Privacy and cookie notice
Effective: 4 September 2026.
This notice describes processing carried out through the VWIDCheck website, the ev.joker AI chat, user accounts, ordering, payment, invoicing, document processing, delivery and optional sharing.
Controller
GFDMM Kft. — 6500 Baja, Petőfi Sándor u. 36., Hungary. Company registration number: 03-09-137502. Tax number: 32307045-1-03. Email: [email protected]. Phone: +36 70 303 4868.
Sources and categories of data
Data is provided by you or obtained from Google sign-in, Stripe’s payment and billing interface, and Volkswagen’s official service-information system. We may process the VIN, selected language and package, timestamps of authorisation, terms acceptance and the request for immediate performance, account and contact details, billing name and address, optional tax number and phone number, technical payment identifiers and status, manufacturer, service, campaign and equipment data, completed reports and source documents, delivery and sharing data, and session and log data needed for operation and security.
Purposes and legal bases
Account creation, ordering, payment, document retrieval, analysis, delivery and support are necessary to enter into and perform the contract (GDPR Article 6(1)(b)). Invoice and accounting data is processed to comply with legal obligations (Article 6(1)(c)). Security, abuse prevention, fault investigation, legal claims and essential internal operational notices rely on the controller’s legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f)). Google Analytics and activation of public PIN-protected report sharing rely on your separate, withdrawable consent (Article 6(1)(a)).
Required and optional data
The VIN, email address, report language, authorisation and contractual declarations, and payment data required by Stripe are necessary to fulfil an order. Billing or company details are required only if the customer requests an invoice. Google sign-in, photographing the registration certificate, the vehicle-data-sheet add-on, sending a ZIP to another email address, PIN-protected sharing and analytics are optional. A VIN or source document may be indirectly linked to another person; provide data and share reports only when authorised.
Local accounts and Google sign-in
When the customer enters a VIN and email address and submits the order carrying an obligation to pay, we automatically create an account for that address or link the order to an existing account. For a new account we create a secure automatically generated password and store only its Argon2id hash; the readable password is disclosed once in the account email. Existing account credentials are not overwritten. The account keeps the service-documentation analysis and vehicle data sheet available for opening and download if an email does not arrive or is later lost. Google sign-in provides a stable Google account identifier, verified email address, name, profile image and locale; we do not store Google access or refresh tokens.
Payment, receipt and reminders
Stripe Checkout processes payment; full card details are not made available to us. The order email is prefilled at checkout. If “I need an invoice” is selected, Stripe requests the billing or company name, billing address and optional tax number. Otherwise those details are not requested and a BillX receipt is prepared. We link Stripe’s technical customer, session and payment identifiers, payment status, amount and currency to the order. If payment is not completed, we send a service reminder after one hour and then daily. The customer can sign in to continue payment or use the email action to stop the order and further reminders.
Vehicle data, documents and AI processing
We retrieve documents by VIN from Volkswagen’s official service-information system and process them on a segregated processing server. For the written report, the OpenAI API receives data-minimised structured vehicle, service and campaign data; VINs, order identifiers and source filenames are excluded from the AI report input. Requests use store: false to disable application-state response storage. Under OpenAI’s published API rules, API data is not used to train models by default, but input and output may appear in abuse-monitoring logs for up to 30 days and may be retained longer where legally required or reasonably necessary for security.
ev.joker AI chat
We process the question entered in chat, the selected use mode and the voluntarily provided, data-minimised vehicle profile — make, model, model year, market, battery and software version — to answer the request (GDPR Article 6(1)(b)); per-session attempt limits rely on our legitimate interest in service security (Article 6(1)(f)). The system automatically redacts a full VIN before a model request; do not enter other personal or confidential data. Up to the last six complete turns are kept in browser sessionStorage until the tab session ends or “New conversation” is used, and the necessary history is sent with each new request to the OpenAI API with store: false. The beta chat is not retained in our own application database; the server-side session contains only timestamps required for abuse controls. Hosting logs and the OpenAI safety logs described above may nevertheless apply.
