Privacy statement
Last updated: November 9, 2026
The Phantom Braking Report collects reports of phantom braking: a car braking unexpectedly with no obstacle in front of it. We are careful with your data. This statement explains what we process, why, for how long, and what your rights are.
In short
- You need no account, and we don't ask for your name or e-mail address.
- We don't store your license plate. We only use it to fetch make, model and year from the RDW, and then keep an irreversible fingerprint.
- Reports are published without the plate and used for statistics.
- Dashcam footage and photos stay private until we've reviewed them. By uploading them you consent to publishing them after that; you can withdraw this consent at any time.
- We remove all metadata from photos, such as the GPS location and the device, and black out license plates on photos before they're published.
- No tracking, no advertising, no analytics, no selling of data.
Who is responsible?
The data controller is LauLaman Apps. You can reach us at info@llaman.nl.
What we process, why, and on which legal basis
| Data | Purpose | Legal basis (GDPR art. 6) |
|---|---|---|
| License plate | Fetching the vehicle details from the RDW, both while you type (to check the right vehicle was found) and when you submit. We don't store the plate: we only keep a fingerprint (HMAC-SHA256 with a secret key), so we can count distinct vehicles and repeat reports. The plate is never part of a URL, so it doesn't end up in web-server logs. | Consent (when submitting); legitimate interest (the lookup while typing) |
| Vehicle details from the RDW | Make, model, first registration date, fuel, type approval and similar, for the report and the statistics. | Consent |
| Incident details | Date and time, location (rounded to about 10 metres), road number, circumstances, speeds, consequences, dealer response, odometer, software version and your description. Together these make up the report and the statistics. | Consent |
| Dashcam footage (optional) | Evidence that there was no obstacle. Footage is stored privately, outside the public website. By uploading it you consent to it being published after a moderator has reviewed it. The upload field says so, and you can withdraw this consent at any time. | Consent (publication); legitimate interest (keeping it privately for research into phantom braking) |
| Photos of the aftermath (optional) | Showing the consequences, such as damage or the situation on the road. We immediately turn every photo into a new file without metadata. GPS location, device, timestamp and other EXIF data are removed in the process, and we don't keep the original file. Photos are stored privately and, like footage, only published after review; by uploading them you consent to that. You black out plates yourself when uploading; a moderator checks and completes this. Only that masked copy is published. Dashcam footage is only published if no plate is readable. | Consent (publication); legitimate interest (keeping them privately for research into phantom braking) |
| IP address | Preventing abuse (a maximum number of lookups and reports per period) and securing the website (web-server logs). | Legitimate interest |
Careful with your description: don't include names, phone numbers or other personal data, including other people's. Moderators may remove such information.
A report without a plate normally can't be traced back to you. In rare cases, the combination of date, time, place and car model might mean something to someone who knows you. That's why we round the location and never show the plate. If you want to be sure, enter the location less precisely.
What do we publish?
Each report gets a public page with the vehicle and incident details, without the plate. Dashcam footage and photos only appear there after a moderator has approved them. The home page shows aggregated statistics and a map with the rounded locations.
Who do we share data with?
- RDW (Dutch Vehicle Authority): our server looks up the public vehicle details by plate via RDW Open Data. The RDW sees our server's address, not yours.
- OpenStreetMap: your browser loads the map tiles directly from the servers of the OpenStreetMap Foundation, which therefore receives your IP address. See the OSMF privacy policy. The OSMF is based in the United Kingdom.
- OpenStreetMap Nominatim: when you click the map, our server sends the coordinates of that point to the OSMF's Nominatim service to look up the road (country, road number, road type, speed limit). Nominatim only receives the point and our server's address, not your IP address. See the OSMF privacy policy.
- Hosting provider: the website and database run at a hosting provider that acts as our processor.
- Error monitoring (Sentry): when something goes wrong on the server, we send technical error details to Sentry to fix it. They contain no IP addresses, cookies, license plates or submitted form data.
- Storage provider: dashcam footage and photos are kept in private storage (not publicly accessible) at a storage provider that acts as our processor.
We don't sell data or share it for marketing. What we publish is public and may be used by researchers, journalists and regulators.
How long do we keep data?
- Reports, vehicle details and fingerprint: as long as the reporting point exists, because the statistics are most valuable over time. Unless you ask us to delete them sooner.
- Dashcam footage and photos: as long as the report exists. Rejected footage and photos are never published and stay private with the report. The original photo file, with its metadata, is deleted immediately after processing.
- RDW lookup results: at most 24 hours in a technical cache, without the plate.
- Road details for a map point: at most 30 days in a technical cache (rounded point and road details, not linked to a person or IP address).
- IP address for abuse prevention: at most 2 hours.
- Web-server logs: at most 14 days.
Security
The website only works over an encrypted connection (HTTPS). Dashcam footage and photos are stored outside the public part of the website and are only reachable after approval. Plates are only kept as a fingerprint with a secret key. Only administrators can access the systems.
Your rights
You have the right to access, correct, delete and restrict your data, and to object. Where you gave consent, you can withdraw it at any time.
Having footage and photos deleted: request it on your report's page by entering the plate. If it matches, your request goes to a moderator, who permanently deletes all footage and photos of that report. The report itself (without plate) remains.
For other requests, e-mail us with the link to your report.
As there are no accounts, we can't simply tell which report is whose. We'll therefore ask for the plate: we compute its fingerprint and compare it with the report, then forget the plate again. We respond within one month.
Are you visible in someone's dashcam footage or photos? Contact us. We'll take the footage offline or make you unrecognisable.
Complaints
If you're not happy with how we handle your data, please tell us first. You can also file a complaint with your data protection authority. In the Netherlands that's the Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens.
No automated decisions
We don't make decisions about people based on automated processing, and we don't build profiles.
Changes
We may update this statement. The date at the top shows when it last changed.