April 30, 2018—The Automotive Service Association (ASA) cautioned that some third-party vendors that collision and mechanical shops do business with might be reselling their customers' data to other third parties.
This practice raises concerns that shop owners might not be aware when their data, and their customers’ data, is being shared and/or sold.
Recently, one of ASA’s board members encountered a situation in which estimate data was unknowingly shared with CARFAX within 48 hours of the estimate being created. The board member stated that the consumer was irate because the value of his vehicle was impacted severely. He demanded to know why the shop shared the information without his consent.
To date, the shop in question has not determined who shared the data, although when asked, CCC Information Services, the preferred estimating system provider for the shop, replied with a letter from CARFAX Communications Director Larry Gamache saying “CARFAX currently gathers information from more than 34,000 sources. However, CCC is not one of these. CCC does not report information from your facility to CARFAX.”
ASA has developed a Data Security Policy Agreement for shops to protect customer data.
