Privacy Policy

The data controllers in respect of our website are the GDPR Department at Chris Allen Garages Limited. (Company registration number: 02446947). You can contact the data controller by sending an email[email protected]

This document is to identify areas where we record, communicate, process or otherwise store or transfer data between (we); Chris Allen Garages Limited, and any other party.

Chris Allen Garage Limited are committed to a high standards of data security and privacy in both physical and digital forms as detailed within this report. Please note that this is a ‘working document’ and will be updated as Regulations develop and evolve.

Should you have any questions, including specific queries please feel free to contact us.

In the first instance please address letters or email correspondence to:

GDPR Team
Chris Allen Garages Limited
Preesall Park Fold
Hallgate Lane
Preesall
FY6 0PE
Phone: 01253 8105553
Email: [email protected]

Chris Allen Garages Limited

Chris Allen Garages Limited is a Ford Retail Dealership based in Poulton Le Fylde FY6 8JL and a Ford Retail Dealership & Mazda Dealership combined based in Fleetwood, FY7 7PE the company being established in 1977.

A motor dealer with a Ford & Mazda Franchise’s, Chris Allen Garages Limited supply new and used Ford & Mazda vehicles as well as other marque’s used vehicles; we operate a Service Department at each site maintaining and repairing vehicles; and a parts department.

Chris Allen Garages Limited also operates 2 branches of QuickLane, specialising in while you wait supply of tyres, exhausts and fast moving consumables.

From the perspective of customer and any account data, this is predominately stored on a Dealer Management System (DMS) – Pinewood Pinnacle, which offers and regularly updates safeguards and GDPR compliance.

Employee personal data is stored within the DMS, however data is predominantly presented in printed form and kept with sensitive data in locked filing cabinets in the accountancy office. From time to time Chris Allen Garages Limited will take professional legal and HR advice via RPL as identified in the employee privacy statement.

By nature of the business some data does have to be shared with the manufacturer or organisations such as the DVLA for purposes of vehicle registration.

Chris Allen Garages Limited do not use any third party for the purposes of contacting, marketing or promoting its products or services and does not sell data.

Main focuses of GDPR

In brief, GDPR has five main focusing points.

Right of access
Right to erasure, correction or to be forgotten
Right to data portability
Right not to be profiled and to minimal data capture
Data secured from accidental loss or damage.

Article 5 of the GDPR identifies six key principles governing companies such as Chris Allen Garages Limited who may collect and process ‘personal’ or ‘sensitive data’.

processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner in relation to individuals;
collected for specified, explicit and legitimate purposes and not further processed in a manner that is incompatible with those purposes; further processing for archiving purposes in the public interest, scientific or historical research purposes or statistical purposes shall not be considered to be incompatible with the initial purposes;
adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary in relation to the purposes for which they are processed;
accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date; every reasonable step must be taken to ensure that personal data that are inaccurate, having regard to the purposes for which they are processed, are erased or rectified without delay;
kept in a form which permits identification of data subjects for no longer than is necessary for the purposes for which the personal data are processed; personal data may be stored for longer periods insofar as the personal data will be processed solely for archiving purposes in the public interest, scientific or historical research purposes or statistical purposes subject to implementation of the appropriate technical and organisational measures required by the GDPR in order to safeguard the rights and freedoms of individuals; and
processed in a manner that ensures appropriate security of the personal data, including protection against unauthorised or unlawful processing and against accidental loss, destruction or damage, using appropriate technical or organisational measures.”

Interpreted application

Chris Allen Garages Limited notifies employees, customers and prospects as to how their data will be used and stored as part of this privacy policy, via fair collection notice and at any point where data is collected. Questions and permissions are designed to collect only relevant information which is processed via a number of secure systems.
Information is collected by us for several business reasons. For example; (these include, but are not limited to the following purposes: a) To process a vehicle purchase or enquiry. b) For the purposes of Service bookings. c) For the order and sale of parts and services offered by the company. d) To advise when a vehicle’s lease or finance period is coming to an end.
Chris Allen Garages Limited does not record additional information beyond what is required for legitimate business or employment contact.
Customers are verbally asked on each visit to confirm details on all ‘Job Cards’ for workshop work, or when making a parts purchase, a vehicle purchase, or re-purchase enquiry. Contact and vehicle information are printed on each job card and signed to ensure that it is up to date.
Customer details are kept in the DMS system alongside their current vehicles. If contact has not been made within a designated time period, customer details are removed from our databases. It should be noted that financial records must be kept by law for a period of seven years.
Digital information is predominantly stored via the Dealer Management System which is password protected. The system also records user access history. All computers and accesses are password and virus protected. Physical records are secured in either dedicated locked archiving rooms, or in locked filing cabinets.

