1. Who we are

Vehicle History Hub is a UK-based online vehicle history check service operating at vehiclehistoryhub.co.uk. We are a sole trader business registered in the United Kingdom.

For the purposes of UK data protection law (UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018), Vehicle History Hub is the data controller of any personal data you provide to us.

2. What data we collect

When you purchase a report

• Your email address (to deliver your report)
• The vehicle registration number you submit
• Your chosen report tier (Basic, Standard, or Premium)
• Transaction reference (provided by Stripe — we do not see or store your card details)

When you contact us

• Your name
• Your email address
• Any vehicle registration number you include (optional)
• The content of your message

Automatically collected data

• IP address and approximate location (country/region)
• Browser type and device type
• Pages visited and time spent on site
• Referral source (how you found us)

Automatically collected data is used only for analytics and security purposes. It is not linked to your identity.

3. How we use your data

We use the data we collect for the following purposes:

• To deliver your report — your email address and registration number are passed to our data provider (Vehicle Data Global) to generate your report, which is then emailed to you.
• To process your payment — your purchase is handled securely by Stripe. We receive a transaction confirmation but never see your card details.
• To respond to support enquiries — if you contact us, we use the details you provide to respond to your message.
• To improve our service — anonymised usage data helps us understand how people use the site and how we can improve it.
• To comply with legal obligations — we retain transaction records as required by HMRC and UK tax law.

We do not use your data for unsolicited marketing, we do not sell your data to third parties, and we do not use your data for automated decision-making or profiling.

4. Legal basis for processing

Under UK GDPR, we must have a lawful basis for processing your personal data. We rely on the following:

• Contract performance — processing your email and vehicle registration is necessary to deliver the report you have purchased.
• Legitimate interests — we have a legitimate interest in processing anonymised analytics data to improve the service, provided this does not override your rights.
• Legal obligation — we are required to retain financial transaction records for tax and accounting purposes.

5. Third parties we share data with

We share limited personal data with the following third-party services, solely to operate our service:

Vehicle Data Global (VDG)

Your vehicle registration number is submitted to the Vehicle Data Global API to retrieve vehicle history data. VDG accesses official UK databases including DVLA and DVSA. Your email address is not shared with VDG.

Stripe

All payments are processed by Stripe, Inc. Stripe receives your payment details directly — we never see or store your card number, expiry date, or CVV. Stripe's privacy policy is available at stripe.com/gb/privacy.

Hosting (Hostinger)

Our website is hosted by Hostinger on UK-based servers. Hostinger processes server logs which may include IP addresses for security purposes.

OpenAI (Premium reports only)

For Premium reports, vehicle history data (not your personal details) is processed by OpenAI's API to generate the AI buyer analysis. No personally identifiable information is sent to OpenAI.

We do not share your data with advertisers, data brokers, or any other third parties.

6. How long we keep your data

• Order records (email, registration, transaction reference) — retained for 6 years as required by HMRC for tax records.
• Contact form submissions — retained for up to 12 months, then deleted.
• Analytics data — anonymised data retained indefinitely; no personal data is stored in analytics.
• Server logs — automatically deleted after 30 days.

After the applicable retention period, your data is permanently deleted.

7. Your rights under UK GDPR

As a UK resident, you have the following rights regarding your personal data:

To exercise any of these rights, email us at info@vehiclehistoryhub.co.uk. We will respond within 30 days.

If you are unhappy with how we handle your data, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk or by calling 0303 123 1113.

8. Cookies

Our website uses cookies — small text files stored on your device — for the following purposes:

Essential cookies

Required for the website to function. These include WooCommerce session cookies (to process your order) and WordPress authentication cookies. These cannot be disabled without breaking the site.

Analytics cookies

We use Google Analytics to understand how visitors use our site. Analytics cookies collect anonymised data (pages visited, time on site, device type). No personally identifiable information is collected. You can opt out of Google Analytics at tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

Payment cookies

Stripe sets cookies to process payments securely and detect fraud. These are set only when you proceed to checkout.

You can control cookies through your browser settings. Note that disabling essential cookies may prevent the checkout from working.

9. Security

We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data, including:

• SSL/TLS encryption on all pages (HTTPS)
• Hosting on a UK-based server with regular security updates
• Payment processing handled entirely by Stripe — card data never touches our servers
• Access to customer data restricted to the site administrator only

No method of data transmission or storage is 100% secure. In the unlikely event of a data breach that affects your rights and freedoms, we will notify you and the ICO within 72 hours as required by UK GDPR.

10. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services, legal requirements, or best practice. When we do, we will update the "Last updated" date at the top of this page.

For significant changes, we will notify users by email where we hold your address. We encourage you to review this policy periodically.

11. Contact us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or how we handle your data, please get in touch: