NASHVILLE, April 18, 2019—The first day of the April Collision Industry Conference on Wednesday began with a rather heavy topic: data privacy.
Frank Terlep led the session on data access, privacy and security. The longtime collision repair expert outlined what repairers need to know going forward for bills like the California Consumer Privacy Law that passed on June, 28, 2018. And, as Terlep sees it, after studying the law, it appears it can affect any business that a California resident would go to, even if the business is not in the state of California.
The CCPA broadly expands the right for consumers to control their information, he says. In response, shops will need to follow procedures such as these:
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Have a privacy statement on the website
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Review, revise and deliver training for new employee privacy notice
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Put information in the lobby or front office that shows the consumer what information the business is collecting and what the information will be used for
During the governmental legislative panel discussion in Nashville, the CIC audience seemed to agree, shown through a rousing round of applause, that in order to ensure shops are repairing vehicles according to OEM repair procedures and without the use of legislation mandating it, some conditions need to be met. For example, there needs to be access to the repair procedures in the estimating softwares, and the repairer must have the ethics to do the repair procedure as outlined.
- Also of note on Wednesday in Nashville, it was revealed that I-CAR is in the industry awareness stage of its governance model. And, in a revised plan, there would be 13 permanent seats for the board and four of those would be for collision repair. The plan is to adopt changes along those lines at July's CIC event.
