Please Note: N
o mobile information will be shared with third parties for marketing/promotional purposes, & text messaging opt in data and consent will not be shared with third parties.
Privacy Policy
Last Updated: 8/12/2024
Thank you for visiting our
Pohanka Ford of Salisbury website, including our mobile device-ready version.
Pohanka Ford of Salisbury and our affiliates (together, "Pohanka Ford of
Salisbury" 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 Pohanka Ford of
Salisbury or by any third party through our website;
- How Pohanka
Ford of Salisbury uses this information;
- With whom
Pohanka Ford of Salisbury 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 Pohanka Ford of
Salisbury or its affiliates, or to any of our offline activities.
1. Information
Collection and Use
Pohanka Ford of Salisbury
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.
Pohanka Ford of Salisbury
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 Pohanka Ford of Salisbury, 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. Pohanka Ford of Salisbury 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
Pohanka Ford of Salisbury does
not sell, rent, or share personally identifiable information to or with any
third party not affiliated with or owned by Pohanka Ford of Salisbury, 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).
Pohanka Ford of Salisbury 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 Pohanka
Ford of Salisbury 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.
No mobile information will be shared with third parties for marketing/promotional purposes, and text messaging opt in data and consent will not be shared with third parties. If you need to get a hold of us, call us at 410-548-4600.
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
Pohanka Ford of Salisbury 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 Pohanka Ford of Salisbury 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. Pohanka Ford of Salisbury 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
Pohanka Ford of Salisbury 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.
We work with FordDirect to provide us with advertising and related services, and analytics. This includes, but is not limited to, the deployment of tracking technologies on our properties that collect and provide information about you to FordDirect or our provision of your name, email address, and other contact details to FordDirect, including for advertising and related services and analytics. To the extent we disclose information to FordDirect, FordDirect may use that information in accordance with its own privacy statement. For details on FordDirect’s data practices, see FordDirect Privacy Statement
