Privacy Policy

1. This site www.automotivecouncil.co.uk is owned and operated by The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders Limited. SMMT is located at 71 Great Peter Street, London, SW1P 2BN. Should you have any queries or concerns regarding use of your personal data, please contact our Data Protection Officer by writing to the address above or e-mail dataprotectweb@smmt.co.uk.

2. SMMT is keen to ensure that it complies with its obligations under the Data Protection Act 1998 (‘DPA’) and that the privacy of visitors to its web sites is respected. This Privacy Policy describes SMMT’s current practices with regard to Personal Data collected by the SMMT from you directly and/or through www.automotivecouncil.co.uk (‘website’).

3. Protecting your privacy is extremely important to us and to that end, SMMT will act in accordance with current legislation and aim to meet current internet best practice.

Personal Data

4. Personal data is defined as data consisting of information which relates to a living individual who can be identified from that information and includes for example your name, address, telephone number and e-mail address. You may at any time submit a written request, together with payment of the requisite fee, to the Data Protection Officer at SMMT for a copy of the personal data held about you. For further information please e-mail dataprotectweb@smmt.co.uk.

By submitting Personal Data to SMMT you give your consent that such data may be processed by SMMT in the manner and for the purposes described below.

How is Data Collected and Used?

5. SMMT collects personal data on this site when such data is submitted by you to us during the registration process for the secure ‘log in’ area or for the receipt of emails. The personal data you provide will only be used by SMMT to process your registration or request. Your data will only be held for as long as it is necessary to administer your registration or request and will not be passed to anyone outside of SMMT without first obtaining your consent.

Marketing and Consent

6. During the registration process or at any point where personal data is collected by us about you, you may be asked to indicate your preference regarding SMMT sending you information about other SMMT products or services. You will only be sent information if you have given your consent to receive it and if having given your consent you later change your mind, you are free at any time to amend your details to remove your consent, or simply email us at privacyweb@smmt.co.uk and we will amend your preference for you.

Sharing Personal Data with Third Parties

7. In certain special cases, for example where we have reason to believe that disclosing this information is necessary to identify, contact or bring legal action against someone who may be causing to you, or otherwise injuring or interfering with SMMT’s rights, property or operations, other users of this site, or anyone else who could be harmed by such activities, your personal data may be disclosed to the proper authorities. We may also disclose your personal data when we believe the law requires it, or in response to any demand by law enforcement authorities in connection with a criminal investigation, or civil or administrative authorities in connection with a pending civil case or administrative investigation. In all other cases SMMT does not share personal data with third parties. The personal data you supply will only be used by us to fulfill your request and may be used internally by us for legitimate business purposes, such as for example, improvements to the web site.

Aggregated Data

8. SMMT aggregates personal data collected during the registration process and uses this together with the information collected via the use of ‘cookies’ to track data such as the total number of visits to our web sites, visitors to each page of our web sites, and the domain names of our visitors’ internet service providers. Third parties may be used to assist SMMT with the aggregation process and the analysis of subsequent data obtained. We use this information, which remains in aggregate form, to improve and understand how our visitors use our web sites. NO PERSONAL DATA IS DISCLOSED IN THIS PROCESS.

Cookies

9. SMMT may place a ‘cookie’ on your computer’s browser. Cookies are small text files, which provide us with information about how often someone visits our site, and what they do during those visits. Cookies do not themselves collect any personal data but if you provide such information to any of our web sites, for example by registering with us, it may be linked to the data stored in the cookie. Where such data is used to produce aggregated data; NO PERSONAL DATA IS DISCLOSED IN THIS PROCESS.

Use of IP Addresses

10. An Internet Protocol (IP) Address is a set of numbers that is automatically assigned to your computer whenever you log onto your internet service provider or through your organisation’s local area network (LAN) or wide are network (WAN). Web servers automatically identify your computer by the IP address assigned to it during your session. SMMT may collect IP addresses for the purposes of systems administration and to audit the use of our site. We do not ordinarily link a user’s IP address to personally identifiable information of that user. Each user’s session will be logged, but the user remains anonymous. However, we may use IP addresses to identify users of our site when we feel it is necessary to enforce compliance with the site’s terms of use, or to protect our service, site or other users.

Security

11. SMMT operates secure data networks protected by industry standard firewall and password protection. SMMT has security measures in place to attempt to protect against the loss, misuse and alteration of your user data under our control. Employees who have access to Personal Data have been trained to handle such data properly and in accordance with our security protocols and strict standards of confidentiality. Although we cannot guarantee against any loss, misuse, unauthorised disclosure, alteration or destruction of data, we try to prevent such unfortunate occurrences.

Amendments

12. Any changes to this privacy policy will be communicated promptly on this page, and in accordance with the preceding Terms of Use.

Link to other web sites

13. www.automotivecouncil.co.uk contains hyperlinks to web sites that are not operated by us. These hyperlinks are provided for your reference and convenience only and do not imply any endorsement of the activities of these third-party web sites or any association with their operators. SMMT does not control these web sites and is not responsible for their data or privacy practices. You are strongly advised to review any privacy policy posted on any site you visit before using the site or provide any Personal Data about yourself.

Transfer of Personal Data Abroad

14. SMMT does not transfer data outside of the European Economic Area. Visitors are advised to note however that if you are visiting www.automotivecouncil.co.uk from a country other than the country in which our server is located (currently, the United Kingdom), the various communications will necessarily result in the transfer of information across international boundaries. By visiting www.automotivecouncil.co.uk and communicating electronically with us, you consent to these transfers.

Office of the Information Commissioner (OIC)

15. OIC is the government body responsible for enforcing the Data Protection Act 1998, in the UK. Their web site is located at www.dataprotection.gov.uk. Should you require further details regarding the purposes for which SMMT is registered to use personal data under this Act, details of SMMT’s notification can be viewed on the public register at http://www.dpr.gov.uk/search.html.