Privacy Notice for B2B customers and interested parties

This information in accordance with Art. 13 ff. GDPR on data protection serve the information obligation when collecting personal data of our business customers and interested parties. The protection of your privacy is of crucial importance to our company and we are committed to handling your personal data responsibly and confidentially. The following privacy notice is intended to give you a better understanding of how we collect, use, protect and share your personal data in the course of managing our relationships with prospects and customers. 1. Name and contact details of the controller CARFAX Europe GmbH
Barthstraße 2-10
80339 Munich, Germany
E-mail: info@carfax.eu
(hereinafter referred to as “CARFAX”, “we”, “us”).

2. Contact details of the data protection officer:

Holzhofer Consulting GmbH
Martin Holzhofer
Lochhamer Str. 31
82152 Planegg
Phone: (0 89) 1 25 01 56 00
E-Mail:datenschutzbeauftragter-carfax@holzhofer-consulting.de
Website: https://www.holzhofer-consulting.de

3. Purposes for which the personal data are to be processed and the legal basis for the processing 3.1 Processing of inquiries and preparation of quotations If you are interested in our company and the goods and services we offer, we process and store the following data to process your inquiry and prepare a quote when you contact us (e.g. by email, telephone or contact form on our website):
  • Title
  • Surname, first name
  • Company/organization and, if applicable, department in the company
  • Position in the company
  • Business address
  • Business telephone number
  • Business fax number
  • Business e-mail address
  • Individual message
  • If applicable, call notes from sales and customer support calls
We reserve the right to ask you for your decision by telephone or e-mail within 3 months of submitting our offer, provided you have not objected to our request. The legal basis for the processing is our legitimate interest pursuant to Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR. A balancing of interests was carried out and came to the conclusion that the processing of your data is necessary to answer your request and, if necessary, for further pre-contractual measures and that our interest outweighs your interests or fundamental rights and freedoms to protect your data. 3.2 Execution and processing of contracts with business customers In order to execute and fulfill an existing contractual relationship, in particular to provide the services owed (e.g. provision of services, invoicing), we and any third parties or processors commissioned by us process the following data from you, provided that you have provided us with this data when concluding the contract or in the course of the contractual relationship: Contact details of a contact person at the business customer’s company:
  • Surname, first name or company/organization and, if applicable, department in the company
  • Business address
  • Business e-mail address
For sole traders, if applicable:
  • Company name (incl. surname and first name)
  • Business address
  • Business e-mail address
  • Payment information
  • Tax ID or VAT ID
For invoicing, monitoring and the collection of receivables from services, we may process contact details of contact persons in the accounting department and other persons entrusted with these processing operations. The data collected will be processed exclusively for the purpose described above. The provision of this data is necessary for the conclusion of the contract. If you do not provide us with this information, a contract will not be concluded with us. All other information is voluntary. The legal basis for the processing of your data is our legitimate interest pursuant to Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR. A balancing of interests was carried out and came to the conclusion that the interests of the data subjects do not outweigh our interests in the execution and fulfillment of contracts with our business customers. In the present case, we have a legitimate interest in the execution and fulfillment of contractual obligations with our business customers, for which the processing of the data and data categories mentioned here is necessary. 3.3 Processing in connection with events (e.g. trade fairs or conferences) If you are interested in the services we offer and provide us with your business contact details in this context, e.g. by handing over a business card at an event (e.g. trade fair or conference), we will initially process and store the details you provide (surname, first name, business address, business telephone number, business e-mail address, etc.) in our internal CRM system and may then contact you to inform you about our products and other interesting topics. However, this only takes place if you have expressly consented to this form of advertising contact in advance. The legal basis for the processing is Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR, i.e. your voluntary and informed consent. You can revoke your consent at any time and without giving reasons in accordance with Art. 7 para. 3 GDPR. You have two options