Continental RPM Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy (“Policy”) describes how Continental Tire the Americas, LLC (“Continental”, “Our”, “Us” or “We” or “Controller”) uses and protects the Personal Information (i.e., information that can be used to identify you) that Continental collects, processes, or otherwise has access to when you register for, access, and use www.continentalrpm.com (“Website” or “Service”). 

California Residents: Please see Supplement For California Consumers

Contacting Us

If you have any questions about Our Policy or Our use of your Personal Information, you can contact us by e-mail at privacy@continental.com, or by regular mail to Continental Tire the Americas, LLC 1830 MacMillan Park Dr. Fort Mill, SC 29707, Attn: Continental RPM, or by phone at (833) 656-0555. Requests for changes to your personal information and/or cancellation of your registration can be made to PLTGOLD@conti-na.com.

1.                   Acceptance of Policy

By downloading, accessing, and/or using the Website, or otherwise providing your personal information to Continental, you signify your acceptance of this Policy. If you do not agree to this Policy, do not register for an account and immediately discontinue your use of the Website.

2.                   Personal Information We Collect

In providing the Service, Continental may collect, process, transfer, or otherwise have access to various information and data, including your Personal Information.  “Personal Information” refers to any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person or household (as applicable), and includes but is not limited to “personal data”, “personal information”, and such other substantially equivalent terms defined in applicable laws that apply to Us.

The types of Personal Information that Continental has collected about you during your registration and use of the Service during the preceding 12 months are:

a.                   Identifiers, such as your name, alias, postal address, country of residence, unique personal identifier, online identifier, internet protocol address, email address, account name, phone number, and other similar information.

b.                  Records About you and financial information, such as your bank account number, credit card number, debit card number, government-issued Tax ID, or any other financial information.

c.                   Commercial information and preferences, including records of personal property, creditworthiness, products or services purchased, obtained, or considered, or other purchasing or consuming histories or tendencies.

d.                  Internet or other electronic network activity information, such as your browsing history, search history, and information regarding your interactions with Us and the Website.

e.                   Professional and employment information, such as job title, business address, employment history, or other professional information.

f.                    Inferences drawn from any of the information We collect to create a profile about you reflecting your preferences, characteristics, psychological trends, predispositions, behavior, attitudes, intelligence, abilities, and aptitudes.

g.                   Customer support data, including information collected when you contact us for help with your account (including, but not limited to, name, telephone number and contact information, summary of issue(s) discussed).

h.                  “Sensitive Personal Information”, as such term is defined under applicable data protection laws, including:

1.                   Government-issued identification number, including Social Security Number.

Privacy expectations and regulations are continually changing, and We expect Our use and handling of your Personal Information will change over time to meet those changes and expectations.  If Our use of your Personal Information changes in a material way, We will separately notify you and, if necessary, obtain your consent (see Modifications section below).

Note that the above list is broad simply to capture the types of information required for different types of interactions between us.  Not all of the above information is captured during each interaction. 

3.                   Sources of Personal Information

We collect information, including Personal Information, about you and how you interact with Us in several ways, including:

a.                   Information You Provide to Us Directly.  We collect the information you provide to Us directly.

b.                  Information from Your Device. When you use the Website, We capture information from the device through which you access the Website, including mobile device brand and model.  Additionally, use of the Website may requires access or permission to certain features of your mobile device, including your mobile device’s camera and microphone. If you wish to restrict Our access or permissions, you may do so in your device’s settings.  Restricting Our access may negatively impact your use of the Website. 

c.                   Information Automatically Collected or Inferred from Your Interaction with Us.  We automatically collect technical information about your interactions with Us, such as the time the Website is used, the number of times the Website is accessed or used per day, the time spent in the different pages, the time the microphone and camera is used, the number of pages accessed, the number of clicks to get the solutions, and the number of attempts the camera and microphone is used to obtain a result.

