YOURCARS.COM PRIVACY POLICY
Last Updated: September 22, 2010
YourCars.com, together with any of its subsidiaries, affiliates, successors and assigns (collectively, "we," "us, " "our" or "YourCars"), takes the privacy of its users seriously. We are committed to safeguarding the privacy of our users while providing a personalized and valuable service. This Privacy Policy statement explains the data processing and retention practices of YourCars and describes how http://us.yourcars.com, the listing and buying tools, and other web products and services provided there (collectively, "YourCars Web"), treat personal information that YourCars Web collects and receives. Personal information is information about you that is personally identifiable such as your name, address, email address, or phone number, and that is not otherwise publicly available. Personal information also includes any non-publicly available financial or insurance information provided by you to YourCars Web. All forms of personal information are referred to as your “Data.”
This privacy policy does not apply to the practices of companies that YourCars does not own or control such as external websites you may link to from or through YourCars Web. While we try to link only to sites that share our high standards and respect for privacy, YourCars is not responsible for the content, security or privacy practices employed by other sites. We encourage our users to read the privacy policies of all websites. This privacy policy also does not apply to people or entities that YourCars does not employ or control, such as buyers, sellers, borrowers, insurance applicants, brokers, agents, loan officers, lenders, loan providers, insurance providers, advertisers, or other intermediaries that use YourCars Web. Because the insurance providers, loan providers, and intermediaries that may connect to you through YourCars Web may retain or use your personal and financial Data (whether or not you qualify for or obtain a loan, insurance, other loan-related services, or insurance-related services from them), you should contact these parties directly concerning their privacy and information sharing practices. This privacy policy only applies to YourCars Web.
If you have any requests concerning your personal information or any queries with regard to these practices please contact us by e-mail at Contact Us
By visiting YourCars WEB you are accepting the TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND CONSENTING TO THE DATA COLLECTION AND USAGE PRACTICES described in this Privacy Policy, in addition to the Yourcars WEB TERMS OF USE. .
Information Collected
We may collect Data from you when you register as a buyer, seller or advertiser, apply for insurance, or apply for a loan through though the YourCars Web (your "YourCars Account"), or use the YourCars Web software or services. Elements of Data may include your name, email address, address, phone number, gender, marital status, vehicle information, insurance information, credit rating, accident or claim information, credit card information, and annual income, as well as various optional information that you may choose to provide, including deductible information and insurance registration number and company. If you do not elect to provide all the requested Data, YourCars Web may not be able to provide you will all available services, including those services requested by you.
YourCars Web may also collect and retain information that you submit to us and some of our business partners. This information might be used for market reseach data or may be necessary to process loan or insurance applications, to register someone as a seller, or to connect prospective buyers and sellers.
When you send email or other communication to YourCars, including through the seller or buyer registration process, or the insurance or loan application process, or contact us, we may retain those communications in order to process your registration and/or application, respond to your requests and inquiries, and improve YourCars.
We also collect information automatically about your visit to our sites. Please see the IP Address and Use of Cookies sections for more details.
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Use, Disclosure, and Retention of Personal and Financial Information
When you provide personal and financial information through or using YourCars Web, you are sharing your Data with http://us.yourcars.com, brokers, agents, loan officers, lenders, loan providers, insurance providers, or other intermediaries. The use of your Data by YourCars Web in conjunction with the offered goods and services is subject to this policy.
We may use your Data for the following purposes:
· providing products and services requested by you
· giving users a personalized service
· connecting potential automobile buyers and sellers
· matching prospective borrowers with potential lenders, loan officers, providers, and intermediaries
· linking prospective insurance applicants with potential agents, brokers, providers, and intermediaries
· facilitating automobile purchasing, loan-related and insurance-related communications between users
· responding to registration requests and questions
· conducting market research
· providing you with information about products and services offered by YourCars
· sharing your Data with third-party organizations who offer products or services which you have requested or that we feel may be of interest to you unless you specifically opt-out of such sharing
· informing you about product and service updates
· managing our business
· verifying your identity
· enforcing the YourCars Web Terms of Use
· other purposes we describe to you at the time your Data is collected.
YourCars Web may provide your Data to brokers, agents, loan officers, lenders, loan providers, insurance providers, or other intermediaries. YourCars does not act as your insurance provider, loan provider, or intermediary itself. The borrowers, insurance applicants, brokers, agents, loan officers, lenders, insurance providers, loan providers, advertisers, or other intermediaries that participate in YourCars Web are subject to applicable federal, state and local laws and regulations and are regulated by federal and state agencies.
In the course of operating our business it may be necessary or appropriate for us to provide access to your Data to other third parties, such as our service providers, contractors and select vendors so that we can operate and improve YourCars Web and our business. Unless it is not commercially reasonable, we generally seek to obtain confidentiality agreements that are consistent with this policy or otherwise limit the use or disclosure by others of the information you have shared.
