Privacy Policy
Last Updated: 1/1/2020
Thank you for visiting our Schmelz Countryside Volkswagen website, including our mobile device-ready version. Schmelz Countryside Volkswagen and our affiliates (together, "Schmelz Countryside Volkswagen" or "we") strive to make our website a useful tool and a rewarding experience for our customers by tailoring the content to your personal needs and interests. This way, the content of our website will be as relevant as possible for you, the customer. We hope that you find our website to be a useful part of your car-buying experience.
To accomplish this, we responsibly collect and utilize personally identifiable information. We respect your privacy, and this Privacy Policy documents our commitment to safeguard and treat your privacy and the personal information that we collect online with reasonable care and in strict compliance with applicable law for the protection of personally identifiable information.
This policy was implemented as of September 23, 2014 and applies to information collected on this website and those of our affiliates (together, "our website" or "the website") and covers the following areas:
- What personally identifiable information is collected by Schmelz Countryside Volkswagen or by any third party through our website;
- How Schmelz Countryside Volkswagen uses this information;
- With whom Schmelz Countryside Volkswagen may share this information;
- What choices are available to you as a user of our website with respect to collection, use and distribution of the information; and
- What types of security procedures are in place to protect the loss, misuse or alteration of information under our control.
This Privacy Policy applies only to our website and information collected for us or by us through our website and through various features and online offerings on our website. It does not apply to any third party site or service linked to our website or recommended or referred by our website or by our staff. Further, it does not apply to any other type of online site or online service operated by Schmelz Countryside Volkswagen or its affiliates, or to any of our offline activities.
1. Information Collection and Use
Schmelz Countryside Volkswagen collects two different types of information through our website: anonymous information and personally identifiable information.
Anonymous Information. First, we collect and store anonymous, aggregate information (such as internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser types, search engines, internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, platform type, date/time stamp, and number of clicks) from all visitors to our website. You may search our website for car models, prices and other information provided through our website without ever submitting your name, email address or any other personally identifiable information. The anonymous information that we do collect from your visit is never linked to any of your personally identifiable information until you voluntarily submit that personal information, in which case some otherwise anonymous information may be connected to your website activity and personal account. Otherwise, the anonymous information is only used in the aggregate to analyze trends, administer the website, diagnose any problems, track a visitor's movement in the aggregate, and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use. We may provide this anonymous information in aggregate form to other parties or use it for our own insight or marketing purposes. Our ability to use this information is not restricted in any way.
We also use "cookies" and "image tags" to collect certain usage information from all customers and visitors to our website. A "cookie" is a small text file that a website can place on your computer’s hard drive or on your mobile device’s memory in order to collect information about your activities on our website. An "image tag," also known as a clear GIF or web beacon, works together with cookies and is a small image file that may be located in various areas of our website. Most browsers automatically accept cookies, but you have the option to change your browser setting to decline them.
Accepting cookies in no way gives us access to your computer or any personal information about you, since cookies are not used to identify anonymous website visitors. Our cookies enable you to proceed smoothly through our website and know whether you’ve used it before, so as to eliminate some steps that apply to new visitors. Cookies also give us usage data like how often you visit, where you go on our website, and what you do while here.
Similarly, a cookie may be placed by our third-party advertising companies. These companies may use aggregated statistics about your use of our website and third party media in order to provide you with advertisements about goods and services that you may be interested in. The information they collect does not include your personal information.
The third-party advertising companies may also employ technology that is used to measure the effectiveness of ads. Any such information is anonymous. They may use this anonymous information about your visits to this and other sites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of potential interest to you. No personal information about you is collected during this process. The information is anonymous and does not link online actions to an identifiable person.
Schmelz Countryside Volkswagen partners with third-party advertising company Google to collect information about how users navigate our website and we use many or all of their products to enhance our website experience. Like Schmelz Countryside Volkswagen, Google is very much committed to consumer protection, to maintaining the privacy of your personal information and to making ads safe, unobtrusive and relevant for you.
Google uses this information only to generate anonymous visitor profiles, which do not contain personally identifiable information. These anonymous profiles are used to provide you content specifically tailored to you. To learn more about how Google collects and manages information, or to opt out of Google’s collection of information about how you navigate our website, please go to https://www.google.com/policies/privacy/.
Google’s technologies and products, including AdSense, AdWords, Google Analytics, and a range of DoubleClick-branded services, also use cookies. When you visit a page that uses one of these products, various cookies may be sent to your browser.
