Virtual show privacy notice

You do not create an account. This is everything that happens to your data.

• Your email address. We check it, make a keyed hash of it, and email you a 6-digit code through our email provider (unless you use one of the two shortcuts below). We do not store the address itself, and we do not keep a copy of the code email in our own records. The provider, which can be Resend or Cloudflare Email Sending, may keep delivery logs for a time under its own policy. If an address has bounced or been reported as spam, it may be kept in readable form on our email suppression list, with no fixed retention period, so we do not email it again. In that case we do not send the code. We remove an address from that list if you ask us to.
• If you are already signed in. If you are signed in to a Car Show Expert account with a verified email address, you can vote in one tap with no code. We read the address from your account at that moment, make the same keyed hash, and use it only to recognise one vote per person. We do not store your account against your vote, and no account is created or changed.
• Continue with Google (where available). Where this button is shown, you can confirm your address through Google instead of the code. It is a vote-only step: it does not create a Car Show Expert account and does not sign you in. Google confirms your email address, we make the hash and use it only to recognise one vote per person, and we keep nothing else from Google (no profile and no sign-in tokens). Google receives the usual sign-in information under its own policy. The button is usually hidden in the built-in browsers of some apps, such as Facebook or Instagram, because Google blocks sign-in there. We detect this by browser type, which can be wrong. The emailed code always works.
• The hash. It is calculated using a secret key and the show, so one show's hash cannot be matched to another show or to an address list. It is the same whichever way you confirm, so one person using the code, a signed-in account or Google is one voter. It is used to stop one person voting twice in a class and to find your vote if you change it. While we hold the key and the voter list, a hash may still count as personal data, so we treat it that way.
• Anti-fraud signals. With each vote we store hashed (not readable) versions of your network address, your wider network area and your browser details, your email's domain (for example gmail.com), a two-letter country from Cloudflare, and whether the security check passed. We use them only to spot cheating, such as a burst of votes from one place.
• Security check. Cloudflare Turnstile checks that you are not a bot before a code is sent or a vote is cast. If the check cannot run, no code is sent. For one-tap (signed-in) and Google votes, the vote is still saved but held for review. The Google step runs the check before sending you to Google. Cloudflare receives your network address and browser details for that, under its own policy.
• What we never do. We never email you after the code, never use your address for marketing, never create an account for you (including through Google) and never sell your data.

Why we may use this data. Running a fair vote and preventing fraud is our legitimate interest, and the data is limited to what that needs.

Be aware. After results are published nothing links a vote to you. That protects you, but it also means we cannot look up or delete one particular vote after that point. Before results are published, email competition@carshowexpert.com from the address you voted with and we will try to find and remove your vote.

