0Favourites

heycar Privacy Policy

The RAC cars website is powered by heycar and therefore subject to heycar’s privacy policy below.

At heycar, we value transparency and your privacy. This page has everything you need to know about how we use your data. If you have any questions about our Privacy Policy, we’d love to hear from you - just email privacy@heycar.co.uk.

Please read this carefully to understand how we will collect and use your personal information. Our Privacy Policy only takes 10-15 minutes to read (less if you skim it!).

By using our Service you acknowledge you have read and understood this privacy policy.

We are Mobility Trader UK Ltd, trading as heycar. We refer to heycar as "we", "us" and "our". We operate the following sites:

RAC Carswww.cars.rac.co.uk
heycarhttps://heycar.com
AutoOnlinewww.autoonline.co.uk
AutoVillagewww.autovillage.co.uk
BuyaCarwww.buyacar.co.uk
BuyYourBikewww.buyyourbike.co.uk
BuyYourCarwww.buyyourcar.co.uk
BuyYourCarPartswww.buyyourcarparts.co.uk
BuyYourVanwww.buyyourvan.co.uk
CarDealerLocatorwww.cardealerlocator.co.uk
CarSitewww.carsite.co.uk
CarSiteNetworkwww.carsitenetwork.co.uk
CarVillagewww.carvillage.co.uk
DesperateSellerwww.desperateseller.co.uk
FindYourCaravanwww.findyourcaravan.co.uk
FindYourMotorhomewww.findyourmotorhome.co.uk
MotorVillagewww.motorvillage.co.uk
UsedCarsNearMewww.usedcarsnearme.co.uk
PriceAnyCarwww.priceanycar.com
PriceAnyVanwww.priceanyvan.com

This is the Privacy Policy for each of these websites. We refer to heycar, each the sites listed above, and the heycar app (our "App") all together, as the "Service".

For the purposes of UK and EU data protection law, (the "Data Protection Law"), the controller of the Service is heycar.

This policy (together with our Terms of use) sets out:

  • Information we collect about you
  • How we use your information
  • Our promotional updates and communications
  • Who we share your information with
  • Where we store your information
  • Public forums
  • Child safety
  • How we protect your information
  • How long we keep your information
  • Your rights
  • Changes to this policy
  • Contacting us

Information we collect about you

Customers

We will collect and process certain personal information if you use our Service, including searching for used cars and getting in touch with our selected dealers.

Dealers

We also process information about you:

  • if you, or the company you work for, are a selected dealer of ours.
  • if you or the company you work for use our Service generally.
  • you are someone, or you work for someone, to whom we want to advertise or market our Service.
CustomersDealers

You provide us with

This is information about you that you provide us directly when you use the Service, including if you:
  • save a search
  • Send a lead to a selected dealer to enquire about a vehicle
  • register to use the Service
  • use our concierge chat
  • submit a query to our customer services team
  • use our finance options calculator, enter a competition, promotion or survey
  • enter a competition, prize draw, promotion or survey
  • apply for financing via heycar
  • when you report a problem with the Service
  • use our Dealer Signup
  • contact through our enquiry form online
  • contact us through another online platform, like LinkedIn.
  • email us, or otherwise directly get in touch with us.

When you interact with us, we collect the following types of personal information:

  • Identity: including first and last name.
  • Contact: including phone number(s), username, address and e-mail address.
  • Interaction: your preferences, queries and feedback which you provide to us, including via our concierge chat service, contact forms, Facebook messenger chat, social media platforms such as Instagram or Twitter, and any social media comments, shares or posts on heycar's own accounts or which you tag us in or use any of our hashtags in (for example, to enter a competition or prize draw), and your emails with us and selected dealers via us.
  • Car: if you use our vehicle parts search and referral services (for example on AutoVillage or BuyYourCarParts), we may collect your car make and model, registration number, or other car data which you give us, or we match with the information you give us.
  • Finance options: If you use our finance options calculator, including the part exchange feature, we take information about your current car (like mileage & number plate) and some other details from you (like cash deposit amount, and term).
  • Financing application: If you apply for financing from Volkswagen Financial Services (VWFS) or another finance provider, we collect the information in the application form (like your Identity, Contact, and employment details, and whether you select a Personal Contract Plan (PCP) or Hire Purchase (HP)) on behalf of the finance provider. We'll pass on the finance provider's decision to you.
  • Purchase: If you purchase a car through heycar, we will collect your: nationality, residential status, marital status, number of dependents, type of driving license, residential address, employment, and bank details (name, sort code and account number).

