DEALER CONNECTION ON-LINE PRIVACY STATEMENT

 

General Statement


DealerDirect LLC, doing business as "FordDirect" assists your local Ford dealers in bringing you important information regarding products and services, and related material that you have indicated an interest in receiving. FordDirect makes every effort to ensure that your visit to a FordDirect site and any other Web site that we identify as part of the FordDirect network, is satisfying, as well as secure. Personal information is either requested or required on many areas of our sites, to verify your identity and ensure that you receive the proper response to your interest in a Ford vehicle or other services, offers and incentives. Please take a few minutes to read our complete privacy statement so you can understand how information collected through our Web sites is used and the specific measures we take to protect it. (This Privacy Statement is not applicable to information we obtain through any other business activities. FordDirect cannot guarantee that if you request removal from our contact list that you will not be contacted by a related-brand entity outside the control of FordDirect. We cannot control the use of your information once it is provided to a third party.)


If you have questions or concerns regarding this Privacy Statement, you should contact us at fdcare@forddirect.com.


 

 

Information We Collect


You can visit FordDirect's Web site to research, configure, compare prices and locate a vehicle for sale in your area by using our online tools without telling us who you are and without directly revealing any personal information, other than your zip code. The only information we collect and store during this type of Web site usage is the name of your Internet service provider also known as your IP address, the web site that referred you to us, the pages you request and the date and time of those requests. We use this information to generate statistics and measure site activity to improve the usefulness of customer visits. Your IP address may be used for other purposes as detailed in the section entitled "IP Addresses and Click-stream Data" as set forth in detail, below. During this type of web site usage we do not collect or store personally identifiable information such as name, mailing address, email address, phone number or social security number. (Note: It may be possibly for Click-stream data analysis to indirectly identify specific users.)


We share aggregated statistical data internally and may share that information with our business partners in the future. For example, we may disclose that a specific percentage of our users live in California. However, this aggregated information is not tied to personally identifiable information.


We reserve the right to perform statistical analyses of user behavior and characteristics in order to measure interest in and use of the various areas of our site. We do this to offer more targeted products and services to you and to customize and enhance your online experience on the site. We will not provide individual data but will provide only aggregated data from these analyses to third parties, unless you consent to such use.


FordDirect may present links on the Web sites in a format that enables us to keep track of whether these links have been followed. We use this information to improve the quality of our search technology, customized content and targeted marketing and advertising.




 

Your Personal Information


The submission by you to us of personally identifiable information (e.g., your name, your address, your e-mail address, your telephone number) is required in order for you to receive services, products or information you request from either us or companies with which we do business. (We refer to such personally identifiable information, as well as any other information that you voluntarily provide to us, as your "Personal Information.") Your Personal Information will be shared between us and those companies with whom we do business, and may also be disclosed to other entities who work with those companies to fulfill your request. In addition, if you provide your Personal Information through the use of our Dealer Locator service (described below) to obtain price quotes for vehicles, your Personal Information may be shared with manufacturers, including, but not necessarily limited to, Ford Motor Company (and/or their dealers, affiliates and agents), who may use that information to contact you. FordDirect cannot control, and is not responsible for, the manner in which any of such company or other entity uses your Personal Information once it has been shared with them.


If you inquire about financing from Ford Credit while visiting FordDirect's site, you authorize FordDirect and Ford Credit to exchange the information you provide in the application form. Once your information has been forwarded to Ford Credit, it will be subject to Ford Credit's Privacy Policy.


As with any other business, it is possible that FordDirect in the future could merge with or be acquired by another company. If such an acquisition occurs, the successor company would have access to the information maintained by FordDirect, including Personal Information, but would continue to be bound by this Privacy Policy unless and until it is amended as described below.


We will disclose information in response to a subpoena, warrant, court order, levy, attachment, order of a court-appointed receiver or other comparable legal process, including subpoenas from private parties in a civil action.


When a user signs up for a co-branded version of FordDirect (e.g. via Ford.com or AutoTrader.com) through links on our co-branded partner's website, FordDirect will share with the co-branded partner that user's name, e-mail address and physical address in order to provide enhanced integration between FordDirect's services and the services of our co-branded partner.