Photo-based VIN recognition
Photo-based VIN recognition is optional. The browser converts the selected image to JPEG of approximately 1.7 MB or less, and the server sends it once to the OpenAI API with store: false. We do not save the image in our persistent storage; the server environment handles the temporary upload after the request. Registration certificates may contain other personal data, so photograph only the VIN field where possible. OpenAI’s safety and abuse-monitoring retention described above may apply.
Report access, email and sharing
The authorised account provides access to the report, analysis PDF, original documents and ZIP package. An account holder may send a ZIP to any valid email address; we use that address to complete the request, although technical mail logs may retain it. Sharing is off by default. With separate consent, a short link and four-digit PIN can be created; a person holding both can view and download the report, VIN, analysis and related documents. The PIN is stored only as a non-reversible hash and failed attempts are limited. Disabling sharing or changing the PIN invalidates earlier access. Archiving only hides a report from the account list; it does not delete data or automatically disable sharing.
Recipients and processors
Data may be accessed as required by authorised controller personnel, hosting, server and mail providers, Volkswagen’s official service-information system and the segregated document-processing server, Stripe for payments, BillX for invoices and receipts, OpenAI for text analysis and optional VIN image recognition, and Google for optional sign-in and consent-based Analytics. Data may also be disclosed to authorities, courts, accountants and legal advisers where required. The account holder chooses recipients of shared reports and emailed ZIP packages.
International transfers
Stripe, Google and OpenAI may process data outside the European Economic Area, particularly in the United States. Depending on the service and transfer, safeguards may include an applicable adequacy decision, the EU–US Data Privacy Framework, European Commission standard contractual clauses and supplementary measures. Contact us to request more information about the applicable safeguards and how to obtain a copy.
Retention
Session data is used for the browser session, and checkout-draft state saved in sessionStorage is used for up to two hours. Unpaid, cancelled and failed-payment data, reminder timestamps and the stop timestamp are retained while needed to close the payment flow, troubleshoot, handle legal claims and prevent abuse. Account data is kept while the account exists; reports and source documents are kept while needed for account access, support and legal claims. Following an erasure request, data not subject to mandatory retention is deleted or anonymised. Accounting records and supporting data are kept for at least 8 years, and consumer complaints and copies of responses for 3 years. Sharing-consent and security records may remain after sharing is disabled for proof of consent and legal claims. Archiving does not start a deletion period.
Cookies and browser storage
The vwidcheck_session cookie supports login, CSRF protection, flow continuity and abuse controls. It lasts for the browser session and uses HttpOnly and SameSite=Lax. The vwidcheck:analytics-consent-v1 local-storage entry keeps your choice until changed or browser data is cleared. Checkout-draft state is usable from sessionStorage for up to two hours. Google Analytics G-R37WKJHCXS loads only after express consent; advertising storage and personalisation are denied and IP anonymisation is requested. The _ga and _ga_* cookies have a default maximum lifetime of 2 years, subject to browser limits. Rejecting consent prevents the Google tag from loading; consent can be withdrawn through Cookie settings.
Your rights
You may request access and a copy, correction, erasure and restriction, and, where processing is automated and based on contract or consent, portability. You may object on grounds relating to your situation to processing based on legitimate interests. Consent can be withdrawn at any time without affecting earlier lawful processing. Send requests to [email protected]; we normally respond within one month and may request information necessary to verify identity. Erasure does not override mandatory retention or data required for legal claims.
Complaints and remedies
You may complain to the Hungarian National Authority for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (1055 Budapest, Falk Miksa utca 9–11; postal address: 1363 Budapest, P.O. Box 9; [email protected]; naih.hu) or seek a judicial remedy before the competent court of your residence or place of stay.
Automated decisions and security
AI assists with explaining documents, answering chat questions and organising possible fault categories, but it makes no automated decision producing legal or similarly significant effects for you. It does not determine warranty validity, battery health, technical condition or undocumented facts, and the chat is not a technical diagnosis. We protect data through access controls, encrypted HTTPS connections, hashed passwords and PINs, secret or account-bound access, and attempt rate limits, but no internet system can guarantee zero risk.