Privacy policy

Who we are

4x4s.org (difflocked.com) and its registry, 4x4s.org, are one independent, non-commercial enthusiast project: a research registry of Land Rover vehicles and a browser game. It is run by an individual, not a company, and is not affiliated with Jaguar Land Rover or any vehicle manufacturer. For anything in this policy, use the contact form.

This policy covers 4x4s.org and difflocked.com and their subdomains, including the game at difflocked.com/play/, the Creator, the builds gallery and the API that serves them.

What we collect, and why

Visiting the site. Pages are served by Amazon CloudFront. We have not switched on CloudFront's access logging; the API behind accounts, builds and leaderboards writes operational logs (which can include your IP address, the request and its time) that are kept for one month for security and debugging. We do not build profiles from them.

Analytics. On both sites we use Google Analytics 4 to count visits and see which pages people read. It sets cookies and sends your IP address (truncated by Google) and browser details to Google. In the EU, EEA, UK and Switzerland it runs only after you accept it in the cookie banner; elsewhere it runs by default and you can turn it off at any time from Cookies. It does not run on the staging site or local copies.

Registry accounts. If you create an account for the builds gallery you give us a username and a password (stored as a salted hash, never in clear) and, optionally, an email address, a display name, a short bio and links. The email is used only to send a password-reset link when you ask for one. Sessions are a random token kept in your browser's local storage and valid for 90 days, or until you sign out.

Builds, favourites and corrections. Vehicles you build and publish, the builds you favourite, and corrections or suggestions you send about registry records are stored with your account (or, for the contact form, with whatever name and email you type). Published builds are public by design and appear under your username.

The game. Lap times you submit to a leaderboard are stored with the name you enter (up to 24 characters, filtered for abuse; blank names become “Anonymous”), the course, the time and a short-lived race session. For abuse prevention the API also records the IP address and browser user-agent of leaderboard requests, which the site's administrator can see. Multiplayer racing uses a live connection whose server counts connections per IP address to limit abuse; positions and chat-free race state are relayed between players and not stored. Your garage, settings and unsent builds live in your browser's local storage and never leave your device unless you publish them.

AI renders. Registry vehicles and published builds can be pictured by an image model (Google Gemini). The model receives the vehicle's description and the site's own 3D render — never your account details or anything else about you. See AI usage in the terms.

Email. Contact-form messages and password-reset links are sent through Amazon SES from registry@difflocked.com. We do not send newsletters or marketing.

Legal basis

For visitors in the UK and EU: access logs and abuse prevention rely on our legitimate interest in running the site securely; accounts, builds, leaderboards and the contact form are processed because you asked us to (performance of a contract / at your request); analytics cookies rely on your consent. We never sell personal data and never use it for advertising.

Who else sees it

The site runs on Amazon Web Services (CloudFront, S3, Lambda, DynamoDB, SES) in AWS's US East (N. Virginia) region. Google receives analytics data when you have allowed it, and Google's Gemini service receives vehicle descriptions and renders (not personal data) to make AI pictures. Free imagery on expedition pages is reproduced from Wikimedia Commons and similar archives under its stated licence and is credited on the page. No other third parties receive personal data.

How long we keep it

API logs: one month. Analytics: Google Analytics retains event data for 14 months. Accounts, builds, favourites and corrections: until you delete them or ask us to. Sessions: 90 days. Leaderboard entries: indefinitely, as part of the public table; race sessions expire after two hours. Contact-form messages: until dealt with, then deleted from the mailbox at the administrator's discretion.

Your rights and data requests

Wherever you live, you can ask us to tell you what we hold about you, correct it, export it, or delete it — including your whole account with its builds and favourites — and to stop analytics at any time. Send the request through the contact form from the account or email address concerned; we will answer within 30 days and may ask you to confirm you control that account. Leaderboard names are pseudonymous: tell us the course, name and time and we will remove the entry.

If you are in the UK or EU you also have the right to object to processing based on legitimate interest and to complain to your data-protection authority (in the UK, the Information Commissioner's Office).

Children

The site is not directed at children under 13, and accounts should not be created by anyone under 13 (16 in some EU countries). If you believe a child has given us personal data, contact us and we will delete it.

Changes

When this policy changes in substance the date at the top moves and the change is noted in the site's source history.