Independent information resource. Not affiliated with the California DMV. To book or transact, use dmv.ca.gov.
CA
DMVCA

Privacy policy

Last updated: 13 September 2026. This version records a material change: the site now carries Google AdSense advertising. Advertising involves third-party cookies and data sharing that earlier versions of this policy correctly said did not happen here. The advertising sections below describe it plainly.

Provisional notice. This policy describes how the site handles data today. Four elements - the lawful basis, the data-retention periods, the process for exercising your rights, and the CCPA/CPRA characterisation of the advertising - are pending professional legal review and are marked as such below. No operating entity is registered yet, so the data controller is not yet named (see below).

Who runs this site

DMVCA (dmvca.info) is an independent guide to the California DMV. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to the California DMV or any government agency.

Data controller - to be completed on registration. No operating entity is registered yet, so this policy does not name one. When it is, the controller's legal name, registration number, and registered address will be added here - this section is not yet complete. Until then, the contact and rights route for anything in this policy is [email protected].

Three layers: the application, the host, and advertising

This site is a static website - pre-built pages served as files. Three layers process data differently, and it matters which is which:

  • The application (our own pages and code) sets no cookies of its own, writes nothing to your browser's local or session storage, and collects nothing through forms. Our code does not identify or profile you.
  • The host and CDN (Cloudflare) receives and processes each request to serve the page, which necessarily includes your IP address and standard request metadata. This is host processing, not something the application does.
  • Advertising (Google AdSense) is a third-party script that loads on every page. It is the one third party that runs without you asking for it, and the only part of the site that sets cookies or shares data for a commercial purpose. It is described in full below.

So, to be exact about a claim earlier versions of this page made: a page load is no longer a request to dmvca.info only. It also reaches Google. What is still true is that we set no cookie and run no analytics script, and that the map stays off until you click it.

The third parties

There are three, and no others - no social-media trackers, no tag managers, no affiliate or paid-referral networks, and no analytics script.

Google AdSense - advertising

The site is monetised with Google AdSense (publisher ca-pub-0704827617890417; the authorisation record is public at /ads.txt). Concretely:

  • It loads on page load, on every page. Your browser fetches adsbygoogle.js from pagead2.googlesyndication.com as part of rendering the page, and the ad system then contacts further Google advertising hosts to request and display ads. This happens without any click from you, unlike the maps described below.
  • What Google receives. Serving an ad necessarily gives Google your IP address, user-agent and device/browser characteristics, the page you are viewing and the referring page, your approximate location derived from the IP, and interaction with the ad itself (view, click). We do not send Google your name, email, or any account data, because we hold none.
  • Cookies and similar identifiers. Google and its ad partners set and read cookies (and may use comparable device identifiers) through these ads - to limit how often you see the same ad, to measure clicks, to detect fraud, and, where permitted, to select ads based on a profile built across the sites you visit. These are Google's cookies, not ours: we cannot read them, and they are set under Google's own domains.
  • Cross-site profiling is the point of the product. We will not soften this: behavioural advertising works by building a picture of you across many sites. If you would rather it did not, the controls below are real and we encourage using them.
  • Google is an independent controller for this processing. Its handling is governed by the Google Privacy Policy and described in how Google uses cookies in advertising - not by this policy, which can only describe it accurately.

Your choices about advertising

  • In the EEA, the UK, and Switzerland: a consent message is shown before personalised advertising runs, using Google's certified consent-management platform (Funding Choices / Privacy & messaging). You can refuse, in which case Google is instructed to serve non-personalised ads, and you can change that choice later from the link in the message. Non-personalised ads still involve a request to Google and still use cookies for frequency capping and fraud prevention - less data, not no data, and we would rather say so than imply otherwise.
  • Anywhere: you can turn off ad personalisation in Google's My Ad Center, which applies to Google's advertising wherever you meet it, not only here.
  • Your browser can block third-party cookies, or the ad scripts outright, with built-in settings or an extension. The site's content, search, and tools are written to work without the ads and will keep working.
  • California residents - see the CCPA/CPRA section below for the opt-out of "sharing" for cross-context behavioural advertising.

Cloudflare - host, CDN, and server-side analytics

  • Hosting and delivery. Cloudflare serves the site from its edge network and processes each request's IP address, timestamp, requested URL, HTTP method, response status, user-agent, and approximate location/network - the standard metadata any host or CDN handles, retained by Cloudflare for security and operational purposes.
  • No analytics script. There is no analytics beacon and no analytics cookie on this site. Cloudflare's client-side Web Analytics is turned off, verified against the deployed pages: static.cloudflareinsights.com/beacon.min.js loads on no page, and an automated pre-release check fails if it ever returns. Any usage measurement on our side is limited to what Cloudflare derives at the edge from ordinary request logs as our host - server-side, script-free, and cookieless. We set no analytics identifier of our own and do not track you across sites; the advertising described above is a separate matter, and Google does.
  • Cloudflare may also emit standard browser network-error reporting (NEL) headers, which ask the browser to report failed requests to Cloudflare; no successful-load data is sent this way.