In certain locations on our Web sites where we obtain your Personal Information we may include "pre-checked boxes" (or another process) for the purpose of soliciting your express consent to receive special offers and/or other information from us and other entities selected by us. By leaving these check boxes "checked", or in some circumstances "checking" the box, (or otherwise providing your consent) you are choosing to receive commercial communications from us and/or those other entities, and you will be consenting to our providing that information to those other entities. In that event, you may receive information from us or from other companies by e-mail, U.S. mail, telephone or other means. However, you will have the opportunity at any time to "opt-out" of receiving future commercial communications from us (including those we send on behalf of other entitles) either (i) by following the instructions located at the bottom of the e-mail we send you, or (ii) by sending a request by US mail to FordDirect, 4 Parklane Blvd., Suite 675, Dearborn, Michigan 48126, or (iii) by sending us a request directly at fdcare@forddirect.com, or (iv) by calling us at (800)-531-2255, M-F: 8:00AM - 5:00PM EDT/EST. (When you unsubscribe from receiving any further communications via this process, you are unsubscribing from communications managed by FordDirect, only. Unsubscribing through these means will not affect the rights of other entities to send communications to you independently of us, including independent contact from your local Ford dealer association, your individual Ford dealer or Ford Motor Company.)


If you do not give your consent, as set forth in the manner described above, we will not share your Personal Information with other entities, except as follows: We may disclose whatever information we may have or know about you, including your Personal Information, without first notifying you or obtaining your consent, to third-party service providers who assist us to improve our products and/or services or to better understand their value to our visitors or to the companies with which we do business; or to other third parties if we determine that disclosure of such information: (i) is or may be required by law or legal process; (ii) is or may be reasonably necessary to take appropriate action if a visitor is determined by us to have violated the terms of use of our Web sites; or (iii) is or may be reasonably necessary to protect the rights, property or safety of our company, our visitors or other individuals or entities. We may also disclose to third parties portions of our network log files that show which "Internet service provider" a visitor has used or other visitor information. That information may enable third parties to discover, through that Internet service provider, the identity of a visitor.


e reserve the right to contact you if you submit your contact information while on our Web site, regardless of whether you have opted out of promotional activities on the site. For example, you may decide to send FordDirect Personal Information, for example, in a message containing information about your experience in using FordDirect's services, or another Ford or Ford Credit product or service. FordDirect will only use this information to identify the user as a FordDirect or Ford customer and to determine how to respond to the electronic mail. We will not use this information other than to resolve the matter identified in the email. While we will not use your Personal Information to send you commercial emails unless you have given us your consent, we may use both your Personal Information and other information we may have about you (such as your IP address) to customize or enhance your experience, including displaying advertisements, promotions and incentives.


This Policy applies only to our Web sites, however, when you are on our Web sites you could be directed to other sites beyond our control. These other Web sites may send their own cookies to you, independently collect data or solicit personal information and may or may not have their own published privacy policies. If you visit a Web site that is linked to ours, you should consult that site's privacy policy before providing any personal information.


 

 

IP Addresses and Click-stream Data


An IP address is a number automatically assigned to your computer whenever you access the Internet. Click-stream data is information collected by our computers when you request Web pages from the Site. Our computers identify your computer by its IP address. When you request Web pages from the Site, our computers log your IP address. We may collect IP addresses and/or click-stream data for purposes of analyzing an individual's interest in purchasing a Ford-brand vehicle and pass this information on to our dealers. We may also use this information for system administration and to report aggregate information to our advertisers, partners and sponsors. Click-stream data may include such information as the page served, the time, the source of the request, the type of browser making the request, the preceding page view and other such non-personal information. We may use this data to help us understand how visitors arrive at the Site, what type of content is most popular, what type of visitors are interested in particular kinds of content and advertising, and the like.


 

 

Cookies


A "cookie" is a small line of text that is stored within your browser when you visit a cookie-enabled website. As you browse the Web, cookie-enabled sites will send cookies to your browser, along with pages. Your browser probably has options that will let you control whether the browser accepts cookies, rejects cookies, or notifies you each time a cookie is sent to you.


If your browser is set to reject cookies, cookie-enabled websites will not recognize you when you return. This provides you with anonymity, but it also makes it very difficult to offer you customized services. It is also less secure than using cookies, because all of your specific data must be sent to the website each time you view a page. Accepting cookies means your private data can stay at the Web server, and the only information transmitted over the Internet is your ID cookie.


