Legal
Privacy Policy
Last updated: Aug 26, 2026
Badges & Chrome publishes automotive and law-enforcement history at badgesandchrome.com. This policy explains what personal data we collect, why, and what rights you have over it.
We have tried to write this in plain language rather than legal boilerplate. If anything here is unclear, please ask.
Who is responsible for your data
The data controller for this website is:
The General Data Protection Regulation applies to how we handle your data, wherever in the world you are reading from. The rights set out below are available to visitors in the EU and the UK.
What we collect, and why
Information you give us directly
If you subscribe to our email list, we collect your email address and, if you provide it, your name. We use this only to send you updates about new films and publications. Every email includes an unsubscribe link, and unsubscribing takes effect immediately.
If you contact us through the site or by email, we keep your message and contact details so we can reply and, where relevant, follow up.
If you leave a comment, we store the comment, the name and email address you supply, and your IP address. Your email address is not published.
Information collected automatically
When you visit the site, our analytics provider records information about your visit: which pages you viewed, roughly how long you stayed, the type of device and browser you used, and an approximate location derived from your IP address. This is used to understand which films people find useful, not to identify you personally. This only happens if you have consented to analytics cookies.
Our web host also keeps standard server logs, which include IP addresses, for security and troubleshooting.
Information collected when you buy the ebook
Our ebook is sold through Gumroad. When you purchase, you provide your payment and billing details to Gumroad, not to us. We never see or store your card number. We receive a record of the sale, which includes your email address and the country you purchased from, so that we can provide the product and handle support and refunds.
The legal basis for using your data
We must have a lawful basis for each use of your data. Ours are:
| What we do | Legal basis |
|---|---|
| Sending you emails you subscribed to | Your consent |
| Setting analytics and non-essential cookies | Your consent |
| Replying to your messages | Our legitimate interest in answering you |
| Publishing and moderating comments | Our legitimate interest in running a discussion |
| Fulfilling an ebook order and providing support | Performance of a contract with you |
| Keeping sales records | Our legal obligation to retain records for tax purposes |
| Keeping the site secure | Our legitimate interest in preventing abuse |
Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time, and doing so is as easy as giving it.
Who we share it with
We do not sell your personal data, and we never will. We do not run advertising on this site.
We use a small number of service providers who process data on our behalf or as independent controllers:
- Google Analytics, for website statistics
- YouTube, which serves the embedded films
- Gumroad, which sells and delivers the ebook
- BlueHost, which sends our newsletter
- BlueHost, which hosts the site
Several of these organisations are based in the United States. Where data is transferred outside the European Economic Area, it is done under the safeguards those providers have in place, such as the EU–US Data Privacy Framework or standard contractual clauses.
We may also disclose information where we are legally required to.
How long we keep it
| Data | Retention |
|---|---|
| Email subscribers | Until you unsubscribe, and briefly afterwards to honour the unsubscribe |
| Contact messages | Typically up to [24 MONTHS] |
| Comments | Indefinitely, unless you ask us to remove them |
| Analytics data | The retention period set in our analytics account, currently [14 MONTHS] |
| Sales records | As long as tax law requires, generally seven years |
Your rights
If you are in the EU or the UK, you have the right to:
- Access the personal data we hold about you
- Correct anything inaccurate
- Erase your data, in many circumstances
- Restrict or object to our processing of it
- Portability — receive your data in a machine-readable form
- Withdraw consent at any time, where consent is the basis
- Complain to a supervisory authority
To exercise any of these, email privacy@badgesandchrome.com. We will respond within one month.
If you are unhappy with how we have handled your data, you may complain to your own national authority.
Children
This site is not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect data from anyone under 16. If you believe a child has provided us with personal data, please contact us and we will delete it.
Security
We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect your data, including serving the site over HTTPS and restricting access to the systems that hold personal information. No website can promise perfect security, and we do not.
Changes
We may update this policy. When we do, we will change the date at the top. Material changes will be flagged on the site.
Contact
Questions about this policy, or about your data, go to privacy@badgesandchrome.com.