Privacy Policy

Last updated: 14 August 2026 · applies to vin.wheeltale.com and vw.wheeltale.com

This app (part of the WheelTale family of products) looks up a Volkswagen chassis, engine, axle, frame, or body number against a bundled historical reference dataset and estimates a production date. This page explains what data the app handles today, in plain terms.

No account, no tracking

There is no sign-up, login, or user account for this app.
The app sets no cookies and runs no analytics, advertising, or third-party tracking scripts of any kind. It does not use Google AdSense or any other ad network.
Because nothing here tracks you, no cookie-consent banner is shown. If that ever changes (for example, if ads or analytics are added later), this policy will be updated first and an appropriate consent flow — including Google's EU consent flow if applicable — will be added before it ships.

What happens to the numbers you look up

When you select a model and enter one or more numbers, your browser sends that model and those values to this app's own server, which matches them against the bundled reference dataset and sends back the result. The application itself does not write your search inputs to a database or an application log — each request is handled in memory and then discarded.

Like effectively every web host, the underlying hosting platform may keep routine, short-lived operational logs of requests (timestamps, IP address, the page or endpoint requested) for security and diagnostics. That's infrastructure-level logging common to all web traffic, not something this application adds, reads, or uses on top of.

What's stored on your device

This app can be installed as a Progressive Web App. When installed (or simply visited), your browser caches the app's static files (the page, styles, icons) locally so it loads faster and can work offline — this is a standard browser/PWA cache, not personal data collection, and it never leaves your device.

A local search-history feature (recent lookups, kept only in your browser) is planned for a future version. When it ships, it will be stored using your browser's local storage on your own device only — never uploaded to this app's server — and this policy will be updated to reflect it.

Photo analysis (planned, not yet available)

A future version of this app is planned to let you photograph a stamped number instead of typing it in, using OCR/AI text extraction. That feature does not exist in the app yet — there is currently no camera or photo-upload capability anywhere in this app. Before it ships, this policy will be updated to clearly disclose:

whether photos are analyzed on your device or sent to a cloud AI/OCR service, and which one;
whether photos are stored, cached, or discarded after analysis, and for how long;
that any detected number is shown to you for confirmation or correction before any lookup runs — it will never search automatically.

Data used to build the reference dataset

The chassis/engine/date tables built into the app were compiled from public historical sources and are not personal data — they describe vehicles and production periods, not people. This is separate from, and does not affect, how your own search inputs are handled as described above.

Children's privacy

This app is not directed at children and does not knowingly collect personal data from anyone, regardless of age — see above for what little the app handles at all.

Changes to this policy

If what this app collects or how it's handled changes — most notably when photo analysis or local search history ship — this page will be updated before that change goes live, with the "last updated" date above revised.

Contact

Questions about this policy or how this app handles data can be sent to support@wheeltale.com.