If your browser is set to accept cookies, any cookies that are sent to your browser are stored in your computer for a period of time. There are a few different types of cookies. A "session" cookie is stored only in your computer's working memory (RAM) and only lasts for your browsing session. When you close all of your browser's windows, or when you shut down your computer, the session cookie disappears forever. A "persistent" cookie is stored on your computer's hard drive until a specified date, which could be tomorrow, next week, or 10 years from now. Permanent cookies stay on your computer until either

  1. they expire,
  2. they are overwritten with newer cookies,
  3. you manually remove them.

We use cookies in many ways, including, but not necessarily limited to, the development of generic Web site metrics and managing delivery to you of application information and related content. Some of these cookies are permanent and some are not.


 

 

Chat Rooms, Blogs, Message Boards, and Social Networks


We may host or link you to chat rooms, blogs, message boards, and social networks on our Web sites. You may be required to register with our site for access to these areas, you may not be required to provide any Personal Information when using these areas but you may choose to do so. If you post personal information online, it will be publicly available and you may receive unsolicited messages from other parties. FordDirect cannot ensure the security of any information you choose to make public in a chat room, blog, message board or social network. Also, we cannot ensure that parties who have access to such publicly available information will respect your privacy. Please exercise caution when deciding to disclose personal information in these areas, as it should be assumed that all of the information you share in these venues can and will become public.


Please note that we do not link the information we store in cookies to any personally identifiable information you submit while on our Web sites.



Links or Redirects to Independent Websites


We may host links on the FordDirect sites to independent websites over which we have no control. We are not responsible for the accuracy of the information or content on that site. Our privacy and security policies do not apply to linked sites. Consult the privacy and security disclosures on the linked site for further information.


 

 

Information Security


The security of your personal information is important to us. We follow generally accepted industry standards to protect the personal information submitted to us, both during transmission and once we receive it. No method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100% secure, however. Therefore, while we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.




 

A Special Note for Parents Concerning Privacy


FordDirect's site is a general audience site. We do not currently collect any personal information from children under the age of thirteen. If, in the future, our site knowingly collects personally identifiable information from children, we will do so in compliance with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (15 U.S.C. 6501 et seq.) including, without limitation, obtaining necessary parental consents.


Keep in mind that the Internet offers many entertaining and educational opportunities for children. Parental guidance and supervision is necessary to ensure a safe and rewarding online experience. As you are aware, our site has a process whereby we collect information from users interested in new and used vehicles, including personally identifiable information. If we determine that a person is under the age of thirteen, based on the information provided during this process, that person may not be permitted to submit information requiring the submission of personal information, in accordance with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (15 U.S.C. 6501 et seq.).


FordDirect works with (and may provide links to) third party sites. Such third parties may permit children under the age of thirteen to register for these features on their sites in accordance with their respective privacy policies. For more information, please review the privacy policies of each respective third party site.


If a child has provided us with Personal Information, a parent or guardian of that child may contact us at fdcare@forddirect.com, or (iii) by calling us at (800)-531-2255, M-F: 8:00AM - 5:00PM EDT/EST, and request that the information be deleted from our records. We will then make reasonable efforts to delete the child's information from the database that stores the information.




 

Changes in Policy


We reserve the right to change or update this Privacy Statement at any time. If we update this statement, the new statement will be posted to the website ten (10) days prior to the changes taking effect.


The effective date of this privacy statement is 2/10/2010.



Copyright Notice


Copyright © 2002-2010 FordDirect and FordDirect.com. All rights reserved. All text, images, graphics, animation, videos, music, sounds and other materials on this site are subject to the copyrights and other intellectual property rights of FordDirect, Ford Motor Company, its affiliated companies and its licensors. FordDirect owns the copyrights in the selection, coordination and arrangement of the materials on this site. These materials may not be copied for commercial use or distribution, nor may these materials be modified or reposted to other sites.




Trademark Notice


All trademarks displayed on this site are subject to the U.S. trademark rights of Ford Motor Company, or are used under agreement in the U.S. by Ford Motor Company. These trademarks include, but are not limited to, product brand names (e.g., FordDirect, Ford, Lincoln, Mercury), vehicle model names (e.g., Mustang, Taurus, Explorer, F-150, Fusion), slogans (e.g., Go Further), and logos and emblems. The unauthorized use of any trademark displayed on this site is strictly prohibited.