1. Controller
The controller is CARINDEX AG, Arnold Baumgartner-Str. 9, CH-2540 Grenchen. For questions and requests concerning data protection, you can reach us at support@carindex.ch (subject «Data protection») or by post at the address stated.
2. Principles and legal bases
We process only the personal data required for the respective purpose and only for as long as that purpose or a statutory retention obligation requires. We do not sell personal data and do not use advertising networks, third-party tracking services or profiling.
Where the GDPR applies, we base processing on the following legal bases: performance of a contract or pre-contractual measures (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR) for the account, listings, payments and enquiries; compliance with legal obligations (point (c)) for the retention of invoices; our legitimate interests (point (f)) in secure, stable operation and the prevention of abuse; your consent (point (a)) for the newsletter. Under Swiss law, processing is lawful if the principles of the FADP are observed; we obtain your consent where the law requires it.
3. Visiting the platform
On every visit, our servers process technical access data: IP address, date and time, the address requested, referrer, browser and operating system details and the status of the response. This data is stored in access logs and serves security, error analysis and the prevention of abuse. It is not combined with other data to identify you and is deleted after a short period.
To protect against abuse, we limit the number of requests per IP address (for example at login, for contact enquiries and when retrieving contact details). The IP addresses counted for this purpose are held in a cache for at most ten minutes and then deleted automatically.
If a technical error occurs while you use the platform, in your browser or on our servers, we record an error report: the error message and technical trace, the page or function affected, browser and operating system details, the time and a technical event identifier. These reports contain no IP address, cookies, names, e-mail addresses or form entries and serve solely the stability of the platform and error analysis. They are processed on our behalf by Functional Software, Inc. (Sentry) in data centres located in the EU (sections 12 and 13) and deleted after 90 days.
The platform does not use third-party analytics services (such as Google Analytics), advertising cookies or social media plug-ins. We collect usage statistics only anonymously (section 9).
4. Registration and user account
For a user account we need your name, your e-mail address and a password. On registration, we send a confirmation link valid for 24 hours to this address; the account is activated only after your explicit confirmation. We send invoices, notifications and, at your request, a password-reset link to the same address. Credentials are managed by our own identity service (Zitadel), which we operate on our infrastructure in Switzerland; passwords are stored there exclusively as hashes. The identity service logs sign-in events for the security of your account.
After sign-in, we store a session with the time, IP address and browser identifier and set the session cookie (section 10). The session ends after seven days without renewal or when you sign out.
In your account you can change your e-mail address and password, manage favourites and saved searches, register and remove your payment method and delete your account. The role of your account (private account, dealer, administration) is assigned by CARINDEX; a dealer role is granted only on the basis of an agreement with us.
5. Listing vehicles and contacting sellers
When you list a vehicle, we process the vehicle details, the price, the description, the photos and the postcode and town of the location. From the postcode we derive the town and approximate coordinates using a local directory of Swiss postcodes so that the listing is found in the radius search; no external geocoding service is queried.
Photos are downsized on upload and stripped of metadata (in particular EXIF data such as GPS coordinates, camera model and capture time). They are stored in a private object store in Switzerland and served exclusively through our servers.
Published listings are public and are indexed by search engines. Visible are the vehicle details, photos, price, postcode and town and the type of seller (private seller or dealer). Your name is not displayed on private listings. The e-mail address of your account is neither published nor disclosed to interested parties. «E-mail seller» opens a CARINDEX contact form. If stored, your phone number is shown only after a click on «Call»; it is not contained in the page source, and the number of retrievals per IP address is limited to make automated harvesting harder.
We relay messages submitted through the seller contact form to you by e-mail, together with the contact details entered by the interested party. That person's e-mail address is used as the reply address and, on request, they receive a copy. We store the enquiry like other contact enquiries. Phone calls, by contrast, take place directly; we do not store their content.
For dealers, the company name, address and, where available, the website of the dealer profile are also published. We import dealers' vehicle stock on their behalf from a source named by the dealer (stock feed or dealer profile on another platform).
Deactivated listings remain stored in your account until you delete them. For billing, we keep the periods during which each listing was published (section 6).