  • Dealer: information we need to work with our dealership and group partners, including

    • your name, role/job title, your dealership & group, and other work Identity & Contact information you give us,
    • Company Account: information used to administer your company account, including managing payments and/or billing, and to verify financial transactions.
    • Business Development: information about events to which you are invited and preferences related to managing those events (for example dietary information), and information that you give us or we otherwise obtain when you visit us.

Other parties may provide us with

We work closely with third parties (including car dealerships, car manufacturers, financing and insurance providers, sub-contractors in communications, technical, and payment services, advertising networks, analytics providers, and search information providers).

We may share personal information we collect within heycar (including our group companies and joint venture partners), or combine data from other sources with personal information you've given to us – for example, if you get in touch with a dealer as part of your search for your next car.

We'll tell you (usually in this Privacy Policy) when we receive information about you from another source, and for what purpose(s) we'll use that information.

This may involve processing your identity, contact, interaction and finance information.

  • Dealers may share information about your customer journey with heycar, including your identity, contact, interaction and finance information.
  • Advertising networks and social media may provide us with analytics information. This is aggregated, and cannot be linked back to you.
  • Finance Lenders will provide Heycar with any information that relates to a finance application that originated on the Heycar website including your application reference.

This may involve processing your work identity, contact, dealer interaction and finance information.

Personal information which is not collected directly from you may be collected:

  • from your employer (e.g. your dealership / group) in connection with your role and its relation to our provisions of the Service.
  • from third parties we work closely with (including, for example, from business partners, finance lenders, and introductions from other individuals or companies).
If you previously used qualcar.co.uk, we've re-branded as heycar! heycar is also the controller for qualcar customer information. We will continue to only process this information for the purposes it was originally provided, unless and until you engage with heycar, under this Privacy Policy. If you have any questions about this, email as at privacy@heycar.co.uk

We automatically collect

We will automatically collect information from you each time you use our Service. This includes:

  • Technical information
  • Information about your visit
  • Location data
  • Technical information may include the Internet protocol (IP) address used to connect your computer to the Internet, pixel ID, click ID, app ID, access token, your login information, browser type and version, Google ID, time zone setting, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform;
  • Information about your visit may include the full Uniform Resource Locators (URL), clickstream to, through and from our site (including date and time), vehicles you viewed or searched for, page response times, download errors, length of visits to certain pages, page interaction information (such as scrolling, clicks, and mouse-overs), event IDs, and methods used to browse away from the page. We may also collect any phone number you use to call our customer service number (include call metadata, like date, time & length of a call), or the social media handle you use to connect with our customer service team. (We may record calls for training & performance purposes, to establish clear records, and for legal reasons. We'll always tell you beforehand if a call is being recorded.)
  • Location data - we collect information through the Service as to your geolocation based on your IP to provide location services where requested or agreed to by you in order to show you local car dealerships, and to deliver content, advertising or other services that are dependent on knowing where you are, like recommending new local car listings. Location data may be collected in combination with an identifier associated with your device, so we can recognise your mobile browser or device when you return to the Service. Delivery of location services will involve reference to one or more of the following: (a) the coordinates (latitude/longitude) of your location; (b) look-up of your country of location by reference to your IP address against public sources; and/or (c) your Identifier for Advertisers (IFA) code for your Apple device, or the Android ID for your Android device, or a similar device identifier.

You can opt-out of location sharing.

See our Cookie Policy for more information on the use of cookies and device identifiers on the Service.

How we use your information

We use your personal information in different ways. We've set these out below, along with the types of personal information we use for each purpose, and the legal reason(s) (also known as the 'legal basis') that permits this processing.

We explain more about what each legal basis means below. We may process your personal information based one or more than one legal basis, depending on the specific ways we are using your personal information.

