Privacy Policy

Effective date: 7 October 2026
Last updated: 7 October 2026
Version: 2026-10-07

Tuners Cafe (“we”, “us”, “our”) operates the Cruise platform, available at tunerscafe.com and through the Cruise mobile web application (“the App”). This policy explains what personal data we collect, why we collect it, who we share it with, and your rights under UK data protection law.

During account setup you’ll be asked to confirm you’ve read this policy before you can use the App. See also our Cookie Policy for details on the third-party network requests the App makes.

If you have questions, contact us at cruise@tuners.cafe.

1. Who is the Data Controller?

Tuners Cafe
United Kingdom
Contact: cruise@tuners.cafe

2. What Data We Collect and Why

2.1 Account and Identity

When you register or sign in, we collect:

Legal basis: Performance of contract (account creation and management); legal obligation (age verification).

2.2 Vehicle Data

When you add a vehicle to your garage, we collect:

We use your registration mark to query the DVLA Vehicle Enquiry Service (a UK government API). The full set of data returned by that query is stored against your vehicle record.

We also store your ownership status (current owner, previous owner, aspiring owner, or future owner) so you can accurately represent your relationship with each vehicle.

Legal basis: Performance of contract (garage feature); legitimate interests (providing accurate vehicle information).

2.3 Location Data (Cruising Activity)

When you start a cruising session, the App records:

Location data is stored permanently in your activity history. You can delete your account to request removal.

Legal basis: Legitimate interests (providing the cruising activity feature); consent (you explicitly start a session).

2.4 Events

When you propose or attend an event, we collect:

When you provide an event URL, we fetch the page content from that URL to extract event details automatically (see Section 4 — OpenAI).

When you upload an event poster, we read the text on the poster to extract event details automatically, and may create a version of the poster artwork without text to use as the event picture (see Section 4 — OpenAI). The poster is sent for processing with its photo metadata removed. Images you upload, and the metadata they contain, are covered in Section 2.11.

Legal basis: Performance of contract (event feature); legitimate interests (automating event data entry).

2.5 Chats and Chat Messages

When you join a chat and send messages, we collect:

Messages are analysed automatically for profanity. If a message contains profanity, both the original and a censored version are stored. Your violation count is tracked on your profile; repeated violations may trigger automatic suspension from chat.

Legal basis: Performance of contract (messaging feature); legitimate interests (maintaining community safety).

2.6 Subscription and Billing

If you subscribe to a paid plan:

We do not store your payment card details. All payment processing is handled directly by Stripe, which acts as a data processor under its own compliance frameworks.

Legal basis: Performance of contract (subscription management).

2.7 Friend Invitations and Connections

When you invite someone to connect:

Legal basis: Legitimate interests (social connectivity feature).

2.8 Kudos (Reputation System)

We maintain a reputation score for your account. Each Kudos transaction records:

Legal basis: Legitimate interests (community reputation and engagement).

2.9 Notifications

We store in-app notifications triggered by platform activity (e.g., someone accepted your invitation, you received Kudos). These are tied to your profile and retained until dismissed or your account is deleted.

Legal basis: Performance of contract (in-app notification delivery).

2.10 Local Storage (Your Device)

The App stores the following data locally on your device:

This data lives only on your device and is not transmitted to our servers independently.

2.11 Images You Upload

When you upload or take a photo in the App (for example an event poster or an event picture), we collect:

Photos taken on phones and cameras often contain hidden metadata (known as EXIF), which can include the precise location where the photo was taken. We keep this metadata with the original image you upload.

• The original image and its metadata are private. They’re stored securely and are not shown to other members.
• Images shown publicly have metadata removed. Event pictures, thumbnails, and any image we send to a processor (see Section 4) are created without metadata, so other members can’t see where your photo was taken.
• You can choose not to share location. Turn off location tagging in your camera app before taking the photo, or upload a screenshot instead. Images without metadata work in exactly the same way.

The App resizes images on your device before uploading them to keep uploads fast, but it keeps the metadata described above.

Legal basis: Performance of contract (image features); legitimate interests (associating images with events and locations on the platform). You can object to this use at any time (see Section 6).

2.12 Push Notifications

If you allow notifications, we store a notification token for each device or browser you allow them on. The token is created by your browser’s push service. It doesn’t identify you outside Cruise, and we use it only to send notifications to that device.

We send notifications for new messages in your private chats, and in any public chats you choose to turn them on for. A notification shows the sender’s name and a short preview of the message, with any bad language hidden. You’ll see the sender’s real name only if they’re your friend, otherwise their Cruise pseudonym. Nothing else from your account is included.

You can turn notifications off at any time in your Profile, mute any chat, or block notifications in your browser or phone settings. When a token stops working, for example because you’ve blocked notifications or cleared your browser data, we delete it.

Legal basis: Consent. We only ask for permission on your device after you’ve used chats, never when you sign in, and you can withdraw it at any time.

