PRIVACY POLICY
Effective Date: January, 2025
Please read this Privacy Policy carefully. This Privacy Policy applies to information collected through the various West Herr Automotive Group dealerships and affiliates, their websites and the services and functions therein (“Site”), including, without limitation, all documents and information you supply to us in person or upload via the Site. By visiting the Site, interacting with us in person, by telephone, texting, e-mail, chatbot, or other means, and/or accessing or using the services and functions of the Site, you agree that information that you provide or that is otherwise collected by West Herr, is governed by this Privacy Policy and the applicable terms of use (found here: https://www.westherr.com/terms-of-use/). References in this Privacy Policy to “you” or “your” or variations thereof shall mean individual users of the Site and/or West Herr customers or shoppers, as the case may be, and references to “West Herr,” “we,” “our,” “us,” or variations thereof, shall mean West Herr Automotive Group and its dealerships, service and collision facilities and other affiliates. Streamline Auto Solutions (“Streamline”) is a third-party service provider to West Herr that powers West Herr’s “Shop by Budget” functionality on the Site. Streamline’s collection of personal information is governed by the Streamline Privacy Policy, found on the Streamline “Shop by Budget” page. The term “personal information” as used in this Policy means any information that can reasonably be used to identify an individual or household. “Personal information” does not include information that does not identify you or your household, including de-identified and aggregated information. Additionally, for the purposes of this Policy, a “service provider” is any individual or entity that provides services to West Herr and processes your personal information under a written contract that legally requires the individual or entity to protect your information and not share it with third parties. A “third party” under this Policy is any non-affiliated company that is not a service provider, with whom West Herr may share some of your personal information. More details on third parties with whom we share your information is detailed below.
PERSONAL INFORMATION COLLECTED:
West Herr collects personal information in several ways.
We collect personal information directly from individuals when they interact with us. When using the Site or interacting with us in person, by telephone, email, texting, chatbot, or other means, you may provide a variety of personal information. For example, West Herr may collect personal information such as documents and information used to secure vehicle financing (information obtained from credit applications and credit bureau reports), that may include your first and last name, email address, telephone number, mailing address, date of birth, Social Security number, and personal financial information like credit score and account information. In addition, West Herr may also collect your driver’s license number, for example, in order for you to test drive a West Herr vehicle.
West Herr may also collect answers to questions about the condition of a trade-in vehicle, photos of a trade-in vehicle, and other vehicle information like license plate number and vehicle identification number (VIN).
Certain personal information is automatically collected when you access the Site, including the type of browser software you use, the operating system you’re running, the resolution of your computer monitor, the website that referred you, and your IP address. Your IP address is a numerical address that is used by computers connected to the Internet to identify your computer so that data (such as the web pages you want to view) can be transmitted to you. West Herr also uses IP address information for systems administration and troubleshooting purposes. Your IP address can also provide us information about your location.
We may collect personal information from our service providers and vendors.
We may collect personal information from security cameras and/or other monitoring devices on our premises, including security cameras that may use various functionality features, including, without limitation, face search and people attribute search, as may be allowed by law. The information collected through cameras or monitoring devices, for example license plate number, may constitute personal information, depending on the circumstances.
West Herr may also receive personal information from third parties. For example, the services offered by West Herr may involve the facilitation of communication and information sharing between you and third parties providing or proposing to provide services to you (e.g., vehicle financing). In such cases, West Herr may receive information from such third party that is providing or proposing to provide services to you (e.g., vehicle financing eligibility) and West Herr will only use such received personal information as set forth in its agreements with those third parties.
If you apply for a job with us, we may collect personal information in a number of circumstances. Personal information we may collect includes: name, address, telephone number and other contact information; educational or other credentials, employment history and experience, volunteer work, and other information necessary to evaluate a candidate’s suitability for employment such as Social Security number or work authorization; together with any other information we may collect with your consent or as required by applicable law.