• What we hold. Your account details (see our Privacy Policy), the garage car you enter, the photos you upload, your caption, your public name and the class you choose, the moderators' decision and any reason, and the entry's status.
• What is public. The entry page shows the car, its photos, your caption, its class and the first word of the public name you choose. The rest of that name, your email, and your garage notes and plates are not shown. Moderators can see your full account name and email address in the review queue. Entry photos are separate copies, so later edits in your garage do not change an entry. Results, winners and awards are public, and an award can appear on your garage page if that car is public. If you tick the option to show the car on your public garage, the car, and your garage page, become public as the entry form explains.
• Photos. Hidden location data such as GPS is removed from your photos. Each entry photo is checked by an automatic service, Sightengine, which receives the photo to look for explicit or violent content. Proof-of-ownership photos are not sent to it. A person then reviews every entry. If you withdraw an entry, its photos are deleted when you withdraw. If we remove an entry, its photos are deleted when results are published. If the automatic check cannot run, the entry is held for a person.
• Private to you. Page views and votes received are shown only to you, on your entry page.
• Evidence from earlier live shows. If you have been checked in at a live show with the same car, we may keep a private record (the show name and date, the car, your status and check-in time, and links) so a moderator can verify your entry. Only moderators see it. It is deleted 30 days after results are published. The clean-up runs when staff next open the show's results screen, so it can occasionally run a little later.
• Video. If you add a YouTube video to an entry, we store only its video id, its title and its channel name (we ask YouTube for them), the title a moderator approved, and when we last checked it. We do not copy the video. On the entry page, once a moderator has approved it, the video plays in a YouTube player loaded from youtube-nocookie.com, so YouTube receives the visitor's request as it would for any embedded video, under its own privacy policy. We check with YouTube from time to time that the video still exists and has not changed, and hide it if it has gone or changed. A moderator can remove it. It is deleted when you remove it or withdraw the entry.
• Proof photo. In a Cars you own show you can upload a proof-of-ownership photo (for example the car with a note showing the show name and date, or a dated VIN plate or dash shot). It is optional when you enter, but your entry cannot win a place until ownership is verified. Hidden location data such as GPS is removed when you upload it. We store it in private storage with no public web address. Only moderators see it, a person reviews it, and it is never shown publicly. It is not sent to the automatic image service. Because a proof photo may legitimately show a licence plate or VIN, it is kept private for that reason. We delete the photo file about 30 days after results are published. If a show is never published, we delete it about 30 days after voting closes. We delete it straight away if you withdraw the entry or we remove it. The clean-up runs when staff next open the show's results screen or run it by hand, so it can occasionally run a little later. We keep a record of the review (who reviewed it, when, the decision and any reason). That record does not contain the photo. We cannot promise that copies held in our storage provider's own backups or logs, if any, are removed on the same schedule. If you have a car in the same garage that you checked in at a real Car Show Expert show, we may accept that as proof and you will not need to upload a photo. See “Evidence from earlier live shows” above.
• Divisions. Each virtual show is for one division: Cars you own, Cars you like, or AI cars. The garage car type (Owned, Liked or AI) is stored with your garage car and is used to identify the entry. For Cars you like, the photo credit you give is shown publicly with the entry. AI entries are identified as AI. We also keep which show you entered, so we can apply the rule of one entry per person per show, and one car per person across all the shows in a qualifier chain.
• Qualifier chains. If your entry qualifies for a later round, we record your place, your class, the earlier show and the status of the invitation against your account, and we keep a log of invitations and decisions with exact times. When you accept, we record that you ticked the finals rules and the photo licence, and when. Accepting copies your car details, photos and caption into a new finals entry, so your photos are stored a second time, under the finals show. Those copies follow the same deletion rules as any entry photos (see “Photos” above). The finals page shows the finalists who have accepted, with a label saying where they advanced from, and a count of places awaiting confirmation. It never shows who declined or let an invitation lapse. Other entrants and the public cannot see your invitation. The results of the earlier show are public, so a reader can see which of its top places did not go on. A decision to decline is final. The organisers can replace or remove a finalist, and the log records who did so and why. Voters are not affected: nothing in these records contains voter data, and each show has its own voter list.

Why we may use this data. To run the show you asked to enter (our contract with you), and to keep the show safe and fair (our legitimate interest).

You can report an entry with a reason and, if you like, up to 300 characters of text. We do not ask who you are. To count separate reporters, we store a one-way hash made from the entry and your network area, and we use hashed network details to limit how often one network can report. The hash cannot be turned back into your address or matched to your reports on other entries. We clear it when results are published. We clear your text when a reviewer resolves the report, or when results are published if that comes first. A security check runs before a report is accepted.

• Page views. We count visits to each entry page per day. The count has no visitor identity. To avoid counting a refresh twice, we keep a keyed hash of your network address until results are published, then delete it. Known bots are not counted.
• Voter cookie. When you confirm a code we set one cookie for that show. It holds a random identifier and a signature. It is HttpOnly, sent only over HTTPS and only to our own site, and it is not an identity. It expires 7 days after the show's results date. It is needed for the one-tap vote, and once results are published it no longer matches anything.
• Sign-in cookie. Entrants who sign in use our normal session cookie, described in our Privacy Policy.
• Security check. Cloudflare Turnstile may use browser storage or cookies of its own to work.
• We use no advertising or cross-site tracking cookies.

Our database is hosted by Supabase in the United States. Files such as photos are stored with Cloudflare, which also runs our hosting and the security check. Voting codes are sent by Resend or Cloudflare Email Sending. Photos are scanned by Sightengine. Our Privacy Policy lists our providers and how we handle transfers outside the UK and EEA.

Results are published by a person, after the integrity check described in the rules. At that step we delete the voter list, the pending codes and the voting signals, and we clear the other items marked as deleted when results are published. If publishing fails, none of that happens and nothing is published. Items marked “about 30 days” (proof photos and live-show evidence) are not deleted at publish. A later clean-up deletes them, so it can occasionally run a little later than 30 days.

You may have the right to see, correct, delete or restrict the use of your personal data, to object to it, and to complain to a regulator. Our Privacy Policy sets out those rights for the UK, the EEA and US states, and how to complain. To use them for a virtual show, email competition@carshowexpert.com. Voters should read the note under “If you vote” about what we can find after results are published.

Virtual shows are for people aged 18 and over, whether you enter or vote. We do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 18. If you think someone under 18 has entered or voted, email competition@carshowexpert.com and we will delete the data. We ask entrants not to include children in photos at all.

We may update this notice. The date at the top shows when it last changed.