Privacy Policy and Safeguard Notice
Last updated 12/7/2015
GENERAL PRIVACY POLICY
Thank you for visiting the Auto Expert website (including its mobile device-ready version) or using the Auto Expert mobile application. In this Privacy and Safeguard Notice, we refer to our websites and mobile application together as our “Media.” We hope that you find our Media to be a useful part of your car-buying experience. Please note that this General Privacy Policy describes our overall privacy practices for the Media. Section II applies to California users. Section III is our privacy policy for nonpublic personal information used in the provision of financial services.
If any information we have about you is incorrect, we will gladly correct it. Simply Email us noting the incorrect information and the correction. We reserve the right to verify the correctness of this information. Please note that in the event we amend the Privacy Policy, posting the amended version will serve as notice to you of that change and the policy will note its effective date.
Some information collected is non-identifying. For example, although our Media servers collect information about a user’s internet protocol address, our server is not able to automatically associate that information with a particular user. We may collect non-identifying information associated with that address, such as the time and date of a visit, the originating domain name, the browser type, and the particular pages or products viewed on the Media.
Auto Expert may utilize a “cookie.” A “cookie” is a small text file that a website can place on your computer’s hard drive or on your mobile device’s memory in order to collect information about your activities on our Media. Most browsers automatically accept cookies, but you have the option to change your browser to decline them. We use cookies on certain areas of our Media, but these cookies are not used to identify anonymous website visitors. Our cookies enable you to proceed smoothly through our Media and enable us to know whether you’ve used our Media before to eliminate some steps that are directed to new visitors. Similarly, a cookie may be placed by our third-party advertising companies. These companies may use aggregated statistics about your use of our Media and third party media in order to provide you with advertisements about goods and services that you may be interested in. The information they collect does not include your personal information. Image tags work in conjunction with cookies.
An image tag, also referred to as a clear GIF or web beacon, is a small image file that may be located on select areas of our Media.
The third-party advertising companies may also employ technology that is used to measure the effectiveness of ads. Any such information is anonymous. They may use this anonymous information about your visits to this and other sites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of potential interest to you. No personal information about you is collected during this process. The information is anonymous and does not link online actions to an identifiable person. If you would like more information and want to explore the option of not having this information collected by third-party advertisers click here.
This privacy statement discloses the privacy practices for Chrome Data Solutions, LP (“Chrome Data”) websites, including www.chromedata.com, www.webcarbook.com, www.chromeautobuilder.com, and www.chromecarbook.com (the “Sites”).
Information Collection and Use. Chrome Data is the sole owner of the information collected on its Sites. We do not sell, share, or rent this information to others in ways different from what is disclosed in this statement. Chrome Data collects information from you at different points on our Sites. Chrome Data may release information when such release is reasonably necessary to comply with the law.
With respect to unrelated, third party web sites, such as third party online retailers, advertisers, or unrelated sites that we may happen to link to, or web sites that link to our website, those third parties may collect personal information directly from you. The information policies and practices of these unrelated parties are not covered by this privacy policy. We do not control the privacy policies of third parties even if we may provide hyperlinks or other access to their web sites. We are not responsible or liable for their independent policies and practices. Please review their privacy policies and practices. It is your responsibility to review them and decide if you are satisfied with their protections.
Some browsers have a “do not track” feature that lets you tell websites that you do not want to have your online activities tracked. These features are not yet uniform, so we are not currently set up to respond to those signals.
We collect certain personally identifying information that users voluntarily provide to us. For example, we collect the email addresses of those who contact us by email. We also collect information that you voluntarily provide to us in surveys.
When you register for an Auto Expert account, we collect your full name, email address, zip code and a password chosen by you. As described above, we use that information to serve you, to improve the content of our Media, and to contact you for marketing purposes. As a reminder, if you provide personal information to us for the purposes of a financial service, the please see Section III for the applicable privacy policy.
We take commercially reasonable steps to protect the information we collect online. However, as effective as these measures are, no security system is impenetrable. We do not provide an absolute guarantee of the security of our information databases, nor do we guarantee that the information you may choose to supply will not be intercepted while you transmit it from your computer, over the internet, or along other third party networks, and to our systems. However, with respect to security: when we intend to transfer and receive certain types of sensitive information, such as financial information, we redirect visitors to a secure server using, for example, Transport Layer Security or Secure Sockets Layer security.
When you use our mobile device-ready website or mobile application (our “Mobile Media”), we may collect additional, non-personally-identifying information about you that is specific to your mobile device. We work with analytics companies to help us understand how our Mobile Media are being used, by how many users, for how long, and how frequently. Using analytics, we receive counts of the screens and features of our Mobile Media that are used, the countries from which they are used, device language settings, and the types of devices, operating systems, browsers, carriers, IP addresses and wireless connections our users are using. With your consent, our Mobile Media collects precise information about the geographic location of your device to provide you with information about Auto Expert locations that are in your vicinity. If your device is equipped with GPS or can connect with wireless access points or hot spots, or if your device is also a phone that communicates with cell towers or satellites, then your device is able to use these features to determine its precise geographic location. If you have consented using your device’s user interface, the geographic location of your device will be transmitted to our servers in real time any time that our mobile application is running (even if you are not actively using the application or it is minimized on your device). Once you set your device to transmit its location information to us, your device will continue to transmit its location information to us (when it is open) until you set your device to no longer do so. You may at any time opt-out from further allowing us to have access to your device’s location information by accessing the application’s location settings on your device and setting your device not to share its location with us.
