GarageTouch Inc., A Delaware Corporation ("GarageTouch") has created this Privacy Statement in order to demonstrate our firm commitment to privacy. This Privacy Statement is hereby incorporated in our Terms and Conditions of Use and by registering for our auto mechanic requesting service (the "Service") available via garagetouch.com (the "Site"), you accept the terms of this Privacy Statement.
Notification of Changes
We may update this Privacy Statement from time to time as our services change and expand. If we update this Privacy Statement, we will post the updated User Policy on this page. Unless otherwise provided below, the revised terms will take effect when they are posted. Once any changes that we make to this Privacy Statement become effective, your continued use of the Site after such time will signify your acceptance of the new terms. If we are going to use your Personally Identifiable Information (as defined below) in a manner different from that stated at the time of collection, we will notify you, and you will have a choice as to whether or not we use your Personally Identifiable Information in this different manner. In addition, if we make any material changes in our privacy practices that affect user information already stored in our database, we will notify Users of the change and solicit Users for their express acceptance of that change.
This Site Contains Links to Other Sites
GarageTouch is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of any other web sites to which the Site links or which link to the Site. By clicking on a link, logo, or other item, please note that you may no longer be on the Site. To check what Internet location you are on, note the URL at the top and/or bottom of your browser. We encourage you to read the posted Privacy Statement of that web site whenever interacting with any web site not operated by GarageTouch.
Information We Gather during Registration
If you register to buy or sell services on the Site, we collect and store information that specifically identifies you or your account ("Personally Identifiable Information"). This Personally Identifiable Information is limited to the information necessary to transact business on the Site. At this time, the most information you would be required to submit is information about your repair skills, abilities to perform car repair service, your first name, last name, password, street address, city, state, zip/postal code, country, phone number, and email address. For tax purposes, Professionals are also required to provide their Federal Tax ID or Social Security Number (as applicable in the United States). Buyers and Professionals wishing to pay for various fees or service retainers via credit card are also required to enter a valid credit card number and name as it appears on the credit card. Other information requested on our registration page, including the ability to receive promotional offers from GarageTouch, is optional. We may, in the future, include other optional requests for information from you, to help us to tailor the Site for you and deliver personalized information to you. We may supplement our information with additional information purchased from third parties for marketing purposes. Credit card information will be transmitted via SSL encryption for your protection. We shall retain your Personally Identifiable Information for a period of seven years from the date upon which it is collected/the date upon which you cease conducting transactions on the Site.
Call and SMS Data
Our Services facilitate communication between Buyers and Professionals. In connection with facilitating this service, we received call data, including the date and time of the call or SMS message, the parties' phone numbers, and the content of the SMS message.
Online Order Placement and Management
The private and shared areas of the Site help to facilitate communication and the exchange and sharing of information between Buyers and Professionals once a work order has been created and accepted. The information contained in work orders is accessible by GarageTouch, the contracting Buyer, and the contracting Professional. GarageTouch may use non-Personally Identifiable Information from a work order (e.g., the scope of work or spend limit) for statistical analysis, product development, marketing, and research. GarageTouch reserves the right to monitor communications throughout our Site, and if we believe that a User is violating any of our agreements; international, federal or state laws; and/or our stated policies, we may terminate such usage.
Affiliates
If you sign up under one of the GarageTouch affiliate or referral programs, you will be required to provide: a User ID, a password, email address, city, state, country and zip/postal code. The referral program requests the User ID of a referrer and your phone number as optional information. The affiliate program will also require a contact name, phone number, street address, phone number, tax classification, and, for US Affiliates only, your Social Security Number for tax purposes. It further requests the URL of your web site, the number of registered Users on your site, and a brief general description of your site. We will use this information for our own internal purposes, including evaluating and developing new features that better meet the needs of our affiliates. We will use the email address that you provide to us to contact you regarding the status of your affiliate or referral program account, and we will use the address that you provide to us to send you any payments owed to you under the terms of the affiliate or referral programs.
Online Surveys and Contests
Occasionally, GarageTouch conducts online user surveys to collect information about our Users' preferences. These surveys are optional, and if you choose to respond, your responses will be kept anonymous. Similarly, we may offer contests to qualifying Users in which we ask for contact and demographic information such as name, email address, and mailing address. None of this information is shared with third parties, except in summary form, if at all. The demographic information that GarageTouch collects in the registration process and through online surveys is used to help us improve our services to meet the needs and preferences of our Users. This may include targeting advertising to you about our services. Information we gather through a contest may also be disclosed to third parties as necessary for prize fulfillment and other aspects of any contest or similar offering.
The GarageTouch Payment System
GarageTouch offers a payment system that allows Buyers and Professionals to pay with a credit card (the "Payment System"). If you make use of the Payment System, GarageTouch will collect your credit card number and/or other entered financial institution information and will use that information to bill your membership fee and/or to perform the billing operation on behalf of the Professional, including but not limited to the use and disclosure of such credit card number and information to third parties as necessary to complete such billing operation.
Automatically Gathered Information
GarageTouch automatically collects your browser type and browser software version to tailor the presentation of the services to your browser and to maintain a record of your activity on the Site. GarageTouch uses cookies to enable Users to specify unique preferences and to track User trends and patterns. Users always have the option of disabling cookies via their browser preferences. If you disable cookies on your browser, please note that some parts of our Site may not function as effectively or may be considerably slower. As an automatic process, our web server software records a log file of IP addresses that access the Site. We also collect IP address information but do not ordinarily link IP addresses to Users' Personally Identifiable Information. However, we can and will use IP addresses to identify a User when we, in our sole discretion, determine that it is necessary to enforce compliance with our various policies or to protect our service, Site, customers, or others.