Customers


How we use this personal informationType of personal informationOur legal bases for processing

To perform our contract with you under our Terms of Use and manage our relationship with you, including:

  • providing our Service to you,
  • administering your account with us (if you create one),
  • storing your personal information,
  • providing information to you which you have requested (e.g. via our concierge chat),
  • sending you service updates (including security alerts),
  • notifying you about changes to our terms or privacy policy,
  • notifying you of any changes to our Service.
  • Identity
  • Contact
  • Account
  • Finance
  • Location
  • Contract
  • Legal Obligation
  • Our legitimate interests
To save searches and send you search alerts (for example, new listings which fit your search criteria).
  • Identity
  • Contact
  • Location
  • Automatically collected information
  • Consent
To put you in touch with UK depots who may provide vehicle part information to you, the information you provide may be shared with 1st Choice Spares and depots across the country so they can contact you about the vehicle part(s) you are interested in.
  • Identity
  • Contact
  • Car
  • Location (post code)
  • Our legitimate interests
To register you as a new user who wants to use our Service, if you choose to create an account. You don't need to have an account to search for vehicles on heycar.
  • Identity
  • Contact
  • Contract
To allow you to purchase a vehicle from a vehicle dealer through heycar or from heycar directly, including (as applicable):
  • obtaining any approvals needed
  • providing your information to the dealer,
  • connecting you with finance providers, and
  • processing payment (e.g. receiving a bank transfer from you).
  • Identity
  • Contact
  • Account
  • Location
  • Purchase
  • Contract
To allow you to apply for financing with VWFS (or other financing providers)
  • Identity
  • Contact
  • Financing application
  • Our legitimate interests
  • Contract

To promote our service to you and keep you updated with information about our services, including:

  • delivering relevant content on topics we think may be of interest to you, and
  • letting you know about new functionalities or services.

To ask you to leave a review, provide feedback or take a survey.

To offer you exclusive deals and offers.

See Our promotional updates and communications to learn more
  • Identity
  • Contact
  • Account
  • Automatically collected information
  • Consent
  • Our legitimate interests
To manage and administer promotions, competitions and prize draws which you enter, subject to their terms and conditions which will be notified to you when you enter, including collecting and checking entries, contacting winners, awarding and delivering any prizes, and complying with our regulatory obligations.
  • Identity
  • Contact
  • Interaction
  • Consent
  • Legal obligation
  • Our legitimate interests

To customise your experience and offer you relevant ads, content and recommendations including information about new promotions and competitions.

To deliver dynamic marketing and show you non-personalised ads on our website.

Social media integrations: Our marketing campaigns use Facebook's advertising and audiences tools, including tracking pixels, to inform and refine our marketing and deliver more relevant ads to you.

For measuring, understanding and optimising the effectiveness of advertising we serve to you and others, and to deliver relevant advertising to you.

  • Contact
  • Account
  • Automatically collected information
  • Identity
  • Our legitimate interests
  • Consent (to Cookies)

To administer our Service and for internal operations, including bug fixes, troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, and survey purposes.

To improve our Service to ensure that content is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer. We may also use aggregated information to help us plan and introduce new features.

To keep our Service safe and secure, including taking steps to detect and prevent fraud.

  • Contact
  • Interaction
  • Automatically collected information
  • Our legitimate interests

To analyse our user base, Service and service usage, feature and content popularity, software and hardware quality, and market trends.

To share aggregated and anonymised statistics with dealers and other organisations about how people use heycar, including in order to attribute leads. You cannot be identified from this information.

We may also use this information to inform, refine and deliver our wider online marketing campaigns, including delivering our advertisements to you when you are not on our Service.

  • Identity
  • Contact
  • Account
  • Interaction
  • Automatically collected information
  • Our legitimate interests
  • Consent (to Cookies)

Selected dealers


How we use this personal informationType of personal informationOur legal bases for processing
If you work for one of our selected dealers, or are otherwise interacting with us in a business context, we may also use your personal information for the following purposes.
To perform or enter into any contract we have with you
  • Contact
  • Identity
  • Company Account
  • Contract

To administrate yours or your company's accounts with us.

To make and verify payments and bills.

  • Contact
  • Identity
  • Company Account
  • Contract
  • Our legitimate interests

In the event that we sell or buy any business or assets, disclose your data to a prospective seller or buyer, or in the event we are the subject of acquisition by a third party.

