Privacy Policy
Last updated March 2011
Introduction
Your privacy is important, so CarWoo Inc. has created the following Privacy Policy to let you know what information we collect when you visit our Site, why we collect it and how it is used. This Privacy Policy explains the data collection and use practices of www.carwoo.com; it does not apply to other online or offline CarWoo Inc. sites, products or services. The terms “you,” “your,” and “yours” refer to the customer/purchaser utilizing our Site. The terms “CarWoo”, “CarWoo!”, “CarWoo Inc.”, “we,” “us,” and “our” refer to CarWoo Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates. This Privacy Policy is governed by our Terms and Conditions. By using this web site, you consent to the data practices prescribed in this statement. We may periodically make changes to this Privacy Policy that we will include on this page. It is your responsibility to review this Privacy Policy frequently and remain informed about any changes to it, so we encourage you to visit this page often.
What Information Is Collected?
“Usage Data”: You are not required to disclose any personally identifiable information when you visit the Site, although CarWoo, Inc. does automatically collect information about how you use the site. This may include information such as the city in which you live and the type of vehicle you are looking for and any preferences of that vehicle. This information is collected to provide you with the best possible experience using our Site.
“Personally Identifiable Information”: Personally Identifiable Information, or PII, means any information that may be used to identify an individual, including, but not limited to, a first and last name, home or other physical address, an email address, phone number or other contact information, whether at work or at home. CarWoo collects the following Personally Identifiable Information from you when you choose to use our Site only when you choose to make it available to us. This information may include the city where you live, your zip code, your name and credit card numbers for fulfilling orders, your billing and shipping addresses, your phone number, your email address and your first and last name. CarWoo also automatically receives and records information on our server logs from your browser, including your IP address, cookie information and the page you request. You can choose not to provide us with certain information, but then you might not be able to take advantage of many of our features.
“User Generated Content” means any content, text or images, generated and submitted to the Site by users’ of the Site. This may include comments, questions that arise during normal usage of the Site, or through the CarWoo blog at http://carwoo.com/blog/. Users of the Site should take care not to post information that includes personally identifiable information that you do not want to be made public or do not want third parties to view or use. Any information post in these comment areas may be made public. To request removal of your personal information from our blog or community forum, contact us at support@carwoo.com. In some cases, we may not be able to remove your personal information, in which case we will let you know if we are unable to do so and why.
How Is Your Information Used?
Information collected by CarWoo is used to provide you with the CarWoo service. We ask you for the city you live in to find dealerships in your area that have the vehicles you’re interested in. We ask you to provide us with an estimated credit score, which is provided to dealerships so they can provide you with the most accurate price quotes for your vehicle. We collect your email address that acts as your login to the Site and we will use this email address to send you notifications while using our service. We collect your first and last name and your phone number for to provide you quality customer service. Your credit card information is collected when you place an order with CarWoo for our services and your billing and shipping address are collected to fulfill these orders.
We may use this information to provide you with product information, support the services offered on the Site and to notify you of technical updates, changes in policy or other customer services.
We may contract with one or more third party agents to provide the CarWoo service. These may include vehicle dealerships, credit card processing companies, automobile valuation agencies, website designers, website hosting companies and others who assist in providing the information, systems or materials to provide the CarWoo service. Selected parts of your information may be shared with these third party agents in order to provide the CarWoo service.
We will retain your information for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide you services. If you wish to cancel your account or request that we no longer use your information to provide you services contact us at support@carwoo.com. We will retain and use your information as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements.
Is The Information Shared or Disclosed?
We do not share, sell, rent, or trade PII with third parties for their promotional purposes. This promise does not include trusted third parties who assist us in operating our website, conducting our business, or servicing you, so long as those parties agree to keep your information confidential. Information collected from you is only used to complete and support your purchases from and use of the CarWoo Site and to comply with any requirements of law. CarWoo may disclose personal information if required to do so by law or in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to: (1) conform to the edicts of the law or comply with legal process served on CarWoo or this web site; (2) protect and defend the rights or property of CarWoo or (3) act in urgent circumstances to protect the personal safety of users of CarWoo, its web sites or the public. If CarWoo is involved in a merger, acquisition, or sale of all or a portion of its assets, you will be notified via email and/or a prominent notice on our Web site of any change in ownership or uses of your personal information, as well as any choices you may have regarding your personal information
Free Dealer Price Quote
When you request a free dealer price quote or to be contacted by a dealer regarding a new vehicle, your personal information (including your contact information) may be forwarded by CarWoo! directly to the dealer or may be provided by CarWoo! to an automobile manufacturer or to a trusted business partner that will forward your personal information to the dealer; your personal information may also be forwarded by CarWoo!, the dealer, the automobile manufacturer or a trusted business partner to Experian Information Solutions, Inc., or R. L. Polk $amp; Co., or another trusted business partner or service provider, for the purpose of verifying buyer purchase activity and reporting aggregate vehicle transaction data (excluding your personal information) to CarWoo!, the dealer, the automobile manufacturer, and/or a trusted business partner. You may receive a confirmation email when your contact information is forwarded by CarWoo!
