Website Privacy Policy

This Website Privacy Policy (the "Policy") describes how Henry Ford & Son Ltd ("Ford", "we", "our" or "us") uses and discloses the information collected about you (your "personal information") when you visit this website (the "Website") or when you contact us using the details available on it. The Policy also outlines below how we use the personal information we collect when your vehicle is serviced or repaired.

The Website may enable you to purchase, or apply for quotes for products and services such as motor insurance, vehicle lease or hire or accessories. Some of these products and/or services are provided by Ford's partners who will collect additional personal information from you in order to fulfil your requests. Our partners will use the personal information they collect as they describe in their privacy statements or as they explain when you provide your personal information.

In addition to this Policy, some Ford products and services (including some Ford apps) have their own privacy policies which describe in more detail how your personal information is used in a particular context. You can also find out more about what information your vehicle collects and uses by consulting the owners' manual or its accompanying app (where available).

Who we share your personal information with

Your personal information may be disclosed to:

• companies or other organisations that we have engaged to provide services on our behalf such as web-hosting companies, mailing vendors, analytics providers, event hosting services, and information technology providers;
• companies or other organisations where you have asked us to or agreed that we may share your personal information with them;
• dealers and our partners where this is necessary to provide you with a product or service;
• professional advisors;
• any law enforcement agency, court, regulator, government authority or other third party where we believe this is necessary to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation, or otherwise to protect our rights, the rights of any third party or individuals' personal safety, or to detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud, security or safety issues; or
• any third party that purchases, or to which we transfer, all or substantially all of our assets and business. Should such a sale or transfer occur, we will use reasonable efforts to try to ensure that the entity to which we transfer your personal information uses it in a manner that is consistent with this Policy.

Ford may also transfer your personal information to FCE Bank plc*, Henry Ford & Son Ltd, other Ford Motor Company Group companies worldwide, and to their service providers. When we transfer your personal information, we will make sure that is used for purposes which are compatible with those described in this Policy. A list of the companies within Ford Motor Company Group is available at https://www.ford.eu/ford-group-companies. 

Transferring your personal information internationally

Your personal information will be treated in accordance with Irish law concerning data protection and may be transferred within the European Economic Area ("EEA"), as well as to countries outside the EEA (including to the USA). When we transfer your personal information outside the EEA we will put in place appropriate safeguards in accordance with our legal obligations to ensure that your personal information is adequately protected irrespective of the country to which it is transferred. These safeguards may include obtaining contractual assurances from any third party given access to your personal information that your personal information will be protected by standards which are equivalent to those that protect your personal information when it is in the EEA. If you would like to know more about how Ford protects your personal information when it is transferred outside the EEA, please contact us at the address below. 

What personal information will we use?

Ford collects personal information from the Website:

• when you fill in forms (for example, if you register for a MyFord account or request a test drive); and
• automatically through the use of cookies and similar technologies. You can find out more about this in Ford's cookie guide.

The Website enables you to provide personal information including:

• your name and contact information (such as your address, telephone number(s) and email address) and information about your business or employer if you are enquiring in a commercial capacity;
• information about your vehicle (including your Vehicle Identification Number ("VIN"), vehicle registration number, model, age and mileage);
• the products and services in which you are interested; and
• your contact and marketing preferences.

In addition, we;

• collect your personal information if you contact us using the details available through the Website (for example, we will keep a record of the information you provide when you write to us or contact our customer service centres); and
• may combine the information we hold with information about you or your interests, socio-economic and socio-demographic status, online identifiers and current contact details collected by third parties such as marketing agencies.
• When you take your vehicle to be serviced or repaired we will collect diagnostic information about your vehicle and keep a record of the work carried out and parts supplied. You can find out about what personal information is collected when your Ford vehicle is serviced or repaired Repair, diagnosis and servicing for your Ford vehicle. 

How do we use your personal information?

We use the personal information we collect from the Website to:

• fulfil your requests (for example, to create your My Ford account, or to enable you to book test drives or request vehicle brochures);
• manage and improve our business and our relationship with you;
• deal with your enquiries;
• conduct research;
• send you marketing material in line with your communications preferences;
• comply with our legal and regulatory responsibilities, to respond to legal process or requests for information issued by government authorities or other third parties, to prevent and detect crime and fraud, or protect your, our or others’ rights; and
• operate the Website, personalise it to you, and to understand how the Website is used so that we can improve it.

We may combine and analyse your personal information to:

• help us understand, develop and improve our products, processes, services and marketing and business strategies;
• personalise our products and services to you;
• to understand our customers better; and
• to manage and improve our relationship with you.

This could include, for example, informing our distribution strategy, evaluating the effectiveness of our marketing and customer service, conducting market analysis and identifying products or services which may be of interest to you, and contacting you to tell you about such products and services.

