Privacy Policy

1. Who controls the data?

The data controller is Kvargo, operator of the KvarGo platform. Send privacy questions and requests to support@kvargo.net.

2. Which data do we process?

Visitors and search users

• selected location, vehicle type, manufacturer, powertrain, transmission, problem description, symptoms and search results;
• technical data needed for security, including a non-reversible hash of the IP address;
• an email address only when voluntarily provided for a rating reminder;
• rating, optional comment, time and the method used to contact a mechanic.

Mechanics and workshops

• the account holder’s name, email and securely stored password hash;
• workshop name, address, location, contact details, Google Maps link and description;
• services, photos, review statuses, ratings and campaign information.
• on registration or profile claim: marketing channel, UTM tags, external referrer domain, landing page, language and estimated country;

Publicly available workshop data

• name, location, public contact details, website and service categories found in publicly available internet sources and business directories;
• source identifiers, source URL and technical fields needed for updates and attribution;
• profile claim and verification status.

Profile claims

We process the responsible person’s name, email, password hash, selected verification method, verification contact and any submitted note or evidence. To understand how mechanics find KvarGo, we record the remembered acquisition source, with an explicit UTM campaign taking priority, but this record does not contain the raw IP address or query parameters from the referrer URL. We never store or email a readable password.

We do not request special categories of data such as health, biometric, religious or political data.

3. Why and on what basis do we use data?

• Providing the service: diagnostic flow, relevant mechanic search, registration and profile management.
• Your request or consent: one rating reminder when you voluntarily provide an email.
• Legitimate interests: preventing abuse, system security, location coverage and ranking quality.
• Public data and legitimate interests: creating the initial workshop directory from public business directories, with a clear unverified label and options to correct, remove or claim a profile.
• Legal obligations and claims: when applicable law requires data retention or disclosure.

An email provided for rating purposes is not used for advertising or newsletters.

4. Basic diagnosis and ranking

Symptom answers are used to suggest service categories. Results are ranked by location and service relevance, active sponsored campaigns, manual promotion and verified ratings. Sponsored results are clearly labelled. This process does not make decisions with legal effects for users.

We estimate the visitor's country from the IP address using a local DB-IP Country Lite database so that relevant cities can be displayed. The IP address is not sent to DB-IP for this lookup, and the result is not a precise location. Geolocation data by DB-IP.

5. Public profiles, claims and community confirmation

Profiles imported from public business directories are marked unverified until the owner, an administrator or enough users confirm their data. An owner may submit a profile claim, but the account is activated only after an administrator checks an already published contact or suitable evidence.

A positive email-verified rating where the user confirms that service was completed may increase the community-confirmation count. This is not a guarantee of identity, qualifications or quality. A correction, removal or claim request may be sent to the privacy contact.

6. Who may access the data?

• authorised KvarGo administrators;
• hosting, database and email infrastructure providers, only as needed to provide their services;
• public authorities where a valid legal basis exists.

WhatsApp, Viber and Google Maps are independent services with their own privacy rules. KvarGo does not send them the email provided for a rating reminder.

7. How long do we keep data?

• mechanic profile data while the account is active and afterwards as needed for requests and legal obligations;
• rating email data through delivery and link validity, then for a limited period to prevent duplicate or fraudulent ratings;
• a verified rating while published or until lawfully removed;
• anonymised or pseudonymised search data while needed for statistics, security and service improvement;
• technical logs only for the period needed for security and incident response.

When data is no longer needed, we delete or anonymise it unless the law requires longer retention.

8. Cookies and local storage

We currently use only technically necessary cookies for sessions, form security and core site operation. We do not currently use advertising or analytics cookies. If that changes, we will update this policy and request consent where required.

9. Your rights

Subject to applicable law, you may request access, correction, deletion, restriction, portability, object to legitimate-interest processing or withdraw consent without affecting prior lawful processing.

Send a request to support@kvargo.net. We may request reasonable identity verification. You may also complain to the competent data protection authority.

10. Security and international transfers

We apply reasonable organisational and technical safeguards, including access controls, password hashing and IP pseudonymisation. Where an infrastructure provider processes data outside the user’s country, we use an appropriate contractual or legal protection mechanism. No internet system can guarantee absolute security.

11. Changes to this policy

The current version and effective date will always appear on this page. Registered users will be notified appropriately of material changes.