Privacy
What Shifterati keeps about its readers, and what it never does. Last changed November 8, 2026.
The short version
Reading Shifterati needs no account and leaves nothing about you behind. The site sets no cookie for readers who are not signed in, shows no ads and loads nothing from another company. It counts how many people read its pages, in a way that never picks one reader out.
Shifterati never sells, rents or shares anyone's data, and never joins it with data from anywhere else.
When you read a page
The site's own server keeps no log of who read which page.
Instead, the site adds each page read to a count for the day: how many times each page was read, how many readers came that day, the name of the site a reader came from (such as a search engine, never the page there), and whether they read on a phone, a tablet or a computer. A search that found nothing is counted too, but only once two or more readers typed the same words that day, and never when it holds an email address, five or more digits in a row, a phone number or a VIN.
To count each reader once a day without a cookie, the site mixes the reader's internet address and browser name with a secret key and keeps the jumbled result in memory for that day only. The key is new each day (in UTC) and is never written down, so at the end of the day nothing is left that could be matched back to anyone. The address and browser name themselves are never kept. Only the day's totals are stored, in the site's own database on Render.
Totals are kept for two years and searches for 90 days. Only the people who run the site see them. A browser set to send Global Privacy Control or Do Not Track is not counted at all, and neither are pages a browser fetches ahead of time.
The site is hosted on Render, which carries each visit to the site and may keep its own technical records of it under its own privacy policy.
Every font, script and picture comes from the site itself, so no other company learns that you visited. When you follow a link to a source, that site's own privacy policy applies.
Feedback you send
A note sent through the feedback form keeps what kind of note it is, the page it is about and what you wrote. It keeps nothing else: no address, no browser details and no account. It is kept as a private issue on GitHub, where the site's code lives, and only the people who run the site read it, checking it with the help of AI tools. A note is never shown on the site.
Please leave your name and contact details out, since there is no way to reply. If you put something personal in a note by mistake, send another note saying which page it was about and when, and it will be deleted.
Survey answers
The survey keeps the answers you picked or typed and the day, in UTC, they came in. It keeps nothing else: no time of day, no IP address, no browser details, no cookie and no account, so nothing the site keeps ties an answer to the reader who sent it. Render, which hosts the site, may keep its own technical records of visits, as it does for any page. Every question may be skipped.
Answers are kept in the site's own database on Render and only the people who run the site read them, as counts and as the short answers typed. They are never published, sold or shared, and never joined with anything else. Each answer is deleted once it is two years old.
Please leave your name and contact details out. If one is typed by mistake, it is deleted when it is read. Since nothing ties an answer to you, one answer cannot be found again to take back, so send a note through the feedback form saying what you typed and on which day, and it will be deleted. A deleted answer leaves the site's backups within 7 days.
Support payments
Support is paid on the payment provider's own page. The site loads nothing from it, so the provider learns about you only if you follow the link. What you enter there is handled under the provider's own privacy policy.
The provider tells the site about each payment, as it does for any business. That is used only to keep the site's accounts and answer questions about a payment, and is never joined with what you read.
If you email to ask for a refund, your email, and the address it came from, are used only to make that refund and are deleted afterwards.
Member accounts
An account is free and optional. It holds the email address used to sign in, a display name that reads Member unless it is changed, when the member joined, that they said they are 13 or older, and what they chose to add: saved cars, each a generation with a model year and a nickname if they gave them, and the checklist ticks kept for each, with when each car was saved and each line ticked. It never holds a license plate, a VIN, a price paid or asked, or a location of any kind. Only the people who run the site see account details.
From their garage, a member can download everything kept about them as one file with one button, and delete the account and all of it with another. Deleting also cancels any recall alert not yet sent. A deleted account leaves the site's backups within 7 days.
Reading has no age limit. An account needs its member to be 13 or older.
Photos you send
A member who is 18 or older can send a photo of a car from their garage. The site keeps the photo, the car and year it shows, the line saying what it shows, when it was sent, the version of the license agreed to, and whether it was shown or why not. The photo's location, time and camera details, and its file name, are removed the moment it arrives and never kept.
Only the people who run the site see a photo before it is shown, checking it with the help of AI tools. A shown photo is credited to “A Shifterati reader”, never by name. A photo turned down has its picture deleted at once. A photo nobody has looked at within 30 days is deleted.
Photos are kept in the site's own database on Render, never in the site's code. Removing a photo from the garage deletes it and takes it off the site within a minute. Deleting the account deletes every photo too, unless the member chooses to leave the shown ones on the site. A photo left up that way can still be taken down by writing to support@shifterati.com. A deleted photo leaves the site's backups within 7 days.
Answers and comments on articles
A signed-in member can answer “Was this worth reading?” under an article. The site keeps the answer, the article and when, so each member answers once. Pages show only how many answered each way, never who.
A member who is 18 or older can comment on an article. The site keeps the comment, the article, when it was sent, the version of the license agreed to, and whether it was shown or why not. Only the people who run the site read a comment before it shows, with the help of AI tools. A shown comment reads “A member”, never a name or an email address, as members can't choose a display name yet. A comment turned down or taken off has its words deleted at once, and one nobody has read within 30 days is deleted.
When a member reports a comment, the site keeps who reported it only until the report is handled, and never shows it. A member stopped from commenting is kept as that member and when, nothing more.
Deleting a comment removes it at once. Deleting the account deletes every answer, comment and report too. The download holds all of them. A deleted comment leaves the site's backups within 7 days.
Recall alerts
A member can turn on recall alerts for each saved car, and they are off until they do. An alert is sent when a recall that covers the car is added to the site after alerts were turned on. It names the recall and links to it here and at NHTSA, and nothing else.
For each saved car with alerts on, the site keeps when they were turned on and which recalls the car's alerts already know about, with when each was noted and whether it was emailed, so none is sent twice. Every alert has a link that turns that car's alerts off without signing in; the link carries a code, never the address. Turning alerts off, or removing the car, deletes all of this.
Alerts are sent by Postmark, as sign-in emails are, with no opens or clicks recorded.
Signing in
There is no password. The site emails a link that works once, within 15 minutes. It keeps a scrambled copy of the link, never the link itself, with the address it went to, and deletes both soon after the link has been used or has run out. Asking for a link gives the same answer whether or not the address has an account.
A signed-in browser keeps one cookie, which tells the site who it is for up to 30 days and is dropped on signing out. The site keeps a scrambled record of each sign-in, which ends when you sign out or after 30 days. Readers who are not signed in get no cookie.
Sign-in emails are sent by Postmark, an email company that acts for the site. Postmark receives the address and the email. It keeps each message for 45 days and then deletes it, and it records no opens or clicks. Postmark also keeps a list of addresses whose mail bounced or that asked for no more mail, even after an account is deleted, so it does not mail them again.
Counting readers
The site does not count its readers yet. If it starts, it will count with its own code, set no cookie, store no IP address and keep nothing that could pick one reader out, and this page will say so first.
Changes
The date at the top says when this page last changed. Anything that would keep more about readers changes this page first.