2.13 Activity Emails

We record when you last used the App. If you haven’t visited for a while, we may email you at most once a week with a summary of what you’ve missed: unread messages in your chats, upcoming events in your region and your Kudos balance. We don’t send one if there’s nothing new. We keep a record of each email we send, and whether you came back afterwards, so we can tell whether these emails are useful.

Every activity email has a link to stop them, and you can turn them off in your Profile. Turning them off doesn’t affect emails you need to use your account, such as sign-in links.

Legal basis: Legitimate interests (keeping members informed about activity in their own chats and region), with an easy opt-out in every email.

2.14 Usage Analytics

We use Google Analytics for Firebase to understand how the App is used, so we can see which features are useful and fix what isn’t working. It records:

We don’t link analytics to your Cruise account. We don’t send your name, email address or messages to Google Analytics, and we don’t use it for advertising. The records of how you respond to prompts contain no message content and no personal details, only which prompt or step it was and what you chose.

You can turn analytics off at any time in your Profile (Share usage statistics from this device). It’s switched off for that device and browser, so turn it off on each device you use.

Legal basis: Legitimate interests (improving the App), relying on the exemption for cookies used only to produce statistics under the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025, with an easy way to turn it off.

2.15 How You Use the App

For each day you use the App while signed in, we keep a short record of that day: that you visited, whether you took part (for example by sending a message, reacting, giving Kudos, adding a vehicle, suggesting or saving an event, or inviting a friend), and how many of each of those things you did. It doesn’t include what you wrote, which chats or events were involved, or where you were.

These records are kept by us, linked to your account, and are separate from the usage analytics in Section 2.14. We only use them in totals across members, never to single you out, and we delete each day’s record after 13 months.

Legal basis: Legitimate interests (understanding how members use Cruise so we can improve it).

3. Data We Do Not Collect

• Payment card details — handled exclusively by Stripe
• IP addresses — not logged or stored by our application. Google Analytics uses your IP address to estimate your country and city, then discards it (see Section 2.14)
• Device fingerprints — not collected. Google Analytics stores a random ID in a cookie, which you can turn off (see Section 2.14)
• Device model — not collected by our application. Google Analytics records the type of device, operating system and browser (see Section 2.14). If a photo you upload contains the make and model of the camera that took it, we keep that with the image (see Section 2.11)
• Advertising identifiers — not collected
• Third-party tracking — we don’t use any advertising or cross-site tracking tools. Google Analytics is our only analytics tool (see Section 2.14)

4. Data Processors

We use the following third parties to operate the App. Each acts as a data processor under a data processing agreement or applicable terms.

Notes on international transfers

Where data is transferred outside the UK (to OpenAI, Stripe and SendGrid in the United States, and browser push services and Google Analytics where they’re outside the UK), we rely on UK International Data Transfer Agreements or Standard Contractual Clauses, as applicable under UK GDPR.

5. How Long We Keep Your Data

6. Your Rights

Under UK GDPR you have the right to:

• Access — request a copy of the personal data we hold about you
• Rectification — correct inaccurate data
• Erasure — request deletion of your data (“right to be forgotten”)
• Restriction — ask us to limit how we use your data while a dispute is resolved
• Data portability — receive your data in a structured, machine-readable format
• Object — object to processing based on legitimate interests
• Withdraw consent — where processing relies on consent, withdraw it at any time (e.g., location tracking)

These rights cover the images you upload and the metadata they contain (Section 2.11).

Erasure can be requested directly in the App (Profile → Delete my account), which queues your account for deletion — we aim to complete it within 30 days. For Access, Rectification, Restriction, Portability, or Object requests, contact cruise@tuners.cafe; we aim to respond within one month, as required by UK GDPR.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk.

7. Cookies

The App does not set advertising cookies. It uses three third-party Google services as part of normal operation, which are covered in full in our Cookie Policy:

• Google Fonts, to load the App’s typeface
• Google reCAPTCHA, to protect phone number sign-in from automated abuse — this can set a cookie in your browser
• Google Analytics for Firebase, for usage statistics (Section 2.14) — this sets cookies, which you can turn off in your Profile

We use browser localStorage (described in Section 2.10) solely for functional purposes to improve your experience.

8. Children

Cruise requires users to be at least 13 years old, and we ask for your date of birth when you set up your account to enforce this. If you are 13–17, we also require confirmation that a parent or legal guardian has given permission for you to use Cruise, in line with our Terms and Conditions.

We do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 13. If you believe we have inadvertently collected data from a child under 13, or that a user aged 13–17 is using Cruise without appropriate permission, please contact us at cruise@tuners.cafe so we can review the account.

9. Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy from time to time. When we do, we will update the “Last updated” date and version number at the top of this page. For material changes, we will ask you to re-confirm your agreement in the App before you can continue using it.

10. Related Documents

• Terms and Conditions
• Cookie Policy
• Community Guidelines
• Accessibility Statement

11. Contact Us

Tuners Cafe
cruise@tuners.cafe