

19. Version 1.0

    Took effect 7 August 2026. Not a material change.

    The first version.

    A solicitor has not yet reviewed this version. We would rather say so than imply otherwise.