THE DATA POLICE HAVE ARRIVED
Most recently there has been a bold new wave washing over the automotive dealership landscape. Beginning with TrueCar, whose CEO bragged about using data to eliminate dealerships and lower profits below True Cost. He arrogantly taunted us with claims of "Transparency" which has become the "Buzz Word" of every vendor using our own data to virtually put us out of business, to steal our customers information, and sell it, pass it on to their affiliate companies, and otherwise resell it to third and fourth parties.
WELL, the revolution is here... and we, the dealers, managers, and industry loyalists are committed to locking down the DATA. Remember, cockroaches run when you shine a light on them.
We realize that vendors need access to SOME DATA to be able to perform their services BUT, virtually every vendor taking Data from the dealers- Data that ultimately shows up elsewhere being used against us - every vendor is taking far more Data than necessary and making dealers sign agreements that they can resell it, and pass it to affiliates, and that the VENDOR OWNS your customer data.
So many Dealers have signed contracts that THE VENDOR OWNS YOUR DATA.
THAT IS SO WRONG. By what right does any vendor you are paying have to claim to own your customers? That is total backwards crap and you know it. DEALERS-Your data is your BLUE SKY and you are signing contracts that allow vendors to own your customers and steal your legacy.
These vendors include, DMS Providers, CRM Companies, Lead Providers, Third Party Aggregators... and others, there are even OEMs (Manufacturers) stealing data from service and sales and even finance information on your customers and redistributing it.
The purpose of this BLOG is THE FIRST SHOT in the Data Reclamation Revolution.
We intend to educate Dealers as to what vendors are lifting your DATA... what they're doing with Your Data... Who they're selling it to or passing it along to.
Remember, the dealer is legally and liabilally responsible for the privacy and security of your data, not the vendor that contractually stole it and sold it.
AND we urge Dealers to responsibly call all of these vendors to task... either rewrite your contract or Cancel Them.
It is the purpose of this BLOG to expose those vendors and publish the offending parts of their agreements here. Remember, the vendor that screams loudest is probably the most guilty. JIM
Comment
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Comment by James A. Ziegler on January 17, 2012 at 11:27am
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Scott Painter, Charles Kim, and TrueCar Staff greet Car Dealers at the NADA Convention in Las Vegas....actual news footage
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Comment by Linn Boyd on January 16, 2012 at 10:34am -
Also ladies and gents, there are some contracts which the DMS provider can change at will, and you sign the document to that, their service agreement is on the web and they can change it at any time!
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Comment by Linn Boyd on January 16, 2012 at 10:31am
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@Jim.... I know of many stores that have signed that exact document, I haven't done consulting to stores in about 1.5 years but I was told to shut up about this type of thing because they were signing it no matter what because they didn't want to change DMS providers!
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Did some dumb-ass actually sign this?
REPORTING;DATA SHARING. Notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in this Agreement, Client hereby grants (DMS Provider name) the non-exclusive, royalty free right and license to (i) repurpose and/or aggregate the Extracted Data, (ii) track, analyze and/or create reports related to aggregate activity and/or results obtained in connection with Client's use of any (DMS Provider name ) Offerings (including use by Client's customer of any Software, Services, or any other (DMS Provider name) Proprietary Materials) and share such information with its affiliated companies, (iii) share Extracted Data with such third parties as (DMS Provider name) deems necessary in connection with providing (DMS Provider name) Offerings hereunder (iv) utilize such information to, among other things, create, market, and sell products and services, and (v) use, store, modify, redistribute, sublicense, transfer and sell to third parties, in aggregated form, the Extracted data or any other information tracked, analyzed, reported or otherwise received by (DMS Provider name) in connection with providing (DMS Provider name)Offerings. For the avoidance of doubt, "aggregated" data shall not include any Customer Information or information that in and of itself may be used by a third party to (x) identify a Client's customer, or (y) determine the number of sales and/or the financial terms of any sale made by the Client. Client further agrees that (DMS Provider name) may, and Client expressly grants (DMS Provider name) the right to, disclose and provide to its affiliates and representatives, and its OEM partners, consumer lead information and disposition status thereof with respect to consumer leads that are provided or sold to Client by any OEM or any of (DMS Provider name) affiliates or representatives.
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Now, we're hearing HomeNet and TrueCar have some sort of partnership. That scares the Hell out of me because AutoTrader owns HomeNet. I was assured that AutoTrader was only sharing Data within the AutoTrader family of companies... Now, come to find out they're in bed with TrueCar, a company I consider to be the Dealers worst hostile enemy in history. You can only assume the Data flowing within this Deal made in hell. At least that's how I see it.
Now, this deal was originally sealed about a year ago, but I am sensing it is being cranked up now.
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Comment by Linn Boyd on January 16, 2012 at 10:08am
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You are right, and the bad thing is that there are people in the true know that should say something but they are to afraid of litigation from the companies, bound by NDA's etc. Does anyone remember reynoldsinformation.blogspot.com? What happened to that guy?
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Edmunds.com is also demanding access to Dealer data.... does anyone honestly believe these people are our friends and they will use your data for friendly purposes?
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Comment by John Weltz on January 16, 2012 at 9:16am
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Well said!! Succinct and Direct!..
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Comment by Linn Boyd on January 15, 2012 at 4:58pm
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@Jim you are very right that is what we needs to be done, but I have seen it over and over again, and the vendor tells the dealer that they are secure and not to worry.
Then you have R&R locking every other vendor out of the system due to the fact of "security" you know that R&R can and do access any of your data that they wish and they can sell it as well, with no repercussions to them from the dealership.
The data belongs to the dealership and I can not believe that they so freely allow it to be out there. I proved a few years ago that the data was flowing out to their competitors to a store and the GSM didn't care because the CRM tool was easy to train on and did well with their sales staff. We were told specifically that they didn't care.
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Okay Linn, now that's what we need to educate the dealers and managers.
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