1. Who we are and what this policy covers
The website gcar.ae (the “Platform”) is operated by gCar (“gCar”, “we”, “us”, “our”), based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. This Privacy Policy explains what personal data we process when you visit the Platform, contact us or use an account on it, why we do it and what rights you have.
The policy applies to gcar.ae, including its Russian version at gcar.ae/ru/. Our sister sites yacht.gcar.ae, driver.gcar.ae and sale.gcar.ae publish their own privacy notices. Please read this policy together with the Terms and Conditions for users.
2. Our role: a catalog, not a rental company
gCar is an online catalog. We publish information about cars offered for rent in the UAE and about the companies that offer them: prices, conditions, locations and contact details. This information is provided by independent rental companies or collected from publicly available sources.
- gCar does not own or rent out vehicles, does not take bookings, deposits or payments for rentals and is not a party to any agreement between you and a rental company.
- When you press “WhatsApp”, “Telegram” or “Call” on a car or company page, you contact that rental company directly. The company receives your contact details and your message and decides how to use them as an independent controller, under its own privacy rules. gCar does not see or store these conversations.
- Questions about a rental — the contract, deposit, insurance, fines, damage or refunds — must be addressed to the rental company you dealt with.
3. Personal data we collect
3.1. Data you give us
- Messages to gCar. When you write to us by e-mail, WhatsApp, Telegram or through a form: your name, phone number, e-mail address, messenger username and whatever you choose to tell us (for example, travel dates or the car you are looking for).
- Requests sent through the forms on gcar.ae (the “leave your number” request in the gCar Concierge block of the home page and the contact form): what you enter — phone number, name, e-mail address, the service, date, budget and your message — together with the address of the page, the first page of your visit, the page you came from, campaign tags (UTM), the device type, your IP address and browser. The request is stored on our server (hosting provider Beget) and sent to the gCar team by e-mail and to the team’s Telegram chat. We use it only to answer your request and keep it for up to 24 months.
- Accounts. If you register on the Platform (for example, as a rental company): name, e-mail, phone number, password (stored only as a cryptographic hash), company details, and the listings, texts and photos you upload.
- Requests and complaints, including requests about your personal data, and our correspondence about them.
3.2. Data collected automatically
- Technical data: IP address, browser and device type, operating system, language, pages viewed, the page you came from, date and time. These are recorded in the server logs of our hosting provider and used to run and protect the Platform.
- Cookies and local storage — see section 6.
- Statistics: Yandex Metrica runs on every page and collects pseudonymous usage data (pages viewed, time on site, device, approximate location derived from the IP address, clicks and scrolling; with the Webvisor tool it records how pages are used — mouse movements, clicks and scrolling — without what you type into form fields). Google Analytics also runs on every page of gcar.ae and our sites yacht.gcar.ae, driver.gcar.ae and sale.gcar.ae and collects similar pseudonymous usage data (pages viewed, device, approximate location, clicks on contact buttons); it never receives the contents of your requests.
3.3. Data about rental companies
We publish business information about rental companies: trade names, addresses, business phone numbers, messenger links, opening hours, fleet and prices. It comes from the companies themselves and from publicly available sources. Where it contains the name or contact details of an individual (for example, a sole proprietor or a manager), we process it as business contact data.
3.4. What we do not ask for
Please do not send us passport, Emirates ID or driving licence copies, or payment card details: gCar does not need them. A rental company will ask you directly for what it needs to rent you a car. We do not knowingly collect special categories of data (health, religious beliefs, biometrics and similar).
4. Why we use personal data
| Purpose | Legal ground |
|---|---|
| Running the Platform and remembering your settings (theme, currency, city) | Our legitimate interest in providing a working website |
| Answering your messages and requests | Your request; your consent given when you contact us |
| Accounts and listings | Performance of the agreement with the account holder (the Terms and Conditions) |
| Security, prevention of fraud and abuse, fixing errors | Our legitimate interests; legal obligations |
| Statistics to improve the Platform | Your consent where the law requires it; otherwise our legitimate interest |
| Publishing information about rental companies | Our legitimate interest in an accurate, useful catalog |
| Complying with the law, responding to authorities, establishing or defending legal claims | Legal obligations; our legitimate interests |
We send marketing messages only if you have agreed to receive them, and you can unsubscribe at any time. We do not make decisions about you that are based solely on automated processing and have legal or similarly significant effects.
