Last updated: 20 August 2026
Complete Car respects the privacy of its readers and takes the protection of personal information seriously.
This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, why we collect it, how it may be used and the choices and rights available to you.
Complete Car does not sell personal information. We do not use behavioural advertising companies to build profiles of our readers and we do not track people across unrelated websites. We collect only the information reasonably required to operate the website, communicate with readers, provide requested services and protect the website from misuse.
Who is responsible for your information?
CompleteCar.ie is operated by Caint Limited, an Irish company.
For the purposes of applicable data protection law, including the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, and the Irish Data Protection Act 2018, Caint Limited is the controller of personal information processed through CompleteCar.ie.
This means that Caint Limited determines why and how that information is used.
You can contact us about this Privacy Policy or the use of your personal information through the Contact Us page.
What information do we collect?
The information we collect depends on how you use CompleteCar.ie.
You can read and use the website without giving us your name, email address or other directly identifying information. We do not require readers to create an account or log in to use the public website.
We may collect information in the following circumstances.
Information you give us
You may provide personal information when you:
- send us a message through the Contact Us page;
- submit a question through Ask Us Anything;
- enter a competition;
- complete a survey or questionnaire;
- request an email notification;
- subscribe to our newsletter;
- contact us by email, telephone or another communication method; or
- otherwise choose to provide information to us.
Depending on the service, this information may include your name, email address, telephone number, question, message, competition entry, communication preferences and any other information you choose to provide.
Please do not include sensitive or unnecessary personal information in a question, message or other submission.
Information processed when you visit the website
When you visit CompleteCar.ie, our website hosting, security and delivery systems may process limited technical information needed to provide the website and keep it secure.
This information may include:
- your Internet Protocol, or IP, address;
- the date and time of a request;
- the page or file requested;
- browser and device information;
- the website or page that referred you to CompleteCar.ie;
- error records; and
- information associated with suspected spam, automated requests, attacks or other misuse.
This information is generally contained in ordinary server, security and diagnostic records. It is not used to create an advertising profile of you.
Website analytics
Complete Car uses Plausible Analytics to understand overall readership and website performance.
Plausible provides aggregate information such as the number of visits to a page, the general source of website traffic and the types of device used. It does not use analytics cookies, create persistent identifiers or follow individual readers across websites.
We use this information to understand which sections of CompleteCar.ie are useful, identify technical problems and make editorial and website-development decisions.
The analytics information available to us is statistical and is not intended to identify individual readers.
Cookies and similar technologies
Complete Car does not use cookies for behavioural advertising, audience profiling or conventional tracking-based analytics.
Some temporary, strictly necessary technologies may be used when required to provide a function you request or to protect forms and other parts of the website. For example, a temporary session mechanism may help prevent fraudulent form submissions or protect a submission from unauthorised interference.
Strictly necessary technologies are used only to provide or secure the relevant service. They are not used to follow your activity across unrelated websites or to build a marketing profile.
Third-party content or services may operate under their own rules when you choose to interact with them. This is explained further in the sections on embedded content and external websites.
Advertising
CompleteCar.ie carries commercial advertising and sponsored material.
We do not use behavioural advertising companies to create personal profiles of readers. We do not sell reader information to advertisers and we do not allow advertisers to use information supplied directly to Complete Car for unrelated behavioural targeting.
Advertising may be selected according to the content of the page being viewed. For example, an advertisement may appear alongside an article concerning a particular type of vehicle. This is contextual advertising based on the subject of the page, rather than a personal profile of the reader.
We may also measure advertising activity in aggregate, such as the number of times an advertisement was displayed or the number of visits generated by a particular link. This helps us report on the general performance of advertising without requiring us to identify an individual reader.
An advertiser, advertising service or destination website may process ordinary technical information when an advertisement is loaded or a link is followed. Any information collected independently by another organisation is governed by that organisation’s privacy policy.
