Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy (the "Privacy Policy") describes how Ford-Werke GmbH ("Ford", "we", "our" or "us") deals with information (your "personal data") which is collected when you visit this website (the "website") or contact us using the information provided here.

This Privacy Policy also covers the processing of your personal data when you purchase products or services through our website.

In addition to this notice, certain Ford goods and services (including some Ford apps) have their own privacy policies that outline in more detail how your personal data is used in certain contexts. You can also refer to your operating instructions or, if necessary, the corresponding app for information on which data your vehicle processes and uses.

Recipients of your personal data

Your personal data can be passed on to

• companies or other third parties engaged by Ford to provide services, such as web hosting providers, mailing providers, analysis service providers, event service providers and IT providers;.
• companies or other third parties to whom your personal data is disclosed at your request or with your consent;
• third parties, including Ford Partners and Ford Bank GmbH, insofar as this is necessary to provide you with deliveries or services; this also includes forwarding to Ford Partners, insofar as orders are placed via our website, where the Ford Partner is responsible for the processing of these orders and/or performance thereof, as well as forwarding to Ford Bank GmbH, insofar as financing is requested from Ford Bank GmbH as part of order processes, for example;
• consultants in the context of their professional practice, e.g. tax advisers or management consultants;
• law enforcement agencies, courts, regulatory authorities, government agencies or other third parties, as Ford deems necessary to comply with existing legal or regulatory obligations or otherwise protect Ford’s rights or the rights of third parties, to ensure the safety of persons or to detect, prevent or otherwise counter fraud or security issues; or
• third parties who acquire assets and the entire business (or substantial portions thereof) from Ford or transfer these to Ford. In the event of such a disposal, Ford will use reasonable efforts to ensure that the recipient of your personal data uses it in a manner that complies with this notice.

In order to comply with our legal obligations to provide emission data, we collect information on your fuel and/or power consumption and send this, together with the vehicle identification number, to the EU Commission and the European Environment Agency (EEA). The data is collected via the modem installed in the vehicle (if you have a networked vehicle) and/or as part of the maintenance or repair of your vehicle. You can object to this data processing at any time. To do so, please use the contact addresses provided in the "Your rights as a data subject" section.

Cross-border transfer of your personal data

Your personal data will be treated in accordance with German data protection law and may be transferred within the European Economic Area ("EEA"), as well as to countries outside the EEA (including the USA). The countries to which your personal data is transferred may not provide an adequate level of data protection in the opinion of the European Commission. Where your personal data is transferred to countries outside the EEA, Ford will take appropriate measures in accordance with the relevant legal obligations to ensure that your personal data is adequately protected regardless of the country to which it is transferred. These measures may include, but are not limited to, obtaining contractual assurances from third parties who have access to your personal data, according to which they undertake to protect your personal data at least to the extent that it is protected within the EEA. More information on how Ford protects your personal data when transferring to countries outside the EEA, or on the guarantees offered by Ford regarding the protection of your personal data in the event that it is transferred, is available on request.

Type of personal data used

Ford collects personal data from the website

• when you fill in forms or make bookings (e.g. if you register an account and thereby provide personal data; if you book a service, request a test drive or order a product via our website);
• automatically through the use of cookies and similar procedures. More information on this topic is available in our cookie guide.

The website enables you to provide us with personal data, including

• your name and contact details (e.g. your address, telephone number(s) and email address) and date of birth, as well as information about your company or employer, if you contact Ford in a business capacity;
• your vehicle details (including your vehicle identification number ("VIN"), official registration number, model, age and mileage of your vehicle; date of purchase);
• the products and services you are interested in or which you have used or purchased;
• Your consent to communication and marketing activities (or the options you choose in relation to this); and
• information required for financial processing, such as payment details.

Furthermore, Ford reserves the right to collate the data available to it – insofar as this is legally permissible – with third parties, such as marketing agencies, information collected or obtained from publicly available sources about you or your interests, your socio-economic or socio-demographic status, online identifiers and current contact details.

