Personal Data

We collect, use, store and transfer personal information about you, including:

 

Details about your vehicle – registration, specification and condition

Contact details – your title, name, address, email and phone numbers

Documents - V5 vehicle registration document

Financial details – bank account details

Technical data - IP addresses, browser type and version, time-zone setting and location, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform and other technology on the devices you use to access our website

Profile data – which can be accessed via the reviews you leave, social media interactions with us

Usage data – number of vehicle registration search you performed within 24 hours
 

 

We do not collect or process information relating to your racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, health, criminal convictions, sex life or sexual orientation, or certain types of genetic or biometric data is known as ‘special category’ data. We do not ask for payment card details.

How We Collect Personal Data

We use different methods to collect data from and about you including through:

Directly interactions:

• when you submit a valuation request on our website,
• when you agree to our quotation via phone, email and text messages,
• when we arrange your vehicle to be collected via phone email and text messages,
• when providing us with feedback,
• when corresponding with us by phone, email, letters or otherwise.

 

Third-parties or publicly available sources:

• when you leave a review on a third-party website,
• when like, follow or comment on our social media pages.

 

Automated technologies or interactions:

• when you interact with our website by using cookies
• server logs and other similar technologies such as Google analytics

How We Use Your Personal Data

We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal data in the following circumstances:

• you have given us consent,
• we need to perform a contract we are about to enter into, or have entered into, with you,
• where it is necessary for our legitimate interests or those of a third party and your interests and rights do not override those interests, or
• where we need to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation.

Generally, we do not send marketing communications via post, email or text. You have the right to ask any questions about how we process your personal data by contacting us at any time.

Why We Collect Your Personal Data

We have set out below, in a table format, a description of all the ways we plan to use your personal data, and which of the legal bases we rely on to do so. We have also identified what our legitimate interests are where appropriate.

   

We will only use your personal information for the purpose(s) for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If we need to use your personal information for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so.

Please note that we may process your personal information without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law.

If You Are Unable Provide Personal Data

Where we need to collect personal data by law, or under the terms of a contract we have with you and you fail to provide that data when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have or are trying to enter into with you (for example, to provide you with you with your valuation).

Disclosures of Your Personal Data

We may have to share your personal data with the parties set out below for the purposes set out in the table above.

 

• our parent company,
• the DVLA,
• providers of IT, data and system administration services to our business,
• analytics and search engine providers that assist us in the improvement and optimisation of our website,
• third-parties who we may choose to get in touch with you to make an offer where we can’t make an offer,
• our partner for nationwide vehicle collections to collect your vehicle and make the payment as agreed when we issued the valuation,
• HM Revenue & Customs, the Information Commissioner’s Office, Trading Standards, Law enforcement, regulators and other authorities who require reporting of processing activities in certain circumstances,
• If a change happens to our business, then the new owners may use your personal information in the same way as set out in this policy.

 

We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes and only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions. A list of our third-party processors is available on request.

Where We Store Your Personal Information

All the data you provide to us is stored on secure servers located in a data centre in the United Kingdom. We have taken steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is stored securely:

 

• Credit or Debit card security. We never request or hold your credit card or debit card details.
• Encryption. We use industry-standard data encryption methods so all communications via your web browser and our server are encrypted.
• Firewalls and Antivirus. We use up-to-date firewall and antivirus software technology on our servers.
• Documents. We do not hold any documents containing your personal data.
• Overseas transfers. Whenever we transfer your personal information outside the United Kingdom, we ensure a similar degree of protection is afforded to it by ensuring that we apply appropriate safeguards.

 

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to our website; any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your information, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access.

Data Retention

We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.

 

To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.

 

By law we have to keep basic information about our customers (including Contact, Identity, Financial and Transaction Data) for 6 years after they cease being customers for tax and legal purposes.

 

Your Rights

You have various legal rights in relation to the information you give us, or which we collect about you, namely:

 

Request access to your personal data. This enables you to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you.

Request correction of the personal data that we hold about you. This enables you correct any incomplete or inaccurate data we hold about you.

Request erasure of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. Note, however, that we may not always be able to comply with your request of erasure for specific legal reasons which will be notified to you, if applicable, at the time of your request.

Object to processing of your personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground as you feel it impacts on your fundamental rights and freedoms. In some cases, we may demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate grounds to process your information which override your rights and freedoms.

Request restriction of processing of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of your personal data in the following scenarios: (a) if you want us to establish the data’s accuracy; (b) where our use of the data is unlawful but you do not want us to erase it; (c) where you need us to hold the data even if we no longer require it as you need it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims; or (d) you have objected to our use of your data but we need to verify whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to use it.

Request the transfer of your personal data to you or to a third party. We will provide your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format. Note that this right only applies where we used the information to perform a contract with you.

Withdraw consent at any time where we are relying on consent to process your personal data. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain services to you. We will advise you if this is the case at the time you withdraw your consent.

 

If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, please contact us.

Automated Decision-Making

We do not use automated decision-making processes using, or in respect of, personal data.

Third Party Links

Our website and email communications may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins and applications. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. We do not control these third-party websites and are not responsible for their privacy statements. When you leave our website, we encourage you to read the privacy notice of every website you visit.

Changes to Our Policy

Any changes we make to our policy in the future will be posted on our website and, where appropriate, notified to you by email. Please check our website frequently to see any updates or changes to our policy.

Contact

Questions, comments and requests regarding this policy should be addressed to our Customer Services Team by writing to the address at the top of this policy, or by emailing us at info@buythecar.co.uk.