GDPR applies to two specific categories as defined by the ICO (Information Commissioner’s Office)

Personal Data: “Any information relating to an identifiable person who can be directly or indirectly identified in particular by reference to an identifier” (ICO, 2018). This may include such data as name, address, email address and the link between you and your vehicle. This includes digital and physical data that is not anonymised.

Sensitive Data: This includes such data such as sexual orientation, race, religion, politics, biometrics and genetics. These forms of information are not currently (04/2018) recorded by Chris Allen Garages Limited, about either customers or employees.

Consent and Legitimate interest: Considering Article 6 of GDPR legislation (ICO, 2018a) and Recital 47 (ICO,2018b) and rational identified below; Internal investigation of Chris Allen Garages Limited’s processes identifies that contact for the following purposes is deemed within both the customer’s interest and Chris Allen Garages Limited’s legitimate interest:

Vehicle Sales/Fleet/Military & Motability Sales

Contact for the purposes of advising of a vehicle lease concluding and advising the customer of his/her options.
Contact for the purposes of a finance Hire Purchase agreement concluding.
Contact for the purposes of an ‘Options’ or similar PCP agreement concluding and advising the customer of his/her options.

Aftersales

Service maintenance, whereby occupant and/or vehicle safety or warranty may be adversely affected
Interval or safety checks, whereby occupant and/or vehicle safety or warranty may be adversely affected
MOT test reminders, where applicable to the vehicle, a legal requirement.
Extended maintenance, whereby occupant and/or vehicle safety or warranty may be adversely affected.
Recalls and Field Service Actions, where vehicle safety may be affected

It is the policy of Chris Allen Garages Limited that customer contact is made for the purposes of advice and not marketing of products unless specifically requested by the customer. NOTE, in all cases whereby a customer has exercised their right to erasure and/or expressed that they do not wish to be contacted, they shall not be contacted as per their own choice.

Rationale

Chris Allen Garages Limited provides a service between ‘us’, supplying and maintaining motor vehicles both new, from FMC and Mazda Motors and other used vehicles. Beyond this, we offer the full range of facilities to ensure the vehicles are correctly maintained as per the manufacturer’s guidelines. Items checked as a result of scheduled servicing can be safety critical and could affect the vehicles overall condition including its road-worthiness if left unchecked or unmaintained. In extreme cases, this may lead to a failure and potential for injury or death of vehicle occupants or other road users. It is also likely the vehicle’s value or warranty will be affected. It is argued that there is legitimate interest and relationship between the data subject and controller is both “relevant and appropriate” (ICO, 2018b) the individual rights and freedoms are unlikely to be affected provided that the relationship is existing and the customer has not already asked not to be erased, or not contacted.

Ultimately direct contact and thus processing of individual data is argued to be lawful for any of the following reasons under Article 6:

“processing is necessary for the performance of a contract”
“processing is necessary in order to protect the vital interests of the data subject or of another natural person.”

The rational used to decide the areas for contact under GDPR Article 6 (ICO, 2018a), Recital 47 (ICO, 2018b) have been established using guidelines [20180319] by the ICO (2018c).

Digital Security (Overview)

The computer network at Chris Allen Garages Limited is protected by a variety of methods. Including:

Server Firewalls and Anti-virus software which are regularly updated
PC Firewalls which are regularly updated. (Centrally administered)
Each PC is password protected, with a group policy of regular password changes in place
Web security is as identified below

Information we collect when you visit our website

We collect and use information from website visitors in accordance with this section and the section entitled Disclosure and additional uses of your information.

Server log information

We use a third party server to host our website. Our website server automatically logs the IP address you use to access our website as well as other information about your visit such as the pages accessed, information requested, the date and time of the request, the source of your access to our website (e.g. the website or URL (link) which referred you to our website), and your browser version and operating system.