for this: You can unsubscribe from receiving future emails with advertising content by clicking on the “Unsubscribe” button, which can be found in every advertising email. You can send an informal e-mail with your unsubscribe request to privacy@carfax.eu. The electronic transmission of the information and documents explicitly requested by you, as well as the preparation and transmission of an offer, if applicable, is based on our legitimate interest pursuant to Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR. A balancing of interests was carried out and came to the conclusion that the interests of the data subjects do not outweigh our interests in the implementation of pre-contractual measures. In the present case, we have a legitimate interest in the implementation of pre-contractual measures with potential business customers, for which the processing of the data and data categories mentioned here is necessary. 3.4 Processing the email address of existing customers for the purpose of direct advertising Unless you have objected, we will use your e-mail address, which we have received as part of the sale of a service, to send you electronic advertising for our own services that are similar to those that you have already purchased from us. You can object to this use of your e-mail address at any time by sending us a message. The contact details for exercising your objection can be found in section 9. You can also use the link provided for this purpose in the advertising e-mail. This will not incur any costs other than the transmission costs according to the basic rates. The legal basis for this is Article 6(1)(f) GDPR in conjunction with Art. Art. 95 GDPR, Section 7 (3) UWG. A balancing of interests was carried out and came to the conclusion that the interests of the data subjects do not outweigh our interests in carrying out direct advertising. We have a legitimate interest in the electronic transmission of advertising content to existing customers, for which the processing of the data and data categories mentioned here is necessary. 3.5 Data protection notice on the use of HubSpot In connection with the order process for B2B customers on our website, we use the marketing automation tool from HubSpot for analysis and communication purposes (in particular sending e-mails) and for profiling. HubSpot Inc. is a software company based at 25 First Street, 2nd Floor, Cambridge, MA 02141, USA. HubSpot is an integrated software solution that we use to cover various aspects of our online marketing. These include, among other things: email marketing, social media publishing & reporting, reporting, contact management (e.g. user segmentation & CRM), landing pages, website analysis, profiling and contact forms. Hubspot uses web beacons and cookies to help us analyze your use of this website. Specifically, when you contact us, submit another form integrated with Hubspot, or in the case of other defined triggers (e.g., customer has purchased a CARFAX package with 50 credits and already redeemed 80% ), your activities on this website are assigned to a cookie, enabling a more in-depth analysis of your use of the website (e.g. pages visited, date and time of visits, forms completed, documents downloaded). We also send you e-mail advertising in connection with this. This enables us to tailor the user experience on the website and external communication even better to the needs of visitors. An overview of all cookies set by HubSpot can be found at: https://knowledge.hubspot.com/reports/what-cookies-does-hubspot-set-in-a-visitor-s-browser As part of the optimization of our marketing measures, the following data may be collected and processed via Hubspot: geographic position, browser type, navigation information, reference URL, performance data, information about how often the application is used, mobile apps data, registration information for the HubSpot subscription service, files viewed on site, domain names, pages viewed, aggregated usage, version of the operating system, internet service provider, IP address, device identifier, length of visit, where the application was downloaded from, operating system, events occurring within the application, access times, clickstream data, device model and version. This information, as well as the contents of our website, are usually hosted in AWS data centers within the EU, with the first located in Frankfurt (Germany) and the second in Dublin (Ireland). However, it cannot be ruled out that personal data may also be stored outside the EU, in particular at HubSpot in the USA. The storage of and access to information in the end device of the end user is carried out in accordance with Section 25 (1) TDDDG. The legal basis for the further processing of your personal data is your voluntary and informed consent in accordance with Art. 6 (1) 1 lit. a GDPR. You give your consent via the Consent Banner. For more information about how Hubspot handles and protects the data it collects, please refer to the Privacy Policy of Hubspot. 4. Obligation to provide the data As a rule, the provision of the personal data mentioned in section 3 is neither legally nor contractually required. You are not obliged to provide the data. Failure to provide it therefore has no consequences. This only applies if no other information is provided in the respective processing operations. 5. Automated decision-making, including profiling CARFAX Europe GmbH does not carry out automated individual decision-making, including profiling, in accordance with Art. 22 (1) and (4) GDPR. 6. Data transfer to a third country Data transfers to countries outside the EU and the European Economic Area (“third countries”) occur in the context of the administration, development and operation of IT systems. The transfer only takes place on the basis
