Effective date: 23 September 2026
This policy explains personal information handled through Dashboard Warning Lights, reader enquiries and available website features. It covers information we handle directly and explains relevant advertising, analytics and embedded services.
1. Who to contact
For privacy matters, contact Dashboard Warning Lights at dashboardwarninglights@protonmail.com, with “Privacy request” in the subject, or write to: 655 Metro Place South, Suite 787, Columbus OH 43017, United States. You may also use our contact page. “We” and “us” refer to the publication and its operator.
This policy does not treat visiting the site as blanket consent. Optional tracking, marketing and other processing requiring consent must have an appropriate separate basis.
2. Information collected and why
| Category and source | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Contact details and message content you send, including a name, email address, supporting images and correspondence. | Answer enquiries, assess corrections, handle rights requests and keep necessary complaint records. |
| Public comments or contributions, where those features are enabled, including a display name and content. | Publish and moderate discussions, assess submissions and prevent abuse. |
| Server and security information, such as IP address, browser, device, requested URL, referral, timestamp and security events. | Deliver and protect the website, investigate errors and misuse, and maintain service reliability. |
| Cookie identifiers, page views, search terms and interactions collected through enabled analytics or advertising tools. | Measure readership, understand site use and deliver or measure advertising, subject to applicable choices and legal requirements. |
Do not include passwords, payment details, identity documents, precise location, full VINs or information about other people unless necessary for your enquiry. Photographs may contain location metadata, faces or number plates. A search query can also disclose personal information, so avoid entering private details into site search.
An enquiry does not automatically subscribe you to marketing. If subscription features are offered, their collection notice and unsubscribe controls apply. Public comments can be read, copied and indexed by others.
3. Analytics, advertising and embedded content
Google Analytics, where enabled, processes usage and technical information to help measure readership. See Google’s Privacy Policy and the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on. The add-on addresses supported Analytics collection; it is not a general block on advertising or other processing.
DWL uses Raptive for advertising where ads are enabled. Raptive and its partners may use cookies and other identifiers, browsing activity, approximate location derived from IP address, and device information for advertising and measurement. Read the Raptive Advertising Privacy Statement for its practices, partner information and choices. Advertising can be disabled in staging or test environments.
Embedded YouTube videos, Google Maps and other external media can send technical information to their providers when loaded or used and may associate activity with an account you hold there. Following an external link takes you to a service with its own policies.
Where comments and avatars are enabled, WordPress may send an email-address hash to Gravatar to retrieve an avatar. A hash is not necessarily anonymous. See Automattic’s privacy notice. Hosting, content delivery, security and spam-prevention services also process information needed to operate their services.
4. Cookies, advertising choices and opt-outs
Cookies and similar technologies can maintain sessions, save choices, measure use and support advertising. Necessary security or delivery technologies may operate separately from optional analytics and advertising. Where a consent panel or ad privacy control is displayed, use it to review or change your choices. Availability depends on location and the services enabled.
Browser settings can block or clear cookies and site storage. This may affect functionality and does not erase information already received. Preferences may be browser- or device-specific; clearing storage can reset some opt-outs. An advertising opt-out does not necessarily remove all ads.
Some advertising disclosures may be a “sale”, “sharing” or targeted advertising under applicable US privacy laws, even without a payment for data. Where those rights apply, use the relevant advertising control or contact us with “Do not sell or share / targeted advertising opt-out”. Raptive also provides privacy contacts and opt-out information in its statement. Legally applicable opt-out preference signals, including Global Privacy Control, must be honoured by the relevant services. A policy statement alone does not substitute for the required technical controls.
Older Do Not Track settings are not a universal opt-out mechanism. Contact us if an available control is missing or not working so we can investigate your request.
6. Retention and security
Retention depends on the information’s purpose, service settings, legal obligations and whether a complaint or dispute remains open. Enquiries are retained as needed for handling and follow-up; technical records follow provider and security retention settings; public comments may remain while their discussion is published. Records of an opt-out or request may be retained to respect that choice and document handling.
When information is no longer needed, it should be deleted or de-identified, subject to legitimate legal holds and backup cycles. We do not claim one fixed retention period for every provider. You can ask about the records relevant to you.
Access controls and other reasonable safeguards reduce risk, but no internet service is completely secure. Where a breach triggers a legal notification duty, affected people and authorities must be notified as required.
7. Requests, rights and complaints
Send requests to dashboardwarninglights@protonmail.com. Explain the information or activity concerned and the right you wish to exercise. We may need proportionate identity verification or proof of an agent’s authority. Do not send identity documents unless we explain why they are necessary and provide an appropriate method. We may be unable to locate anonymous browser records from a name alone.
Depending on applicable law, rights may include access, a copy of information, correction, deletion, restriction, objection, portability, withdrawal of consent, and opting out of sale, sharing or targeted advertising. Rights have lawful exceptions; withdrawing consent does not invalidate earlier lawful processing. We respond within applicable deadlines and explain a lawful refusal or extension.
Where a right to appeal applies, reply with “Privacy appeal” and explain the concern. You may also complain to the regulator with jurisdiction. We do not unlawfully discriminate against people exercising privacy rights.
For California residents where the CCPA applies, the categories, purposes and recipient descriptions above explain relevant collection and disclosure. Applicable rights include knowing, deleting and correcting information and opting out of sale or sharing. See the California Attorney General’s explanation of CCPA rights. For EEA or UK residents where those laws apply, legal bases may include consent for optional tracking, necessary legitimate interests for security and responding to enquiries, contract where relevant, and legal obligations. You may complain to your local supervisory authority.
8. Children and changes
DWL is a general automotive publication and is not directed to children under 13. If you believe a child has provided personal information or a page exposes a child’s private details, contact us so we can assess and address the concern.
We update this policy as practices change and identify the effective date. Material changes may require additional notice or consent. Posting a new policy does not retrospectively authorise incompatible uses of information or replace consent where the law requires it.