We and/or our third party hosting provider collect(s) and store(s) server logs to ensure network and IT security and so that the server and website remain uncompromised. This includes analysing log files to help identify and prevent unauthorised access to our network, the distribution of malicious code, denial of services attacks and other cyber attack’s, by detecting unusual or suspicious activity.

Unless we are investigating suspicious or potential criminal activity, we do not make, nor do we allow our hosting provider to make, any attempt to identify you from the information collected via server logs.

Legal basis for processing:compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject (Article 6(1)(c) of the General Data Protection Regulation).
Legal obligation: we have a legal obligation to implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to ensure a level of security appropriate to the risk of our processing of information about individuals. Recording access to our website using server log files is such a measure.
Legal basis for processing:our and a third party’s legitimate interests (Article 6(1) (f) of the General Data Protection Regulation).
Legitimate interests:we and our third party hosting provider have a legitimate interest in using your information for the purposes of ensuring network and information security.

Transfer and storage of your information

Country of storage:our server is located in England.

Website visitor information

In order to determine performance, the Chris Allen Garages Limited website uses Google analytics; It is a breach of the user Google Analytics Agreement to share data which is “personally identifiable” data.

Analytics data contains generalised information about user demographics, based on their browsing and search history and also their activity online. This provides overview information such as general location (not specific) and otherwise general data; age range, gender, typical interests and hobbies and so on.

We use the information gathered from the analysis of this information to improve our website. For example, we use the information gathered to change the information, content and structure of our website and individual pages based according to what users are engaging most with and the duration of time spent on particular pages on our website.

Google collects information through our use of Google Analytics on our website. Google uses this information, including IP addresses and information from cookies, for a number of purposes, such as improving its Google Analytics service. Information is shared with Google on an aggregated and anonymised basis. To find out more about what information Google collects, how it uses this information and how to control the information sent to Google, please see the following page: https://www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners/. You can opt out of Google Analytics by installing the browser plugin here: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout

Legal basis for processing:our legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f) of the General Data Protection Regulation).
Legitimate interest(s):meeting our contractual obligations to Google under our Google Analytics Terms of Service (https://www.google.com/analytics/terms/us.html)

Transfer and storage of your information

Country of storage:Google’s servers are located in United States of America and, accordingly, your information is transferred outside the European Economic Area (EEA).
Safeguard(s) used: Google has self-certified its compliance with the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield which is available here: https://www.privacyshield.gov/welcome. The EU-U.S. Privacy Shield is an approved certification mechanism under Article 42 of the General Data Protection Regulation, which is permitted under Article 46(2)(f) of the General Data Protection Regulation. You can access the European Commission decision on the adequacy of the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield here: https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/law-topic/data-protection en.

Chris Allen Garages Limited and Social Media

Chris Allen Garages Limited engages in online activity in the form of Social Media for the purposes of marketing and promotion of its business and services. This includes Facebook, Twitter, Instagram.

It is deemed that the privacy policy, security and protection of websites outside of Chris Allen Garages Limited are outside of the control of Chris Allen Garages Limited. Each platform therefore will have its own privacy which users interacting with these social media sites will have agreed to on their own terms.

By the same token, levels of security and visibility exist for users to select in most platforms (for example Facebook). It is considered then when an individual interacts with Chris Allen Garages Limited using their own name, images, videos or graphics they are interacting in the public domain. As such, we ultimately find that we cannot be held accountable for the action of customers online via social media.

From time to time Chris Allen Garages Limited will engage in online competitions requiring users to share, re-tweet or like a post or the various Chris Allen Garages Limited social media pages. In order to be able to complete such competitions it may be necessary to view publicly accessible information, such as shared posts. Privacy settings are set by the user whom has full control over whether they choose to participate in any online interaction. As such it is deemed that interaction on Social Media is subject to the privacy policies of their relevant platforms and not the responsibility of Chris Allen Garages Limited. Cookies and similar technologies

Cookies and similar technologies

Cookies are data files which are sent from a website to a browser to record information about users for various purposes.

We use cookies and similar technologies on our website. You can reject some or all of the cookies we use on or via our website by changing your browser settings, but doing so can impair your ability to use our website or some or all of its features. For further information about cookies, how we use cookies and how to change your browser settings, please see our cookies policy.

Information we collect when you contact us

We collect and use information from individuals who contact us in accordance with this section and the section entitled Disclosure and additional uses of your information.

