All personal information collected and used from the Auto Trader site will be processed in accordance with the 1998 Data Protection Act.
References in this policy to "Auto Trader" also apply to its sister channels on this web site, including: Commercial Trader, Bike Trader, Truck Trader, Plant Trader, Van Trader, Farmers Trader and Motorhome and Caravan Trader.
In order to place an advertisement on the Auto Trader web site, you will need to register. We will require you to supply your name, date of birth, e-mail address, postal address and postcode. You will also be required to supply payment details and your vehicle registration. Registrants are also presented with the option of supplying their mobile number, insurance renewal dates, and the make and model of any cars owned. Credit Card information is collected over a secure connection.
In order to conduct a vehicle search on the Auto Trader web site, we will require you to supply a postcode and a selection of identifying criteria matching your chosen vehicle, for example make, model and price.
Auto Trader is part of Trader Media Group and information supplied in this site may be shared with other group companies. When you register with our site, we ask you whether you would like to receive our email newsletters detailing changes to the site, offers and services from third party companies via email and/or via post that we feel may be of interest to you. You have the ability to opt-out of receiving all or any of these offers during registration.
On occasions Trader Media Group run promotions in which personal information is collected. We will always ask you if agree to this and advise you if this information may be shared with a third party. You will always be asked to provide your consent to this use by opting in.
We have taken measures to ensure that information supplied to us is held securely. As a consequence - we may occasionally request proof of identity before allowing access to your personal information.
For the purposes of the prevention or detection of offences, and/or the apprehension or prosecution of offenders, we may share any information that we collect with the Police, other public or private sector agencies or representative bodies in accordance with the relevant legislation. This will include public authorities, insurance companies, finance companies, automotive advertising companies and/or other agencies. Information shared in this way will not be used for marketing purposes.
You have the right to access all personal information supplied to Auto Trader and rectify any inaccuracies on the information held. Further enquiries should be made to enquiries@autotrader.co.uk or sent to Customer Care, Auto Trader Digital, Willow House, Woodland Business Park, Newton Le Willows WA12 0HE.
Amendments and Updates to this policy may be made from time to time. Any revisions will be posted on this page so you will always be aware of what information we collect.
Telephone numbers and email addresses supplied as part of a vehicle advertisement will be published within the relevant advertisement for the duration of the booking, to enable a potential buyer to contact the seller. The postcode is collected in order to provide a positioning on each vehicle within our database, thereby enabling potential buyers to locate vehicles for sale within a set radius of their chosen location.
Credit card information is used solely for the purpose of payment processing. Auto Trader retains no record of credit card details.
All details supplied to Auto Trader with your on-line advertisement will be safeguarded both by our privacy policy and also by the 1998 Data Protection Act. We will only ever pass your personal details to third parties to enable fulfilment of the advertising package which you have selected. Where advertising packages include additional benefits your agreement to these terms and conditions includes consent for your data to be used by others to provide those benefits, subject always to your being offered the opportunity to opt out of those benefits upon receipt.
Postcodes and vehicle information are collected in order to provide a relevant match of vehicles against a specified search. The inclusion of the postcode enables us to provide the potential buyer with a range of vehicles within a chosen locality, rather than vehicles randomly spread throughout the country.
1. To generate an overall audience profile of visitors using the Auto Trader web site. This information is then used to assist in developing relevant content on the site as well as ensuring that automotive trade advertisers looking to reach specific audience groups are encouraged to place their stock or promotions on the site.
2. To provide our web site visitors with the option to receive the Auto Trader monthly email bulletin, as well as the option to receive email and postal offers from selected third party companies that Auto Trader believes may be of interest to them. If a visitor has supplied insurance renewal date information and/or vehicle ownership details, it provides Auto Trader with the potential to better target that visitor with relevant and timely consumer offers by email or post, providing that visitor has opted to receive notification on such offers.
3. To support our E-alerts functionality - whereby visitors to our site can store settings on vehicle searches and/or set up alerts to be notified (by email) - when a specified vehicle appears for sale on the Auto Trader web site. Unless a visitor supplies their email address, we are unable to send such alerts.
4. To limit access to the full range of fields within the search form in order to maintain an overall faster search facility. By providing limited access to all our search fields, notably free text entry boxes, we are able to limit the impact on the performance of our search engine during periods of intense user activity. Whilst all users gain unhindered access to the key database fields, (such as Make and Model) fields that generate more intensive database processing (such as free text fields), are limited to those users who register.
5. To support our 'Send To Mobile' functionality - whereby visitors to our site can send details of vehicles for sale to mobile phones.
In addition, the cookie will enable Auto Trader to better understand what you are interested in based on the pages you visit and the actions you take. This means that the adverts that will be served to you will be more relevant, and that you are more likely to receive highly relevant emails and offers if you have consented to hear from us.
