About
A small, anonymous, slightly absurd project.
What is this?
Cards are left on Belgian cars spotted abroad. Whoever finds one scans its QR code, shares a photo of their day, then leaves the card on another Belgian car. Each card forms a trace: a chain of short stories across countries.
How it is made
I built this site with the help of an AI assistant (Claude, made by Anthropic). I am a professional software developer and have worked in the field for more than 20 years. I chose the design and the rules of the project, and I am responsible for what is published here. The assistant helped me write and test the code faster.
The AI does not run on this site: your photos and texts are never sent to an AI. The only outside service is the email provider (Infomaniak, in Switzerland), used solely for the emails described below.
Your data, in short
- No accounts, no cookies, no analytics. Fonts, maps and scripts all come from this site, nothing is loaded from elsewhere.
- Photos are resized and stripped of their hidden metadata (including GPS data). They are stored on a server in the European Union.
- The map shows a country, or an area rounded to about 10 km. Your exact position is never shown, and never stored.
- Your email address is optional. It is stored encrypted and only used to send you your private link and, if you ask for it, a message when someone reuses your card. You can remove it at any time. These emails, and a short notice to me when a card is found, go through the email provider named above.
- You can edit or delete your post with the private link shown once after posting.
- Something wrong on a photo (a readable license plate, a face)? Use the "Report" link under it.
How long is data kept?
Photos, descriptions and emails are kept for as long as the trace they belong to exists. You can delete your own post, and remove your email, at any time with your private link: it is then gone for good, photos included.
Who is responsible, and how to reach me
This site is run by its author, as a personal project. For any question, or to ask for something to be removed (including when you lost your private link), write to contact@spottedbelgian.eu.
Credits
The land on the map comes from Natural Earth, which is in the public domain.