PRIVACY POLICY
Privacy Policy
Effective from: 2023.10.30
Published on: 2023.10.30
BYD Auto South Africa (Pty) Ltd is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. This document describes how your personal data will be processed when you use our website or using our services.
You can find below:
3.What personal data do we collect and how do we use it
9.Rights in relation to Personal Data
11.How will we update this Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy does not apply to our authorized retailers, or third parties to whom you directly provide your personal data including but not limited to, subscription services, insurance companies, or other third parties. These entities are independent of us and responsible for their own collection of personal data. Please refer directly to those entities and their privacy policies for more information.
1 Introduction
This Privacy Policy ("Policy") provides information on the personal data processing by BYD Auto South Africa (Pty) Ltd, including our subsidiaries and affiliate companies (hereinafter individually and collectively referred to as "BYD ","we", "our", or "us").
BYD can be reached via the following contact details:
Mailing address: 369 Mail Road, Kenilworth Cape Town, Western Cape, 7708, South Africa
Email address: privacy.mea@byd.com
BYD is part of the global group of companies of BYD Company Limited in Shenzhen, China.
This Policy applies for all personal data processed by BYD and/or on behalf of BYD, which identify or may identify a person ("Personal Data"). These persons involved are hereinafter collectively referred to as data subjects ("Data Subjects").
BYD reserves the right to review and/or alter the Policy periodically, in order to comply with (local and/or European) legislation, and for any other purpose deemed reasonably necessary by BYD.
For queries and inquiries about this Policy, please contact us via the Email address: privacy.mea@byd.com.
2 Processing of Personal Data
This Policy sets out the elements necessary for BYD's compliance with applicable legislation, principles and practice, including but not limited to applicable privacy laws ("Applicable Laws").
The Policy is an external policy and is directed towards Data Subjects whose Personal Data are being processed by BYD for the purpose that has been collected. This Policy applies to the processing of Personal Data, in which BYD acts as the data controller within the meaning of the Applicable Laws. This is the case when BYD determines the purpose for and the means for the processing of Personal Data of Data Subjects within the purposes of this policy.
For business purposes, Data Subjects may be asked to provide their Personal Data. If this is the case, BYD, its affiliates and partners shall be required to keep such information confidential.
3 What personal data do we collect and how do we use it
When we provide our services, we have a need to process personal data. We typically process the following personal data when you use our website or using our services:
1) Access and Use of the Website: We automatically collect your personal identifiers (such as your device’s Internet Protocol (IP) address), location information (such as may be determined from your Internet Protocol (IP) address) to provide our website to you. For this purpose, we process your above personal data for the purposes of the legitimate interests of the Company.
2) Schedule a Test Drive: We collect your location information, including your zip code, or your address to schedule a test drive to the local retailer. We also collect your first name, e-mail address or phone number, as well as your selected vehicle type, your contact preference type, your selected dealer name and dealer address, you choose to include in the webform in order to submit your request to schedule a test drive to the selected dealer. For this purpose, we process your above personal data on the basis of the performance of our agreement with you.
3) Submit your configuration: We collect your name, phone number or email after you submit your configuration to fulfil your request for products and services based on our contract with you. For this purpose, we process your above personal data on the basis of the performance of our agreement with you.
4) Contact Us / Submit your question or comment: We may collect any personal information you choose to provide us with in our communication to respond to your queries and provide you with your requested services or products. We collect your first and last name, phone number or your e-mail address, your region and your zip code, your selected topic, your selected contact preference type and your questions or comments to your queries in order to provide you with your requested services or products. For this purpose, we process your above personal data for the purposes of the legitimate interests of the Company. We only process the data that is absolutely necessary for answering your question.
5) Newsletter subscriptions: We may collect your e-mail address so we can provide you with a service and let you know about our products, events and services. For this purpose, we process your personal data on the basis of your consent. If you no longer want to receive promotional-related emails, you may opt out of receiving them by clicking the unsubscribe button in your mails. Please note that we may still send you safety messages or product service issues even if you opt out of receiving marketing messages.
When we collect personal information from you as listed above, we do so through cookies and similar technologies. For more information on how we use cookies across our digital platforms, please see our Cookie Statement.
Our website includes social media features, such as Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter widgets. These features may collect identifiers (such as your Internet Protocol (IP) address) and internet activity information (such as which page you are visiting on our website). These widgets may set a cookie or utilize other tracking technologies to accomplish this. Social media features and widgets are hosted by a third party and your interactions with those features are governed by the privacy policies of the third-party companies that provide them.
4 Retention period
BYD will store personal data for the period necessary to fulfill the purposes mentioned above. After these purposes no longer exist, or to comply with contractual obligations, or as permitted or required by applicable laws, BYD will remove the personal data. If you are a customer, BYD will keep your information for the duration of any contractual relationship you have with us. After the end of that relationship, we will retain your information for as long as necessary to perform the purposes outlined in this policy, to the extent permitted. We retain the information collected from or about you for the period necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in this Privacy Statement, unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law.
When you visit our website, your IP address will be stored in our server located in Frankfurt, Germany using encryption measures. Such data will be retained 7 days, after which the data will be automatically deleted. We have also defined specific expiration time for the use of cookies. For details on the expiration time of Cookies, please refer to our Cookie Policy.
5 Purpose limitation
The Personal Data may only be processed to the extent necessary for the described purposes. Personal Data may in principle not be processed for other purposes other than that for which the Personal Data were collected. If there is a necessity or need to process Personal Data for other purposes, it shall be investigated by BYD whether the purposes of the intended data processing are compatible with the original purposes. BYD shall provide the Data Subject prior to that further processing with information on that other purpose.