From time to time, we may conduct sweepstakes and contests that are separately governed by their own terms. In relation to such sweepstakes and contests, we may collect personal information, such as your first and last name, email address, and home address. In addition, we may also collect sensitive personal information such as Social Security number. We collect these categories of personal information and sensitive personal information in order to conduct the contest/promotion, notify you if you have won, and/or process delivery of a prize.
HOW WE USE THE PERSONAL INFORMATION WE COLLECT
We may use your personal information for one or more of the following purposes:
To provide you with information, products or services offered by West Herr and by third parties.
To fulfill the purpose for which the personal information is provided, for example, if you provide us with personal information in order to indicate interest in a particular vehicle, promotion or offering.
To provide you with email alerts, text alerts, event registrations and other communications or notices concerning our products or services, or events or news, that may be of interest to you.
To carry out our obligations and enforce our rights arising from any contracts entered into between you and us, including for billing and collections.
To improve the Site and our users’ experience on the Site by providing users with information that is relevant to that specific user.
We may use aggregated and/or de-identified information in order to: (i) determine characteristics of visitors to the Site, which characteristics may be used to improve the Site or its features or to better market the Site or its features; and (ii) determine the popularity or effectiveness of certain features of the Site, and to improve the Site’s appeal to users.
In addition to the uses identified above, West Herr may use your personal information under certain additional circumstances, such as the following: (i) to protect or defend the legal rights or property of West Herr and its corporate affiliates; (ii) to protect the safety and security of users of the West Herr services, West Herr employees, or members of the public, including in urgent circumstances; (iii) to protect against fraud or for risk management purposes; (iv) to comply with applicable law or legal process; or (v) for other lawful purposes, including in relation to the sale of a West Herr business.
HOW WE MAY DISCLOSE THE PERSONAL INFORMATION WE COLLECT
We may disclose your personal information for one or more of the following purposes:
We may disclose your personal information to finance lenders and other third-party service and product providers for the purpose of providing you information and options for financing and/or the purchase of a vehicle, vehicle service repairs and/or other products or services. Please note, these parties may make additional uses of such personal information pursuant to their relationship or agreement with you. In any such case, please contact these other parties directly with any questions as to potential additional use.
We may disclose your personal information to vehicle manufacturers as required by our agreements with the manufacturers.
We may disclose your personal information to insurance companies involved with the purchase and/or repair of a vehicle.
We may disclose your personal information to West Herr dealerships, service and collision shops and other West Herr affiliates, as well as non-affiliated service providers who assist us in operating or improving our services, or in communicating or marketing to you.
We may disclose your personal information to unaffiliated third parties whose products and/or services we believe might be of interest to you.
We may disclose personal information we collect to other entities such as law enforcement, government entities, or courts as required or allowed by applicable law, such as for the legal and safety purposes described under the “How We Use the Personal Information We Collect” Section above, or otherwise to help prevent harm or fraud to us, you, our customers, or other third parties.
In addition, if West Herr sells all or part of its business or sells or transfers all or part of its assets, or is otherwise involved in a merger or transfer of all or part of its business, West Herr may transfer your information to the party or parties involved in the transaction as part of that transaction.
USE OF CHATBOTS
We may use automated chat features, or “chatbots” on our Site. Information collected by a chatbot is used only for the intended purpose stated at the time of collection, such as to answer a specific user question. Our chatbot feature is hosted by a third-party service provider, and any information you provide to us through the chatbot will be processed and stored by the service provider as part of the services it provides to us. We will only collect the information a user submits as part of a chatbot conversation, along with session information described generally above. We recommend that users not submit personal information through the chatbot features unless specifically prompted to do so. We may recommend products based on your questions submitted through the chatbot, if you have a specific question requiring a detailed response, we recommend contacting Customer Service at (716) 649-7711.
COOKIES AND WEB BEACONS
To help West Herr tailor the Site to the needs and interests of its visitors and to make our Site easier for you to use, West Herr keeps track of the pages visited by Site visitors by placing a cookie on their device and then saving certain user inputted information in such cookie. A cookie is a small text file stored on your computer’s hard drive or on your device for the purpose of identifying your web browser during interaction with websites. The cookie contains an ID number that allows West Herr to track the pages you’ve visited and actions you have taken. We specifically use cookies, including cookies administered by third parties, to improve your experience, personalize content ads, and analyze how our Site is used.
If you adjust your browser settings to reject cookies, you may not be able to take advantage of various features on the Site that are available to other visitors. At this time, this Site does not currently honor do no track signals from a browser.
To help maintain information about activity related to the Site, West Herr may use a small file, called a tracking pixel or web beacon. In combination with cookies, web beacons allow West Herr to track, for example, whether web pages are viewed, how often web pages are viewed, and the specific times of day web pages are viewed. We also may use beacons, pixels, tags, re-directs or other logging technologies with email communications. This helps us know whether our communications are reaching you and how best to communicate with you.
The Site uses Google Analytics and West Herr dealership affiliates may use other analytic services from time to time. Google Analytics is a web analytics service offered by Google that tracks and reports website traffic and helps improve upon user experiences with the Site. For more information on how Google may use your data as part of those products, please visit
https://www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners.
USE OF COOKIES AND OTHER TRACKING DEVICES BY THIRD PARTIES
Cookies placed or recognized on your computer’s browser by third-party advertising companies on this Site or other websites are used in conjunction with web beacons on the Site to evaluate online advertising or to tailor promotions and other marketing messages to you. However, you may decline or delete cookies. Please refer to your browser’s Help instructions to learn more about cookies and other technologies and how to manage their use. If you choose to decline cookies, some of the functionality of a website may be impaired.
LINKED SITES
This Site contains links to third-party sites not controlled by West Herr or covered by this Privacy Policy. We recommend that you check the privacy policies of other sites you visit before providing any personal information on those other sites. This includes functions such as the “Garage” function listed on our Site and the “Shop by Budget” function.
SMS OPT-IN AND OUT
When you provide us with your mobile number in relation to a product or service purchased from us, we may use that number to contact you in relation to that product or service. You may also opt into our promotional texting program (“Texting Program”) by providing your mobile phone number and electing to opt-in to our Texting Program. By opting into the Texting Program, you confirm that you are the subscriber or customary user of that mobile phone number provided and affirmatively consent to our use of your mobile phone number for calls and SMS and/or MMS messages (including prerecorded and/or by automatic telephone dialing systems) in order to provide you with marketing and promotional messages. You may opt-out of receiving Text Messages from us by texting “STOP” or another accepted keyword as may be set forth. If you opt-out of the Texting Program, we may send you a text in order to confirm.
Frequency of messages from the Texting Program will vary, and standard message charges or other charges from your wireless carrier may apply. We do not share your mobile number or SMS opt-in or consent data with third parties.
Outside of our Texting Program, if you provide your mobile phone number to one of our staff for contact purposes, one of our sales representatives may use that number to contact you by SMS and/or MMS messages, for example in relation to a vehicle you are interested in or in relation to services we provide to you.
SECURITY
West Herr has adopted reasonable administrative, physical and technical measures to protect your personal information. However, no network, website or communication using the Internet is perfectly secure, no physical or electronic security measure is impenetrable and no amount or type of security can prevent all unauthorized access, use or disclosure. Accordingly, West Herr cannot guarantee absolute security, nor can West Herr guarantee that personal information you supply won’t be intercepted while being transmitted to or from West Herr over the Internet. West Herr makes no representations or warranties regarding the security of any personal information you submit through the Site, which you do at your own risk.
CHILDREN
The Site is not intended for children under the age of 13. Children under 13 should not use the Site for any purpose, even with the permission of their parents, and West Herr does not intend to collect personal information from children under 13. If we are informed that we have inadvertently collected or received such information, we will delete it. West Herr will only process personal information collected online of children between 13-17 years old when strictly necessary to provide or maintain a specific product or service requested, to perform other activities deemed strictly necessary by law, or with consent.
CONTACTING US
If you have questions about this Policy or how we process your personal information, you can contact us by email at privacymanager@westherr.com or by writing to the address below:
West Herr Automotive Group, Inc.
ATTN: Privacy Manager
3552 Southwestern Boulevard
Orchard Park, New York 14127