Among the Google products we use is Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google. Information generated by cookies about your use of our website (including your shortened IP address) is transmitted to a Google server in the U.S. and stored there. Google uses this information to evaluate your use of our website, compile reports on website activity for our website operators and to provide other services related with the website and internet use. Google may also transfer this information to third parties if required by law, or where third parties process these data on behalf of Google. For more information about Google Analytics and how it collects and processes data, please go to "How Google uses data when you use our partners' sites or apps", located at http://www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners/. To opt out of Google Analytics, please go to https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.
To help us manage our advertising and website, Google offers many products in addition to Google Analytics, including Google’s Analytics for Display Advertisers, AdSense, AdWords, and a range of DoubleClick-branded services. Schmelz Countryside Volkswagen participates in an integrated version of Google Analytics and DoubleClick products or services and/or other Google display ad products or services, known as Google Analytics for Display Advertisers. As with Google Analytics, you can learn more about Google Analytics for Display Advertisers, or you can opt out, by going to https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.
We have or may enable interest-based advertising features, including remarketing, with Google Analytics in connection with other Google services. This kind of advertising based on consumer interests and your precise geographic location may, in addition to remarketing, include Google’s Adword product features known as: interest categories, similar audiences, other types of interest-based advertising and demographic and location targeting. DoubleClick advertising cookies or mobile advertising identifiers, associated with your use of our website, are or may be employed by us in all aspects of remarketing in online advertising.
"Remarketing" is simply a feature of interest-based advertising that lets us reach people who have previously visited our website. Remarketing helps us match interested people, like you, with a relevant message on our website or even when you search on Google using our keywords, use Google products like Gmail, or visit other websites. We gather information through cookies for remarketing, and similar audiences feature in AdWords, simply to make your visits relevant and allow us both to pick up where we left off on your last visit.
Our partners, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on your past visits to our website and to show our ads on sites across the Internet. You can opt out of Google's use of cookies by visiting Google's Ads Settings. Alternatively, we may use Google DoubleClick's remarketing pixels to participate in remarketing and create a remarketing list of potential customers (this involves adding a remarketing tag, a small snippet of code that we get from Gooogle’s Ad Exchange, across all our website pages). In such case, instead of the previous link, you can opt out of DoubleClick's use of cookies by visiting the DoubleClick opt-out page or the Network Advertising Initiative opt-out page. Finally, you can opt out of any other third-party advertising partner's use of cookies by visiting the Network Advertising Initiative opt-out page.
With respect to unrelated, third party web sites, such as third party online retailers, advertisers, or unrelated sites that we may happen to link to, or web sites that link to our website, those third parties may collect personal information directly from you. The information policies and practices of these unrelated parties are not covered by this privacy policy. We do not control the privacy policies of third parties even if we may provide hyperlinks or other access to their web sites. We are not responsible or liable for their independent policies and practices. Please review their privacy policies and practices. It is your responsibility to review them and decide if you are satisfied with their protections.
Some browsers have a "do not track" feature that lets you tell websites that you do not want to have your online activities tracked. These features are not yet uniform, so we are not currently set up to respond to those signals.
Personally Identifiable Information. Second, we require the submission of certain personally identifiable information when you use some services available on our website. For example, your use of your user name and password allows us to identify you as our customer who is seeking information in connection with our services. Our website uses a variety of contact forms and tracking phone numbers for visitors to request information, products, and services. We collect a visitor's contact information (like his or her email address or phone number) and in some cases, demographic information (like his or her zip code). In limited circumstances, such as when a visitor fills out an online credit application, we collect unique identifiers (like a social security number), and/or financial information (like age, income level, bank account or credit card numbers). We use this information to get in touch with our prospective customers about their requests, and to send them additional information about our products and services.
Note that once you have created an order or otherwise voluntarily provided personally identifiable information to us, we may use cookies to help identify you. Personally identifiable information received from you (such as IP address, phone number, email address, zip code, etc.) may be contained in or linked to a cookie. The only time that we receive such personally identifiable information is when you volunteer it by submitting it to us.
We may use cookies with personally identifiable information so that our website can remember you, enhance your online visit with us, and provide you with the information you're most likely to need. For instance, cookies allow our website to remind you of your past vehicle search interests and website activity and to suggest similar products and services. In some cases, cookies may improve your shopping experience and we use information gained through cookies to track your website activity and to deliver you content specific information
Any financial information we collect is used to check the qualifications of our prospective customers and bill for products and services ordered. If you apply for financing or wish to purchase or lease a car through our online system, we may collect personal information such as your name, address, driver's license number and state, social security number and other credit information. This information goes into a secure database and is used solely to provide the service you requested. The collection, use and storage of your financial information for credit checks, for arranging credit and loans or for purchasing products and services may be subject to additional privacy policies and if so, you will be notified of them at the time of any such collection, use or storage of your financial information as required by law.