1.                   Cookies. For additional information about cookies that may be used with the Website, see Section 7 below.

d.                    Information from Third Parties.  We receive information about you and your interactions with Us from third parties, including your employer, principal, coworkers and others interacting with Us and/or using Continental services.

4.                   How Continental Uses Your Personal Information

a.                   To Provide the Website and Enable Interactions Between You and Continental.  We will use your Personal Information to provide and maintain the Website and to facilitate requested transactions and orders made through the Website.  This includes, but is not limited to, registration and administration of your account, providing you with and support in your interactions with us; diagnosing, repairing and tracking service and quality issues; facilitating an order, download, return, or exchange; providing requested information; communicating with you about your account or Our data practices; installing and configuring changes and updates to the Website, programs and technologies related to interactions with us; authenticate those who interact with us; or to respond to your requests, complaints, and inquiries.  The legal basis for the use of your data for such purposes is either contract or Our legitimate interests, which is when We have a business or commercial reason to use your information, so long as this is not overridden by your own rights and interests.

b.                  To Provide Customer Support. Continental has a relatively large customer support staff relative to Our customer base.  We strive to provide quality products and services including supporting you when you need it. To do this, We use your personal information to investigate and assist you in resolving questions or issues you have regarding Continental products and services, and provide you support or respond to you.  The legal basis for the use of your data for such purposes is either the contractual obligation with you or legitimate interests.

c.                   For Our Internal Business Purposes. We may use your Personal Information for Our internal business purposes related to providing the Website, as well as other products and technologies.  This includes, but is not limited to, evaluating or auditing the usage and performance of Website, programs and technologies related to interactions with us; evaluating and improving the quality of your interactions with Us and the Website, programs and technologies related to interactions with us; designing new services; performing internal research for technological development and demonstration; conducting data analysis and testing; maintaining proper business records and other relevant records. The legal basis for the use of your data for such purposes is either the contractual relationship with you or Our legitimate interests.

d.                  For Legal, Safety or Security Reasons.  This includes complying with legal requirements; protecting the safety, property or rights of Continental, you, and those who interact with us, or others; and detecting, preventing, and responding to security incidents or other malicious, deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal activity. We process your Personal Information for this purposes on the basis of a statutory requirement, and We will endeavor to  notify you of this at the time of collection

e.                   In a De-identified, Anonymized or Aggregated Format.  When converted to a de-identified, anonymized, or aggregated format, this data no longer constitutes Personal Information and We may use this information for any purpose.

f.                    For Marketing.  We may use your Personal Information to market Our products or services or those of third parties, such as Our business partners. We may use your Personal Information when you participate in marketing surveys, questionnaires, promotions, events or contests.  We may use your Personal Information to enhance Our content and to potentially send you commercial emails. 

5.                   With Whom We Share Your Personal Information

We do not currently “sell” or “share” your Personal Information (as such terms are defined in applicable data privacy laws), nor do We have any plan to do so.  However, to provide the Website, We may share your Personal Information with these recipients:

a.                   Affiliates and Subsidiaries.  We may share your Personal Information within the Continental group of companies, which includes parents, corporate affiliates, subsidiaries, business units and other companies that share common ownership for the purposes described above.  Such transfers to affiliates will be in accordance with Continental’s Binding Corporate Rules (“BCRs”), a copy of which is available here

b.                  Service Providers. We may share your Personal Information with third party service providers working on behalf of Us in order to provide the Website or otherwise facilitate an interaction with Continental you request or support Our relationship with you, such as hosting service providers, IT providers, operating systems and platforms, internet service providers, analytics companies, and marketing providers (e.g., We may share your email address with Our outbound email marketing provider).  We may contract with other companies to provide certain services, including shipping, identity verification, email distribution, market research, promotions management and payment processing. We provide these companies with only the information they need to perform their services and work with them to ensure that your privacy is respected and protected. These companies are prohibited by contract from using this information for their own marketing purposes or from sharing this information with 3rd parties.

