Privacy policy
Effective September 5, 2026
MotorGPA is an independent vehicle-grading publication at motorgpa.com. This policy explains what information the site collects when you visit or write to us, who receives it, why, how long it is kept, and the choices you have. It is written to be read rather than skimmed, and it describes what the site actually does.
The short version
We do not sell personal data, and we do not build profiles of readers. The site measures its own traffic with Google Analytics (only if you accept analytics cookies), may carry display advertising served by Google AdSense (with a separate consent prompt where the law requires one), and receives what you type into the contact form so a person can reply. That is the whole list. Nothing you read on this site influences what you are graded, and nothing we grade is paid for.
What we collect, and from whom
Visitors. When you load a page, our hosting provider (Cloudflare Pages) processes the technical information any web request carries — your IP address, browser and device type, the page requested, and the referring page — to serve the page and to protect the site from abuse. Cloudflare retains request logs for a short period under its own policy; we do not see them per visitor.
Analytics. If you accept analytics cookies, Google Analytics 4 (loaded through Google Tag Manager) records aggregate usage: pages viewed, time on page, approximate region, device and browser type, and the site that referred you. We use it to see which comparisons and guides people find useful. We do not send names, email addresses, or the contents of the contact form to any analytics property.
Advertising. When display advertising is enabled, Google AdSense may set cookies to select and measure ads. In the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, Google’s own consent prompt asks about ad personalization before any advertising cookie is set; elsewhere, ads may be personalized by default under Google’s policies. Ads are shown whether or not you consent — non-personalized if you decline. Google’s use of advertising data is described in how Google uses information from sites that use its services.
Contact form. If you use the form, we receive the name, email address and message you submit, plus the type of message you chose. The form is relayed to our mailbox by Resend, an email delivery service, which processes the message to deliver it. We use what you send only to reply and, if you reported a correction, to check and apply it. You are not added to any list.
Cookies and local storage
The site itself sets one item of browser storage: a key named motorgpa_cookie_consent that records whether you accepted or declined analytics cookies, so the notice is not shown again. It contains that answer and nothing else, and it stays until you clear your browser storage.
Google Analytics sets its own cookies (the _ga family) only after you accept; they identify a browser, not a person, and Google’s default retention for them is up to two years. Google AdSense may set advertising cookies as described above. No other third party sets cookies on this site: the vehicle images, fonts and scripts are served from our own domain or from Google’s font service, which does not set cookies.
Consent
Analytics cookies are denied by default everywhere and set only if you choose “Accept” in the cookie notice. Declining is a one-click choice with no loss of function. You can change your mind by clearing the site’s data in your browser, which brings the notice back.
Advertising consent in the EEA, UK and Switzerland is collected by Google’s consent prompt, which appears before any advertising cookie is set and can be reopened from the privacy options it offers. Both consents are implemented with Google Consent Mode, which means Google’s tags receive your choice before they load, not after.
Legal bases (EEA and UK readers)
Serving the page and protecting the site from abuse rests on our legitimate interest in operating it. Analytics and personalized advertising rest on your consent. Replying to a message you sent us rests on our legitimate interest in answering it — and, where you reported an error, on our interest in publishing accurate grades. We do not process special-category data and do not make automated decisions about you.
How long we keep it
Contact-form messages are kept in our mailbox for as long as needed to resolve them and then for up to two years, so a correction can be traced to its source if it is questioned later; you can ask for one to be deleted sooner. Analytics data is retained by Google under the property’s settings, which are set to the shortest available window, and is aggregate. We keep no other record of individual visitors.
Your rights
Wherever you are, you can ask what information we hold about you, ask for it to be corrected or deleted, and object to or restrict its use. Readers in the EEA and UK have these rights under the GDPR; readers in California have the right to know, to delete, to correct, and to opt out of sale or sharing under the CCPA/CPRA — and since we neither sell nor share personal data for cross-context advertising, there is nothing to opt out of on our side. Google’s advertising choices are managed through Google’s own controls at adssettings.google.com.
To exercise any of these, use the contact form and choose the privacy option; we answer within 30 days. If you are in the EEA or UK and are not satisfied with our answer, you can complain to your national data protection authority.
Children
The site is written for adults researching a vehicle purchase and is not directed at children under 13 (or under 16 in the EEA). We do not knowingly collect information from children; if you believe a child has written to us, tell us and we will delete the message.
Where the data goes
Our hosting, analytics and advertising providers are US companies with worldwide infrastructure, so information may be processed outside your country. Google and Cloudflare each participate in the EU–US Data Privacy Framework and offer standard contractual clauses for transfers from the EEA and UK; Resend processes email delivery on US infrastructure under its own data-processing terms.
Third-party links
Vehicle pages link to manufacturer websites, to fueleconomy.gov, nhtsa.gov and iihs.org, and to the sources cited beside individual scores. Those sites have their own privacy practices, which this policy does not cover.
Changes
When this policy changes, the effective date at the top changes with it, and a material change — a new third party, a new purpose — will be noted here for at least 30 days. The current version is always the one at this address.
Contact
Privacy questions and requests go through the contact form; the contact page explains what happens to each kind of message. We publish no mailbox address on the site because an unmonitored one fails silently — the form reaches a person.