If your computer is cookie enabled we are also able to limit the number of occasions you are exposed to certain display advertisements on our site (such as banners and pop-up boxes). On most occasions this will mean you never see the same pop-up advertisement more than twice each time you visit the Auto Trader web site.
Please note you need to enable cookies in your browser in order to place an advert. For further information on cookies or for details on how to delete them or refuse their installation on your computer, please visit http://www.aboutcookies.org/
Auto Trader uses cookies for 4 purposes:
1. To enable the delivery of functionality that improves the ease and speed of using the Auto Trader web site (see above).
2. To frequency cap display advertisements, particularly pop-up boxes. By limiting advertisement exposure we provide a more compelling user experience for site visitors and also ensure that advertisements on Auto Trader are more evenly spread across our user base.
3. To enable us to track the relative demand for different types of vehicles on the site. Such information enables us to better target advertising at users searching for specific vehicles.
4. To enable us to track the relative popularity of disparate parts of our site. This in turn enables us to concentrate our efforts on developing those parts of the site that are generating the greatest consumer demand.
We also use third party cookies on our site for various purposes, as detailed below:
Omniture
We use Omniture´s software to carry out statistical analysis of page use, page interactions and paths through autotrader.co.uk. This is known as ´web analytics´. We may also record certain information that customers provide during an on site purchase or other process, such as name, email or postcode. We also capture a customer identifier when registered users log in to the site. This information allows us to identify customers and more accurately understand individual behaviours and needs. This means that we can more easily tailor offers and information which may be of interest to individuals. We will only send marketing emails when customers have given us permission to do so. Some of our Marketing Agencies may have access to this along with other data, to help increase the relevancy and performance of our direct marketing.
Doubleclick
This is a supplier which helps us track the online advertisements which we serve to consumers and the subsequent actions on our site of those who respond. Our web pages may contain electronic images which are tracking pixels, these allow us to track user interactions on these pages. They may also report back some information to DoubleClick about the interaction on that page.
Audience Science
This is one of our online audience monitors that allow us to track customer actions on autotrader.co.uk and to tailor the advertisements you see on 3rd party sites. The content of these advertisements is influenced by your interactions with autotrader.co.uk such as the pages you view, searches you conduct and offers you show an interest in. Whilst these adverts are based on your individual interactions with autotrader.co.uk online, we do not combine information about these interactions with personal information you provide to us during the registration or transaction process. If you do not wish to receive such "personalised" advertisements as a result of your behaviour on autotrader.co.uk then please refer to Audience Science privacy policy http://www.audiencescience.com/uk/privacy.asp. You can opt-out of their cookie tracking by following the instructions in this pdf: http://www.audiencescience.com/uk/docs/nai.pdf
Google Adsense
We use third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit our website. These companies may use information (not including your name, address, email address, or telephone number) about your visits to this and other websites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies, click here.
We automatically log generic information about your computer and your computer´s connection to the Internet which we call "session data". Session data consists of things such as device information, IP address, operating system and browser software information, and the activities conducted by you while on our site. An IP address is a number that lets computers attached to the Internet, such as our web servers, know where to send data back to the user, such as the pages of the site the user wishes to view. We collect session data because it helps us to anaylse such things as what items visitors are likely to click on most, the way visitors are clicking through the site, how many visitors are surfing to various pages on the site, how long visitors to the site are staying and how often they are visiting. It also helps us diagnose problems with our servers and lets us better administer our systems. It is possible to determine from an IP address a visitor´s Internel Service provider (ISP) and the approximate geographical location of his or her point of connectivity. We may also use some session data, such as the pages you have visited on our site, to send you e-mail messages focused on matters that you may be interested in, unless you have previously opted out of receiving such messages. We also use session data to help prevent fraud and unauthorised use of our site.
Why are we collecting this information?
Your address
We ask for your address for two reasons:
1. When you have logged onto the site, your postcode will automatically populate the postcode box on the search form. All search results will automatically be displayed with those closest to your home first, until you choose to sort your search results using different criteria e.g. price.
2. Your address allows us to send you updates on our site and/or offers from our partners, provided you have opted to receive such notifications in stage 4 of this registration process.
Your mobile number
Collecting your mobile number will enable us to provide you with SMS vehicle alerts, should you choose to accept them, when they launch early next year. These alerts will provide you with notification by SMS on any new vehicles ads you have requested to be told about as they first appear onto the site.
Insurance renewal date
Thanks to our long running associations with the Motor Trade, we often hear about exciting deals on insurance. By providing us with details on your renewal date, we can ensure we target you with the best offers, when they´re most relevant.
If you notice any offensive or unsuitable adverts or content on Autotrader.co.uk, please email enquiries@autotrader.co.uk or call 0845 345 3450.