Ford may also be legally obliged to process certain personal data. We may also be obliged to process your personal data on the basis of a contractual relationship with you. Failure to provide such information may prevent or delay the performance of these obligations.

Type of use of your personal data

We use the personal data we collect on the website

• to respond to your queries (e.g. to set up your account or to enable you to book test drives, request vehicle brochures or process product orders),
• to process your requests;
• for study and research purposes;
• to send you promotional materials in accordance with your consent to receive information; and
• for market research
• to comply with Ford’s legal and regulatory obligations, to respond to legal proceedings or to provide information to government agencies or other third parties, or to detect or prevent illegal and fraudulent acts and to protect your rights and those of Ford and others.
• to operate the website, to personalise it for you and to understand how the website is used to improve it accordingly.

Duration of storage of your personal data

Ford stores your personal data in identifiable form for as long as this is necessary for the purposes for which they were collected and to fulfil its legal and regulatory obligations. In general, your personal data will therefore be stored for as long as one of the following applies:

• Your personal data is reasonably necessary to provide the services you have requested;
• Your personal data is reasonably necessary to protect Ford’s rights or property (usually for the duration of the relevant statutory limitation period); or
• The storage of your personal data is prescribed by the applicable laws or regulations.

Legal bases for the use of your personal data

There are various legal bases for the use of your personal data by Ford. Ford processes and uses your personal data in the following cases:

• Where the use of your personal data is necessary for Ford to be able to perform a contract or contracts to which you are party or to carry out pre-contractual measures at your request. Such contracts may include, for example, the terms and conditions of participation in a contest or contracts you enter into regarding service products or orders placed via our website. We also process your personal data in order to fulfil your requests when we create, manage and provide you with services in your account on the website;
• if Ford or third parties to whom Ford has disclosed your personal data have a legitimate interest in the use of your personal data and it is ensured by Ford that your personal data is protected and your rights in this regard are safeguarded. This legal basis exists, for example, if Ford or the Ford Motor Company Group companies use your personal data for the purposes of: reviewing and improving products, services or business or marketing strategies; for market analysis and research; for study and research purposes; for processing and improving Ford’s business relationship with you and for administrative purposes; to gain an insight into which information, products and services are most likely to be of interest to you, and to send or display information, offers and online advertising about these products or services; to adapt Ford’s products and services to your individual needs; to ensure that Ford’s products and services are delivered, provided and used in accordance with the law and the regulations applicable to them; and, where necessary, to protect and defend Ford’s rights and property or the rights and property of third parties and to detect or prevent fraud or security or data protection issues and to take appropriate countermeasures;
• if Ford deems the use of your personal data necessary to comply with its legal or regulatory obligations;
• in certain cases where Ford considers it necessary to protect the safety or vital interests of third parties;
  in certain cases where Ford needs to use your personal data for purposes in the public interest;
• and if Ford has your consent. Based on this consent, Ford may use your personal data, for example, to send you advertisements by post, e-mail, fax or SMS text message. However, you have the right to withdraw your consent to the use of your personal data for such purposes at any time. You can find more information on this in the following section "Your rights as a data subject".

Automated decision-making processes

Ford reserves the right to merge your personal data and use automated decision-making processes for the above purposes and:

• to review, develop and improve products, processes, services and marketing strategies;
• to personalise communication and Ford products and services provided to you;
• to continuously update your personal data;
• to improve customer understanding; and
• to manage and improve Ford’s business relationship with you.

This may include, for example, gaining insights for optimising sales strategies, assessing the effectiveness of marketing measures and customer support by Ford, conducting market analyses and identifying products or services that may be of interest to you and contacting you to inform you of this.

In certain cases, automated decisions made by Ford may have a legal or similar impact on you. However, Ford will only make automated decisions of this kind if:

• the decisions are necessary for the performance or conclusion of a contract with you;
• the decisions are permitted by law; or
• you have agreed to the use of automated decision-making processes by Ford.

