This Privacy Policy explains how VINdicated AI, Inc., doing business as VINdicated.ai, collects, uses, discloses, and protects personal information.
1. Information We Collect
We may collect:
- Contact information, such as name, email address, phone number, and mailing address.
- Account information, such as login credentials, purchase and access status, and preferences.
- Vehicle search information, such as make, model, trim, year, mileage, price range, ZIP code, radius, filters, saved vehicles, and listing interactions.
- Vehicle Identification Numbers, or VINs, that you enter to research or evaluate a vehicle.
- Uploaded content, such as vehicle documents, purchase agreements, financing offers, screenshots, window stickers, inspection reports, or other files.
- Payment information, processed by our payment providers. We do not store full payment card numbers.
- Communications, such as support requests, feedback, messages, and survey responses.
- Device and usage information, such as IP address, browser type, device identifiers, pages viewed, referring URLs, session events, clicks, approximate location (city or region), derived from your IP address, not precise GPS location, and diagnostic data.
- Cookies and similar tracking information.
- Marketing and advertising information, such as campaign interactions and ad measurement data.
2. How We Use Information
We use information to:
- Provide and improve the Services.
- Search, filter, and display vehicle listings.
- Retrieve vehicle data, specifications, pricing, and market signals.
- Process VIN lookups and vehicle research requests.
- Generate AI-assisted summaries, explanations, comparisons, and recommendations.
- Maintain accounts, purchases, payments, and support.
- Send transactional, service, security, and support communications.
- Send marketing communications where permitted.
- Analyze usage, improve performance, and debug errors.
- Prevent fraud, abuse, scraping, security incidents, and misuse.
- Comply with law and enforce our Terms.
3. AI Processing
We may process your inputs, uploaded documents, VINs, listing information, and prompts using AI systems to provide requested features.
We do not use your personal information to train third-party AI foundation models.
AI providers may process information on our behalf to provide the Services, subject to contractual restrictions. You should not upload highly sensitive personal information unless needed for a specific feature.
4. Vehicle and Marketplace Data
When you search listings or enter a VIN, we may use third-party vehicle data providers to retrieve vehicle information, listing data, pricing data, specifications, availability, and related market information.
VINs may be shared with service providers, such as vehicle data providers, only to retrieve vehicle information or power requested features. We do not sell VINs or share them with dealerships, manufacturers, or data brokers for their independent marketing.
5. Uploaded Files and Documents
Uploaded documents are used to provide the requested feature, such as document review, offer explanation, comparison, or AI-assisted analysis.
Unless a longer retention period is disclosed or required for legal, security, fraud-prevention, or operational reasons, uploaded documents are deleted from active systems after the session or within a limited retention period.
Residual copies may remain temporarily in backups, logs, or service-provider systems according to standard retention practices.
6. Payments
Payments may be processed by third-party payment providers such as Stripe.
We receive limited payment information, such as transaction status, purchase status, billing email, and partial card details.
We do not store full payment card numbers.
8. Advertising, Sale, and Sharing
We do not sell personal information for money.
Some privacy laws define "sale" or "sharing" broadly to include certain advertising, analytics, retargeting, or cross-context behavioral advertising activities.
If we use tools such as Meta Pixel, Google advertising tags, or similar technologies, that activity may be considered a "sale," "sharing," or targeted advertising under applicable law.
You may opt out through our "Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information" link, cookie controls, or browser-based Global Privacy Control signal where required by law.
9. How We Disclose Information
We may disclose information to:
- Service providers that help operate the Services.
- Vehicle data providers, such as Auto.dev, to retrieve vehicle information.
- AI providers to process requested AI features.
- Payment processors to process billing.
- Hosting, database, security, analytics, and infrastructure providers.
- Advertising and measurement partners, subject to your choices and applicable law.
- Email, SMS, customer support, and chat providers.
- Professional advisers, such as lawyers, accountants, and auditors.
- Law enforcement, regulators, courts, or other parties where required by law.
- Parties involved in a merger, acquisition, financing, reorganization, or sale of assets.
- Other parties with your consent or at your direction.
10. Sensitive Personal Information
We do not seek to collect sensitive personal information unless needed for a specific feature.
Please avoid uploading Social Security numbers, full bank account numbers, driver's license images, medical information, passwords, or other highly sensitive information unless specifically requested.
We use sensitive personal information only to provide the feature you request, and we do not use it to infer characteristics about you, so the separate right to limit its use does not apply. You can delete uploaded documents at any time.
11. Retention
We keep personal information only as long as needed for the purposes described in this policy, then delete or de-identify it. Typical periods:
- Account information: while your account is active and for up to 24 months after you close it or become inactive.
- Uploaded documents (such as a buyer's order): deleted within 90 days after the feature is used, or sooner if you ask us to delete them.
- Payment and transaction records: retained for 7 years to meet tax, accounting, and legal-compliance obligations.
- Analytics and usage data: retained for up to 24 months.
- Marketing contact information: while you are subscribed and for up to 24 months after you unsubscribe.
Periods may be longer where required by law, to prevent fraud or abuse, or to resolve a dispute.
12. Your Privacy Choices
Depending on your location, you may have rights to:
- Access personal information.
- Correct inaccurate information.
- Delete personal information.
- Obtain a copy of personal information.
- Opt out of sale, sharing, targeted advertising, or certain profiling.
- Withdraw consent where processing is based on consent.
- Appeal a denied privacy request.
Residents of California, Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, Texas, and other states with comprehensive consumer privacy laws may have these or similar rights.
We use sensitive personal information only to provide the feature you request, and we do not use it to infer characteristics about you, so the separate right to limit its use does not apply. You can delete uploaded documents at any time.
To exercise rights, contact support@vindicated.ai.
We will respond to a verified request within 45 days. If we need more time, we may extend by up to an additional 45 days (90 days total) where permitted by law, and we will let you know.
13. California Privacy Notice
California residents may have rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act, as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act.
Categories of personal information we may collect include identifiers, commercial information, internet or network activity, geolocation information, inferences, payment-related information, user-generated content, and sensitive personal information where provided.
We may use and disclose these categories for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy.
We do not knowingly sell or share personal information of consumers under 16.
You have the right to know, access, correct, delete, opt out of sale or sharing, and not be discriminated against for exercising privacy rights.
To opt out, use the "Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information" link or send a request to support@vindicated.ai.
We honor Global Privacy Control signals where required by law.
To submit a privacy request, email support@vindicated.ai or call 219-333-4447. We will not discriminate against you for exercising your rights.
14. Children
The Services are not directed to children under 13.
We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13.
15. Security
We use reasonable administrative, technical, and organizational safeguards designed to protect personal information.
No system is completely secure.
In the event of a data breach that may affect your personal information, we will notify you as required by applicable law.
16. International Users
The Services are intended primarily for users in the United States.
If you access the Services from outside the United States, your information may be processed in the United States or other jurisdictions.
17. Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control
Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control are different signals. Because there is no common standard for Do Not Track, we do not respond to Do Not Track signals. We do honor Global Privacy Control as an opt-out of the sale or sharing of personal information where required by law.
18. Changes to This Privacy Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time.
The updated version will be posted with a new effective date.