Privacy Policy

VinCanary · Last updated: September 2026

VinCanary publishes free vehicle reliability reports and offers optional alert services. This policy explains what we collect and what we do with it, in plain language.

What we collect

Nothing, to read reports. Every report on this site is free and requires no account, email, or personal information.

Your email address, if you choose to subscribe to year/model alerts, the checklist, or our rankings newsletter.

A VIN and your email, if you use the free VIN check or the Garage alert service. A VIN identifies a vehicle's configuration — year, engine, transmission, build — not a person. We do not ask for your name, mailing address, phone number, or title/registration information.

Basic analytics, through Vercel Web Analytics: page views, referral source, and a few custom events (which report sections get opened, which forms get used). It sets no cookies and stores no personal identifiers, so it tells us which reports people find useful, not who read them.

What we do with it

We use your email to send you the things you signed up for: alerts when a recall, investigation, or warranty program affects the years or the vehicle you're watching, and newsletter issues if you subscribed. We use VINs to decode your vehicle's configuration and match it against public federal recall data, manufacturer service publications, and our own issue database.

What we don't do

We do not sell or rent your email address or VIN to anyone. We do not share your information with automakers, dealers, insurers, or data brokers. We do not send marketing on behalf of third parties. Every email we send includes a working unsubscribe link, and unsubscribing takes effect immediately.

Where your data lives

Every form on the site (alerts, VIN check, report requests, contact) is hosted by Tally, our form provider. Tally stores what you type into the form — your email and, for a VIN check, the VIN — plus the time you submitted it, and passes it to systems we control. Emails are sent from our own domain.

How long we keep it

• Alert and newsletter subscriptions: your email (and any VIN you asked us to watch) stays on file while you're subscribed, then for 30 days after you unsubscribe so a mistaken unsubscribe can be undone. After that it is deleted from our active systems.
• VIN checks with no subscription: the VIN and email are kept for 90 days, long enough to answer follow-up questions, then deleted.
• Contact messages: kept as long as the conversation needs, then deleted.

Deleting your data

Write to the address below and ask. We confirm the request and delete your email and any VIN tied to it from our active systems and from Tally within 30 days, and tell you when it's done.

Data sources

Our reports are built from public data: the U.S. federal complaint and recall databases (NHTSA), manufacturer service bulletins and warranty programs, and publicly posted mechanic and owner commentary. Nothing in our reports comes from private or personal data.

Your choices

Unsubscribe at any time via the link in any email. To have your email or VIN deleted, or to ask anything about this policy, write to hello@vincanary.com.

Affiliation

VinCanary is independent. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to Ford, Honda, any other manufacturer, or the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Changes

If this policy changes materially, we'll note it here and, for subscribers, say so in the next email we send.