  • an adequacy decision of the European Commission within the meaning of Art. 45 GDPR.
  • an approved certification mechanism pursuant to Art. 42 GDPR together with legally binding and enforceable obligations of the controller or processor in the third country
  • standard data protection clauses adopted by the Commission in accordance with the examination procedure under Art. 93 para. 2 GDPR.
Currently, in connection with pre-contractual measures with interested parties and the conclusion of a contract with business customers, data is transferred to countries outside the EU and the European Economic Area (“third countries”) in the following case: Transmission of data to Salesforce Inc, Salesforce Tower 415 Mission Street, 3rd Floor San Francisco, CA 94105. USA in connection with the provision and use of our CRM system. For the USA, there is an adequacy decision by the EU Commission within the meaning of Art. 45 para. 3 GDPR, which extends to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework (DPF). For data exports to recipients in the USA that are certified under the DPF, the level of data protection is therefore considered adequate. Salesforce has certified itself in accordance with the DPF and has therefore undertaken to comply with European data protection principles. Standard data protection clauses in accordance with Art. 46 (2) lit. c GDPR have been concluded with affiliated companies and transfer impact assessments have also been carried out. When transferring personal data to third countries on the basis of standard data protection clauses, additional security measures may have been taken. Please contact us to request a copy of these security measures. The data processed on our systems is located exclusively on servers within the EU. 7. Categories of recipients of data and data sources 7.1 Categories of recipients of data To the extent permitted by law, we pass on personal data to external service providers:
  • Credit institutions and providers of payment services for billing and processing payments (e.g. Adyen N.V., Netherlands).
  • Tax consultants for financial accounting and preparation of balance sheets
  • Lawyers for the defense and enforcement of legal claims
  • Debt collection service providers and competent courts to collect receivables and enforce claims in court. If personal data (customer and contact data, payment data and data relating to the claim) is transferred to a debt collection service provider in the event of debt collection, we will inform you or your company in advance of the intended transfer.
We use the following categories of recipients as processors within the meaning of Art. 28 GDPR to process personal data for the purposes stated here:
  • IT service providers for the maintenance of our IT infrastructure
  • Software service provider for email marketing tool
  • Software service provider for CRM system
  • Software service provider for contract management system
  • Software service provider for billing system
  • Service provider for operation of the e-mail server
  • Software service provider in connection with the provision and use of our invoicing software
  • Other processors within the meaning of Art. 28 GDPR in the course of order processing
These service providers process information about you on our behalf and on the basis of our instructions and are contractually obliged to comply with the applicable data protection laws within the meaning of Art. 28 GDPR. We may also pass on personal data to your employer, e.g. to fulfill and enforce our contract with them and for pricing purposes. All personal data collected by us will only be processed and used for the purpose of fulfilling and processing our contract with your company and for processing your inquiries. Otherwise, your personal data will only be passed on or transmitted to third parties if this is necessary for the purpose of processing the contract, in particular to our service partners who we need to process the contractual relationship. In these cases, we strictly observe the provisions of the GDPR and the Federal Data Protection Act. The scope of data transmission is limited to a minimum. In addition, we will only pass on your personal data to third parties if you have given your express prior consent. You have the right to revoke your consent at any time with effect for the future. Your data will also be passed on if we are legally obliged to do so. 7.2. Overview of the payment service providers 7.2.1 Data protection notice on the use of Adyen You have the