How we use personal information
We may use personal information to:
- respond to messages, questions and enquiries;
- administer Ask Us Anything submissions;
- publish a reader question and our answer where appropriate;
- send an answer notification where requested;
- administer competitions, surveys and questionnaires;
- send a newsletter or other communication requested by you;
- deliver and improve the website;
- diagnose technical faults;
- prevent spam, fraud, abuse and security incidents;
- maintain appropriate administrative and operational records;
- measure aggregate website and advertising performance;
- manage commercial, editorial and business relationships;
- comply with legal and regulatory obligations; and
- establish, exercise or defend legal rights.
We will not use personal information for a materially different purpose without an appropriate legal basis and, where required, providing further information to you.
Ask Us Anything
When you submit a question through Ask Us Anything, we may use the information supplied to review, answer, edit and, where appropriate, publish the question.
Questions may be edited for length, clarity, spelling, grammar, relevance, privacy or legal reasons. Personal contact information will not normally be included in the published question.
Where you ask to receive an answer notification, we may use your email address to send that notification, and at times we may email you directly to clarify a detail that allows us to answer your question. Permission to send an answer notification is separate from permission to receive newsletters or other marketing communications.
Newsletters and email communications
We will send newsletters or other promotional email communications only where we have an appropriate legal basis to do so.
Where you subscribe, your details may be processed through an email or newsletter service provider acting on our behalf. These providers may process information required to send and manage the communication, such as your email address, subscription status and delivery information.
You can unsubscribe from promotional emails by using the unsubscribe link included in the message. You may also contact us to request removal.
We may retain limited information confirming that an address has unsubscribed so that we can respect the request and avoid adding it again unintentionally.
Unsubscribing from promotional communications does not prevent us from sending a non-promotional message that is necessary to respond to an enquiry, administer a competition or provide another service you requested.
Competitions, surveys and questionnaires
When you enter a competition or take part in a survey or questionnaire, we use the information supplied to administer that activity.
For a competition, this may include verifying entries, selecting and contacting a winner, arranging delivery of a prize and complying with legal or accounting requirements.
Where a prize is provided by another organisation, it may be necessary to share the winner’s relevant contact or delivery details with that organisation. We will explain this where appropriate and will not provide more information than is reasonably required.
Competition entries will not automatically be added to a marketing list unless this is clearly explained and a valid basis exists for doing so.
Our legal bases for using information
Data protection law requires us to have a legal basis for processing personal information. The legal basis depends on the circumstances.
We may rely on:
Consent: where you have made a clear choice, such as subscribing to an optional newsletter. You may withdraw your consent at any time. Withdrawal does not affect processing that was lawful before consent was withdrawn.
Contract or steps taken at your request: where processing is needed to provide something you have requested or to administer an arrangement with you.
Legitimate interests: where processing is reasonably necessary to operate, protect and improve CompleteCar.ie, respond to readers, manage the business, prevent misuse, maintain records or understand aggregate website performance. We consider the effect on your rights before relying on legitimate interests.
Legal obligations: where we must process or retain information to comply with Irish or European Union law.
Legal claims: where information is required to establish, exercise or defend a legal claim.
Who may receive personal information?
We do not sell personal information.
Information may be made available to members of the Complete Car team who need it for a legitimate editorial, administrative, technical or business purpose.
We may also use carefully selected service providers to perform functions on our behalf. These may include providers of:
- website hosting and infrastructure;
- business email;
- email delivery and newsletters;
- website security and spam prevention;
- technical support;
- competition fulfilment; and
- professional, accounting or legal advice.
These organisations may process only the information reasonably required to provide the relevant service. Where required, they are subject to contractual, confidentiality, security and data-protection obligations.
We may also disclose information where required by law, a court, a regulator or another body with lawful authority.
If Caint Limited or CompleteCar.ie is sold, reorganised or transferred, relevant information may be disclosed to professional advisers and prospective or actual purchasers, subject to appropriate safeguards.
International processing
Some service providers may process information in countries outside Ireland or the European Economic Area.
Where personal information is transferred outside the European Economic Area, we will use an appropriate transfer mechanism where required. This may include an adequacy decision adopted by the European Commission, approved contractual protections or another lawful safeguard.
The location and safeguards applicable to a particular service may change if a supplier changes its infrastructure or terms. You may contact us for further information about safeguards relevant to your personal information.
How long do we keep information?
We keep personal information only for as long as it is reasonably required for the purpose for which it was collected, and for any related legal, security, accounting or administrative requirement.