6. Payments (private sellers)
Private sellers register TWINT as a payment method before their first listing. Registration and all charges are handled by our payment service provider Datatrans AG, Zurich. For this we redirect you to the Datatrans payment page (pay.datatrans.com) and transmit a reference to your account, the amount (CHF 0.– on registration) and the currency. Confirmation in the TWINT app takes place with TWINT AG, Zurich. We do not receive your TWINT credentials or the phone number registered with TWINT.
Datatrans transmits to us a reference to the registered payment method (alias) and a masked identifier for display in your account. We use this reference to trigger the monthly charges and the close-out invoice (see Terms and Conditions, section 5). For each invoice we store the billing period, the listings with their active days, the amount, the status of the charge and the Datatrans transaction reference. We send you the invoice by e-mail.
We retain invoices and payment records for ten years in accordance with Art. 958f of the Swiss Code of Obligations, including after the deletion of your account; the payment method reference is removed when the account is deleted. The processing of data by Datatrans and TWINT is governed by their own privacy policies (datatrans.ch, twint.ch).
7. Contact form, listing reports and newsletter
Via the contact form you send us your name, your e-mail address, optionally your phone number, your message and, where applicable, the number of the listing concerned. We store the enquiry in our database and forward it by e-mail to our support team for handling. We retain enquiries for as long as necessary for their handling and as evidence of their resolution.
When you write to a seller through the contact form on a listing or a dealer profile, we forward your message to that seller by e-mail, together with your e-mail address and, if you provide them, your name and phone number, so that they can reply to you. Your e-mail address serves as the reply address. On request we send you a copy to your own address. The seller's e-mail address is not given to you and is never displayed. We store the enquiry like other contact enquiries. To prevent abusive sending we check the submission with Cloudflare Turnstile (section 12).
For the newsletter we store your normalized e-mail address, selected language and subscription status. We first send you a confirmation link; you receive the newsletter only after your explicit confirmation. You can unsubscribe at any time through the link in every newsletter, the supported one-click unsubscribe or by writing to support@carindex.ch. The CARINDEX contact form, seller contact form and newsletter sign-up are checked with Cloudflare Turnstile to prevent abuse.
8. Favourites, comparison and saved searches
Without an account, your browser stores favourites, the comparison list and recently viewed vehicles locally on your device (section 10); this data is not transmitted to us. With an account, we store your favourites in your account; on sign-in, locally stored favourites can be transferred to the account.
We store saved searches with their name, search criteria and chosen frequency in your account. Notifications about new matches are sent exclusively to the e-mail address of your account; you can change the frequency and delete saved searches at any time.
For the free-text search (the «Find a vehicle» field on the homepage and in the vehicle search) we transmit the text you enter to OpenAI, LLC, San Francisco, USA, where a language model derives search filters from it (for example make, model, price or equipment). Only the search text is transmitted – no account data, no IP address and no cookies. Please do not enter personal data in the search text. OpenAI does not use these requests to train its models and deletes them after 30 days at the latest. If the derivation fails, the text is used as a plain keyword search.
9. Anonymous usage statistics
To improve the search, we count which makes are clicked on the home page and which search criteria and search suggestions are used. These counts contain no IP address, no cookie, no account identifier, no free-text input and no postcodes; they allow no conclusions about individual persons and are evaluated only in aggregated form (for example for «Others searched for»).
11. External content and links
On the home page we show articles from AUTOMOBIL REVUE and REVUE AUTOMOBILE. We retrieve the articles server-side; however, the associated preview images are loaded by your browser directly from the AUTOMOBIL REVUE image service, which is delivered via a content delivery network of Amazon Web Services. Your IP address is transmitted to that service; a transfer to countries outside Switzerland and the EU cannot be ruled out. No further data is transmitted.
Vehicle photos and dealer logos are served from our own object storage through our website. Viewing these images does not connect to the image servers of the previous CARINDEX system.
You open links to external websites (for example dealer websites, automobilrevue.ch or the map search map.geo.admin.ch) deliberately; their operators are responsible for data processing on those websites.
