Legal

Privacy Policy

This policy explains how Garage Guild collects and uses personal data when you visit the site, create an account, list a garage, submit a review, or contact us.

Last updated: 23 May 2026

1. Who we are

Garage Guild operates a UK directory for prestige and performance car specialists, including garage listings, public profiles, review collection, account tools, and related services.

For data protection purposes, Garage Guild is the controller of personal data we decide how and why to use. You can contact us at hello@garageguild.co.uk.

2. Personal data we collect

  • Account and profile data, such as your name, email address, password credentials, garage name, role, and preferences.
  • Garage listing data, such as business contact details, location, services, marque specialisms, profile content, and images or links you provide.
  • Review data, such as reviewer name, email address, rating, review text, vehicle or service context, moderation status, timestamps, and evidence supplied to help us verify a review.
  • Technical and usage data, such as IP address, device and browser details, pages viewed, referring pages, approximate location, session data, cookies, logs, and security events.
  • Communications data, such as messages you send to us, support requests, feedback, complaint details, and marketing preferences.
  • Payment, billing, or commercial data if we introduce paid features, paid promotion, subscriptions, invoicing, or similar services.

3. How we collect data

We collect data directly from you when you use the site, create an account, submit or manage a listing, leave a review, contact us, or interact with emails. We also collect some data automatically through hosting logs, cookies, analytics, security tools, and similar technologies.

We may receive data from garages, customers, service providers, public sources, fraud prevention services, analytics providers, and other third parties where lawful and relevant to operating the service.

4. How we use personal data

  • Provide, operate, maintain, secure, and improve Garage Guild.
  • Create and manage accounts, garage listings, reviews, ratings, notifications, and public profile pages.
  • Verify, moderate, edit, reject, remove, or investigate reviews, listings, and other content.
  • Respond to enquiries, support requests, complaints, legal notices, and user communications.
  • Prevent misuse, spam, fraud, security incidents, unlawful activity, and breaches of our terms.
  • Send service messages, administrative notices, product updates, and marketing where permitted by law.
  • Measure site performance, understand usage, run analytics, test features, and develop new services.
  • Comply with legal obligations, enforce our rights, resolve disputes, and protect users, garages, and the public.

5. Lawful bases

  • Contract: where processing is needed to provide the service or take steps you request before entering into a contract.
  • Legitimate interests: where we operate, secure, improve, promote, and protect the service, moderate content, verify reviews, prevent abuse, and communicate with users in a proportionate way.
  • Consent: where we rely on your permission, such as for certain optional cookies, marketing, or specific data uses that require consent.
  • Legal obligation: where we must keep records, respond to lawful requests, comply with tax, consumer, data protection, or other applicable laws, or protect legal rights.

6. Public content

Garage listings, ratings, reviews, responses, and profile content may be public. Do not submit personal data you do not want made public or that you do not have permission to share.

We may display, excerpt, summarise, promote, syndicate, or otherwise use public listing and review content to operate, market, improve, and protect the service, subject to applicable law.

7. Sharing personal data

  • Service providers that host, secure, analyse, maintain, support, email, moderate, or otherwise help us operate Garage Guild.
  • Garages or reviewers where needed to verify reviews, handle disputes, operate profile tools, or facilitate requested interactions.
  • Professional advisers, insurers, auditors, payment providers, and business partners where reasonably necessary.
  • Regulators, law enforcement, courts, public authorities, or third parties where we believe disclosure is required or permitted by law.
  • A buyer, investor, lender, or successor if we sell, merge, restructure, finance, or transfer all or part of the service or business.

8. Cookies and similar technologies

We use cookies and similar technologies to keep the site working, remember preferences, maintain sessions, secure accounts, understand performance, and improve the service. Some cookies are essential. Others may be optional depending on how they are used.

You can control cookies through your browser settings. Blocking some cookies may affect how the site works.

9. International transfers

Some service providers may process data outside the UK or European Economic Area. Where this happens, we use appropriate safeguards where required, such as adequacy regulations, standard contractual clauses, equivalent transfer mechanisms, or other lawful safeguards.

10. Retention

We keep personal data for as long as reasonably needed for the purposes described in this policy, including to provide the service, maintain accurate records, verify reviews, resolve disputes, comply with law, enforce terms, and protect the service.

Retention periods vary by data type. Account data is usually kept while the account is active and for a reasonable period afterwards. Public reviews and listing history may be kept for longer where needed to preserve directory integrity, handle disputes, prevent abuse, or comply with legal obligations.

11. Security

We use reasonable technical and organisational measures designed to protect personal data. No online service can be guaranteed completely secure, so you should use strong credentials, keep login details confidential, and tell us promptly if you suspect unauthorised access.

12. Your rights

Depending on your location and the circumstances, you may have rights to access, correct, delete, restrict, object to, or receive a copy of your personal data. Where processing is based on consent, you can withdraw consent at any time.

To exercise rights, contact hello@garageguild.co.uk. We may need to verify your identity before responding. You can also complain to the UK Information Commissioner's Office, although we ask that you contact us first so we can try to resolve the issue.

13. Children

Garage Guild is not intended for children under 13 and should not be used by anyone who cannot lawfully enter into or comply with these terms. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children under 13.

14. Changes to this policy

We may update this privacy policy from time to time. The updated version will apply when posted, unless a later effective date is stated. If a change is material, we may take additional steps to notify users where appropriate.