Choice
We will use your email address to send you notifications while using our service. You may opt out of these notifications at any time from your Account management page. We will send you strictly service-related announcements on rare occasions when it is necessary to do so. For instance, if our service is temporarily suspended for maintenance, we might send you an email. Generally, you may not opt-out of these communications, which are not promotional in nature. If you do not wish to receive them, you have the option to deactivate your account.
Access
Users can use their account management page to make modifications to any preferences applicable to providing the CarWoo service. You can also use the account management page to modify, amend or delete any information you provide to the Site. This information can be modified in the “My Account” section of the Site, once you’ve logged in.
The Security of Your Information
CarWoo protects the security of your information during transmission by using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) software, which encrypts the information you input. We also protect against credit card fraud by only showing the last five digits of a customer’s credit card to confirm orders and when updating credit card information. All credit card information is stored in an encrypted database and we limit access to this database only to employees that need to assist in credit card orders, transactions or issues. No method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100% secure, however. Therefore, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.
International Transfers
Personal Information collected on this web site may be stored and processed in the United States or any other country in which CarWoo or its affiliates, subsidiaries or agents maintain facilities, and by using this web site, you consent to any such transfer of information outside of your country.
Children
This Site is not intended for or directed to persons under the age of 18. Any person who provides their information to CarWoo through the Account Login page for new customers or any other part of the CarWoo Site represents to CarWoo that they are 18 years of age or older.
Cookies
Cookies are small text files stored by your browser in your computer when you visit our Site. We use cookies to improve our Site and make it easier to use. Cookies permit us to recognize users and avoid repetitive requests for the same information. We mostly use “session cookies” that are automatically deleted after each visit. Cookies from our Site cannot be read by other Sites. Most browsers will accept cookies until you change your browser settings to refuse them. We do not link the information we store in cookies to any personally identifiable information you submit while on our site.
Third Party Cookies
A cookie, also known as a web cookie or browser cookie, is a piece of text stored by a user's web browser that enable recognition of a user's computer when the user visits websites. Data and information such as the IP addresses, email addresses, websites visited online and personally identifiable information about you can be stored using cookies. A cookie can be used for authentication, storing site preferences, tracking of website use and preferences, personalization and content customization. Online advertisers and website operators often use such informationt o build behavior profiles and for delivering targeted advertising and content to users based on user preferences. CarWoo places or "sets" CarWoo cookies on your computer when you visit the CarWoo Site and may also set cookies on your computer on behalf of third parties authorized by CarWoo or may enable certain third parties to set their own cookies on your computer. When a cookie is set, your browser will check it for length, an expiration date, and where it originated. Cookies without an expiration date exist until the browser terminates, while cookies with an expiration date may be stored by the browser until the expiration date passes. The use of cookies by third parties, who may include our partners, affiliates, tracking utility company, and service providers is not covered by our privacy statement. We do not have access or control over these cookies.
CarWoo sets its own cookies on your computer when you visit the Site. These CarWoo cookies collect data and information about you, including personally identifiable information. "How Your Information Is Used," above.
CarWoo uses third party tracking services for which CarWoo sets cookies on your computer, or enables the third party tracking services to set cookies on your computer, when you visit CarWoo Websites. These cookies track visits, page views and click stream behavior. Third party tracking services report this data to CarWoo in aggregated form so CarWoo can better understand our users and improve our Websites. CarWoo does not authorize these third party tracking services to store personally identifiable information about you in their cookies. CarWoo has no access to or control over these third party tracking utilities. CarWoo shares such anonymous, aggregated information obtained from these cookies with our advertisers, sponsors, promotional and business partners.
