Privacy Policy

Last updated: April 11, 2026

This Privacy Policy describes how VINwriter ("we", "us", "our") collects, uses, and protects information when dealerships and their staff ("dealers", "you") use our AI-powered vehicle listing tool at vinwriter.ai.

1. Information we collect

Information you provide

• Account details: dealership name, your name, email, phone (optional), country, username, password.
• Billing information: handled exclusively by Stripe. We store only a Stripe customer ID and subscription metadata — never your card number.
• Listing inputs: VIN, year/make/model, trim, mileage, options, and other details you enter to generate descriptions.
• Generated content: AI-generated descriptions and feature lists for your records.
• Branding: dealership logo and accent colour you upload.

Information collected automatically

• Basic session and access logs (IP address, browser, timestamps) for security.
• Usage counts (how many listings you generate) for plan-limit accounting.

Third-party processing

• Anthropic (Claude API): the vehicle details you submit are sent to Anthropic to generate the listing. Anthropic does not use this data to train their models under our API terms.
• Stripe: payment processing and subscription management.
• NHTSA vPIC: VIN decoding (public U.S. government API — no dealer data is sent).

2. How we use your information

• To operate the product: generate listings, manage seats, enforce plan limits.
• To bill you through Stripe for paid subscriptions.
• To email you product notices: welcome, trial-ending reminders, payment failures, cancellations.
• To improve the product (usage analytics, aggregated and de-identified).
• To investigate abuse, fraud, or security issues.

We do not sell your data, share it with advertisers, or use dealer content to train AI models.

3. Where your data is stored

Account and listing data is stored on servers in North America. When you generate a listing, the inputs transit to Anthropic's API (U.S.). If you are in the EU, UK, or another region with data-transfer rules, continued use of VINwriter is your consent to these transfers under appropriate contractual safeguards.

4. Your rights

All users

• Access a copy of your data
• Correct inaccurate data from your profile page
• Delete your account and all associated data
• Port your listing history as a download

Canada (PIPEDA)

You have the right to know what personal information we hold, how it's used, and to whom it's disclosed. You may file a complaint with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada at priv.gc.ca if you believe we've mishandled your information.

European Economic Area and United Kingdom (GDPR / UK GDPR)

You have the right to access, rectify, erase, restrict processing, object to processing, and data portability. Our legal basis for processing is contract performance (delivering the service you purchased) and legitimate interests (security, improvement, fraud prevention). You may lodge a complaint with your local supervisory authority.

5. Data retention

We retain account data for as long as your subscription is active. After cancellation, we keep minimum data required for tax and legal obligations (typically 7 years for Canadian tax purposes). You can request immediate deletion of non-required data at any time.

6. Security

We use industry-standard protections: HTTPS everywhere, bcrypt-hashed passwords, prepared SQL statements, and role-based access controls. No system is perfectly secure; please use a strong, unique password and report any suspicious activity to security@vinwriter.ai.

7. Cookies & similar technologies

We use a single first-party session cookie (named vinwriter_session) to keep you signed in. We do not use advertising cookies or third-party trackers. Your browser's localStorage stores your UI preferences (theme, language).

8. Children

VINwriter is a B2B product for licensed dealers. It is not directed at children under 16 and we do not knowingly collect their data.

9. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy. Material changes will be announced via email at least 30 days before taking effect. The "Last updated" date above reflects the current version.

10. Contact

Privacy questions, data requests, or complaints: privacy@vinwriter.ai.

VINwriter is operated from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.