12. Processors and other recipients
We operate the platform, the database, the identity service, the cache, the object store for photos and the backups on infrastructure located in Switzerland. The following companies process personal data on our behalf or receive it for the performance of the contract:
| Recipient | Registered office | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Infomaniak Network SA | Geneva, Switzerland | Hosting of the servers, database, object store and backups (data centres in Switzerland) |
| Datatrans AG | Zurich, Switzerland | Payment service provider: registration of the payment method and charges |
| TWINT AG | Zurich, Switzerland | TWINT payment method (confirmation in the TWINT app) |
| Resend, Inc. | USA (data centre in the EU) | Sending transactional e-mails: contact-form inquiries, password reset, invoices, saved-search alerts and the newsletter |
| Functional Software, Inc. (Sentry) | San Francisco, USA (data centre in the EU) | Collection and analysis of technical error reports (section 3) |
| Cloudflare, Inc. | San Francisco, USA | Abuse protection for forms (Turnstile): checking that a submission comes from a human (section 7) |
| OpenAI, LLC | San Francisco, USA | Conversion of free-text search queries into search filters (section 8) |
We conclude contracts with processors that oblige them to confidentiality, data security and processing only in accordance with our instructions. Beyond that, we disclose personal data only if you have consented, if we are legally obliged to (for example to authorities or courts) or if it is necessary to enforce our claims.
We obtain vehicle master data (makes, models, technical data) from auto-i-dat ag; no personal data is transmitted in the process.
13. Disclosure abroad
We store your personal data in Switzerland. Disclosure abroad takes place only in the cases described in sections 8, 11 and 12: when your browser loads external images, when e-mails are sent via Resend, Inc., when technical error reports are transmitted to Functional Software, Inc. (Sentry), when free-text search queries are analysed by OpenAI, LLC, and when form submissions are checked for abuse by Cloudflare, Inc. Resend and Sentry process this data in data centres located in the EU; the EU member states ensure an adequate level of data protection according to the decision of the Swiss Federal Council. OpenAI processes the text of the search query in the USA; Cloudflare processes the technical data of the form check on its global network. For transfers to the USA and to other countries without adequate data protection we rely on the statutory exceptions or on appropriate safeguards, in particular the standard contractual clauses approved by the European Commission and recognised by the FDPIC.
For persons in the EU and EEA: Switzerland is covered by an adequacy decision of the European Commission.
14. Retention
- Account data (name, e-mail address, credentials, role): until the account is deleted.
- Sessions: seven days after the last renewal or until sign-out.
- Listings: until deleted by you or together with your account; publication periods until they have been invoiced.
- Invoices and payment records: ten years (Art. 958f Swiss Code of Obligations).
- Contact enquiries: for as long as necessary for their handling and as evidence of their resolution.
- Access logs and IP addresses used for abuse prevention: a short period (section 3).
- Technical error reports: 90 days (section 3).
- Backups: overwritten in rotation; deleted data disappears with the backup cycle.
- Anonymous usage statistics: without reference to persons, indefinitely.
When you delete your account, your listings are deactivated, sessions, favourites, saved searches and the payment method reference are deleted and listing days accrued up to that point are invoiced. Listing data and invoices are retained without reference to your name to the extent that billing and the statutory retention obligation require.
15. Data security
The connection to the platform is encrypted with TLS. Passwords are stored only as hashes, the object store for photos is not publicly accessible, access to servers and databases is restricted to authorised persons, and the platform applies a strict Content Security Policy and access limits against automated abuse. Regular backups protect against data loss. When you set a password we also check whether it appears in known data breaches: for this we send the first five characters of a hash value to the Have I Been Pwned service (Superlative Enterprises Pty Ltd, Australia); the password itself and your account data never leave our systems.
16. Your rights
You have the right to request information about the processing of your personal data, to have inaccurate data corrected, to request erasure or restriction of processing, to object to processing, to withdraw consent given at any time and to request the release of the data you have provided to us in a common electronic format (data portability). You can exercise many of these rights directly in the «Account» area: change your details, delete saved searches and favourites, remove the payment method and delete the account.
For all other requests, please contact support@carindex.ch. We may require proof to verify your identity. We normally respond within 30 days. Statutory exceptions, in particular retention obligations and the rights of third parties, are reserved.
You may contact the competent supervisory authority at any time. In Switzerland this is the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC), Feldeggweg 1, CH-3003 Bern. Persons in the EU or EEA may contact the supervisory authority of their place of residence.
17. Changes
We may amend this Privacy Policy if the platform or legal requirements change. The version published on the platform applies; the date of the current version is stated above.