6 Security of Personal Data
We strive to maintain the appropriate security level and BYD has put in place robust technical and organizational measures for the protection of your data in accordance with the current, general state of technology, especially to protect the data against loss, falsification or access by unauthorized third persons. We highly value your privacy and consider it as our lifeline. Specifically, we have placed encryption measures when storing your personal data, and have used https protocol when transferring personal data to servers. However, the Internet is not 100% safe, while we will do our best to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee the unfortunate occurrence for any security incident. When the unfortunate occurrence happens, we will report it promptly and take remedial measures in accordance with the requirements of the law and regulatory authorities.
7 Sharing Personal Data
We share the information identified above:
1) within the BYD Group, which includes parents, corporate affiliates, subsidiaries, business units and other companies that share common ownership.
2) with BYD Dealers for sales, leasing, and customer service purposes, such as responding to quote requests, vehicle diagnosis, maintenance and repair, scheduling service appointments, and contacting you and providing the requested services.
· i. BYD and BYD Dealers are separate legal entities with their own privacy policy. Please be aware that each dealer operates as a separate legal entity and you should read the dealer’s privacy statement to ensure that you understand its privacy polices and procedures. Additionally, because the BYD dealer often is the first contact with you, the dealer can answer any questions you may have about its privacy policy. While BYD encourages its dealers to ensure full compliance with all applicable privacy legislation and has provided information to our dealers relating to privacy obligations, BYD is not responsible for dealers’ compliance with applicable law.
· ii. With our suppliers and service providers, we may share your personal data to the third-party service providers, agents, subcontractors and other organizations for the purposes of providing services to us or directly to you on our behalf. Such third parties may include cloud services providers (such as hosting and email management) or other third parties who provide services to us.
3) When we use third party service providers, we only share with them the personal information that is necessary for them to provide their services and we have a contract in place that requires them to keep your information secure and not to use it other than in accordance with our specific instructions.
4) With other entities for legal, security or safety purposes, we may share your information with third parties, law enforcement or other government agencies to comply with law or legal requirements; to enforce or apply our Terms of Service and other agreements; and to protect our rights and the property or safety of our users or third parties. We also may disclose information about you and your vehicle when we have reason to believe that someone is causing injury to or interference with our rights or property, other users of the websites or anyone else that could be harmed by such activities.
5) With other companies in connection with a corporate transaction, if we or some or all our assets are acquired by another company, including through a sale in connection with bankruptcy, we will share the information that we hold with that company.
6) With Optional Third Parties (such as Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter widgets) that you authorize, with your express permission, we will also share your information with selected third parties you choose (“Optional Third Parties”).These services or offerings from third parties will be subject to their Terms of Service and Privacy Statement, not ours. If you have any concerns regarding the collection, use or sharing of your personal information or wish to exercise any rights that you have, please contact the Optional Third Parties directly.
When third parties are given access to your personal data, we will take the required contractual, technical and organizational measures to ensure that your personal data are only processed to the extent that such processing is necessary.
In all cases, BYD will expressly state why such information is necessary, so that Data Subjects may provide the information at their own discretion. BYD will not disclose Personal Data provided by Data Subjects to any party, other than BYD itself, without prior permission from the Data Subjects.
8 International Transfer
By providing your personal data to us, your data will be transferred to and stored at our data center located in our server located in Paris, France.
BYD is a global company and we operate internationally, which means we may access from BYD’s headquarters in China for the provision of services. By visiting our website, your IP address will be collected and stored at our data center located in Germany. We may also transfer analytical data to Adobe data center located in the United States, in order to make cyber security related analysis. BYD ensures that your data is adequately protected by signing the data transmission agreement with the recipients and (if necessary) adopting other additional appropriate technical measures (e.g. encryption).
If you wish to know details in connection with the transfer of your personal data, please contact us using the contact information provided in Section 10 below.
9 Rights in relation to Personal Data
You generally have the right to ask us:
· for access to and a copy of your personal data that we hold.
· that some of your personal data is provided to you or sent to another data controller in a commonly used, machine readable format.
· to update or correct your personal data in order to make it accurate.
· to delete your personal data from our records in certain circumstances.
· to restrict the processing of your personal data in certain circumstances.
· to object to us processing your personal data in certain circumstances.
To exercise these rights, please contact us using the contact information provided in Section 10 below.
These rights may be limited in some situations – for example, where we can demonstrate that we have a legal requirement to process your data or if making the information available to you would reveal personal data about another person or if we are legally prevented from disclosing such information. In some instances, this may mean that we are able to retain data even if you withdraw your consent.
We hope that we can satisfy any queries you may have about the way we process your data. If you have any concerns about how we process your data you can contact us as described below in the section “10 Questions and inquiries”.
In the event you still have unresolved concerns, you also have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority.
Finally, please note that where we require personal data to comply with legal or contractual obligations, then provision of such data is mandatory: if such data is not provided, then we will not be able to manage our contractual relationship, or to meet obligations placed on us. In all other cases, provision of requested personal data is optional.
10 Questions and inquiries
If you have any questions about the processing of your personal data, please read this Privacy Policy first. For additional questions, please feel free to contact us. Please note that we take your satisfaction very seriously. Should you have a complaint, please also direct it to the same email address and we will respond to you as soon as we can.
You can of course also lodge a complaint with the data protection authority of the country in which you live.
11 How will we update this Privacy Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy according to changes in our business functions and measures concerning the protection of personal information. If we make changes to this Privacy Policy, we will notify you through our website. Where changes to this Privacy Policy will have a fundamental impact on the nature of the processing or otherwise have a substantial impact on you, we will give you sufficient advance notice so that you could exercise any rights you have.