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Protecting your privacy a top priority in this business - May 02, 2009
Unlike other retailers, auto dealers have tough policies to keep your personal data secure
In the past few years, there have been some highly publicized security breaches at retail stores in Canada. Consumers' private information has been lost, stolen, misplaced or compromised.
Fortunately, no such breaches have occurred at new-car dealerships in Canada. That's probably because of our industry's tough privacy policies that make it a serious offence to misuse or compromise customer information.
The issue of privacy is critical for dealerships in today's digital age, where personal information is collected, stored and transferred at lightning-fast speeds.
With thieves becoming more adept at stealing information, and identify theft on the rise, the auto industry and lawmakers often find themselves playing catch-up to the latest technology.
If a new-car dealership were exposed to a serious security violation, purposefully or not, it could be penalized by the Ontario Motor Vehicle Industry Council (OMVIC), by the manufacturer and by the law. Continuous infractions could put a dealership's licence to operate at risk.
When consumers conduct business at a new car dealership, their personal information is rigorously protected. All dealerships and manufacturers have strict privacy policies that forbid the misuse of that information. Those policies are posted on manufacturers' websites.
An OMVIC document called "The Access and Privacy Code and Practices" spells out how personal information can be collected, stored and disclosed. It also specifies that customers are entitled to access their personal information at any time.
Personal information is further protected by the federal government. Established in 2004, the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Document Act lays out rules for how private-sector organizations can collect, use or disclose personal information.
The act stipulates that all personal information must be collected with consent and for a reasonable purpose. It must be used and disclosed for the limited purpose for which it was collected. It must be accurate, available for inspection and correction, and stored securely.
The personal information that dealerships and manufacturers collect about their customers usually falls under two categories: implied consent or express consent.
Implied consent is when a customer fills out a credit application to finance a vehicle, and the finance company runs a credit check to evaluate credit worthiness. That type of access to personal information is inferred and it's an acceptable business practice.
Express consent is when customers give permission about themselves that a dealership or manufacturer can use in a specified way. For instance, customers may allow a dealership to contact them with reminders about regular maintenance or service specials. That, too, is entirely acceptable.
What's not acceptable is for dealerships to sell your personal information to third parties for their own financial gain.
Dealerships are not only concerned with protecting their customers' private information. They also monitor proprietary information about their businesses to ensure that it remains confidential.
Within dealership circles, this can lead to grey areas. What happens when a salesperson leaves one dealership to work for another? Who owns their contact information – the dealer or the salesperson?
The issue of dealership security is even cloudier when it comes to social networking sites. Many employees at dealerships belong to popular sites like Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn.
Employees should be careful about revealing sensitive information that could compromise a dealership's privacy and affect its competitiveness. The wrong information, posted online, could lead to embarrassing situations for the dealership and the brand.
Protecting customer information is a top priority for the automobile industry. If you know or suspect that a security breach has taken place with your personal information, contact the dealership at once.
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