Policy
Privacy policy
This privacy policy explains what personal data Best 7 Seater Cars collects, why and for how long. You can read the whole site without telling us who you are: we only hold your name and email address if you send us a message.
We keep messages for up to 12 months so we can reply, never store IP addresses in raw form, set no cookies for visitors by default and do not sell your data or use it for marketing.
Last updated: 4 October 2026
Who we are
Best 7 Seater Cars ("we", "us") runs best7seatercars.com and is the controller of the personal data described in this policy, which means we decide how it is used. You can contact us about anything in it through our contact page.
Information we collect
Messages you send us
If you use the contact form, we collect your name, email address, the subject and your message. They are stored in our database, which is hosted by Cloudflare, so that we can read your message and reply. You do not have to contact us, but we need a name and a valid email address to reply. We reply by email, so your address and our reply will also be held in our email account.
To help stop spam, we store a salted one-way hash of your IP address with your message. This is a scrambled code made from your IP address and a secret value. We keep the code, never the IP address itself.
Spam and abuse protection
The same kind of hash is used to limit how many messages, or administrator sign-in attempts, can come from one connection in a set period. These rate-limit records are deleted automatically within about a day.
Browsing the site
Cloudflare delivers and protects our pages. To do that, it processes technical information about each request, such as your IP address, browser type, the page you asked for and the time of the request. Cloudflare handles this for us under its data processing terms, to serve pages quickly and to block attacks and abusive traffic.
We do not use analytics or advertising services at present, and our fonts and images are served from our own domain, so loading a page does not send your information to any company other than Cloudflare. The site search runs in your browser using a list of our pages, so we do not keep a record of what you search for. Cars you add to the comparison tray are saved in your own browser, not by us (see our cookie policy).
Site administrators
For the small number of people who run the site, we store a username, a securely hashed password and details of signed-in sessions, including a hash of the IP address and the browser type, to keep the admin area secure.
Why we use it and our lawful basis
- Replying to your message: our legitimate interest in answering enquiries and correcting the site.
- Preventing spam, abuse and attacks, including rate limiting and Cloudflare's security checks: our legitimate interest in keeping the site and its visitors safe.
- Delivering pages to you: our legitimate interest in running the website you have chosen to visit.
- Optional cookies: if we add advertising or analytics cookies that need consent, we will only use them with your consent, which you can withdraw at any time.
We do not use your personal data for marketing, profiling or automated decision-making.
Who we share it with
We do not sell your personal data. We use these service providers, which store or process it for us:
- Cloudflare hosts the site and its database, delivers pages and protects the site from attacks.
- GitHub stores weekly backup copies of our database, which include contact messages, in a private repository.
- Our email provider holds the emails we exchange with you.
We may also disclose information if the law requires it.
Transfers outside the UK
Cloudflare and GitHub are US companies that operate worldwide, so your data may be processed outside the UK. Cloudflare's data processing terms include the standard contractual clauses with the UK International Data Transfer Addendum, and GitHub is certified under the UK Extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework. Both are safeguards recognised by UK data protection law.
How long we keep it
- Contact messages, with the IP hash stored alongside them: up to 12 months, then deleted. Copies in our weekly backups are replaced on a rolling basis and are gone within about three months after that.
- Emails we exchange with you: up to 12 months, as for messages.
- Rate-limit records: deleted automatically within about a day.
- Technical request data: kept by Cloudflare for a limited period under its own policies.
Your rights
Under UK data protection law, including the UK GDPR, you have the right to:
- ask for a copy of the personal data we hold about you;
- ask us to correct it if it is wrong or incomplete;
- ask us to delete it;
- ask us to restrict how we use it;
- object to our use of it where we rely on legitimate interests;
- withdraw your consent at any time where we rely on consent.
To use any of these rights, contact us through our contact page and include the email address you wrote from, so we can find your messages. There is normally no charge, and we will respond within one month.
Complaints
If you are unhappy with how we have handled your personal data, please tell us first so we can try to put it right. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK's data protection regulator, at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113.
Children
The site is written for adults choosing a car, and we do not knowingly collect personal data from children.
Changes to this policy
If the way we handle personal data changes, for example because we add analytics or advertising, we will update this page and the date at the top.