We may assign a unique identifier to your mobile device which will enable us to send you push notifications, for example when additional search results become available under your search criteria. If you wish to turn off push notifications, go to your device’s settings and turn off push notifications from the Auto Expert mobile application or turn off push notifications directly through the Auto Expert mobile application. We use the information received from your device to operate our Mobile Media, respond to your requests and manage your Auto Expert account. For example, we use the information to provide you with the results of your searches; to provide you with important information and required notices; and to improve our Mobile Media. If you have provided your email address as part of your Auto Expert account, we use your email address to distinguish you from others and to reset your password if you report that it has been lost or stolen. We also use your email address and password to enable you to migrate your account to another device.
You can stop all collection of information by our mobile application by uninstalling it. You may use the standard uninstall process on your mobile device or the mobile application marketplace or network.
We maintain presence on several social networking and blogging platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter, and we also incorporate some third party social networking features onto our Media. Through these platforms and features, we receive some personally identifying information and some usage information about you, and this Privacy and Safeguards Notice applies to that information as well. In addition, third party social networking platforms and blogging platforms have their own privacy policies which explain how the third parties that provide them will use and protect your information. In accordance with those policies (and your privacy settings within your social networking accounts) information about your activities on our Media (such as “Mary Smith likes this car” or “John Smith viewed this customer review”) may be published to your social network.
CALIFORNIA USERS: YOUR CALIFORNIA PRIVACY RIGHTS
For residents of California Only. Section 1798.83 of the California Civil Code requires select businesses to disclose policies relating to the sharing of certain categories of customers’ personal information with third-parties. These businesses are required to accept such requests from customers but are only required to honor one request per calendar year. Businesses have thirty (30) days to respond to each inquiry. Each inquiring customer will receive an explanation of the categories of customer information shared and the names and addresses of the third-party businesses. In limited circumstances, customers’ failure to submit requests in the manner specified will not require a response from the business. If you are a current Auto Expert customer in California, you may request such information from Auto Expert by sending an email correspondence noting your name, address, and email address. You must also include a request that Auto Expert provide such information to you using the following or similar verbiage. “I request that Auto Expert provide its third-party information sharing disclosures required by section 1798.83 of the California Civil Code.” Press the link at the end of this sentence to create your message: WebOptOut@AutoExpertOnline.com.
The same request may be made by regular mail by sending the above information to:
Auto Expert
2847 Campus Pkwy.
Riverside, CA 92507
Attn: Legal Department. FINANCIAL PRIVACY
By Facsimile: 951-571-7945
FACTS: WHAT DOES AUTO EXPERT DO WITH YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION ?
Why? Financial companies choose how they share your personal information. Federal law gives consumers the right to limit some but not all sharing. Federal law also requires us to tell you how we collect, share, and protect your personal information. Please read this notice carefully to understand what we do.
What? The types of personal information we collect and share depend on the product or service you have with us. This information can include:
Social Security Number and Income
Account Balances and Payment History
Credit Score and Credit History
When you are no longer our customer, we continue to share your information as described in this notice.
How? All financial companies need to share customers’ personal information to run their everyday business. In the section below, we list the reasons financial companies can share their customers’ personal information; the reasons Auto Expert chooses to share; and whether you can limit this sharing.
Reasons we can share your personal information Does Auto Expert share?
For our everyday business purposes — such as to process your
transactions, maintain your account(s), respond to court orders Yes
and legal investigations, or report to credit bureaus
For our marketing purposes — To offer our products and services to you Yes
For joint marketing with other financial companies: No, We don’t share
For our affiliates’ everyday business purposes — Information
about your transactions and experiences No
For our affiliates’ everyday business purposes — Information
about your creditworthiness No, We don’t share
For nonaffiliates to market to you No, We don’t share
Questions
Call 800-359-4567
Who we are
Who is providing this notice? Auto Expert and its related entities in the Auto Expert family of companies.
What we do
How does Auto Expert protect my personal information? To protect your personal information from unauthorized access and use, we use security measures that comply with federal law. These measures include computer safeguards and secured files and buildings. We also maintain other physical, electronic and procedural safeguards to protect this information and we limit access to information for those employees for whom access is appropriate.
How does Auto Expert collect my personal information? We collect your personal information, for example, when you:
apply for financing
give us your income information
give us your employment history
give us your contact information
show your driver’s license
We also collect your personal information from others, such as credit bureaus, affiliates, or other companies.
Why can’t I limit all sharing? Federal law gives you the right to limit only:
sharing for affiliates’ everyday business purposes – information about your creditworthiness;
affiliates from using your information to market to you;
sharing for nonaffiliates to market to you; and
State laws and individual companies may give you additional rights to limit sharing.
Definitions
Affiliates Companies related by common ownership or control. They can be financial and nonfinancial companies.
AUTO EXPERT BROKERS OF AMERICA, LLC
ALTURA CREDIT UNION, INC.
Nonaffiliates Companies not related by common ownership or control. They can be financial and nonfinancial companies.
Auto Expert does not share with nonaffiliates so they can market to you.
Joint marketing A formal agreement between nonaffiliated financial companies that together market financial products or services to you.
Auto Expert does not jointly market nor share with nonaffiliates so they can market to you.