Privacy Policy

1. Who is responsible for your information?

Ugarte Cars Manila is responsible for determining the purposes and means of processing personal information received through the car listing and customer inquiry services on this website.

2. What information do we collect?

• Vehicle inquiries: first name, last name, email address, telephone number, the vehicle you asked about, your message, and the listing URL.
• Trade-in inquiries: contact information; vehicle make, model, year, mileage, transmission, colors, optional VIN/chassis number, accident history, ownership and condition details, comments, and photos or PDF documents that you choose to attach.
• Technical information: limited session identifiers needed to prevent forged form submissions, server access/error logs and technical information ordinarily recorded by the web server (which may include IP address, browser and request time).
• Car comparison: the browser may save your selected vehicle details in its local storage so the comparison is available when you browse other listings on the same device. This list is held in your browser, not submitted through the trade-in form.

Please avoid including government ID numbers, financial account details or other highly sensitive information in free-text fields or document uploads unless we specifically request it through an appropriate secure process.

3. Why and on what grounds do we process information?

• To receive, respond to and follow up on your inquiry, arrange contact or a viewing, and evaluate a trade-in you asked us to assess.
• To take steps requested by you before a possible sale, purchase, financing discussion or trade-in arrangement; and, where applicable, to perform an agreement with you.
• To secure the website, prevent abuse or fraudulent submissions, diagnose errors and meet applicable legal obligations.
• To maintain legitimate business records, subject to the legal requirements and balancing of interests under Philippine law.

Depending on the activity, our basis may be your consent, steps necessary in relation to a requested transaction, compliance with legal obligations, or legitimate interests where permitted and appropriately assessed. Submitting an inquiry does not automatically enroll you in promotional mailing lists. If we introduce separate promotional email marketing, we will provide the relevant notice and choice where required.

4. Who can receive the information?

Access is limited to authorized Ugarte Cars personnel handling customer inquiries and operations. We use service providers for hosting and mail delivery, including our GoDaddy hosting and Professional Email services. When you submit a trade-in inquiry, the form emails relevant details and any permitted attachments to our designated business mailbox; files are not made publicly viewable by the submission form.

We may disclose data to a financing, logistics or other service provider only when relevant to a service you have requested and supported by a valid legal basis and an appropriate notice or authorization. We may also disclose information if required by applicable law or lawful process. We do not sell submitted inquiry details as a personal-data product.

Some providers may process or store data outside the Philippines. Where cross-border processing applies, we remain responsible for appropriate safeguards and compliance with applicable Philippine data protection requirements.

5. Cookies, browser storage and external websites

Our website uses a PHP session cookie on pages with inquiry forms for essential security functions, including request verification. The comparison feature uses browser local storage to remember selected vehicles. You may clear cookies or site data through your browser settings; doing so can reset open forms and saved comparisons.

Embedded content, when loaded (such as Google Maps or YouTube), and links to the separate UCAS car-selling site, Facebook, WhatsApp or other external websites are operated by third parties with their own privacy policies. They may receive information such as your IP address or place cookies when their services load. Please review their policies when using those services.

6. How long is information kept?

As our standard inquiry-handling schedule, we aim to delete or anonymize routine vehicle and trade-in inquiries, including attachments retained in business email, within 12 months after the last meaningful communication, unless the inquiry leads to a transaction, a dispute, a documented ongoing need or a law requires a longer retention period. Documents forming part of a completed transaction may be retained for the applicable statutory recordkeeping period.

Technical logs and session data are retained according to legitimate security and hosting requirements. Saved comparison selections remain in your browser until you remove them or clear browser storage. You can request information about the applicable retention period for your data using the contact address below.

7. How do we protect personal information?

We use HTTPS, access restrictions, form validation, request-verification controls and appropriate technical and organizational safeguards to reduce the risk of unauthorized access, alteration, loss or disclosure. No transmission or storage method is completely risk-free. We review and respond to suspected personal data breaches in accordance with applicable NPC rules.

8. Your rights under Philippine law

Subject to applicable conditions and exceptions, you may exercise your rights to be informed, access, object, rectify, request erasure or blocking, request data portability, claim damages and lodge a complaint with the National Privacy Commission. You may also withdraw consent where processing relies on consent, without affecting prior lawful processing.

To make a privacy request, email dpo@ugartecars.ph with the subject “Data Privacy Request.” We may need reasonable verification before disclosing or changing personal records. You may also contact the National Privacy Commission.

9. Children’s information

Our vehicle inquiry services are intended for persons authorized to engage in vehicle-related transactions. We do not knowingly solicit personal information from children. If you believe a child provided information to us without proper authority, contact us so we can review the request and take appropriate steps.

10. Updates to this policy

We may revise this Privacy Policy when our services, technology, processing practices or legal requirements change. We will post the revised policy here with a new update date and provide additional notification when required by law.

11. Privacy contact details

For questions, objections, access/correction/deletion requests or concerns about data handling, contact dpo@ugartecars.ph or call 0917 506 5880. Please address requests to the Ugarte Cars privacy officer / data protection contact.

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