OpenStreetMap - map tiles, only if you click

Some pages offer a map. The map does not load until you click "Load map." Until that click, no request is made to OpenStreetMap. If you load a map, your browser requests map image tiles directly from OpenStreetMap (tile.openstreetmap.org), which then necessarily receives your IP address, the tiles requested (which indicate the area you are viewing), and a referrer of https://dmvca.info/ - the origin only, not the specific page. These tile requests carry no cookie, and this happens only on map pages, only after you click. OpenStreetMap's own privacy terms govern that request.

Cookies and local storage

We set no cookies and use no local or session storage, and there is no analytics cookie. The cookies you will find on this site come from Google's advertising, plus whatever Google's consent tool needs in order to remember your choice - set by Google, readable by Google, governed by Google's policy. If our own code ever sets a cookie, this policy will be updated first.

Forms and search

  • There are no forms that collect or transmit personal data - no account, contact, or newsletter form.
  • Search runs entirely in your browser against an index served from dmvca.info; your query is not sent to any external search service. If you submit the search form, your query appears in the dmvca.info URL, which Cloudflare handles as host like any other URL - and, because the URL of the page you are on is sent to the ad system, a search-results URL containing your query is visible to Google's advertising like any other page URL. Bear that in mind if you would search for something you would not want associated with your browser.
  • Two on-page tools (a practice-test quiz and a smog-eligibility helper) run entirely in your browser and send nothing anywhere. Your answers and results are not transmitted or stored.

Legal basis (GDPR)

The operator has a Latvian establishment, so the EU GDPR applies to this processing regardless of where you are. Two different bases are engaged:

  • Consent (Art. 6(1)(a)) for the advertising cookies and personalised advertising, collected through Google's certified consent platform as described above. This is the basis that a refusal withdraws.
  • Legitimate interests (Art. 6(1)(f)) for host request handling and script-free, cookieless edge analytics - operating and securing the site.

No special-category data is processed, and no solely-automated decision is made about you here.

Provisional - the lawful basis, and in particular the boundary between consent and legitimate interests for the advertising, is under professional review.

Categories of data processed

Your IP address and standard request metadata (via Cloudflare as host). For advertising: IP address, user-agent and device/browser characteristics, the page URL and referrer, approximate IP-derived location, ad interactions, and cookie or device identifiers - processed by Google, with the profiling consequences described above. Only if you click a map: the IP, referrer, and tile data sent to OpenStreetMap. No names, emails, accounts, payment data, or profiles are held by us - unless you choose to email [email protected], in which case we process the contents of your message to reply.

Retention

The application stores nothing. Cloudflare's edge-log retention is set by Cloudflare. Google's retention of advertising data is set by Google and described in its own policy; we have no control over it and cannot delete it for you - the Google controls linked above are the route. Emails you send are kept only as long as needed to handle your request.

Provisional - the specific retention periods are under professional review.

Your rights

Where the GDPR applies, you have the rights of access, rectification, erasure, restriction, objection, and data portability, and the right to withdraw consent to advertising at any time through the consent link described above. To exercise any of these with us, email [email protected]. Note that we may be unable to identify you from Cloudflare's edge logs alone, so some requests may require additional information; and for data Google holds as its own controller, requests must go to Google, since we cannot reach it on your behalf.

Provisional - the rights-request (DSAR) process is under professional review.

Supervisory authority

If you believe your data has been mishandled, you may complain to the Latvian supervisory authority, the Data State Inspectorate (Datu valsts inspekcija), or to your local EU supervisory authority.

California (CCPA / CPRA)

This site is about the California DMV, so we are explicit about the CCPA/CPRA. We do not sell personal information for money. However, serving behavioural advertising through Google is generally treated as "sharing" personal information for cross-context behavioural advertising under the CPRA, and we will not pretend otherwise now that ads run here. The categories involved are identifiers (IP address, cookie and device identifiers) and internet activity (pages viewed, ad interactions).

To opt out: use Google's My Ad Center to turn off ad personalisation, together with the consent controls described above. A browser Global Privacy Control signal, where your browser sends one, is passed to and handled by Google's advertising and consent tooling; we do not process it separately ourselves, and we would rather state that limit than claim a mechanism we have not built. We do not knowingly share the personal information of anyone under 16. You will not be discriminated against for exercising any of these rights - there is nothing to withhold, since the site is free and requires no account.

Provisional - whether the operation meets the CCPA's business thresholds at all, and the exact characterisation of the advertising, are under professional review. The opt-out routes above are offered regardless.

Children

The site is general-audience DMV information and is not directed at children, and our application collects no personal data. Ads here are not requested as child-directed content; if you are a parent who believes a child's data has been collected through the advertising, the Google contacts above are the route, and you may also write to [email protected].

Changes and contact

If this policy changes, the updated version will be posted here with a new date - as it was for the advertising change recorded at the top. For privacy questions, to exercise your rights, or to reach the operator: [email protected]. (Controller legal identity to be added on registration; see above.)