  • Information relating to transactions
  • Contract
  • Legal obligation
  • Our legitimate interests

To answer any queries you send us

To comply with any rights requests you make

  • Contact information
  • Consent
  • Legal obligation

Where we receive your personal information from a third party, they will be a separate data controller of your personal information, and will have their own legal bases for processing.

Our promotional updates and communications

Where permitted in our legitimate interests (explained below) or with your prior consent if required by law, we may

  • send you marketing and promotional updates about our products and services, by email and SMS, if you have opted-in to receiving these.
  • use your work contact information, if you work for a dealer, to send you marketing and promotional updates about our products and services, by phone, email and SMS, unless you have opted out of receiving these.
  • we will also use your personal information for marketing analysis.

You can object to further marketing at any time by selecting the "unsubscribe" link at the end of all our marketing and promotional update communications to you, or by sending us an email to privacy@heycar.co.uk.

Who we may share your information with

We may give your information to:

  • Any member of the heycar group, which means our shareholders, investors, subsidiaries, our ultimate holding company and its subsidiaries, who support our processing of personal information under this policy. If any of these parties use your information for direct marketing, we will only transfer it to them for that purpose with your prior consent.
  • Our partner and support businesses, including support services, finance lenders, advertising networks, prize draw or competition partners, and analytics providers, as well as car dealers and depots (only if you ask for more detail about a car or vehicle part, or to be put in touch with them).

Our selected third parties may include:

  • Dealers and depots who, if you ask us to, we will share your information with in order for them to contact you about the car, vehicle part or other request you submitted.

    • Dealers: if you enquire about a vehicle, we will share your information with the dealer of that vehicle.
    • Depots: if you enquire about a car part, will share your information with 1st Choice Spares UK Ltd and depots across the UK.
    These organisations will only use your information to the extent necessary to perform their support functions.

  • Financing providers (like VWFS) who, if you apply for financing, we will share your application information with so you can apply for and arrange PCP or HP financing when you buy a vehicle.

  • Organisations who process your personal information in order to provide a service to us. This includes third party suppliers, agents, sub-contractors and/or other companies in our group who support the services we offer through the Service, including those:

    • providing website and data hosting services,
    • providing fulfilment services,
    • distributing any communications we send,
    • supporting or updating marketing lists,
    • facilitating feedback on our services, and
    • providing IT support services.
    These organisations will only use your information to the extent necessary to perform their support functions.

  • Advertisers and advertising networks that require the data to serve our adverts to you across other websites.

    • We don’t disclose identifiable information about you to our advertisers. We provide them with aggregate information about our users (for example, we may inform them that 500 women aged under 30 have clicked on their advertisement on any given day).
    • We may use the personal information we collect from you to enable our advertisers to display our ads to people we think might be interested.

      See our Cookies Policy for more information.
  • Prize draw or competition partners to the extent required to administer and manage prize draws or competitions, including contacting winners and awarding any prizes.
  • Analytics and search engine providers that assist us in the improvement and optimisation of our site (this will not identify you as an individual). Interested. See our Cookies Policy for more information.
  • Credit reference agencies for the purpose of assessing your credit score where this is a condition of us entering into a contract with you.

We will also share your personal information with third parties:

  • If we sell or buy any business or assets, in which case we will disclose your personal information to the prospective seller or buyer of such business or assets subject to the terms of this privacy policy.
  • If heycar or substantially all of its assets are acquired by a third party, in which case personal information held by it about its customers will be one of the transferred assets.
  • If we are under a duty to disclose or share your personal information in order to comply with any legal obligation, or in order to enforce or apply our terms of supply terms and other agreements with you; or to protect the rights, property, or safety of heycar, our customers, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organisations for the purposes of fraud protection and credit risk reduction and to prevent cybercrime.

Where we store your information

We may transfer and store your personal information outside the United Kingdom ("UK") and/or European Economic Area ("EEA") in countries which may not have equivalent Data Protection Law.

Where your information is transferred outside the UK or EEA, we will take steps to ensure your personal information is protected by appropriate legal safeguards, and that it is treated securely and in accordance with this privacy policy.

We may transfer your personal information outside the UK or EEA:

  • In order to store it.
  • In order to enable us to provide our Service to you and fulfil our contract with you. This includes the provision of support services, including our concierge chat service and other customer service support.
  • Where we are legally required to do so.
  • In order to facilitate the operation of our group of businesses, where it is in our legitimate interests and we have concluded these are not overridden by your rights.