Our online surveys may ask visitors for contact information (like an email address or phone number) which they may voluntarily provide. We also may run contests on our website in which we ask visitors for similar contact information in order to participate. We use contact information from our surveys and contests to send information about products and services to these participating visitors.
2. Our Use Restrictions on Your Personally Identifiable Information
Schmelz Countryside Volkswagen does not sell, rent, or share personally identifiable information to or with any third party not affiliated with or owned by Schmelz Countryside Volkswagen, except service providers who may assist us in such areas as our promotions, credit checks, data storage and order processing (See Agents and Vendors below). Schmelz Countryside Volkswagen will never give or sell your personally identifiable information to unaffiliated third parties to be used for the purposes of sending you unsolicited commercial offers, such as spam. We may, however, use your personal information to send you commercial offers in e-mails from Schmelz Countryside Volkswagen or its affiliated companies, which do not relate to the products or services you have ordered. You may altogether avoid or opt out of these marketing campaigns (see "Opting Out" below).
We may also need to contact you for purposes other than marketing, for example to provide notice about the status of our website or the specific services you have requested. We also use this information to the extent necessary to enforce our website terms of service and to prevent imminent harm to persons or property. You may not opt-out of these kinds of communications. Consistent with our change policy (see "Your Consent and Notification of Changes" below), we will post any updates or notices about material changes in our policies on collection and use of your personally identifiable information to this Privacy Policy page.
3. Third Party Information About You
Our website supplements the information that you provide with information that we obtain about you from third parties, such as credit bureaus and other sources. To the best of our knowledge, we only deal with reputable providers who gather and maintain information in accordance with all applicable state and federal laws. Any such information will be maintained by us in accordance with the standards set forth in this Privacy Policy along with other personal information you've provided.
4. Our Agents and Vendors
Schmelz Countryside Volkswagen may use other companies and/or individuals to perform any functions described in this Privacy Policy, on our behalf. Examples include marketing, credit checking, data and network hosting, service reminders, verification of sales, order processing and fulfillment, administering contact information and e-mail services and running special promotions. Such parties only have access to the personal information needed to perform these functions and may not use or store the information for any other purpose. We obtain commitments from these agents and vendors working on our behalf to refrain from using any information provided by Schmelz Countryside Volkswagen to send you unsolicited e-mail messages from third parties or similar communications and from sharing your information with unrelated parties.
5. Disclosure of Personal Information As Required By Law or Otherwise
We will disclose personal information when required by law, or if we have a good-faith belief that such action is necessary to (a) comply with a current judicial proceeding, a court order or legal process served on us or to comply with the request of a law enforcement agency, (b) protect and defend our rights, or (c) protect the rights, property, and other interests of our users or others.
6. Links
Our website may contain links to websites not operated by us, as well as third party widgets and applications. Once you leave our website, we suggest that you review the applicable privacy policy of the third party website or application. Schmelz Countryside Volkswagen is not responsible for the privacy practices or content of these other sites. We encourage you to be aware when you leave our website and to read the privacy statements of each and every site that collects personally identifiable information from you. Our Privacy Policy applies solely to information collected by our website.
7. Security
Schmelz Countryside Volkswagen takes commercially reasonable precautions to protect your personally identifiable information. For example, we encrypt communications through our website with commercial strength encryption generally used by our industry. However, given the nature of the Internet and the fact that network security measures are not perfect, we cannot guarantee the absolute security of your information. If we are required to provide notice to you of a data security breach, the notice will be provided in electronic form.
8. Your Consent and Notification of Changes
By using any of our website or submitting information to us online, you agree that we may collect and use this information as stated in this Privacy Policy at the time we collect the information. If we decide to change our Privacy Policy in any material way, for a reasonable time we will post a concurrent notice to this Privacy Policy page on our website to alert you about the change in our privacy and information collection practices. In addition, if we make any material changes in our privacy practices that affect your personally identifiable information already stored in our database, we apply those changes to the personally identifiable information in our possession only as permitted by applicable law.
9. Opting Out
Visitors and customers have the opportunity to opt-out of receiving specific types of communications from us and our partners, such as e-mail, by not providing personally identifiable information at the point where our website requests such information about you. In addition, you may unsubscribe or opt out of all future e-mails from us, that do not relate to the products and services you have ordered, by clicking the unsubscribe link on any email marketing communication you receive.
10. Further Information about Our Privacy Policy and Practices
This Privacy Policy applies to all visitors and customers of our website. We may delete any or all of your information at any time without notice to you for any reason or no reason unless otherwise required by law to retain it. You may have other privacy protections under state laws and we will comply with any applicable state laws when we disclose information about you. This Privacy Policy replaces any previous policy on this topic and any statements or disclosures to you about our information practices.