YourCars Web may use or share your personal information where it is necessary to connect prospective automobile buyers and sellers, match prospective loan borrowers with potential lenders, link prospective insurance applicants with potential providers, operate or improve the technical functionality of YourCars Web, or to do something that you have asked us to do. Moreover, if you post a listing, you may receive email communications from third parties, including potential buyers. By using the website, you agree to be bound by and that you consent to the Terms of Use, Privacy Policy, and these practices.
YourCars Web may share your personal information if we believe it is necessary in order to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding illegal activities, suspected fraud, situations involving potential threats to the physical safety of any person, violations of our Terms of Use or other applicable policies, or as otherwise required by law.
We may also disclose your information to business partners, successors to our business, or in accordance with a properly executed court order or as otherwise required to do so by law.
In addition, we may share with third parties certain pieces of aggregated, non-personal information, such as the number of users who accessed a particular area of YourCars Web, or, for example, how many users clicked on a particular link or used particular features. Such aggregated information will not identify you individually. Among other things, aggregate information may be used by YourCars Web to build up marketing profiles, to aid strategic development, to improve YourCars Web functionality, to manage our relationship with advertisers, to conduct the relationship between YourCars Web and providers of goods and services, and to audit usage of the YourCars Web sites.
We usually will use the email and contact Data you provide to us only to respond to your inquiry, process your registration, provide goods and services requested by you, or in accordance with your stated preferences. However, we reserve the right to send you certain communications relating to YourCars Web, such as service announcements and administrative messages that are related to your use of YourCars Web and maintenance of your YourCars Account, without offering you the opportunity to opt-out of receiving them.
Although YourCars may ask for certain sensitive financial or personal information to process loan or insurance requests initiated by you, YourCars endeavors to take all necessary measures that it will only be retaining contact information, such as your name, email, address, and phone number in its system. However, as stated in, and subject to the Security Policy, no data transmission over the Internet are guaranteed to be safe and we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us.
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Security Policy
YourCars takes the privacy of its users seriously. However, no data transmissions over the Internet can be guaranteed to be one hundred percent secure. Consequently, we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us and you perform these activities at your own risk. Once we receive your Data transmission, we make efforts to ensure security on our systems. We use physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards and other appropriate measures to protect personal information about you and to protect your Data against unauthorized access or use, alteration, unlawful or accidental destruction and accidental loss.
If you have registered as a buyer, seller, advertiser, loan or insurance provider, your YourCars Web account information will be password-protected. It is important for you to protect against unauthorized access to your user name, password and to your computer. Be sure to log off from YourCars Web when finished using a shared computer. Areas of YourCars Web where you are requested to input personal information use industry-standard Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)-encryption to protect the data you input. However, please note that this is not a guarantee that such information may not be accessed, disclosed, altered or destroyed by breach of such firewalls and secure server software.
If YourCars learns of a security systems breach, we may attempt to notify you electronically so that you can take appropriate protective steps. By using YourCars Web or providing Data to us, you agree that we can communicate with you electronically regarding security, privacy and administrative issues relating to your use of those sites, products and services.
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User Content
Although YourCars Web reserves the right to refuse to post any or all content submitted by you in our sole discretion, when you post a listing, an offer for goods and services, or other content to or through YourCars Web, you may, and often will, have the ability to include personally identifiable information about yourself. If you choose to make your own personally identifiable information available online, for example, by providing contact information in order to sell your automobile, such that is accessible to the other YourCars Web users, you may receive unsolicited messages from other parties in return.
Please be reminded that any content or links posted by you must comply with the YourCars Web Terms of Use. Any violation by any user may result in immediate termination of such user's account and access to YourCars Web, and may also subject such user to both civil and criminal penalties among other legal consequences.
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Transfer of Data
The Internet is a global environment. Using the Internet to collect and process personal data necessarily involves the transmission of data on an international basis. This means that your information may be transferred to — and maintained on — computers located outside of your state, province, country or other governmental jurisdiction where the privacy laws may not be as protective as those in your jurisdiction. Therefore, by browsing YourCars Web and communicating electronically with us you acknowledge and agree to our processing of your personal data in this way,and agree to be bound by the applicable privacy laws that YourCars is governed by as well as the jurisidiction and venue provisions of the YourCars Web Terms of Use.
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Links to Other Sites
YourCars Web contains links to other websites. If you choose to visit an advertiser by "clicking on" a banner ad or other type of advertisement, or click on another third-party link, you will be directed to that third party's website. The fact that YourCars Web displays a link to a third-party website or presents a banner ad or other type of advertisement for goods or services of a third party is not an endorsement, authorization or representation of our affiliation with that third party, nor is it an endorsement of that third party's privacy or information security policies or practices. YourCars does not exercise control over third-party websites. These other websites may place their own cookies or other files on your computer, collect data or solicit personal information from you. Other sites follow different rules regarding the use or disclosure of the personal information submitted to them. We strongly encourage you to read the privacy policies or statements of the other websites you visit.
