Color

Privacy

Carsmart Auto Traders Ltd respects the privacy of its members and other visitors to its Web site, and believes that visitors must be assured that information provided online is used responsibly and appropriately.  It is our general policy to collect and store only company and contact information that our members and visitors knowingly provide. If our privacy policies change, we will notify all users by e-mail or a special announcement placed on the Web site.


Carsmart Auto Traders Ltd understands your concern with privacy and the use of your personal information. Whether you submit a purchase request for a vehicle or simply browse through our website, we assure you that we are committed to protecting your personal privacy. 
We also collect information provided to us by consumers in purchase requests submitted through our site. Purchase Request Information typically includes name, address, and phone numbers, e-mail address and specific vehicle information. In addition, consumers who express a desire to apply for vehicle financing provide us with and authorize us or our affiliate web sites to obtain from third parties necessary financial information such as credit reports. We do not provide financing, but instead transmit those requests to third-party vendors for consideration. 
All information provided by consumers in any of the above-listed ways or otherwise becomes the property of Carsmart Auto Traders Ltd once received by us and may be used and disclosed as permitted in this Policy. 
Collected information is used to improve the content of our website, customize the content or layout of our website for individual users, provide services requested, notify users of updates to the site and, subject to the limitations set forth below, to develop new products and services and to contact consumers for marketing purposes.

Purchase Request Information and Finance Information

Purchase Request Information is used to transmit to third parties requests for products or services and to contact consumers regarding vehicle purchases. Similarly, Finance Information is used to transmit to third parties requests for vehicle financing. Typically, in either case the information is transmitted to dealers, manufacturers, lenders or fulfillment entities, as applicable, who may be in a position to respond to your request. As part of the request process, we may verify the information you provide, or obtain omitted address or other contact information, from third parties. 
Occasionally, in the case of Purchase Request Information or Finance Information, when Carsmartja.com does not have a dealership or lender available to assist you, we may forward your request information to a dealer or lender through another automotive referral service. Your submission of the request authorizes us to do this. Any Purchase Request Information or Finance Information forwarded in this way becomes subject to the security and privacy policies that are posted on the websites of those referral services. 
Similarly, Purchase Request or Finance Information transmitted to a dealer, manufacturer, lender or fulfillment entity becomes the property of that dealer,  in addition to Carsmartja.com. The information is used to process your purchase request or financing application and to provide you with information about goods and services. Any request to opt out of future dealer, lender, manufacturer or other third-party communications must be made directly to that third party.

Other Uses

We also share your personal information with our affiliated companies in order to identify products or services in which you may have interest, to improve our user experience and generally to engage in market research and for other internal business purposes. We also may aggregate your personal information with others' information and prepare reports on site usage, purchase history or other factors for sale or distribution to others. Those reports are aggregated and include no personally identifying information. Finally, we may use your personal information to send you email or postal communications regarding products or services offered by us or by third parties with whom we have relationships in which we think you may be interested. We do not share, sell, trade, or rent your personal information to third parties for unknown reasons.

Third Parties That May Receive Your Personal Information

In addition to our own internal uses of your information, we may provide your personal information to non-affiliated third parties under one of several circumstances:

  • To provide you with services or products that you have requested (such as, for example, transmittal of Purchase Request Information to dealers, manufacturers, fulfillment third-parties and other automotive referral services, or transmittal of Finance Information to potential lenders);
  • To contractors or service providers who may provide services or perform functions on our behalf, in which case those service providers may use your information only for the purposes provided and not disclose it to any third party except upon our direction;
  • To enforce our rights or as required by law or order of a court or government agency; and
  • On occasion, unless you opt-out (as described below), to other third parties who may wish to send you e-mails regarding services or products that you may find of interest or for other reasons that are disclosed to us and that we believe to be appropriate and consistent with our commitment to prevent abuse of your personal information.

Your Right To Opt Out of Communications From Us and Others

You always have the option of removing yourself from further marketing contact from us. If at any time you choose to opt out of any category of email, you can click on the remove link at the bottom of the e-mail. Alternatively, you may email Customer Service at consumercare@carsmartjm.com with the word "Remove" in the subject line and we will remove you from all further email and postal mail marketing communication within 5 business days.

In addition, those consumers who submit a purchase request or financing request to us are given the opportunity at the time they provide their information to decide what types of offerings of products or services they wish to receive or to opt-out. In each case, even if you decide not to receive offers or other product or service information, Carsmartja.com and its member dealers may use a phone number or email address that you have provided to contact you regarding your purchase request for a vehicle. Additionally, phone numbers may be used to conduct customer surveys regarding individual experiences with Carsmartja.com-accredited dealers. Phone numbers are made available only to CarSmart.com, its affiliates and member dealers, lenders or manufacturers who receive your purchase request. 
The submission of a purchase or financing request itself is permission for us to submit your Purchase Request Information or Finance Information (as applicable) to the third parties necessary to fulfill your request.

Security 
Carsmartja.com understands the importance of security for our consumers. We use SSL (Secure Socket Layer) encryption technology to protect personal data such as credit card information and finance or insurance application information during transmission, and maintain other commercially reasonable precautions to protect information that we store or retain. 

Changes or Revisions to This Policy 
If we are going to use your personally identifying information in a manner different from that stated in our privacy policy at the time of collection, we will notify you via email. You will have a choice as to whether or not to allow us to use your information in this different manner. In addition, if we make any material changes in our privacy practices that do not affect user information already stored in our database, we will revise this policy and update the date displayed at the top of this policy to reflect that the policy has been changed. In some cases we will also e-mail users who have opted to receive communications from us, notifying them of the changes in our privacy practices.