Privacy Policy

Data Controller: NI CarSearch Ltd

Address: 1c The Square, Ballyclare, BT39 9BB, Northern Ireland

Email: hello@nicarsearch.com

If you have any questions about how we handle your data, please contact us at the details above.

When you register an account:

• First name and last name
• Email address
• Phone number
• Account type (private seller or dealer)
• Password (stored securely — we never see your plain text password)

When you list a vehicle:

• Vehicle details (make, model, year, mileage, description, photos)
• Asking price
• Location (town/area — we do not display your full address publicly)
• Contact phone number
• Vehicle registration number (used for DVLA lookup only — not displayed publicly)

When you send an enquiry:

• Your name, email address, and phone number
• Your message to the seller

Automatically collected data:

• IP address
• Browser type and version
• Device type
• Pages visited and time spent
• Referring website
• Cookie data (see our Cookie Policy)

We use your personal data for the following purposes:

• To operate the platform — creating and managing your account, publishing your listings, and facilitating buyer-seller contact
• To send enquiries — forwarding buyer messages to sellers via email
• To send transactional emails — listing confirmations, enquiry notifications, and account-related communications
• To verify vehicle data — using your registration number to look up DVLA data to pre-fill your listing
• To prevent fraud — monitoring for suspicious activity and protecting our users
• To improve our service — analysing how the platform is used to make it better
• To comply with legal obligations — including responding to lawful requests from authorities

We process your data under the following lawful bases:

• Contract — processing necessary to provide you with our service (e.g. publishing your listing, sending enquiries)
• Legitimate interests — fraud prevention, platform security, and service improvement
• Legal obligation — where required by law
• Consent — for marketing communications (you can withdraw consent at any time)

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

• Supabase — our database and authentication provider (data stored securely in the EU)
• Resend — our email delivery provider (used to send enquiry and confirmation emails)
• Vercel — our hosting provider
• DVLA / Vehicle Data Global — vehicle registration lookups (we send your reg, they return vehicle data)
• Law enforcement or regulatory authorities — where required by law or to prevent fraud

All third-party providers are required to handle your data securely and in accordance with applicable data protection laws.

When you list a vehicle, the following information is displayed publicly on your listing:

• Vehicle details (make, model, year, mileage, description, photos)
• Asking price
• Your first name
• Your approximate area (town — not your full address)
• A masked version of your phone number (full number only revealed on request)

Your vehicle registration number, email address, and full address are never displayed publicly.

We retain your personal data for as long as necessary to provide our service and comply with our legal obligations:

• Active accounts — data retained while your account is active
• Deleted accounts — data deleted within 30 days of account deletion request
• Listings — active listings retained until removed; deleted listings removed within 30 days
• Enquiries — retained for up to 12 months for dispute resolution purposes
• Legal obligations — some data may be retained longer where required by law

Under UK GDPR, you have the following rights:

• Right of Access — request a copy of the personal data we hold about you
• Right to Rectification — request correction of inaccurate or incomplete data
• Right to Erasure — request deletion of your personal data in certain circumstances
• Right to Restriction — request that we restrict processing of your data
• Right to Data Portability — request your data in a portable format
• Right to Object — object to processing based on legitimate interests or for direct marketing
• Right to Withdraw Consent — where processing is based on consent, you can withdraw at any time

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at hello@nicarsearch.com. We will respond within 30 days.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk or by calling 0303 123 1113.

We take the security of your personal data seriously. We use industry-standard security measures including:

• SSL/TLS encryption for all data in transit
• Encrypted storage of passwords (bcrypt hashing via Supabase Auth)
• Row-level security policies on our database
• Access controls limiting who can access personal data
• Regular security reviews

However, no system is completely secure. If you believe your account has been compromised, please contact us immediately.

We use cookies to improve your experience on our platform. Please see our Cookie Policy for full details.

NI CarSearch is not intended for use by anyone under the age of 18. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children. If you believe we have collected data from a child, please contact us immediately.

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The current version will always be available at nicarsearch.com/privacy. We will notify registered users of significant changes by email.