Retention periods vary according to the type of information. For example:
- contact-form security and audit records may be retained for a limited period after a submission;
- correspondence may be retained while an enquiry is being handled and for an appropriate period afterwards;
- Ask Us Anything questions and answers may be retained as part of the website’s editorial archive;
- unpublished submissions may be deleted when they are no longer required;
- competition information may be retained until the competition, prize fulfilment and relevant administrative periods have ended;
- newsletter subscription information may be retained until you unsubscribe or the service ends;
- limited unsubscribe records may be retained to ensure that your preference continues to be respected; and
- server and security records may be retained for a limited period appropriate to fault diagnosis, security and abuse prevention.
Information may be retained for longer where this is required by law or reasonably necessary in connection with a dispute, investigation or legal claim.
Security
We use appropriate technical and organisational measures intended to protect personal information against loss, misuse, unauthorised access, alteration and disclosure.
These measures may include access controls, secure communications, anti-spam protections, submission limits, system monitoring, data minimisation and restrictions on the information retained.
Access to personal information is limited to people and service providers who need it for a legitimate purpose.
No website or electronic communication system can be guaranteed to be completely secure. You should therefore avoid sending unnecessary confidential or sensitive information through a general website form or ordinary email.
External links and affiliate links
CompleteCar.ie contains links to websites operated by other organisations.
Some external links may be commercial, advertising or affiliate links. Complete Car may receive a fee or other benefit when a reader follows or acts through certain links. We may use a redirect or reference code to understand which page or link generated the visit.
This does not mean that we provide the destination website with your name, email address or information submitted privately to CompleteCar.ie.
Once you leave CompleteCar.ie, the destination website is responsible for its own collection and use of information. You should review that website’s privacy information before supplying personal details.
Embedded content
Articles may include or link to content supplied by another organisation, such as a video platform.
We aim to avoid loading unnecessary third-party content automatically. In some cases, a third-party service may be activated only when you choose to play, open or otherwise interact with it.
Once activated, that provider may receive technical information such as your IP address, browser details and the page on which the content appears. If you are logged in to an account with that provider, it may also associate the interaction with your account.
The collection and use of that information is controlled by the third-party provider and is governed by its own privacy policy.
Children’s information
CompleteCar.ie is a general motoring and consumer-information website. It is not designed specifically for children.
A child should not submit personal information without the involvement of a parent or guardian where this is appropriate or legally required.
A parent or guardian who believes that a child has provided personal information to us inappropriately may contact us through the Contact Us page. We will review the matter and take appropriate action.
Your data-protection rights
Depending on the circumstances and subject to the conditions and exceptions provided by law, you may have the right to:
- ask whether we hold personal information about you;
- receive a copy of personal information we hold about you;
- have inaccurate or incomplete information corrected;
- request deletion of personal information;
- request that the use of personal information be restricted;
- object to processing based on legitimate interests;
- object to direct marketing;
- receive certain information in a portable format;
- withdraw consent where processing is based on consent; and
- complain to a data-protection supervisory authority.
These rights are not absolute in every situation. For example, we may need to retain information to comply with a legal obligation, preserve editorial records, protect another person’s rights or establish or defend a legal claim.
To make a request, contact us through the Contact Us page on CompleteCar.ie and clearly describe the information or processing concerned.
We may need to ask for information sufficient to confirm your identity. This is to prevent personal information from being disclosed to the wrong person.
We will respond within the period required by applicable law.
Complaints
Please contact us first if you have a concern about the way Complete Car has handled your personal information. We will consider the concern and try to resolve it appropriately.
You also have the right to complain to the Irish Data Protection Commission or, where applicable, another European data-protection supervisory authority.
Changes to this policy
We may update this Privacy Policy when our website, services, suppliers or legal obligations change.
The latest version will be published on CompleteCar.ie with its revision date. Where a change is significant, we may provide an additional notice through the website or another appropriate communication method.
Contacting us
Questions, requests or concerns about privacy and personal information can be sent to Caint Limited through the Contact Us page on CompleteCar.ie.
Please select or state that your message concerns privacy or data protection so that it can be directed appropriately.