option of paying by credit or debit card on our website. The provider of the payment service is the payment gateway provider Adyen B.V., Simon Carmiggeltstraat 6-50, 5th floor, 1011 DJ Amsterdam, Netherlands (hereinafter referred to as “Adyen”). Your credit card details will be checked by the Adyen service during the check-out process and approved for payment. We will then receive confirmation that the details are correct and that the payment process has been completed. If you choose this payment method, Adyen is responsible for the processing of your data under data protection law, as Adyen processes the payments directly with the customers and therefore does not process the payment data in accordance with instructions. Insofar as personal data is processed during the described transfers to Adyen, this is done exclusively for the purpose of payment processing and thus for the fulfillment of a contract in accordance with Art. 6 para. 1 lit. b GDPR (for contracts with natural persons) or Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR (for contracts with legal entities). You can find further information on data protection at Adyen at: https://www.adyen.com/policies-and-disclaimer/privacy-policy 7.3 Data sources We process personal data that we have received from interested parties and business customers as part of our business relationships. Insofar as it is necessary for the provision of our services, we process personal data that we legitimately obtain from publicly accessible sources (debtor directories, land registers, commercial and association registers, press, Internet) or are legitimately transmitted by other third parties (a credit agency or an address service provider). 8. Storage period and criteria for determining the duration Personal data will only be stored for as long as is necessary to fulfill the purposes stated here or for as long as the retention periods stipulated by law require. After the respective purpose no longer applies or after the retention periods have expired, the data will be deleted in accordance with the statutory provisions. We retain your personal data for as long as is necessary for us for business reasons (e.g. to provide you with a service you have requested or to comply with legal, tax or accounting requirements). Once we no longer have a legitimate business reason to process your personal data, we will comply with our applicable information management policies, procedures and standards and retain your data for as long as necessary to fulfill the purpose for which it was collected. Please contact us for more information about the period for which we will process your personal data. We store your data for advertising purposes until you object to its use or until contacting you is no longer permitted by law. We store your other data for as long as we need it to fulfill the specific purpose (e.g. to fulfill or process a contract) and delete it once the purpose no longer applies. 9. Information on your rights as a data subject CARFAX Europe GmbH is responsible for the processing of your data, unless otherwise stated. You can request information from us at any time (Art. 15 GDPR) about the data stored about you and its correction (Art. 16 GDPR) in the event of errors. You can also request the restriction of processing (Art. 18 GDPR), the portability (Art. 20 GDPR) of the data you have provided to us in a machine-readable format or the erasure of your data (Art. 17 GDPR) – insofar as it is no longer required. You also have the right to object at any time to the use of your data based on public or legitimate interests (Art. 21 GDPR). If we process your data on the basis of your consent, you can withdraw this consent at any time with effect for the future (Art. 7 para. 3 GDPR). Upon receipt of your revocation, we will no longer process your data for the purposes specified in the consent. If you wish to make use of your rights as a data subject, please address your request to CARFAX Europe GmbH Barthstraße 2-10 80339 Munich, Germany privacy@carfax.eu 10. Right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority You can also lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority at any time in accordance with Art. 77 (1) GDPR. For us, this is generally the Bavarian State Office for Data Protection Supervision, Promenade 18, 91522 Ansbach, P.O. Box 1349, 91504 Ansbach, e-mail: poststelle@lda.bayern.de, telephone: +49 (0) 981 180093-0, is responsible for us. Alternatively, you can contact your local supervisory authority. 11. Security of the processing We protect personal data that we process through appropriate technical and organizational measures designed to ensure a level of protection appropriate to the risk of processing your personal data. We will notify you or your company of any security incident involving your personal data by email, telephone or other means, in accordance with applicable law. Status Dicember 2024 This privacy policy is subject to constant review and CARFAX reserves the right to make changes at any time.
CARFAX Europe GmbH
Barthstraße 2-10
80339 Munich
Email: info@carfax.eu
(hereinafter referred to as “CARFAX”, “we”, “us”).