We would like to make sure the communications we send you and our interactions with you are as relevant to you as possible. As a result, from time to time, we may use information about you collected from third parties (as described in the 'What information will we use?' to help us determine what Ford products and services you might be interested in. We may then send you information about those products and services in accordance with your communications preferences, and use the information we hold about you to inform our customer service centres if you contact them. We may also work with third parties to show you tailored advertising on social media platforms or, if you have consented to the use of cookies, when you browse the internet/visit other websites (please see Ford's cookie guide for more information). You can find out how to stop receiving marketing material from us in the Your rights section below

For more information about how the personal information we collect when your vehicle is serviced or repaired, please see the Repair, diagnosis and servicing for your Ford vehicle section below.

We keep your personal information in identifiable form for as long as is reasonably necessary to fulfil the purposes for which we collected it and to comply with our legal obligations. This generally means holding your personal information for as long as one of the following apply:

• your personal information is reasonably required in order to provide the services you have requested to you;
• your personal information is reasonably required in order to protect and defend our rights or property (this will generally be the length of the relevant legal limitation period); or
• we are otherwise required to keep your personal information by applicable laws or regulations.

What lawful grounds do we rely on when we use your personal information?

There are different lawful grounds that we rely on to use your personal information and we will collect and use your personal information in the following situations:

• where our use of your personal information is necessary to perform a contract or contracts that you are a party to, or to take steps that you request before entering into a contract. These contracts could include the conditions on which you enter a competition or agreements you enter into for service products, for example;
• where our use of your personal information is within our legitimate interests or the legitimate interests of the organisation with which we have shared your personal information and we have made sure that your personal information, and your rights in relation to that information, are protected. For example, we may rely on this legal ground if we and/or the companies within the Henry Ford & Son Ltd group use your personal information to: understand and improve our (or their) products, services and/or marketing strategies; for research purposes; to manage and improve our relationship with you and for administrative purposes; to help find out what information, products and services are most likely to interest you and to send or show you information, offers, and online advertisements for these products or services; to personalise your experience of our products and services; to ensure that our products and services are delivered and used in accordance with the law and the terms and conditions that apply to them; and where necessary to protect or defend our or another's rights or property, or to detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud, security, safety or privacy issues;
• where we believe it is necessary to use your personal information to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation to which we are subject;
• in limited circumstances where we believe it is necessary to protect someone's safety or vital interests; and
• where we have your consent. We will rely on your consent to, for example, collect technical information such as data from cookies and similar technologies as we describe in Ford's cookies guide and to use your personal information for marketing to you by email and text message. Where we rely on consent to use your personal information, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. Please see the 'Your rights' section of this policy for more details.

Your rights

You have the right as an individual to find out what information we hold about you and for what purposes, as well as to access that information and make corrections if necessary. You also have the right in some circumstances to object to our use of your personal information, to ask us to restrict or erase your personal information or to request that your personal information is provided to you in a commonly used electronic format so that you can share it with other organisations.

Where you have consented to our use of your personal information (please see the section named What lawful grounds do we rely on when we use your personal information? for further information), you can withdraw your consent at any time. If you wish to do so, please contact us at the address below.

We will make all practical efforts to respect your wishes. However, certain legislation, especially related to safety issues or financial regulation (e.g. when dealing with FCE Bank plc*) might prevent this.

If you have chosen to receive marketing communications from Ford and/or FCE Bank plc* you can change your mind at any time. If you would like to stop receiving marketing communications from Ford, please write to:

Privacy Enquiry

Customer Relationship Centre, Henry Ford and Son Limited, Elm Court, Boreenmanna Road, Cork, Ireland

Or email to:

dpeurope@ford.com and/or crcirela@ford.com

If you have questions or concerns regarding Ford's use of your personal information, or would like to access the information that Ford holds about you or exercise any of the other rights you have in relation to your personal information, please contact Privacy Enquiry

Customer Relationship Centre, Henry Ford and Son Limited, Elm Court, Boreenmanna Road, Cork, Ireland

Or email to dpeurope@ford.com and/or crcirela@ford.com

Ford has appointed a Data Protection Officer. You can contact the Data Protection Officer at dpeurope@ford.com.

If you have a complaint about the way in which Ford uses your personal information we hope that in the first instance you will contact us. You may, however, also make a complaint to the Data Protection Commissioner's Office, which is the authority that upholds information rights in Ireland.

Other websites and social networking

The Website may contain links to other websites which are outside our control and are not covered by this Policy. If you access other websites using the links provided, the operators of those websites may collect information from you which will be used by them in accordance with their privacy policies, which may differ from ours. 
 
The Website also provide you with the ability to share or follow information about Ford, Ford's website or the products and/or services available through it by means of a functionality (e.g. using "share this", "like" or "follow" buttons).  We provide this functionality to stimulate interest in our sites and Ford and to allow you to share and follow opinions, news and recommendations with your contacts. However, you should be aware that when you share personal information on a social network, that information may be collected and made publicly available by the social network provider, including through Internet search engines.  The operators of the social networks process personal data as a data controller in accordance with their own privacy policy.  You should always carefully read the privacy policy of any website or social network you visit or use to share information to understand their privacy practices. 
 