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User Access and Control of Data
If you wish to amend any of the Data that we hold about you, visit the “Profile” page on the buyer, seller, advertiser, loan provider or insurance provider section that you would like to to update and edit the information accordingly. You may also contact the loan provider or insurance provider and edit your information directly with them. Finally, if you have any issues or questions concerning your information, feel free to contact us at Contact Us.
You may also cancel your registration and terminate your account with YourCars Web, in which case your YourCars Account information will generally be deleted from YourCars Web. However, some Data, primarily your contact information, may remain in our records to the extent necessary to protect our legal interests or document compliance with any applicable legal or regulatory requirements, and we may elect to retain any aggregate and non-personally indentifiable information related to your YourCars Account indefinitely. All Data we retain will continue to be subject to the terms of the YourCars Web privacy policy that you previously agreed to when you used YourCars Web.
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Opting Out
YourCars users will be given the choice to opt-out of receiving communications from us, our affiliates and marketing partners. To "opt-out" you may either use the "opt-out" or "unsubscribe" option contained within any email message delivered to you, or by emailing your opt-out request to Contact Us with the word “unsubscribe” in the email subject line. Users should allow a reasonable time (but not more than 10 days) for the opt-out request to be processed. Please be aware that your opt-out choice may mean that certain YourCars Web services will no longer be available to you.
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Use by Minors
Persons under age 18 are not eligible to use YourCars Web. Without limiting this restriction, in particular, we do not knowingly collect or store any information on children under 13 years of age. We will undertake to delete any details of such users where a parent or guardian has notified us that any such details have been obtained.
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Contacting YourCars
If you have a privacy concern regarding YourCars Web or this policy, and if you cannot satisfactorily resolve it through YourCars Web, please address your concern to YourCars at Contact Us.
If you object to any sharing of your Data that may be permitted under this policy, you may do so by writing us at the above email. We will take reasonable steps to accommodate your requests. In some instances, honoring your requests may interfere with or preclude your ability to use the YourCars Web or may require us to terminate your YourCars Account and our relationship with you.
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Changes to this Policy
From time to time we may make changes to this privacy policy statement to reflect any changes to our privacy practices in accordance with changes to legislation, best practice or website enhancements.
We will endeavor to notify you about any material changes in the way we treat Data by placing a notice on YourCars Web, and, in some circumstances, YourCars reserves the right to also send a notice of such material changes to the primary email address specified in your YourCars Account.
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Use of Cookies and Other Tracking Devices
We use cookies to help personalize your use of our sites. A cookie is a small amount of data that often includes an anonymous unique identifier that is sent to your browser from a web site's computers and stored on your computer's hard drive.
This data may include information relating to your use of our sites, information about your computer such as the computer's IP address and browser type, demographic data and, if you arrived at our site via a link from a third party’s website, the URL of the linking page. If you are a registered user, this may include your name and email address for verification purposes.
We use information from cookies for purposes which may include:
· identifying returning and registered users and to allow registered users to be presented with a personalized version of the site
· enabling you to move more easily around our site
· tracking your use of our site to better develop our sites in accordance with your requirements
· building up profiles for marketing purposes
Most browsers are initially set up to accept cookies, but you can reset your browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. However, some YourCars Web features and services may not function properly if your cookies are disabled. For example, if you choose to reject all cookies, you may not be able to use services or sites on YourCars Web that require you to "log in," and you may not be able to take full advantage of all of the YourCars Web features.
For further information on how to prevent cookies from being stored on your computer, refer to the help menu within your Internet browser.
From time to time we may permit third-party companies to set cookies on YourCars Web sites for purposes which may include market research, serving advertisements, revenue tracking or to improve functionality of the site.
Any external websites you link to through or in connection with YourCars Web use of their cookies subject to their own privacy policies, and not this policy. Advertisers or other entities do not have access to YourCars Web cookies. We encourage our users to read the privacy policies of all websites. This privacy policy applies only to information collected by YourCars.
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IP Address
Every computer connected to the Internet is given a set of numbers that serve as that computer's Internet Protocol or "IP" address. The IP address reveals nothing personal about you other than the IP address from which you have accessed YourCars Web. YourCars Web may occasionally obtain IP addresses from users depending upon how you access our website. When you request a page or access a search result from any page within YourCars Web, our servers automatically recognize your IP address. IP addresses, browser and session information may be used for various purposes, including to:
· Diagnose and prevent service or technology problems reported by our users or engineers that are associated with the IP addresses controlled by a specific web company or ISP.
· Estimate the total number of users visiting YourCars Web from specific organizations or geographical regions
· Help determine which users have access privileges to certain content, services or resources that we offer.
· Monitor and prevent fraud and abuse.
Your IP address may also be recorded when you contact us through YourCars Web.
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