5. Your consent
Where processing is based on consent — for example, when you send us your details yourself, or for statistics cookies where the law requires consent — you give it voluntarily and for the purposes described in this policy. You may withdraw consent at any time by writing to info@gcar.ae or by changing your browser settings. Withdrawal does not affect processing carried out before it.
8. International transfers
The Platform is hosted by Beget LLC on servers in the Russian Federation (Saint Petersburg). Some of our providers — for example Google, Meta and Telegram — process data in other countries, including the United States and the European Union. Your data may therefore be processed outside the UAE and outside your country of residence, in countries whose laws may offer a different level of protection.
We transfer data only as permitted by applicable law: where the transfer is necessary to respond to your request or to perform an agreement with you, under the contractual safeguards offered by our providers, or with your consent.
9. How long we keep data
- Messages and requests, including requests sent through the forms on the site: up to 24 months after our last contact.
- Accounts and listings: while the account is active and up to 12 months after it is closed.
- Server logs: up to 12 months.
- Statistics: for the retention period set in Google Analytics and Yandex Metrica.
- Cookies and local storage: as stated in section 6.
We may keep data longer where the law requires it or where it is needed to resolve a dispute or defend a legal claim. After that, the data is deleted or anonymised.
10. Your rights
Depending on the law that applies to you — including UAE Federal Decree-Law No. 45 of 2021 on the Protection of Personal Data, the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the UK GDPR, and Russian Federal Law No. 152-FZ “On Personal Data” — you may have the right to:
- know whether we process your data and receive a copy of it;
- have inaccurate data corrected and incomplete data completed;
- have your data deleted;
- restrict processing or object to it, including to direct marketing;
- receive your data in a structured, machine-readable format (portability);
- withdraw your consent at any time;
- not be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing;
- lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority — in the UAE, the UAE Data Office; in the EU, the authority of your country; in Russia, Roskomnadzor.
How to exercise your rights: write to info@gcar.ae with the subject “Personal data request”. We may ask you to confirm your identity. We reply within 30 days; if a request is complex, we may extend this period as the law allows and will tell you why. Requests are free of charge unless they are manifestly unfounded or excessive.
Data held by a rental company is controlled by that company: please send your request to it directly.
11. Security
We protect data with HTTPS encryption, restricted access, regular updates and backups. No method of transmission or storage over the internet is completely secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security. If a breach is likely to put your rights at risk, we will notify you and the competent authorities as the law requires. Keep your account password secret and tell us at once if you suspect it has been compromised.
12. Children
The Platform is intended for persons aged 18 and over. We do not knowingly collect personal data of minors. If you believe a minor has sent us personal data, write to us and we will delete it.
13. Third-party websites and services
The Platform contains links to rental company websites, messengers, maps and other third-party resources. We are not responsible for their content, privacy practices or security. Please read their policies before sending them any data.
14. Information for rental companies
If information about your company or its staff appears on gCar and you want it corrected, updated or removed, write to info@gcar.ae from an address we can link to the company. Information is published for reference only; a listing on gCar does not mean a partnership, endorsement or verification by gCar.
15. Region-specific information
European Union, EEA and United Kingdom. The legal grounds in section 4 correspond to Article 6 of the GDPR: consent, performance of a contract, legal obligation and legitimate interests. Where we rely on legitimate interests, you may object at any time.
Russian Federation. By sending us your personal data, you consent to its processing on the terms of this policy, including cross-border transfer to the UAE and the other countries named in section 8. The consent is valid until the purposes of processing are achieved or until you withdraw it by writing to info@gcar.ae.
16. Limitation of responsibility
To the extent permitted by law, gCar is not responsible for how rental companies, messaging platforms and other third parties process personal data that you give them, or for the consequences of you publishing or sending your data to third parties. Nothing in this policy limits the rights you have under mandatory law.
17. Changes, governing law and language
We may update this policy. The current version is always available on this page together with its effective date; we will announce significant changes on the Platform. If you continue to use the Platform after the effective date, the updated version applies.
This policy is governed by the laws of the United Arab Emirates as applied in the Emirate of Dubai, without prejudice to the mandatory data protection rules of your country of residence. The policy is published in English and Russian; in case of any discrepancy, the English version prevails.
18. Contact us
gCar · Dubai, United Arab Emirates
E-mail: info@gcar.ae
WhatsApp and Telegram: buttons below