Privacy Policy

What information do we collect about you?

We collect information about you when you register with us or place an order for products or services.  We also collect information when you voluntarily complete customer surveys, provide feedback and participate in competitions.  Website usage information is collected using cookies.

If you are asked to give personal information on our pages, such as for example your name, address, phone number or email address, you will be given an opportunity to consent to how your data is used.

The information we collect includes some or all of the following:

1. Name (including title);

2. Address;

3. Phone number;

4. Date of birth;

5. Email address;

6. Vehicle information (including registration number, VIN, service reminders, mileage and warranty repair information);

7. The date and time you used our services;

8. The pages you visited on our website and how long you visited us for;

9. Your IP address;

10. Your GPS location (where you have permitted access to this);

11. The internet browser and devices you are using;

12. Cookie, Pixels or Beacon information (for more information please see our Cookie Policy);

13. The website address from which you accessed our website;

14. Where you engage with us in a business context, we may collect your job title, company contact details (including email addresses), fleet size and company details;

15. Voice recordings of calls you make to our centres;

16. CCTV footage if you have visited our centre;

17. “Live chat” records; and

18. Any information within correspondence you send to us in any form. 

How will we use the information about you?

We will use your data to provide you with the product or service you have requested. 

We will, with your consent, use your data for marketing purposes, conducting surveys and providing you with information on our products or services.  You have a right at any time to stop us from contacting you for marketing purposes.  If you no longer wish to be contacted for marketing purposes, please click here or, in relation to any marketing messages you receive, by using the unsubscribe option included in those messages.

Any personal information we have gathered will not be shared with anyone outside of Volkswagen Group United Kingdom or other companies that provide us with services or our group companies.  Where you supply us your personal information, we will tell you what we plan to do with your information.

There are various ways in which we may use or process your personal information. We list these below:

Consent:

Where you have provided your consent, we may use and process your information to:

1. Contact you from time to time about promotions, events, products, services or information which we think may be of interest to you (don’t worry, we won’t bombard you);

Contractual performance

We may use and process your personal information where this is necessary to perform a contract with you and to fulfil and complete your orders, purchases and other transactions entered into with us (or one of our selected partners).

Legitimate Interests

We may use and process your personal information as set out below where it is necessary for us to carry out activities for which it is in our legitimate interests as a business to do so.

Processing necessary for us to support customers with sales and other enquiries

1. To respond to correspondence you send to us and fulfil the requests you make to us, for example: test drives or requesting a courtesy car (this may include providing your National Insurance number to carry out a driving licence check), service requests, brochure requests or information about vehicles; 

2. To provide vehicle support and services and to share with Volkswagen Group United Kingdom or other selected partners in order to provide those services (for example: warranty services);

Processing necessary for us to respond to understanding customers’ and drivers’ needs

3. To analyse, evaluate and improve our products and services so that your visit and use of our website, applications or other services, are more useful and enjoyable (we will generally use data amalgamated from many people so that it doesn’t identify you personally);

4. To undertake market analysis and research (including contacting you with customer surveys) so that we can better understand you as a customer and provide tailored offers, products and services that we think you will be interested in. We will only send marketing communications to you if you have provided your consent for us to do so or we have obtained in the ways mentioned in paragraph 5 below;

Processing necessary for us to promote our business, brands and products and measure the reach and effectiveness of our campaigns

5. To send you marketing information from time to time after you have purchased a product or service from us or made a purchasing enquiry, closed your browser with items in your shopping basket or requested a test drive, brochure or other information of interest. We will only contact you with information about our own products and services (and in ways the law allows), which we hope you will like. You have the right to object to us sending you this information at any time;

6. To contact you from time to time with marketing information (unless you object) if you have expressly indicated to us that you are acting on behalf of a business or where we have obtained your business contact details online or from a public business directory. In relation to any such information we send by email or SMS, we will include an option allowing you to object to receiving future messages by unsubscribing;

7. To contact you with targeted advertising delivered online through social media and other platforms operated by other companies, unless you object. You may receive advertising based on information about you that we have provided to the platform or because, at our request, the platform has identified you as having similar attributes to the individuals whose details it has received from us. To find out more, please refer to the information provided in the help pages of the platforms on which you receive advertising from us;

8. To identify and record when you have received, opened or engaged with our website or electronic communications (please see our Cookie Policy for more information);

9. To administer competitions and promotions that you enter with us from time to time and to distribute prizes (please note we will only use your data for the purposes of administering the competition and nothing further however you will be given the opportunity to consent for other activities at the time of entering if you so wish).

Processing necessary for us to operate the administrative and technical aspects of our business efficiently and effectively

10. To verify the accuracy of information that we hold about you and create a better understanding of you as a customer;

11. For network and information security purposes i.e. in order for us to take steps to protect your information against loss, damage, theft or unauthorised access;

12. To comply with a request from you in connection with the exercise of your rights (for example where you have asked us not to contact you for marketing purposes, we will keep a record of this on our suppression lists in order to be able to comply with your request);

13. To inform you of updates to our terms and conditions and policies.

Legal Obligation

We may process your personal information to comply with our legal requirements (for example to register your car with the DVLA or if we need to respond to the Police for an enquiry).

Vital Interest

Sometimes we will need to process your personal information to contact you if there is an urgent safety or product recall notice and we need to tell you about it. 

How do we share this information?

We do not sell your information to third parties, but we do work closely with our with third party suppliers who fulfil business activities for us.

We do not sell your information to third parties. However, we may from time to time disclose your information to the following categories of companies or organisations to which we pass the responsibility to handle services on our behalf: vehicle manufacturer’s for warranty and other services, roadside assistance service providers, customer contact centres, valeting services, mobility and car hire providers, direct marketing communications agencies and consultants, market research (for our own internal purposes only) and market analytics service providers, our legal and other professional advisors for example our auditors.