Service Professional Profile
As part of registration, you may set up your Profile describing your experience, rates, and qualifications. Some of the information requested in the Profile registration is mandatory. If you decide to offer your services through GarageTouch, potential Buyers will look to your Profile to help them decide whether to make use of your services.
How We Use Registration Information
We use Personally Identifiable Information for our own internal purposes including contacting you via email to inform you about updates to our services and providing you with information relating to e-commerce transactions that you conduct on the Site. We reserve the right to disclose your information as required by law. We do not rent or sell our Users' Personally Identifiable Information to third parties. We do, however, provide you with the opportunity to receive communications via email. You may opt out of receiving marketing emails at any time by modifying the Preferences section of your profile or by clicking on the unsubscribe link in any marketing email you receive from us.
Use of General Data
GarageTouch reserves the right to use the general data it obtains from Users' use of the Site, including all statistical information. You acknowledge that such data belongs to GarageTouch and that GarageTouch shall have the right to use such data as it determines in its sole discretion.
Advertising
We may send you email communications including information that we may think may be of interest to you. You may opt out of receiving these marketing emails by clicking on the unsubscribe link in any marketing email you receive from us.
Co-Branded Services
GarageTouch enters into co-branding relationships with third-party web sites and companies to provide products and services to our Users. GarageTouch may share your Personally Identifiable Information, including User ID and password, with certain co-branded third-party service or product Professionals as required to provide a specific product or service that you request from a co-branded page or co-branded site. However, these third-party partners may not use this Personally Identifiable Information for any reason other than to provide the service or product that the user has explicitly signed up for. If you join GarageTouch through a co-branded site (e.g., on a co-branded registration page), it is GarageTouch's general policy not to share anything other than summarized or aggregated data with the partner; however, any Personally Identifiable Information you provide may also be received by the co-branded site and could be stored and used by the co-branded service or product provider according to their privacy policy. Please take the time to review these third-party privacy policies.
Third Party Intermediaries
We use an outside credit card processing company to bill Users for retainers and services. We believe these companies do not retain, share, store, or use Personally Identifiable Information for any secondary purposes. GarageTouch uses commercially reasonable efforts to restrict the third party vendors from using Personally Identifiable Information for purposes unrelated to the provision of services to GarageTouch.
Professionals
Work orders placed on GarageTouch are completed by third-party Professionals. We may share the email addresses, phone numbers, or addresses of Buyers and Professionals once a project is awarded on our Site to enable work on the project to be completed. These third party Professionals are not allowed to use Personally Identifiable Information except for the purpose of providing these services.
Comments Submitted by Users
GarageTouch constantly seeks to improve the quality of the services we provide and the user experience on the Site. We value your input and encourage you to help us expand and make improvements to the Site by providing us with any thoughts or comments you might have regarding our services or the operation of the Site. You can submit any comments you have to us by clicking on the comment link. When sending us comments we may receive your email address or User ID and the country in which you are located. This information is optional. If you provide this information, we will only use it to acknowledge or respond to your comments. Submitting comments via an email will not cause you to receive any secondary or promotional material, unless specifically requested by you. In certain circumstances, we may ask for your permission to post your comments in marketing or promotional materials.
Security
We will use commercially reasonable methods to keep Personally Identifiable Information securely in our files and systems. Our Payment Site is operated using secure Internet connections, using SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) encryption, to help protect your financial data. We cannot, however, guarantee the security of your Personally Identifiable Information, particularly, as it travels over the Internet. As such, we encourage you to exercise caution in determining what information you disclose via the Internet.
Terminating Your Account
We save your Personally Identifiable Information until your account with us is terminated. To terminate account, contact GarageTouch Customer Service as indicated on our contact page. If you terminate your account, your Personally Identifiable Information cannot be recovered, and you may continue to receive email communications for a short period of time until we have updated all of our databases. After termination of your account, your Personally Identifiable Information may remain on our archived database and records for a reasonable time as residual information. We will not use this residual information for business development purposes but may retain it and use it in connection with internal business purposes, such as internal record keeping and legal compliance. We will maintain information on Users who have been removed for violating any of our User Policies.
Correcting/Updating Your Information and Opting Out
This Site gives the following options for changing and modifying information previously provided.
1. You may update your registration information using the appropriate tools in the GarageTouch navigation bar.
2. You may update your credit card information using the appropriate page on the Site.
3. GarageTouch retains Personally Identifiable Information and other data in accordance with its data retention policies.For other requests, please contact info@garagetouch.com.
Transmittal of Data
We reserve the right to transmit into the United States any and all data that is submitted by Users outside the United States, including but not limited to Personally Identifiable Information, and you hereby expressly consent to the foregoing.
Legal Disclaimer
Though we make every effort to preserve User privacy, we may need to disclose your Personally Identifiable Information when required by law, or when we have a good-faith belief that such action is necessary to comply with a current judicial proceeding, a court order, or legal process.
Contacting Us
If you have any questions about this Privacy Statement or the practices of this Site, you may contact us at info@garagetouch.com.