When you send an email to the email address displayed on our website we collect your name, phone number, email address and any other information you provide in that email, including any information contained in any signature block.

Legal basis for processing:our legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f) of the General Data Protection Regulation).
Legitimate interest(s):responding to enquiries and messages we receive and keeping records of correspondence.
Legal basis for processing: necessary to perform a contract or to take steps at your request to enter into a contract (Article 6(1)(b) of the General Data Protection Regulation). Reason why necessary to perform a contract:where your message relates to us providing you with goods or services or taking steps at your request prior to providing you with our goods and services (for example, providing you with information about such goods and services), we will process your information in order to do so).

Transfer and storage of your information

Country of storage:emails you send us are stored in England.

Website visitor information

Legal basis for processing:our legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f) of the General Data Protection Regulation).
Legitimate interest(s):meeting our contractual obligations to Google under our Google Analytics Terms of Service (https://www.google.com/analytics/terms/us.html)

Transfer and storage of your information

Country of storage:emails you send us are stored in England.

Chris Allen Garages Limited and Social Media

Cookies and similar technologies

Cookies are data files which are sent from a website to a browser to record information about users for various purposes.

Information we collect when you contact us

We collect and use information from individuals who contact us in accordance with this section and the section entitled Disclosure and additional uses of your information.

Legal basis for processing:our legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f) of the General Data Protection Regulation).
Legitimate interest(s):responding to enquiries and messages we receive and keeping records of correspondence.
Legal basis for processing: necessary to perform a contract or to take steps at your request to enter into a contract (Article 6(1)(b) of the General Data Protection Regulation). Reason why necessary to perform a contract:where your message relates to us providing you with goods or services or taking steps at your request prior to providing you with our goods and services (for example, providing you with information about such goods and services), we will process your information in order to do so).

Transfer and storage of your information

Country of storage: emails you send us are stored in England.

Contact form

When you contact us using our contact form, we collect your name, phone number, email address, enquiry and IP address.

If you do not provide the mandatory information required by our contact form, you will not be able to submit the contact form and we will not receive your enquiry.

If you do not supply the optional information required by our contact form, we may not be able to respond to your enquiry properly.

Legal basis for processing:our legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f) of the General Data Protection Regulation).

Legitimate interest(s):responding to enquiries and messages we receive and keeping records of correspondence.

Legal basis for processing:necessary to perform a contract or to take steps at your request to enter into a contract (Article 6(1)(b) of the General Data Protection Regulation).

Reason why necessary to perform a contract: where your message relates to us providing you with goods or services or taking steps at your request prior to providing you with our goods and services (for example, providing you with information about such goods and services), we will process your information in order to do so).

Transfer and storage of your information

Country of storage:messages you send us are stored in England.

Phone

When you contact us by phone, we collect your phone number and any information provided to us during your conversation with us.

We do not record calls.

Legal basis for processing:our legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f) of the General Data Protection Regulation).

Legitimate interest(s):responding to enquiries and messages we receive and keeping records of correspondence.

Legal basis for processing:necessary to perform a contract or to take steps at your request to enter into a contract (Article 6(1)(b) of the General Data Protection Regulation).

Reason why necessary to perform a contract: where your message relates to us providing you with goods or services or taking steps at your request prior to providing you with our goods and services (for example, providing you with information about such goods and services), we will process your information in order to do so).

Transfer and storage of your information

Country of storage: emails you send us are stored in England.

If you contact us by post, we will collect any information you provide to us in any postal communications you send us.

Legal basis for processing:our legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f) of the General Data Protection Regulation).
Legitimate interest(s):responding to enquiries and messages we receive and keeping records of correspondence.
Legal basis for processing:necessary to perform a contract or to take steps at your request to enter into a contract (Article 6(1)(b) of the General Data Protection Regulation).
Reason why necessary to perform a contract: where your message relates to us providing you with goods or services or taking steps at your request prior to providing you with our goods and services (for example, providing you with information about such goods and services), we will process your information in order to do so).

Use of CCTV

Chris Allen Garages Limited operates a CCTV system throughout the site, for the protection and safeguarding of employees, customers, the business, assets and prevention of crime. The use of CCTV is signposted throughout the site, is not covert and does not cover areas where an individual’s privacy may be violated (for example changing rooms or toilet areas.) or In areas where cameras may be able to see into neighbouring windows/doorways etc. These areas are digitally ‘blanked’ showing only a black square to avoid invasion of privacy. These are operated in line with the Surveillance Camera Code of Practice (Home Office, 2013).