We will also share your information with Volkswagen Group United Kingdom in situations where we need to pass your information to them in order to manage any request or complaint you have made to us. For example, where you have made a claim under warranty, we will need to share your personal information with the vehicle manufacturer so that they can fulfil the claim.

We take steps to ensure that any third party partners who handle your information comply with data protection legislation and protect your information just as we do. We only disclose personal information that is totally necessary for them to provide the service that they are undertaking on our behalf. We will aim to anonymise your information or use aggregated non-specific data sets where ever possible.

Due to the international nature of our manufacturer, Volkswagen Group, there may be some instances where your information is processed or stored outside of the EU. In those instances, Volkswagen Group will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place for that transfer and storage as required by applicable law.

There are circumstances where we share your information with our parent (or other companies within our Group) in order to fulfil orders, transactions, handle complaints or provide you with a service or information that you have requested.   Please note that access is strictly limited to certain individuals who have legitimate reasons for processing the data and there is restricted access to data within our Group.

How long will the information be stored for?

We will store the information in a secure and protected environment for as long as we believe it will better help us to understand how we can serve you and respect your wishes.  However, this will be for a reasonable period and only for as long as is necessary.   In addition, legislation might oblige us to store information for a certain period of time.

We do not retain personal information in an identifiable format for longer than is necessary.

If we have a relationship with you (e.g. you are a customer or the registered driver of a leased or other vehicle purchased through, or serviced by us), we hold your personal information for 6 years from the date our relationship ends. We hold your personal information for this period to establish, bring or defend legal claims. Our relationship may end for a number of reasons including where we have been made aware that you no longer own or drive that vehicle.

Where we have obtained your personal information following a request for information, test drive, brochure, quotation or any other information on any of our products or services, we hold your personal information for 3 years from the date we collect that information, unless during that period we form a relationship with you e.g. you purchase or service a vehicle. We hold your personal information for this period to give us an opportunity to form a relationship with you.

The only exceptions to the periods mentioned above are where:

• the law requires us to hold your personal information for a longer period, or delete it sooner;
• Where you have raised a complaint or concern regarding a product or service offered by us, in which case we will retain your information for a period of 6 years following the date of that complaint or query; or
• you exercise your right to have the information erased (where it applies) and we do not need to hold it in connection with any of the reasons permitted or required under the law (see further ‘How can I manage the information we hold about you’);
• Where we have stored CCTV footage for a maximum period of 3 months.

Cookies

We may collect technical data about the type of Internet Browser and computer operating system that you use.  This information does not identify you as an individual and is used only for tracking of site use.  This is a technology called “cookies” which can be used to provide you with tailored information from a website.  A cookie is an element of data, a file which is nothing but a line of text that a website can send to your browser, which may then store it on your system.  This will help us to identify you when you return to the site and allow us to tailor content to your personal preferences.  For more information about cookies, please see our Cookies Policy

You can set your browser to notify you when you receive a cookie, giving you the chance to decide whether or not to accept it.  However, in a few cases some of our website features may not function as a result.

What about Internet & Site Security?

The Internet is not a secure system and you should always be cautious about the information you disclose whilst online as there is a risk that it could be intercepted.

Under what conditions might this privacy policy not operate?

In addition to directly providing your information to us, you might also provide Personal Information through chat sessions, email exchanges or forums or comments on our website.  Whilst this initial contact would be on our website, the live chat is hosted on a separate platform and therefore the Privacy Policy does not cover this type of transfer of your Personal Information.  You should always be careful when distributing your Personal Information in this manner.

How can you manage the information we hold about you?

You have the right as an individual to access your personal information we hold about you and make corrections if necessary. You also have the right to withdraw any consent you have previously given us and ask us to erase information we hold about you. You can also object to us using your personal information (where we rely on our business interests to process and use your personal information).

You have a number of rights in relation to your personal information under data protection law. In relation to most rights, we will ask you for information to confirm your identity and, where applicable, to help us search for your personal information. Except in rare cases, we will respond to you within 30 days after we have received any request.

You have the right to:

1) Ask for a copy of the information that we hold about you;

2) Correct and update your information;

3) Withdraw your consent (where we rely on it). Please see further ‘How will we use this information’;

4) Object to our use of your information (where we rely on our legitimate interests to use your personal information) provided we do not have any continuing lawful reason to continue to use and process the information. When we do rely on our legitimate interests to use your personal information for direct marketing, we will always comply with your right to object;

5) Erase your information (or restrict the use of it), provided we do not have any continuing lawful reason to continue to use and process that information;

6) Transfer your information in a structured data file (in a commonly used and machine readable format), where we rely on your consent to use and process your personal information or need to process it in connection with your contract.

You can exercise the above rights and/or manage your information by contacting us using the details noted below.

How can you contact us?

If you have any queries, requests or complaints on the subject of data protection or would like to opt out of any contact or communications, please do not hesitate to contact our Data Protection Officer at the address below: -

Data Protection Officer

Ocean Automotive Limited

582-602 Ringwood Road

Poole

Dorset

BH12 4LY

Email: customerservices@oceanautomotive.co.uk

Telephone: 01202 724242

If you are unhappy, you have the right to lodge a complaint with a data protection regulator in Europe, in particular in a country you work or live or where your legal rights have been infringed. The contact details for the Information Commissioner’s Office, the data protection regulator in the UK, are below:

Post: Information Commissioner's Office Wycliffe House Water Lane Wilmslow Cheshire SK9 5AF

Call: 0303 123 1113

Email: casework@ico.org.uk