"Opting Out of Cookies": You have the ability to accept or decline cookies by modifying your browser settings, and our websites are viewable even if you disable the cookie function on your browser. However, if you disable cookies, some advanced and customized features or offerings will not be available to you, including personalization features. If you prefer not to accept cookies, most browsers will explain how to view and disable cookies under the help portion of the toolbar or notify you when you receive a new cookie. Use of third party cookies is subject to the privacy policies and opt-out procedures of these third parties and not CarWoo's policy and procedures.
Clear Gifs (Web Beacons/Web Bugs)
Certain of our partners use a software technology called clear gifs (a.k.a. Web Beacons/Web Bugs), that help us better manage content on our site by informing us what content is effective. Clear gifs are tiny graphics with a unique identifier, similar in function to cookies, and are used to track the online movements of Web users. In contrast to cookies, which are stored on a user’s computer hard drive, clear gifs are embedded invisibly on Web pages and are about the size of the period at the end of this sentence. We tie [do not tie] the information gathered by clear gifs to our customers’ personally identifiable information. We use clear gifs in our HTML-based emails to let us know which emails have been opened by recipients. This allows us to gauge the effectiveness of certain communications and the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns. If you would like to opt-out of these emails, please see “Choice and Opt-out.”
Facebook Connect or other OpenID provider
You can log in to our site using sign-in services such as Facebook Connect or an Open ID provider. These services will authenticate your identity and provide you the option to share certain personal information with us such as your name and email address to pre-populate our sign up form. Services like Facebook Connect give you the option to post information about your activities on this Web site to your profile page to share with others within your network.
Testimonials
We post customer testimonials/comments/reviews on our web site which may contain personally identifiable information. We do obtain the customer's consent via email prior to posting the testimonial to post their name along with their testimonial.
Links to Other Sites
If you click on a link to a third party site, [including on an advertisement], you will leave the CarWoo site you are visiting and go to the site you selected. Because we cannot control the activities of third parties, we cannot accept responsibility for any use of your personally identifiable information by such third parties, and we cannot guarantee that they will adhere to the same privacy practices as CarWoo. We encourage you to review the privacy statements of any other service provider from whom you request services. If you visit a third party website that is linked to a CarWoo site, you should read that site’s privacy statement before providing any personally identifiable information.
Changes in this Privacy Statement
If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes to this privacy statement, the home page, and other places we deem appropriate so that you are aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it. If we make any material changes we will notify you by email (sent to the e-mail address specified in your account) or by means of a notice on this Site prior to the change becoming effective.
TRUSTe
CarWoo has been awarded TRUSTe's Privacy Seal signifying that this privacy policy and practices have been reviewed by TRUSTe for compliance with TRUSTe's program requirements including transparency, accountability and choice regarding the collection and use of your personal information. TRUSTe's mission, as an independent third party, is to accelerate online trust among consumers and organizations globally through its leading privacy trustmark and innovative trust solutions. This privacy statement covers the Web site carwoo.com.
If you have questions or concerns regarding this statement, you should first contact Tommy McClung at tommy@carwoo.com. If you are not satisfied with our response you can contact TRUSTe here.
Disclaimer
We take our commitment to protection of your privacy, as set out in this Policy, seriously. Nevertheless, NOTHING IN THIS PRIVACY AND SECURITY POLICY IS INTENDED TO CREATE OR PROVIDE ANY RIGHT OF ACTION FOR VIOLATION
California Privacy Rights Notice
Under California Civil Code sections 1798.83-1798.84, California residents are entitled to ask us for a notice describing what categories of personal information we share with third parties or corporate affiliates for those third parties or corporate affiliates’ direct marketing purposes. That notice will identify the categories of information shared and will include a list of the third parties and affiliates with which it was shared, along with their names and addresses. If you are a California resident and would like a copy of this notice, please submit a written request to the following address: 1212 Rollins Rd, 2nd Floor, Burlingame, CA 94010. In your request, please specify that you want a “Your California Privacy Rights Notice”. Please allow at least 30 days for a response.
Contact Us
If you believe that CarWoo has not adhered to this Privacy Policy, please contact us by email at support@carwoo.com or by postal mail to CarWoo, Inc., 1212 Rollins Rd, 2nd Floor, Burlingame, CA 94010 and we will use commercially reasonable efforts to remedy the problem.