Privacy notice

Who is responsible for your information

Sam Clark, trading as Clark’s Garage and Car Sales, is the data controller for customer information and enquiries made to the garage. Contact us about privacy or your information using the details below.

What we collect

The enquiry form collects your name, chosen contact details, enquiry type and message. Your vehicle registration is optional. The information comes from you; vehicle information may also come from official MOT records when needed for your enquiry.

When you book garage work or buy a vehicle, we also keep the relevant vehicle details, agreed work or sale, invoices, payment records and any warranty or complaint correspondence.

Email needs an email address; WhatsApp needs a phone number. If you prefer, you can call or visit instead of using the form. The website has no online checkout and does not collect payment-card details.

Hosting and security services may process technical information, such as your IP address and request logs, to deliver and protect the website.

Why we use it

• Enquiries, bookings and purchases: to answer your request, arrange and carry out the agreed work or sale, and handle payment and related support, using the contractual lawful basis where applicable.
• Other questions and complaints: our legitimate interests in answering customers, maintaining relevant records and resolving concerns.
• Website security: our legitimate interest in preventing misuse and keeping the service available.
• Legal requirements: where information must be retained or disclosed to meet a legal obligation.

There is no automated decision-making or profiling through the enquiry form. We do not sell enquiry information or add form submissions to a marketing mailing list.

Anonymous website statistics

We count page views and clicks on phone, WhatsApp, email and enquiry links to understand which parts of our website are useful and improve the service. These are aggregate counts, not profiles of individual visitors. A click does not tell us whether a call, message, booking or sale took place.

Our statistics store daily totals, page paths and broad source categories such as search, social or another website. They do not store visitor IDs, IP addresses, browser fingerprints, full referrer URLs, query strings or enquiry contents. We do not use them for advertising, retargeting or following people across websites.

Aggregate totals are normally kept for two years, with older totals removed when new statistics arrive. The hosting provider processes the requests needed to deliver the website and these statistics. You can turn off anonymous browser statistics; Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control signals are also respected. Customer enquiries remain separate business records so we can respond to them.

Where your enquiry goes

Both email and WhatsApp form submissions are saved in the website’s protected owner inbox. Preparing a WhatsApp message saves that enquiry even if you do not subsequently press Send in WhatsApp.

Email enquiries use Resend to send a notification to our Gmail inbox. Hosting and storage are provided through OpenAI Sites and its hosting infrastructure, including Cloudflare. These providers process information needed to deliver their services.

Opening WhatsApp shares your prepared message with that service; you choose whether to send it. Opening Google Maps takes you to Google. Their own privacy policies apply to their services.

Relevant vehicle or customer information may be shared with an MOT test centre to arrange testing, or a warranty provider where cover is arranged. We share only what is needed for that service.

For a vehicle sale, the relevant details are also provided to DVLA to record the change of keeper.

We may share relevant information with professional advisers or public authorities where needed to deal with a dispute or comply with the law.

Processing outside the UK

Our technology providers may process information outside the UK, including in the United States. Their applicable data-processing terms explain the transfer protections. Resend’s terms include standard contractual clauses with a UK addendum for relevant UK transfers. You can contact us for information about the safeguards applying to your enquiry.

Provider information: OpenAI, Cloudflare, Resend data-processing terms, Google and WhatsApp.

How long information is kept

Retention depends on whether your enquiry is active, whether it leads to a booking or purchase, and whether records are needed for a warranty, complaint, tax requirement or legal claim. We retain only the information needed for those purposes and remove it when it is no longer needed.

Website records, email copies and WhatsApp conversations are separate records. A deletion request is considered across the records we control, subject to any legal reason to retain them.

Your rights and concerns

Depending on the circumstances, you can request access, correction, deletion, restriction or transfer of your information, and object to processing based on legitimate interests. These rights have legal conditions and exceptions.

Contact Sam Clark by email, phone, post or the privacy enquiry form. We respond within the applicable legal time limits and may need to verify your identity.

You can also complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office. Website storage and external-link information is on our cookies page.