We may transfer your personal information to the following countries and using the following safeguards outside the UK or EEA:

BCG Digital VenturesStandard Contractual Clauses
Amazon.com, Inc.
Amazon Web Services, Inc.		Standard Contractual Clauses
The Rocket Science Group LLC d/b/a MailChimpStandard Contractual Clauses
MailChimpStandard Contractual Clauses
Intercom, Inc.Standard Contractual Clauses
Facebook, Inc.Standard Contractual Clauses
Google LLCStandard Contractual Clauses
Hubspot, Inc.Standard Contractual Clauses
Twilio Inc.Standard Contractual Clauses
AircallStandard Contractual Clauses

Child safety

Protecting the safety of children when they use the Internet is important to us.

The Service is intended for use only by persons who are at least 18 years of age.

By using the Service, you confirm to us that you meet this requirement. If you are under the age of 18, you confirm you have received permission from your parent or guardian before using this site/App or sending us personal information.

If you are under the age of 18 your parent or guardian must consent on your behalf where we ask for consent in relation to the use of your information.

How we protect your information

All information you provide to us is stored on our secure servers. Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password which enables you to access certain parts of the Service, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share a password with anyone.

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal information, including using SSL encryption to secure our site and protection your information in transit We cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to the Service; any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your information, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access.

Our site may, from time to time, contain links to external sites. We are not responsible for the privacy policies or the content of such sites.

How long we keep your information

We keep personal information for

  • as long as you have an account with us or use our Service (including if you enter a prize draw, competition or other promotion) in order to meet our contractual obligations to you and
  • six years after that to identify any issues and resolve any legal proceedings.

We may also retain aggregate information beyond this time for research purposes and to help us develop and improve our services. You cannot be identified from aggregate information retained or used for these purposes.

Your rights

You have the right under certain circumstances:

  • to be provided with a copy of your personal information held by us;
  • to request the correction or erasure of your personal information held by us;
  • to request that we restrict the processing of your personal information (while we verify or investigate your concerns with this information, for example);
  • to object to the further processing of your personal information, including the right to object to marketing (as mentioned in 'Our promotional updates and communications' section;
  • to request that your provided personal information be moved to a third party.
  • Your right to withdraw consent:

    Where the processing of your personal information by us is based on consent, you have the right to withdraw that consent without detriment at any time by contacting us at privacy@heycar.co.uk. You can also change your marketing preferences at any time as described in Our promotional updates and communications section;

You can also exercise the rights listed above at any time by contacting us at privacy@heycar.co.uk.

The Information Commissioner is the supervisory authority in the UK and can provide further information about your rights and our obligations in relation to your personal information, as well as deal with any complaints that you have about our processing of your personal information.

Changes to this policy

Any changes we make to our privacy policy in future will be posted on this page and, in relation to substantive changes, will be notified to you by e-mail. This policy was last updated on 12 October 2021.

Contacting Us

Questions, comments and requests regarding this privacy policy are welcomed and should be addressed to:

privacy@heycar.co.uk

30 Broadwick Street, London W1F 8JB

heycar platform

Through the heycar platform, you can search used cars for sale in the UK, find new cars for sale and buy a used car online.

rac logo
RAC Cars is a trading name of RAC Motoring Services (Registered No 01424399). Registered in England; Registered Offices: RAC House, Brockhurst Crescent, Walsall WS5 4AW. RAC Cars is operated by heycar which is the trading name of Mobility Trader UK Limited which is a credit broker not a lender, and can be contacted at 5 New Street Square, London, United Kingdom EC4A 3TW. heycar can introduce you to a limited number of lenders to finance your car purchase and may receive a fee from retailers and lenders for introducing customers. These fees do not influence the amount you pay.
RAC Breakdown Cover arranged and administered by RAC Financial Services Limited (Registered No 05171817) and provided by RAC Motoring Services (Registered No 01424399) and/or RAC Insurance Ltd (Registered No 2355834). Registered in England and Wales; Registered Offices: RAC House, Brockhurst Crescent, Walsall WS5 4AW. RAC Motoring Services and RAC Financial Services Limited are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. RAC Insurance Ltd is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority.