Privacy Policy
We respect your privacy and are committed to protecting it. This privacy policy explains our policies and practices regarding customer information, including why we collect customer information, how we use and safeguard it, and how you can contact us to access your customer information or if you have any questions or concerns about our privacy practices. Please take the time to read this privacy policy. By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with our Privacy Policy, please do not provide us with any personal information. If you are interested in our collection of information on our website, please click here to go to How We Collect Information on our Website.
Table of Contents:
Information about Ford of Canada
How to Contact Us and Concern Resolution
Why We Collect and How We Use Customer Information
Types of Customer Information We Collect and Use
How We Collect Customer Information
How We Collect Information on our Website
How We Share Customer Information with Ford Credit, your Dealer and Our Agents
How You Can Opt Out of Further Marketing Communications
Security and Accuracy of Customer Information
Access to and Rectification of Your Personal Information
Effective Date and Revisions
Information about Ford of Canada:
Ford Motor Company of Canada, Limited (Ford of Canada) is a manufacturer of vehicles, engines, and automotive accessories and a distributor of aftermarket automotive parts and service products. This privacy policy applies to our brands, Ford, Lincoln and Mercury and their associated brands and products, Quality Care Auto Service, Fast Lane Tire & Auto Centre, Roadside Assistance, and Motorcraft. Our automotive products are distributed to you through our network of Ford and Ford Lincoln dealers, independently owned and operated businesses which may have their own privacy policies and procedures. Our affiliated company, Ford Credit Canada Limited (Ford Credit) provides vehicle financing and related financial products and services. Please contact Ford Credit at its Customer Service Centre, 1-877-636-7316, or click here for more information about Ford Credit and its privacy policy www.fordcredit.ca.
How to Contact Us and Concern Resolution:
If you have any questions, comments, concerns or complaints about privacy and the handling of your personal information, please contact us at our Customer Relationship Centre (CRC), 1-800-565-FORD (3673). We are committed to working with you to obtain a fair and rapid resolution of any complaints or disputes about privacy and the handling of your personal information and are happy to respond to your questions and comments. If after contacting our CRC you still have unresolved concerns with respect to our handling of your personal information, please write to our Privacy Officer:
Ford Motor Company of Canada, Limited
The Canadian Road
P.O Box 2000
Oakville, Ontario, Canada
L6J 5E4
Attention: Privacy Officer
If you have completed the above process and we have been unable to resolve your concern, you may file a complaint with the federal Privacy Commissioner of Canada or the appropriate provincial privacy officer. For more information, please go to http://www.privcom.gc.ca.
Why We Collect and How We Use Customer Information:
Ford of Canada collects, stores and uses information about you for the following reasons:
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to establish, maintain and improve our customer relationship with you and provide you with offers, incentives, marketing programs or promotional material about us and our automotive products and services, such as coupons, brochures and newsletters, including our e-newsletter
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to more effectively market to you our vehicles, vehicle parts, accessories and services by better understanding your automotive product and service needs and preferences
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to assist in administering your vehicle purchase, lease, warranty, any extended service plan, roadside assistance, or ongoing vehicle service, including advising you of any product recalls or customer notifications with respect to your vehicle, arranging for Ford of Canada dealers to obtain required vehicles and parts on a timely basis to meet your needs, and through our CRC working to resolve your concerns
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to improve the automotive products and services we offer through customer surveys conducted by us and participation in market research studies conducted by third parties
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to provide you with services you request and respond to your comments, concerns or requests for information, through our website, www.ford.ca, such as requests for product brochures, or through our CRC, including identifying you and establishing your ownership of the vehicle or contacting you if required
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to assist our dealers to meet your automotive product and services needs such as providing you with offers, service reminders, marketing programs or promotional materials and assistance where you need to export or import your vehicle
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to provide you with offers and information about related automotive products offered by others which we think may be of interest to you
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to meet our legal obligations, assist in law enforcement purposes, and protect the business interests of Ford of Canada and our customers.
Vehicle Data Recorders
Service data recorders in your vehicle are capable of collecting and storing diagnostic information about your vehicle. This potentially includes information about the performance or status of various systems and modules in the vehicle, such as engine, throttle, steering or brake systems. In order to properly diagnose and service your vehicle, both we and service and repair facilities may access vehicle diagnostic information through a direct connection to your vehicle when diagnosing or servicing your vehicle.
Other modules in your vehicle, event data recorders (EDR), are capable of collecting and storing data during a crash or near crash event. The recorded information may assist in the investigation of such an event. The modules may record information about both the vehicle and the occupants, potentially including information such as:
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how various systems in your vehicle were operating;
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whether or not the driver and passenger seatbelts were buckled;
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how far (if at all) the driver was depressing the accelerator and/or the brake pedal;
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how fast the vehicle was traveling; and
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where the driver was positioning the steering wheel.
To access EDR information, special equipment must be directly connected to the recording modules. We do not access EDR information without obtaining consent, unless pursuant to court order or where required by law enforcement, other government authorities or other third parties acting with lawful authority. Other parties may seek to access the information independently of us.
When you call our CRC or when we call you, it is our general practice to monitor and/or record such calls for staff training and quality assurance purposes.
Personal information is retained as long as required to fulfill these purposes. We have established retention policies and procedures to ensure that when the retention period expires, your personal information will be removed from our systems and destroyed in a secure manner.
Types of Customer Information We Collect and Use:
We collect the following types of customer information about you or relating to your automotive sales or service experience for the purposes set out above:
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information which enables us to identify and communicate with you including name, address, phone number, e-mail address, language preference, and title
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information which enables us to offer you products which better meet your needs including demographic such as birth date, education level, occupation, marital and family status, purchase preferences and interests
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information about your vehicle ownership including VIN, license plate number, applicable vehicle incentives, new or used, lease or purchase, any trade-in, odometer reading, make, model, model year and vehicle details, recalls, and customer notification programs, your selected dealer, and whether you have disposed of a Ford, Lincoln or Mercury vehicle
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information about your vehicle service, including warranty and paid repair data, your selected dealer and extended service plan or roadside assistance for your vehicle
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information you provide us about you and your purchase, lease or service experience and competitive vehicle ownership or purchase intentions through our Customer Viewpoint survey, our website, www.ford.ca, contests, test drives or other promotions or incentives, or through our CRC
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financial and credit information about you shared with us by Ford Credit when you have provided your consent
How We Collect Customer Information:
Directly From You
We obtain information directly from you such as when you complete our Customer Viewpoint surveys, participate in a contest, test drive, focus group or other promotion, campaign or event, purchase roadside assistance or extended service plan or contact our CRC. We may also obtain information directly from you through our website.
From Our Dealers
When you acquire a new or Quality Certified Ford, Lincoln or Mercury vehicle from our dealers, the dealer provides us with the following information about you and your vehicle to enable us to administer your purchase:
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your name, address, telephone number, email address and language preference
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VIN and vehicle details, odometer reading, sale date, warranty start date
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Lease or purchase and applicable incentive information
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Any trade in VIN and odometer reading
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Extended service plan coverage
When you service your vehicle at our dealers, your dealer may also provide us with information regarding your service experience including your name, contact information, VIN, service date, and transactional information such as repair type, completion date, and odometer reading.
If you do not want us to use this information to contact you for sales or marketing purposes or to request you complete a survey with respect to your experience and would like to limit our use of this information solely to administration of your vehicle purchase or service, warranty, extended service plan, roadside assistance and resolving your concerns, please contact our CRC at 1-800-565-FORD (3673).
From Ford Credit
When you lease a vehicle from Ford Credit, where you have provided your consent, Ford Credit provides us with your contact information and information about your finance or lease contract so that we may offer you automotive or financial services products that may be of interest to you. Please contact Ford Credit at its Customer Service Centre, 1-877-636-7316, if you no longer wish us to receive any personal information from Ford Credit about you.
From Other Parties
We may acquire a list of names and addresses, which may include your name and address where you have given your consent, from list vendors to send promotions or product information to the names on the list. We also have relationships with third parties with whom we conduct joint marketing activities such as contests through which we may obtain your name and address and other information about you with your consent. These activities clearly identify the other parties involved and provide information about their privacy practices. Any such other parties are bound by their privacy policy, not ours.
To ensure our database addresses remain accurate, we also obtain address information from third party licensed data providers for National Change of Address and other authorized parties.
How We Collect Information on Our Website:
When you visit our website, we do not collect any personally identifiable information about you unless you provide it to us. All the information on our site is available for you to review without providing us with any personal information. If you do not agree with our privacy policy, please do not provide us with any personal information through our website.
Nonpersonally Identifiable Information:
Through our website, we collect nonpersonally identifiable information. This means that we do not track this information on an individual basis that identifies you but rather collect this information on an aggregate basis that includes all site visitors. Your visit automatically generates session log data consisting of the Internet Protocol (IP) address from which you came (which contains no personal information), the website that referred you, the pages you visited, the date and time of those visits, the amount of time spent on our site, and the vehicles you configure and store. We use this information to perform analytics on users' experience while using the site and to improve the functionality of our website to better meet user wants and needs, identify popular features, and measure site activity including peak site usage times, page visits and click throughs. We may share these site metrics which are not personal information with our affiliated companies, service providers and others.
Cookies, Web Beacons and Advertisements
Our website uses "cookies", web beacons/GIF/pixel tags, third-party advertising networks that serve ads and other tracking technologies to collect aggregate or other nonpersonally identifiable information to develop website metrics and improve your online experience.
Our website may use session and/or persistent cookies to track user movement or other events across the website and the website of related companies and business partners. A "cookie" is a small text file that helps us in many ways to make your visit to our website more enjoyable. There are a couple of different types of cookies. A session cookie is stored only on your computer's working memory (RAM) and only lasts for your browsing session. When you close all your browser's windows or shut down your computer, the session cookie disappears forever. A persistent cookie is stored on your computer's hard drive until a specified date which could be tomorrow, next week, or ten years from now. Persistent cookies stay on your computer until either they expire, they are overwritten by new cookies, or you manually remove them. Most browsers can be configured not to accept cookies, however, this may prevent you from having access to some site functions or features.
This site may use web beacons/GIF/pixel tags to help us determine site metrics such as if a page has been viewed and how many times. In general, any electronic image viewed as part of a web page, including an ad banner, can act as a web beacon. When you ask us to send you information on a product or a newsletter, we may also use web beacons to establish how many of the emails are actually opened.
You may also be directed to our site through banner ads or site links. Banner ads or site links that are placed by us use cookies or web beacons to deliver metrics on the effectiveness of the ads or links but do not collect any personally identifiable information.
Collection and Use of Personally Identifiable Information on our Website
There are instances where we request personal information such as name, address and e-mail address on our site, such as to provide you with a service, coupon, or correspondence (promotions and mailed brochures), during contests or promotions or where you participate in interactive online activities such as e-newsletter registration or Request a Quote, Brochure or Test Drive. At times we conduct voluntary online surveys to obtain your feedback. We request e-mail address as a means of contacting you if you wish. Any personal information collected is used as set out in this Privacy Policy.
Please remember that if you disclose personally identifiable information through a chat room or message board or other public online forum, this information may be collected and used by others.
Links to other Websites
Our website may contain links to other websites. We encourage you to review the privacy statements of all sites which you visit, including those whose links are provided, so that you can understand how those sites collect, use and share your information. We are not responsible for the privacy statements, content or data handling practices on other websites.
Electronic Mail Sent to Us that Contains Personal Information
You may decide to send to us personally identifying information in an email, for example in a message about your Ford product or service. We will only use this personal information to identify you as a customer and to determine how to respond to your email and try to resolve the matter identified in the email.
How We Share Customer Information with Ford Credit, your Dealer and our Agents:
We do not share, sell or rent your personal information to third parties for their own use without your consent except to Ford or Ford and Lincoln dealers as set out below. We require our suppliers, service providers, contractors and agents who have access to your personal information in connection with its processing or use for us to keep the information confidential and they are not permitted to use your personal information for any other purpose than to carry out the services they are performing for us. To improve our products and services, we share your name, contact information and vehicle details with third parties who contact you to conduct market research studies on our behalf and are contractually bound to only use your personal information for that purpose.
We share with your Ford or Ford and Lincoln dealer personal information that you have previously provided to your dealer, updated for accuracy, if we have more accurate information from you or a third party licensed data provider for National Change of Address, and with your consent, information that you provide to our CRC in order to assist you to resolve any issues or concerns you may have. We may also share your personal information with Ford or Ford and Lincoln dealers from whom you have requested an online service such as a test drive or quote to assist them to better meet your needs. If you have not specified a Ford or Ford and Lincoln dealer or you have not purchase or leased a vehicle from an existing dealer, we may share with the Ford or Ford Lincoln dealer who has responsibility for the market area in which you reside the personal information which you have provided to us, such as when you request a brochure or enter a contest, so that the dealer may contact you. Collection, use and disclosure of your personal information by the dealer(s) will be subject to the dealer's privacy policy.
We share with Ford Credit personal information that you have provided to us and Ford Credit may use this information to contact you regarding the administration of your lease and for marketing purposes.
We may also disclose your personal information where we are required or permitted by law to do so. In such a case, we will release personal information only to the extent required. In addition, personal information may be disclosed or transferred to a third party during the course of, or completion of, a change in ownership of or the grant of a security interest in, all or a part of Ford of Canada through, for example, an asset or share sale, or some other form of business combination, merger or joint venture, provided that such party is bound by appropriate agreements or obligations and required to use or disclose your personal information in a manner consistent with the use and disclosure provisions of this Privacy Policy, unless you consent otherwise.
How Is Privacy Managed at Ford and Ford/Lincoln Dealers in Canada
Each dealership operation is a separate legal entity, independent from Ford of Canada. As such, each dealership has its own privacy practices and Ford of Canada is not responsible for these privacy practices. We recommend that you review the privacy practices of the Ford of Canada Dealer with whom you are dealing to ensure that you understand their privacy practices and procedures. When completing a purchase or lease agreement with a Ford of Canada Dealer you should be provided with information relating to the Dealership's privacy practices and explaining that certain personal information that you provide may be shared with Ford of Canada to be used by Ford of Canada as described in this Privacy Policy.
How You Can Opt Out of Further Marketing Communications:
Where we have an existing business relationship with you or where you have provided your information to us, unless you advise us otherwise, your information may be used for marketing and promotional purposes by us. You may decide that you do not want us to send you any further marketing or promotional communications or share your personal information with Ford Credit or Ford or Ford and Lincoln dealer(s). If this is the case, please contact our CRC at 1-800-565-FORD (3673). You may notify us at any time and your direction will be effective within 30 days. You may, however, no longer receive some offers or information of value to you. It is important for you to know that even if you choose to withdraw your consent, we will continue to use and disclose your personal information to meet legal and contractual obligations such as honour your warranty and send you recall notifications.
Security and Accuracy of Customer Information:
Safeguarding your personal information is important to us. We use systems, policies and procedures to protect your personal information from loss, misuse, theft or alteration. Customer information is only accessible by appropriate personnel who have a business need for this information. We provide training to educate our personnel about the meaning and requirements of this privacy policy. When you send personal information to our website, we use "Secure Socket Layers" (SSL) to protect your data. SSL is encryption technology that helps safeguard your personal information against misuse by unauthorized individuals.
We make reasonable efforts to keep your information up to date and accurate such as by using third party licensed data providers for National Change of Address and by updating our records with more current and accurate records from your dealer or Ford Credit. We encourage you, however, to contact our CRC at 1-800-565-FORD (3673) as often as necessary to keep your name, address and vehicle ownership information up to date.
Access to and Rectification of Your Personal Information
You may contact our CRC at 1-800-565-FORD (3673) to review, correct or update certain of your personal information which is easily accessible to our service representatives at the CRC. The information which may be accessible to our service representatives includes your name, address, current or past Ford or Lincoln vehicle ownership, vehicle information such as recalls, and previous contacts to the CRC.
If you wish us to undertake a more comprehensive search of our files, you may notify us in writing at:
Ford Motor Company of Canada, Limited
The Canadian Road
P.O Box 2000
Oakville, Ontario, Canada
L6J 5E4
Attention: Privacy Officer
You will be asked for sufficient personal information for us to verify your identity and the details about the personal information you are interested in prior to us processing your request. There may be a charge for providing this information in which case you will be notified in advance and may withdraw your request or challenge the reasonableness of the charge. We will also be unable to provide you with information which is exempt from disclosure such as personal information about another person, privileged information or confidential commercial information.
Effective Data and Revisions
This Privacy Policy is effective March 17, 2005. Occasionally we may update this Privacy Policy to reflect changes to our privacy practices. If we update this statement, the new statement will be posted to the website ten days prior to the changes taking effect. You may determine when this policy was last updated by referring to the modification date at the bottom of the policy.
Last Modified: March 7, 2005