Contact Details of the Data Protection Officer

Martin Holzhofer
Holzhofer Consulting GmbH
Lochhamer Str. 31
82152 Planegg, Germany
Tel.: +49 89 125 01 56 00
Email: privacy@carfax.eu
Website: https://www.holzhofer-consulting.de

Website: https://www.holzhofer-consulting.de/index_en.php

Purposes for Which Personal Data Is to Be Processed and the Legal Basis for Processing the Data

Purposes for Data Processing

CARFAX processes personal data pursuant to Article 5 GDPR.

In particular, CARFAX processes vehicle identification numbers (VINs) to identify specific vehicles and provide interested parties with information about the vehicle history of used vehicles. In some countries, a vehicle retains the same license plate throughout its life cycle — in this case, the license plate can also be used to identify a vehicle.

Data Processing on the Basis of Legitimate Interest

In consideration of the rights and freedoms of vehicle keepers and owners, processing will be carried out if this is necessary for the purposes of a legitimate interest of CARFAX Europe GmbH or a third party and this is not overridden by the interests, fundamental rights, and fundamental freedoms that require protection of personal data. Article 6(1)(f) GDPR provides the legal basis in these cases.

CARFAX also processes data so that its services can contribute to the general improvement of fraud prevention measures and to the fight against organized crime in the international trade of used vehicles. Increased transparency relating to used vehicles leads to increased road safety, which is in the public interest. Finally, CARFAX has a legitimate economic interest in data processing in relation to the sale of its products and services.

CARFAX will provide information regarding any changes to the purposes of data processing pursuant to Article 14(4) GDPR.

Data Recipients and Data Sources

Categories of Recipients of Personal Data (“Third Parties”)

To the extent permitted by law, we share personal data with third parties:

“Third parties” may be any individual or institution interested in receiving information about the life cycle of a used vehicle, including: Individuals and companies who want to buy or sell a used vehicle; companies such as insurance companies who want to insure a used vehicle and therefore need to evaluate the vehicle, or insurance companies dealing with traffic accidents; investigating authorities; law enforcement agencies; and other third parties.

We also share data with associated companies, in particular our parent company CARFAX Inc. and with subsidiaries within the EU, on a case-by-case basis and subject to certain conditions.

In order to process the personal data for the purposes mentioned above, we appoint the following categories of recipients as data processors as defined in Article 28 GDPR:

Service providers for hosting servers in order to provide web-based services

Software service providers for hosting and operating various software (e.g. for the support ticket system and document management system)

Data Sources

CARFAX currently has a database comprising over four billion data records collected from various sources, including government departments, regulatory authorities, service and repair workshops, inspection companies, car dealers, online marketplaces, and many others.

Categories of Personal Data That are Processed

The specific categories of personal data are the vehicle identification number (VIN) and license plate, which can be traced to an identifiable individual. Pursuant to GDPR, an identifiable natural person is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly, “in particular by reference to … an identification number…” — see Article 4(1) GDPR. Using the 17-digit VIN or the license plate, it is possible in principle to identify the keeper and/or the owner of a vehicle — but only if a request is submitted to the competent authority and if the request is related to traffic law issues. CARFAX never collects or processes identification and contact information of keepers, owners, possessors, drivers or passengers of vehicles. Furthermore, CARFAX does not process any special categories of personal data.

In addition to the VIN and the license plate, CARFAX processes event-based data about the vehicle (e.g. registration, change of ownership, damage, repairs, mileage, residual value and service data, type of usage) as well as technical and non-technical vehicle features, and provides third parties with requested information about a used vehicle.

Retention Period and Criteria for Determining Such a Period

Pursuant to Article 5(1)(e) GDPR, personal data shall be 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.

CARFAX stores information relevant to the vehicle and the personal data mentioned above for an indefinite period. It is necessary to store this data indefinitely in order to prevent the crime of transferring the VIN of a vehicle that is to be scrapped (for example) to another vehicle which has been involved in an accident and is no longer deemed roadworthy, but is being repaired in order to be illegally returned to the used vehicle trade.