The links may be updated from time to time by the operators. We make every effort to keep the links up to date, but you can also find the privacy policy directly through the operator.
 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/legal/privacy-policy

Instagram: https://help.instagram.com/519522125107875

Twitter: https://twitter.com/en/privacy

YouTube: https://policies.google.com/privacy

Pinterest: https://policy.pinterest.com/en-gb/privacy-policy

Meta products

Meta provides us with anonymized statistics and insights for our social media activity on their properties, which help us to understand the types of actions that people take on them. These insights are created based on specific information about individuals who have visited our website and social media presences. Personal data is collected through cookies. These are small packets of data, usually comprising letters and numbers, that are stored by your browser when you visit the our website and use social media. We shall not be able to personally identify you or associate you with your account. On account of this there is a joint responsibility between Meta and us regarding the collection and transfer of your data to Facebook Ireland (now Meta). Analysing the anonymised insights data serves our legitimate interest to optimise the range of services on our website and social media presences and to evaluate the types of actions being taken on our website and social media presences and to improve based on these findings. The legal basis for this processing is Article 6(1)(f) of the GDPR.

Meta is solely responsible under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) for the subsequent data processing after transmission, including information obligations, data subject rights and data security. We have entered into a joint controller agreement with Facebook Ireland (now Meta) which determines the respective responsibilities for compliance with the requirements of the GDPR insofar as Meta and us are joint controllers in accordance with GDPR the corresponding agreement shall apply: 
https://www.facebook.com/legal/terms/page_controller_addendum

You can find information on the processing of your personal data by Meta at https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy. There you will also find further information about the legal basis of data processing by Meta and how you can assert your rights as a data subject against Meta. The information in this privacy policy applies to data processing by us. 

Google reCAPTCHA tool

On certain sections of this site, visitors may be directed to use the Google reCAPTCHA tool so that an integrity check can be performed to ensure a bot is not using certain site functionality.  

Google collects hardware and software information, such as device and application data, in order to perform the integrity checks. Google is independently owned and operated, and data collected by Google is subject to its privacy policy.  We encourage you to review the Google privacy policy at http://www.google.com/privacy.html and Google’s How Google uses data when you use our partners' sites or apps (located at www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners/) so that you can understand how the data is collected, used and shared.

Updates to this Privacy Policy

We may amend this Policy from time to time. If we make substantial or material changes in the way we wish to use your personal information we will communicate providing a prominent notice on the Website or by contacting you directly. If you do not agree with these changes, please do not continue to use the Website. 

Repair, diagnosis and servicing for your Ford vehicle

When your Ford vehicle was manufactured it was assigned a unique number (the Vehicle Identification Number, or VIN). From the VIN we can tell certain information about your vehicle, including its model, age, the software it uses, its technical specifications.

In order to diagnose, analyse, repair or service your vehicle, the technicians working on it will need to collect the VIN together with certain diagnostic information and information about the current state of your vehicle (for example, what software versions it is using, its mileage etc.).

This information will be transferred to a system run by Ford so that the technicians working on your vehicle can be provided with vehicle-specific repair, maintenance and diagnostic information (such as wiring diagrams and vehicle software updates) and information about any past work carried out on your vehicle to assist them to diagnose, repair and/or service it and to enable them to maintain their records.

To make sure your vehicle has a comprehensive diagnosis record, information about what work is done to your vehicle when it is serviced or repaired will be linked to the VIN of your vehicle. This will be transferred to the system and stored so that Ford (or any third parties it authorises to use the system in this way) can make information about past repair or service available to any dealer or repairer anywhere in the world who needs to repair or service your vehicle.

The information held on the system is also used by Ford to enable the diagnosis, repair of your vehicle, to manage and administer warranties and similar products and services, for product safety and research and development purposes and to enable Ford to comply with its legal obligations.

In addition to the transfers of information described above, Ford may also pass this information to:

• companies in the Ford corporate Group for the purposes of research and development and analytics; and/or
• to companies in the Ford corporate Group and/or third parties where we believe this is necessary to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation, or otherwise to protect our rights, the rights of other companies in the Henry Ford & Son Ltd corporate group, or the rights of any third party.

You can find out more about the legal grounds we rely on when we use your personal information What lawful grounds do we rely on when we use your personal information?.

Given the global nature of the system, VIN information is transferred to countries outside the European Economic Area by Ford. You can find out more about the international transfers of personal information we make Transferring your personal information internationally.      

As this information is a formal record of your vehicle, we retain it for [20 years].

If you have any questions, or would like to access the information about your VIN held in the system or exercise any of the other rights you have in relation to your personal information (you can find out more about these here), please write to:

Privacy Enquiry

Customer Relationship Centre, Henry Ford and Son Limited, Elm Court, Boreenmanna Road, Cork, Ireland

Or by email to:

dpeurope@ford.com and/or crcirela@ford.com

Henry Ford and Son Limited. Registered in Ireland: No.4441, Registered Office: Elm Court, Boreenmanna Road, Cork, Ireland.