Legal
Privacy policy
In short and plain words: which personal data usacarskaunas.lt processes, what for, who sees it, how long we keep it and how to exercise your rights.
Controller
The controller is the USA Cars Kaunas club (informal community), represented by the website administrator. Contact: info@usacarskaunas.lt.
What data we process
Member accounts. A member account is created only by accepting an administrator’s email invitation. We store the email address, first and last name, nickname, profile picture, a password hash (never the password itself), role (member / administrator), account status, language, and the times of the last sign-in and of accepting the club rules.
Content you upload. Cars with their descriptions, photos and videos, gallery photos, classified listings (with any contact details you add), event RSVPs, saved listings and notifications. Photo metadata (EXIF, including GPS location) and video metadata are removed on upload.
Invitations. The invitee’s name and email. The invitation link is valid for 24 hours and works once; an email sign-in link is valid for 15 minutes.
Membership requests (“Become a member”). Name, email, phone (optional), car and its status, social profile, how you heard about the club, message and time of consent. The request is stored on the site and emailed to the administrators. No account is created automatically.
Inviting the club to an event (“Invite the club”). Organiser name, organisation, email, phone, event details and time of consent. Stored on the site and emailed to the administrators.
Messages to a listing’s seller. Your name, email and message are emailed to the seller (replies go straight to you). The message is not stored on the site.
Technical data. Your IP address is used briefly for rate limiting (abuse protection) and is not stored in the database. Server error logs are kept for up to 7 days. Administrator actions (e.g. member management, moderation) are recorded in an audit log with names but without IP addresses.
Cookies. See our cookie policy.
Who sees your data
Guests see your nickname (or only your first name if you have none), your profile picture and the content you publish. Signed-in members also see your last name. Only administrators see your email and phone (except contact details you put in a listing yourself).
We do not sell data or use it for advertising.
Why and on what basis
We process member accounts and their content so you can use the club website under the terms you accept when becoming a member (Article 6(1)(b) GDPR) and in the club’s legitimate interest in organising community activities (point (f)).
Membership requests, event invitations and messages to sellers are processed at your request and with the consent you tick in the form (points (a) and (b)).
Security data (rate limiting, error logs, audit log, reCAPTCHA) is processed in our legitimate interest in protecting the site and its members (point (f)). Visit statistics (Google Analytics) only with your consent (point (a)).
Who we share it with
The website and email run on a virtual server rented by the club (Contabo GmbH); emails are sent from the club’s own mail server. Google receives data through reCAPTCHA and, if you consent, Google Analytics; YouTube, Instagram and Google Maps only when you load their content yourself (see the cookie policy).
Google LLC may transfer data to the United States under the EU–US Data Privacy Framework and standard contractual clauses.
How long we keep it
Account data – for as long as you are a member. When an account is deleted, the profile data, picture and profile videos are deleted; cars and photos are either deleted or kept without your name (“Former member”), as you ask.
Membership requests and event invitations are kept while they are needed to handle them and for the club’s activity history; we delete them earlier on request. Invitation links expire after 24 hours, sign-in links after 15 minutes.
Server logs – up to 7 days. Backups are made manually and kept by the administrator; deleted data may remain in a backup until it is replaced by a newer one.
Your rights
You have the right to access your data, correct it (most of it yourself in your account settings), have it erased, restrict or object to processing, receive it in a portable format and withdraw consent at any time. For account deletion or any other request write to info@usacarskaunas.lt – we reply within one month.
You can lodge a complaint with the State Data Protection Inspectorate of Lithuania (vdai.lrv.lt).
Changes
We will announce material changes on the site. The version and date are shown at the top of the page.