Vehicle records stay in WordPress
Vehicles, specifications, statuses, features, and media references are stored in the dealership’s WordPress database and media library. The records are not tied to the LotPress theme and are preserved if LotPress Inventory is uninstalled to reduce the risk of accidental inventory loss.
First-party inventory insights
On vehicle detail pages, LotPress records aggregate vehicle views and inquiry-button clicks in WordPress post metadata. A key in browser sessionStorage prevents duplicate view counts during the same browser session.
These totals are not transmitted to LotPress or an external analytics provider. LotPress Inventory does not store visitor IP addresses or set tracking cookies for these insights.
VIN decoding
When an authorized inventory editor selects Decode, the entered VIN is sent to the United States National Highway Traffic Safety Administration vPIC service. The request user agent includes the site home URL so NHTSA can identify the requesting application.
No NHTSA account is required. The service is not contacted automatically while visitors browse inventory or while editors change other fields. Review the NHTSA vPIC API documentation and the U.S. Department of Transportation privacy policy.
Visitor-facing external services
When a dealership adds a YouTube video, the public vehicle page loads its player from the privacy-enhanced youtube-nocookie.com domain. The visitor’s browser still sends ordinary request information such as its IP address and browser headers to YouTube.
When the dealership enables Cloudflare Turnstile, the visitor’s browser connects to Cloudflare and the WordPress server validates the resulting token. LotPress does not send the inquiry message to Cloudflare. Update the dealership privacy notice before enabling either visitor-facing service.
Shopper lists and inquiries
Saved and recently viewed vehicle lists stay in the shopper’s browser and are not stored as dealership profiles. Inquiry messages are passed to WordPress mail delivery and are not retained by Shopper Tools. Short-lived one-way visitor fingerprints may be used to limit repeated submissions; raw addresses are not stored for that purpose.
Dealership responsibilities
The dealership controls its WordPress site and is responsible for its privacy notice, retention practices, user access, backups, security configuration, contact-form handling, and any additional analytics, advertising, CRM, DMS, or marketing services it installs.