Privacy policy

Who operates GarageMatch

GarageMatch is operated by Eric Johnson, an individual located in Kentucky, United States. The operator is the data controller who decides how and why information collected through the site is used. Privacy questions and requests can be sent to GarageMatch2026@outlook.com.

Information GarageMatch handles

• Sign-in details: after you approve Sign in with ChatGPT, GarageMatch receives your email address and, when available, your name. The name is used to greet you, and the email address identifies your saved garage. Sign in with ChatGPT may make a profile photo available, but GarageMatch's site code does not read or save it. GarageMatch does not receive your ChatGPT password.
• Vehicle and repair details: year, make, model, submodel or trim, decoded vehicle characteristics, repair choice, and budget.
• Saved garage details: signed-in users may save vehicle information for up to two cars. GarageMatch stores those vehicle details with the email address supplied by Sign in with ChatGPT.
• Limited usage events: GarageMatch records a website visit once per tab session, when a repair plan is created, when screened eBay results are returned, and when an eBay product link is opened. These records can include the repair, year, make, model, requested part, eBay item identifier, fitment label, result count, whether eBay supplied an affiliate URL, and the time. They do not include a visitor name, email address, VIN, IP address, budget, product title, or product URL, and they are not linked to a GarageMatch account.
• Contact information: information you choose to send by email.

VIN decoding

A VIN is sent to NHTSA for decoding. GarageMatch does not add the VIN to its database, browser storage, or saved plan, but its hosting infrastructure and NHTSA process the VIN while responding to the request. NHTSA may retain ordinary request information under its Privacy Policy. The decoded year, make, model, trim, engine, drivetrain, body, and transmission may be stored only if you choose to save that vehicle. Do not enter a VIN if you do not want it sent to NHTSA's public decoder.

Device storage, cookies, and technical data

The most recent repair choice, year, make, model, configuration identifier, and budget are stored in your browser's local storage so the plan can be restored on that device. It remains there until it is overwritten or cleared through your browser settings; the full VIN is not included.

GarageMatch and the hosting, sign-in, and security services that support it may process ordinary request information such as IP address, browser or device type, timestamps, requested pages, and error or security logs. GarageMatch uses a privacy-protected representation of an IP address in transient application memory to limit repeated eBay searches; it is not written to the saved-garage database.

Hosting and sign-in may use cookies needed to operate and secure the service. GarageMatch uses a temporary tab-session marker only to avoid counting the same open tab repeatedly; its value is not sent to GarageMatch. The administrator's browser can store an exclusion marker so the operator's activity is not counted. Limited usage events do not place a separate analytics cookie or create a visitor profile. If cookie-based advertising or audience analytics are added later, this policy will be updated and consent will be requested where required.

How and why information is used

Information is used to provide the features you request, create vehicle and part matches, maintain saved cars, understand which repairs and vehicles are useful, measure whether eBay returns tracked affiliate links, count product-link activity, protect the service, prevent abuse, troubleshoot problems, answer messages, meet legal obligations, and improve reliability. GarageMatch does not sell personal information.

Where applicable law requires a legal basis, GarageMatch relies on providing the service you request, legitimate interests in operating and securing the service and responding to users, legal obligations, and consent where it is specifically requested.

Service providers and information sharing

• OpenAI: OpenAI hosts GarageMatch on the operator's behalf and provides Sign in with ChatGPT. OpenAI may process hosted information as needed to operate and support the site under the ChatGPT Sites Data Processing Addendum.
• Government vehicle services: NHTSA receives a VIN only when you request decoding; model-catalog requests send the selected year and make. EPA/DOE fallback configuration requests send the selected year and make, while GarageMatch compares the selected model locally against the returned model menu.
• eBay: submodel requests send year, make, and model. Product searches also send the available trim and engine plus the requested component, and those product searches include GarageMatch's affiliate campaign and reference identifiers and a U.S. marketplace and delivery-country context. The raw VIN is not sent to eBay. Listing images load from remote image hosts, which receive ordinary browser request information such as IP address and browser details; GarageMatch requests those images without a referrer.
• Linked retailers: eBay, AutoZone, NAPA, O'Reilly, Walmart, sellers, and their service providers receive ordinary browser request information when you deliberately follow their links. GarageMatch uses a no-referrer link setting, although the eBay affiliate identifiers still identify GarageMatch as the referring partner.
• Microsoft: Microsoft Outlook processes information you choose to send to the contact email address.

Information may also be disclosed when required or permitted by law, to protect users or the service, or with your direction or consent. These providers control their own processing when they act independently.

Paid links and eBay cookie choices

When you deliberately open a paid eBay link, the link carries GarageMatch's affiliate campaign and reference identifiers. eBay may use cookies and similar technologies to attribute an eligible purchase and for the other purposes described in its Cookie Notice and User Privacy Notice.

You can avoid this affiliate tracking by not opening paid eBay links. You can also use eBay's cookie or advertising-preference controls and your browser or device settings. Blocking cookies may limit some eBay features.

Retention

A locally saved plan remains until it is overwritten or cleared. A saved car and its account email remain until you remove the car, use the Personal Garage's "Delete all saved data" control, or a verified deletion request is completed. Signing out or deleting the underlying ChatGPT account does not automatically delete GarageMatch's saved-car rows.

Successful eBay product-search results are reusable from transient application memory for five minutes, temporary eBay errors for 30 seconds, and privacy-protected rate-limit identifiers for one minute. Expired entries are removed during later request cleanup or when the application process restarts; none are added to your saved garage.

Visit, plan, eBay-result, and eBay-click events are kept for up to 90 days and then deleted. They are not connected to a GarageMatch account.

Email correspondence is kept only as long as reasonably needed to answer the message, handle disputes, protect the service, or meet legal obligations. OpenAI processes hosted data during the service term and afterward as needed for deletion and related obligations, as described in the ChatGPT Sites Data Processing Addendum.

Your choices and rights

You can remove individual cars in Personal Garage. Its "Delete all saved data" control deletes every saved-car row tied to your signed-in email and clears the repair plan from the browser where you use the control. You can also clear local storage through your browser settings. Depending on applicable law, you may have rights to access, correct, delete, restrict, object to processing, or receive a copy of personal information, withdraw consent, or complain to a local data-protection authority.

To make a request, email GarageMatch2026@outlook.com from the address connected to your GarageMatch sign-in. Reasonable verification may be required, and some information may be retained where law permits or requires it.

International processing and security

OpenAI's current ChatGPT Sites documentation says the service does not currently offer data residency. GarageMatch and its providers may therefore process information outside the country where you live, subject to the terms and safeguards that apply to each provider.

GarageMatch uses reasonable administrative and technical measures intended to protect information, but no internet service or storage system can be guaranteed completely secure.

Children and policy changes

GarageMatch is intended for adults and its Terms require users to be at least 18. It is not directed to children. This policy may be updated as the service changes; the effective date at the top will be revised when material updates are published.