Under certain circumstances, you may object to the use of automated decision-making processes or request that automated decisions are reviewed by a person.

Data collection from other sources

Ford is committed to tailoring its communication and interaction with you as closely as possible to your needs. Ford therefore reserves the right to use information about you obtained from publicly available sources and from third parties (see the above section "Type of personal data used") to determine which Ford products and services may be of interest to you. For example, analytics and advertising service providers may analyse data collected online or from other sources to obtain information about your demographic characteristics and interests, such as inferring which age group you belong to and which types of products or services may be of interest to you. Based on this information, Ford may provide (in accordance with your communication preferences) information on the relevant products and services and may use the information available about you to inform its Service Centres if you contact them. Ford may also work with third parties to display advertising tailored to your needs on social media platforms or, if you have agreed to the use of cookies, when browsing the Internet or visiting other websites. If you wish to opt out of receiving marketing material, please refer to the section "Your rights as a data subject".

Your rights as a data subject

As a natural person, you have the right to request information regarding the data stored about you by Ford and the purposes of data storage, as well as access to this data and, if necessary, its rectification. In certain cases, you also have the right to object to Ford’s use of your personal data, e.g. contact for market research purposes or collating your data from different sources; to request the blocking or deletion of your personal data or to receive your personal data in a commonly used electronic format in order to transfer it to third parties (this is often referred to as the right to "data portability").

If you have given your consent to the use of your personal data (see the section "Legal bases for the use of your personal data"), you have the right to withdraw this consent at any time.

If you have any questions or concerns about the use of your personal data or if you wish to access the data stored by Ford about you or exercise any other rights to which you are entitled in this regard, please contact us using the following contact information:

Ford-Werke GmbH
Ford-Kundenzentrum
Postfach 710265
50742 Cologne, Germany
E-mail: kunden@ford.com

Please inform Ford if you wish to update your personal data in the event of changes or if you wish to have any errors in the data stored by Ford rectified.

Ford has appointed a Data Protection Commissioner. You can contact them at dsb@ford.com.

If you have any complaints regarding Ford’s use of your personal data, we hope that you will contact us first. However, you can also direct complaints to the relevant data protection authority.

Other websites and social networks

The website may contain links to other websites which are not under our control and to which this Privacy Policy does not apply. If you access other websites using the links provided, the operators of these websites may collect information about you that they use in accordance with their privacy policies, which may differ from this one.

The website may also provide you with the option of sharing information about Ford, the website or the products and/or services available through it through a social media functionality or to follow them (e.g. "share this", "like" or "follow" buttons).

We offer this functionality in order to create interest in the website among members of your social networks and to give you the opportunity to share opinions, news and recommendations on the website with your contacts and to follow them. However, you should be aware that when personal data is shared on a social network, this data may be collected by the social network provider and made publicly available, including via internet search engines.

You should always carefully read the privacy policy of each website you visit or social network you use to share information, so that you understand their privacy practices.

In certain parts of this website, visitors may be asked to use the Google reCAPTCHA tool so that an identity check can be carried out to ensure that a bot does not use certain functions of the website.

Google collects hardware and software information, such as device and application data, to carry out these checks.

Google is an independent company and the data collected by Google is subject to Google’s privacy policy. We recommend that you read Google’s privacy policy at http://www.google.com/privacy.html and Google’s "How Google uses information from sites or apps that use our services" (at www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners/), so that you understand how the data is collected, used and shared.

Processing of personal data of persons under the age of 16

We do not knowingly process personal data of persons under the age of 16. If you give your consent for us to contact you, e.g. for advertising purposes, Ford assumes that you are over the age of 16.

Changes to this Policy

Ford reserves the right to change this Policy from time to time. If it does so, Ford will notify you of the changes. If such changes are substantial, Ford will notify you in good time to give you the opportunity to exercise your rights regarding your personal data (e.g. to object to their processing).