How we collect or obtain information about you from third parties

This section sets out how we obtain or collect information about you from third parties.

Information received from third parties

Generally, we do not receive information about you from third parties. The third parties from which we receive information about you will generally include referrers (such as existing customers, affiliates or business partners, in particular Ford Motor Company, Mazda Motors).

It is also possible that third parties with whom we have had no prior contact may provide us with information about you.

Information we obtain from third parties will generally be your name and contact details, but will include any additional information about you which they provide to us.

Legal basis for processing: necessary to perform a contract or to take steps at your request to enter into a contract (Article 6(1)(b) of the General Data Protection Regulation).
Reason why necessary to perform a contract: where your message relates to us providing you with goods or services or taking steps at your request prior to providing you with our goods and services (for example, providing you with information about such goods and services), we will process your information in order to do so).
Legal basis for processing: our legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f) of the General Data Protection Regulation).
Consent: where you have asked that a third party to share information about you with us and the purpose of sharing that information is not related to the performance of a contract or services by us to you, we will process your information on the basis of your consent, which you give by asking the third party in question to pass on your information to us.
Legal basis for processing: our legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f) of the General Data Protection Regulation).
Legitimate interests: where a third party has shared information about you with us and you have not consented to the sharing of that information, we will have a legitimate interest in processing that information in certain circumstances.

For example, we would have a legitimate interest in processing your information to perform our obligations under a sub-contract with the third party, where the third party has the main contract with you. Our legitimate interest is the performance of our obligations under our sub-contract.

Similarly, third parties may pass on information about you to us if you have infringed or potentially infringed any of our legal rights. In this case, we will have a legitimate interest in processing that information to investigate and pursue any such potential infringement.

Where we receive information about you in error

If we receive information about you from a third party in error and/or we do not have a legal basis for processing that information, we will delete your information.

Information obtained by us from third parties

In certain circumstances (for example, to verify the information we hold about you or obtain missing information we require to provide you with a service) we will obtain information about you from certain publicly accessible sources, both EU and non-EU, such as the electoral register, Companies House, online customer databases, business directories, media publications, social media, and websites (including your own website if you have one).

Legal basis for processing: necessary to perform a contract or to take steps at your request to enter into a contract (Article 6(1)(b) of the General Data Protection Regulation). Reason why necessary to perform a contract:where you have entered into a contract or requested that we enter into a contract with you, in certain circumstances, we will obtain information about you from public sources in order to enable us to understand your business and provide services to you or services to a sufficient standard. For example, we would obtain and/or verify your email address from your website or from a directory where you ask us to send you information by email but we do not possess the information or we need to confirm that we have recorded your email address correctly.
Legal basis for processing: necessary to perform a contract or to take steps at your request to enter into a contract (Article 6(1)(b) of the General Data Protection Regulation). Reason why necessary to perform a contract:where you have entered into a contract or requested that we enter into a contract with you, in certain circumstances, we will obtain information about you from public sources in order to enable us to understand your business and provide services to you or services to a sufficient standard. For example, we would obtain and/or verify your email address from your website or from a directory where you ask us to send you information by email but we do not possess the information or we need to confirm that we have recorded your email address correctly.

Our use of automated decision-making and profiling

We use automated decision making and profiling on our website. We do not consider that this has any legal effect on you or similarly significantly affects you.

You have the right to object to our use of automated decision making and profiling described in this section. You can do that by opting-out of cookies and similar technologies in accordance with the method described in the relevant section below. If you do not want us to process your actual IP address (usually the IP address assigned to you by your Internet Service Provider) when you visit our website, you can use a Virtual Private Network (VPN) or a free service such as Tor.

You can find out more about our use of cookies and similar technologies (including the legal basis on which we use them) and how to opt out from them in our cookies policy, which is available here.

Automated decision making

Automated decision making is decision making by technological means (i.e. by a machine) without human involvement.

Automated decision making

Automated decision making is decision making by technological means (i.e. by a machine) without human involvement.

Use of automated decision making for display advertising

We automate the display advertisements containing our products and services on other websites you visit, you based on the fact that you have visited our website using cookies. For further information on the cookies we use, please see our cookies policy.