Only by storing this data indefinitely can competent authorities detect this crime and prevent these vehicles from returning to circulation as seemingly roadworthy vehicles. The purpose of storing this data is therefore considered not to be fulfilled, meaning the data may be stored for an indefinite period.

CARFAX also provides used car histories for vintage vehicles. Vehicles that are over 30 years old are considered to be vintage vehicles.

Data Transfer to a Third Country

Data is transferred to countries outside the EU and the European Economic Area (“third countries”) as part of administering, developing and operating IT systems. Data will only be transferred on the basis of:

An adequacy decision by the European Commission as defined in Article 45 GDPR.

An approved certification mechanism pursuant to Article 42 GDPR together with legally binding and enforceable obligations on the part of the controller or the processor in the third country.

Standard data protection clauses issued by the European Commission in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 93(2) GDPR.

At present, in the context of purchasing a CARFAX service, data will be transferred to countries outside the EU and the European Economic Area (“third countries”) in the following cases:

Transfer of VIN to our parent company CARFAX Inc., 5860 Trinity Parkway, Suite 600, Centreville, VA 20120, USA, only when there is no data in our European database available related to a requested VIN and thereby to give the inquiring party total access to the global database.

Data transfer to Egnyte Inc., 1350 W. Middlefield Road, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA in conjunction with the provision and use of our document management system.

Data transfer to Atlassian Pty Ltd, Level 6, 341 George Street, Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia (Global HQ) in conjunction with the provision of web applications for project management, exchange of knowledge and collaboration.

Data transfer to AWS Inc., 410 Terry Avenue North, Seattle, WA 98109, USA in conjunction with the provision of server hosting and cloud services (although our data is located on servers in Europe, our contractual partner has a parent company based in the USA, meaning the transfer of data cannot be safely ruled out).

Data transfer to MongoDB, Inc., 229 West 43rd Street, New York City, NY 10036, USA in conjunction with support for the open source database MongoDB, a NoSQL database that stores data in JSON-like documents with flexible schemas (although our data is located on servers in Europe, our contractual partner has a parent company based in the USA, meaning the transfer of data cannot be safely ruled out).

For the USA, the European Commission has issued an adequacy decision according to Article 45(3) GDPR, which applies to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework (DPF). For data exports to recipients in the USA that are certified according to the DPF, the level of data protection is thus considered adequate. Slack, Microsoft and Atlassian are certified under the DPF and thus committed to complying with European data protection principles.

Automated Decision-Making including Profiling

CARFAX Europe GmbH does not employ automated individual decision-making, including profiling, pursuant to Article 22(1) and (4) GDPR.

Information about Data Subjects’ Rights

Unless otherwise specified, CARFAX Europe GmbH, Barthstraße 2-10, 80339 Munich, Germany, is the data controller.

You can obtain information from us at any time, provided that the legal requirements are met (Article 15 GDPR) about the data stored about you and request that it be rectified (Article 16 GDPR) where there are errors. You can also request that processing be restricted (Article 18 GDPR), that the data you have given us be provided in a machine-readable format (data portability) (Article 20 GDPR) or that your data be erased (Article 17 GDPR) if it is no longer required.

Furthermore, you have the right to object to the use of your data based on public or legitimate interest (Article 21 GDPR) at any time.

If you wish to exercise your rights as a data subject, please contact:

CARFAX Europe GmbH Barthstraße 2-10 80339 Munich Germany privacy@carfax.eu

Right to Lodge a Complaint with a Supervisory Authority

You can also contact a supervisory authority at any time to lodge a complaint. The Bayerisches Landesamt für Datenschutzaufsicht (Bavarian State Office for Data Protection Supervision), P.O. Box 1349, 91504 Ansbach, Germany, is the competent authority for CARFAX Europe GmbH. Alternatively, you can contact your local supervisory authority.

Version dated: January 2024

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