Privacy

Last updated 7 October 2026.

Who is responsible

The Gear Scout (thegearscout.com) is run by Sam Saares, based in Spain. For anything about this policy or your data, email contact@thegearscout.com.

What we collect

Usage analytics

We use Google Analytics 4, loaded through Google Tag Manager, to see which pages are visited, how people use the driver finder, and which listings are clicked. It records things like the pages you view, your approximate location (country and region, from your IP address, which Google does not store), device and browser type, and how you arrived. To recognise a returning browser it sets first-party cookies (named _ga and _ga_ followed by an ID) that last up to two years. We keep analytics data for 14 months. We never send Google anything that identifies you by name.

Advertising and ad measurement

We advertise the site on Google and on Meta (Facebook and Instagram). To see which ads work, and to show ads to people likely to be interested, two advertising tools run for visitors outside the regions below:

• Google Ads, through our Google Analytics account, which tells Google Ads when a visit from an ad leads to a click through to eBay, and lets us build ad audiences from site visits.
• The Meta pixel, which tells Meta which pages you view, when you click through to an eBay listing, and when you finish the driver finder. It sets a first-party cookie (_fbp) that lasts up to 90 days.

Neither receives your name or email, and Meta does not receive your finder answers. You can control the ads you see in Google's My Ad Center and Meta's ad preferences, or block both by blocking third-party and advertising cookies in your browser.

Visitors in the EEA, the UK and Switzerland

If you visit from these regions, analytics and advertising cookies are off, and the Meta pixel does not load. Google receives only cookieless, anonymous signals (that a page was viewed, with no identifier), which it uses in aggregate. If we later ask for consent to turn cookies on, a banner will ask you first.

Your finder answers

The eight questions are sent to our server to search eBay and rank the results. They are brackets (such as a carry distance range or an age band), not personal details, and we do not store them with anything that could identify you. Your answers are also recorded in analytics as anonymous events, so we can see which questions people skip or find hard.

If you email us

We keep your email and our reply so we can answer you, and delete it on request.

Server logs

Our host, Vercel, keeps short-lived request logs (including IP addresses) for security and to keep the site running.

eBay and affiliate links

Every result links to a listing on eBay through the eBay Partner Network. When you click one, you leave this site, and eBay's own privacy notice and cookies apply. The link carries a reference made of the page you came from, a random click code and, if you arrived from one of our ads, which ad, so we can see which pages and ads lead to purchases. To know which ad, your browser keeps the ad's name until you close the tab. None of this is about you. If you buy, eBay tells us the item and the commission, never who bought it.

Who else receives data

• Google (Analytics, Tag Manager and Google Ads), under Google's data processing terms.
• Meta Platforms, through the Meta pixel, outside the EEA, the UK and Switzerland.
• eBay, when you click through to a listing.
• Vercel, which hosts the site.

Some of these companies process data in the United States, under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework or standard contractual clauses. We do not sell or rent data to anyone. Outside the EEA, the UK and Switzerland, the advertising tools above use site activity to measure and target our own ads.

Your rights

You can ask us what we hold about you, and ask us to correct or delete it. Because analytics data carries no name or email, we usually cannot link it to you; blocking or clearing cookies in your browser, or Google's opt-out add-on, stops it entirely. If you are in the EEA, you can also complain to your data protection authority; in Spain that is the Agencia Española de Protección de Datos (aepd.es).

Changes

If what the site collects changes, for example if we add advertising, this page will be updated first and the date at the top will change.