Logic involved: automatically displaying advertisements to individuals who have visited our website results in increased efficiencies and costs savings for us than manually displaying advertisements or displaying advertisements by different means
Significance and envisaged consequences: cookies will be used to recognise the fact that you have visited our website in order to display advertisements to you (unless you have blocked such cookies) and will collect information about your online behaviour.
How to object: you can block these cookies by blocking third party cookies using browser settings. For further information, please see our cookies policy.

Profiling

Profiling is any form of automated processing of your information to evaluate personal aspects about you, in particular to analyse or predict things like your performance at work, economic situation, health, personal preferences, interests, reliability, behaviour, location or movements.

Use of profiling for web analytics

Our web analytics service, Google Analytics, uses collects information such as your location (based on your IP address) and your behaviour (based on cookies) when you access our website (such as the pages you visit and what you click on). We will only process information from cookies if you have consented to us setting cookies on your computer in accordance with our cookies policy. Information collected about you, once collected is anonymised and stored on an aggregate basis.

Logic involved:by automatically analysing and categorising information such as the location (based on IP address) as well as the behaviour and devices of visitors to our website (using cookies), we are able to gain a better understanding of what our website visitors want (in terms of the content of our website and our products), how to improve our website and how to advertise and market our services to them.
Significance and envisaged consequences: cookies will be used to track and store information about your behaviour and device on our website (unless you have opted out from receiving such cookies by blocking third party cookies using browser settings) and your location will be analysed based on your IP address. We may target advertisements based on the level of interest we receive from certain visitors and their behaviour on our website.
Legal basis for processing: legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f) of the General Data Protection Regulation
Legitimate interest: analysing visitors and their usage of our website to monitor its effectiveness and to make improvements based on the data. Disclosure and additional uses of your information This section sets out the circumstances in which will disclose information about you to third parties and any additional purposes for which we use your information.

Disclosure and additional uses of your information

This section sets out the circumstances in which will disclose information about you to third parties and any additional purposes for which we use your information.

As with most businesses we use a number of third parties to provide us with services which are necessary to run our business or to assist us with running our business and who process your information for us on our behalf. These include the following:

Telephone provider(s)
Email provider(s)
IT service provider(s)
Web developer(s)
Hosting provider(s)

Although these companies provide a service which facilitates business operation we do not sure your personal data with them.

Our third party service providers are located in England.

Your information will be shared with these service providers where necessary to provide you with the service you have requested, whether that is accessing our website or ordering goods and services from us.

We do not display the identities of our service providers publicly by name for security and competitive reasons. If you would like further information about the identities of our service providers, however, please contact us directly by sending an email to [email protected] and we will provide you with such information where you have a legitimate reason for requesting it (where we have shared your information with such service providers, for example).

Legal basis for processing: legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f) of the General Data Protection Regulation)
Legitimate interest relied on:where we share your information with these third parties in a context other than where is necessary to perform a contract (or take steps at your request to do so), we will share your information with such third parties in order to allow us to run and manage our business efficiently.
Legal basis for processing: necessary to perform a contract and/or to take steps at your request prior to entering into a contract (Article 6(1)(b) of the General Data Protection Regulation).
Reason why necessary to perform a contract: we may need to share information with our service providers to enable us to perform our obligations under that contract or to take the steps you have requested before we enter into a contract with you.

Disclosure of your information to other third parties

We disclose your information to other third parties which are either related to or associated with the running of our business, where it is necessary for us to do so. Further information on each of these third parties is set out below.

Although third party access is not granted for the purposes of marketing, due to the varying number of systems that are used for day-to-day operation and mandated by Ford Motor Company & Mazda Motors it is inevitable that in some cases, those supplying or maintaining such applications will have access to part of the system or programs. All systems are checked for compliance under GDPR.

Predominantly access is via Ford Motor Company & Mazda Motors and their subsidiaries.

See Ford Fair Collection Notice & Mazda Fair Collection Notice

Accountants

We share information with our accountants for tax purposes. For example, we share invoices we issue and receive with our accountants for the purpose of completing tax returns and our end of year accounts. Our accountants are located in England.

Advisors

Occasionally, we obtain advice from advisors, such as accountants, financial advisors, lawyers and public relations professionals. We will share your information with these third parties only where it is necessary to enable these third parties to be able to provide us with the relevant advice. Our advisors are located in England.

Affiliates

Affiliates are individuals or entities we work with to promote our business by various means, including by advertising our services on their websites, for example.

Although we will advertise such products or services on affiliate websites, Chris Allen Garages Limited does not share your personal data with any affiliate site.

Business partners

Business partners are businesses we work with which provide goods and services which are complementary to our own or which allow us to provide goods or services which we could not provide on our own. We share information with our business partners where you have requested services which they provide whether independently from, or in connection with or own services.

In particular,

Ford Motor Company. See Ford Fair Collection Notice.

Mazda Motors See Fair Collection Notice

Mann Island Finance See Fair Collection Notice

Our business partners are located in England.

Independent contractors

Occasionally, we use independent contractors in our business. Your information will be shared with independent contractors only where it is necessary for them to perform the function we have hired them perform in relation to our business. Our independent contractors are located in England.

Insurers

We will share your information with our insurers where it is necessary to do so, for example in relation to a claim or potential claim we receive or make or under our general disclosure obligations under our insurance contract with them. Our insurers are located in England.

Sharing your information with a prospective or actual purchaser or seller in the context of a business or asset sale or acquisition by us, a merger or similar business combination event, whether actual or potential.

Legal basis for processing: legitimate interests (Article 6(1) (f) of the General Data Protection Regulation).
Legitimate interest(s):sharing your information with a prospective purchaser, seller or similar person in order to allow such a transaction to take place.

Disclosure and use of your information for legal reasons

Indicating possible criminal acts or threats to public security to a competent authority.

If we suspect that criminal or potential criminal conduct has been occurred, we will in certain circumstances need to contact an appropriate authority, such as the police. This could be the case, for instance, if we suspect that a fraud or a cyber crime has been committed or if we receive threats or malicious communications towards us or third parties.

We will generally only need to process your information for this purpose if you were involved or affected by such an incident in some way.

Legal basis for processing:our legitimate interests (Article 6(1) (f) of the General Data Protection Regulation).

Legitimate interests: preventing crime or suspected criminal activity (such as fraud).

In connection with the enforcement or potential enforcement our legal rights .

We will use your information in connection with the enforcement or potential enforcement of our legal rights, including, for example, sharing information with debt collection agencies if you do not pay amounts owed to us when you are contractually obliged to do so. Our legal rights may be contractual (where we have entered into a contract with you) or non-contractual (such as legal rights that we have under copyright law or tort law).

Legal basis for processing:our legitimate interests (Article 6(1) (f) of the General Data Protection Regulation).

Legitimate interests:enforcing our legal rights and taking steps to enforce our legal rights.

In connection with a legal or potential legal dispute or proceedings

We may need to use your information if we are involved in a dispute with you or a third party for example, either to resolve the dispute or as part of any mediation, arbitration or court resolution or similar process.

In particular this may be via the Motor Ombudsman; privacy policy available at https://www.themotorombudsman.org/privacy

Legal basis for processing:our legitimate interests (Article 6(1) (f) of the General Data Protection Regulation).

Legitimate interests:resolving disputes and potential disputes.

For ongoing compliance with laws, regulations and other legal requirements

We will use and process your information in order to comply with legal obligations to which we are subject. For example, we may need to disclose your information pursuant to a court order or subpoena if we receive one or to the National Crime Agency in connection with suspected or potential money laundering matters.

Legal basis for processing: compliance with a legal obligation (Article 6(1) (c) of the General Data Protection Regulation).
Legitimate interest(s):legal obligations to disclose information which are part of the laws of England and Wales or if they have been integrated into the United Kingdom’s legal framework (for example in the form of an international agreement which the United Kingdom has signed).
Legal basis for processing: our legitimate interests (Article 6(1) (f) of the General Data Protection Regulation).
Legitimate interest: where the legal obligations are part of the laws of another country and have not been integrated into the United Kingdom’s legal framework, we have a legitimate interest in complying with these obligations.

How long we retain your information

This section sets out how long we retain your information. We have set out specific retention periods where possible. Where that has not been possible, we have set out the criteria we use to determine the retention period.

Retention periods

Server log information: we retain information on our server logs for 30 days.

Correspondence and enquiries: when you make an enquiry or correspond with us for any reason, whether by email, via our contact form or by phone, we will retain your information for as long as it takes to respond to and resolve your enquiry, and up to 120 further months, after which point we will delete your information.

Order information: when you place an order for goods and services, we retain that information for seven years, in accordance with our legal obligation to keep records for tax purposes.

Criteria for determining retention periods

In any other circumstances, we will retain your information for no longer than necessary, taking into account the following:

the purpose(s) and use of your information both now and in the future (such as whether it is necessary to continue to store that information in order to continue to perform our obligations under a contract with you or to contact you in the future);
whether we have any legal obligation to continue to process your information (such as any record-keeping obligations imposed by relevant law or regulation);
whether we have any legal basis to continue to process your information (such as your consent);
how valuable your information is (both now and in the future);
any relevant agreed industry practices on how long information should be retained;
the levels of risk, cost and liability involved with us continuing to hold the information;
how hard it is to ensure that the information can be kept up to date and accurate; and
any relevant surrounding circumstances (such as the nature and status of our relationship with you).

How we secure your information

The GDPR makes specific requirements with regards to the processing of personal data and the operations of ‘Data Controllers’ and ‘Data Processors’. Through analysis carried out by the GDPR department we are satisfied that systems to ensure that these are secure and robust.

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to secure your information and to protect it against unauthorised or unlawful use and accidental loss or destruction, including:

only sharing and providing access to your information to the minimum extent necessary, subject to confidentiality restrictions where appropriate, and on an anonymised basis wherever possible;
using secure servers to store your information;
verifying the identity of any individual who requests access to information prior to granting them access to information;
using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) software to encrypt any information you submit to us via any forms on our website;
only transferring your information via closed system or encrypted data transfers.

Transmission of information to us by email

Transmission of information over the internet is not entirely secure, and if you submit any information to us over the internet (whether by email, via our website or any other means), you do so entirely at your own risk.

We cannot be responsible for any costs, expenses, loss of profits, harm to reputation, damages, liabilities or any other form of loss or damage suffered by you as a result of your decision to transmit information to us by such means.

Your rights in relation to your information

Subject to certain limitations on certain rights, you have the following rights in relation to your information, which you can exercise by sending an email to [email protected].

to request access to your informationand information related to our use and processing of your information;
to request the correction or deletion of your information;
to receive information which you have provided to us in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format(e.g. a CSV file) and the right to have that information transferred to another data controller (including a third party data controller);
to object to the processing of your information for certain purposes (for further information, see the section below entitled Your right to object to the processing of your information for certain purposes); and
to withdraw your consent to our use of your information at any time where we rely on your consent to use or process that information. Please note that if you withdraw your consent, this will not affect the lawfulness of our use and processing of your information on the basis of your consent before the point in time when you withdraw your consent.
the right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing, including profiling which produces legal affects concerning you or similarly significantly affects you Right to erasure As defined by the legislation under Article 17 of the GDPR individuals have the "right to be forgotten". The specific circumstances as defined by the ICO (2018g) identify that Individuals have the right to have their personal data erased if:

Right to erasure

As defined by the legislation Article 17 of the GDPR individuals have the "right to be forgotten". The specific circumstanes as defined by the ICO (2018g) idenify that Inviduals have the right to have their personal data erased if:

"the personal data is no longer necessary for the purpose which you originally collected or processed it for;
you are relying on consent as your lawful basis for holding the data, and the individual withdraws their consent;
you are relying on legitimate interests as your basis for processing, the individual objects to the processing of their data, and there is no overriding legitimate interest to continue this processing;
you are processing the personal data for direct marketing purposes and the individual objects to that processing;
you have processed the personal data unlawfully (ie in breach of the lawfulness requirement of the 1st principle);
you have to do it to comply with a legal obligation; or
you have processed the personal data to offer information society services to a child."

However, it is also identified that the right to erasure are not absolute; with exceptions depending on the purpose behind the storage and processing of such data. Again, the ICO (2018g) guidelines identify that the right to erasure does not apply if processing is necessary for one of the following reasons:

to exercise the right of freedom of expression and information;
to comply with a legal obligation;
for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority;
for archiving purposes in the public interest, scientific research historical research or statistical purposes where erasure is likely to render impossible or seriously impair the achievement of that processing; or
for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.

Processing erasure requests

Erasure requests can be made verbally, online or by post and are referred to the GDPR department to action. The department will forward on a template ensuring that all required information is filled in either by post or email. Alternatively you can download the template here