c.                   Contractors and Business Partners. We may also provide your Personal Information or provide access to your Personal Information to Our contractors and business partners, particularly with respect to processing or fulfilling any orders or transactions that you place through the Website.

d.                  For Legal, Security and Safety Purposes.  We may share your Personal Information with third parties such as law enforcement or other government agencies to comply with law or legal requirements; to enforce or apply Our Terms of Use and other agreements; and to protect Our rights and the property or safety of Continental, Our users, or third parties.

e.                   In Connection with a Corporate Transaction.  If We sell some or all of Our assets, or merge or are acquired by another entity, including through a sale or in connection with a bankruptcy, We will share your Personal Information with that entity.

f.                    Any Other 3rd Party to Which You Have Authorized or Requested the Disclosure.

6.                   Your Rights

Please note that under applicable data protection laws and regulations you may have the following rights in connection with Continental’s processing and use of your Personal Information as a Controller:

a.                   Right of Information. You may receive information about your ability to refuse consent and the consequences associated with such refusal. 

b.                  Right to Notice. Continental provides this Notice, detailing how Personal Information is processed, including the third parties with which Continental has shared your Personal Information.  Continental will provide updated notice and information any time the types of Personal Information processed and/or Continental’s use and sharing of your Personal Information materially change.

c.                   Right to Revoke Consent. You may withdraw consent at any time, and the Continental will stop processing and delete your Personal Information, subject to the Continental’s right to retain the data as allowed for lawful purposes, including to comply with its legal obligations and to use it exclusively on an anonymized basis. Consent must be withdrawn in writing to privacy@continental.com.

d.                  Right of Access. You may obtain from Continental confirmation regarding whether Personal Information is being processed and, if it is, access to the Personal Information and additional information about the processing of such Personal Information.

e.                   Right to Correction/Rectification. You may have inaccurate Personal Information corrected and have incomplete Personal Information made complete.

f.                    Right to Deletion. You may have Personal Information deleted in certain circumstances.

g.                   Right to Restrict Processing. You may have additional processing of Personal Information restricted and/or temporarily blocked while the sufficiency, necessity, accuracy, or legality of processing of the Personal Information is contested.

h.                  Right to Data Portability. You may be able to receive Personal Information for the purpose of providing that Personal Information to another controller, either through you as Our business customer or directly by Continental.

i.                     Right to Object. You may object, at any time and on grounds relating to their particular situation, that processing of Personal Information is unnecessary or excessive.

j.                    Right to complain to a Supervisory Authority. If you have a complaint about Our privacy practices, you have the right to submit a complaint to a relevant supervisory authority.

Continental may request additional information from you as necessary to allow you to exercise your rights, and We may deny your request where We have a legitimate basis to do so.

7.                   Cookies

We also collect information, via cookies or other tracking technologies, such as your Internet Service Provider and IP address, the date and time you access Our website, the pages you accessed while visiting Our website, and the Internet address from which you accessed the Website.  We use these technologies to remember user preferences, maximize the performance of the Website and associated services and to personalize and improve your experience with the Website.  Importantly, We do not use non-essential cookies or third party cookies that implicate data sales or data sharing obligations set forth in the California Privacy Laws (see Supplement for California Users below).

8.                   Retention

We will retain your Personal Information for as long as is necessary to provide the Website, to fulfill the purposes outlined in this Policy, and as otherwise required or permitted by applicable law.  This includes retaining your Personal Information to provide you with the products or services you have requested and interact with you; maintain Our business relationship with you; improve Our business over time; ensure the ongoing legality, safety and security of Our services and relationships; or otherwise in accordance with Our internal retention procedures. Once you have terminated your relationship with us, We may retain your Personal Information in Our systems and records to ensure adequate fulfillment of surviving provisions in terminated contracts, or for other legitimate business purposes, such as to enable easier future user onboarding, demonstrate Our business practices and contractual obligations, or provide you with information about Our products and services in case of interest.  For additional information regarding account inactivity/termination, please see the Program Rules at https://continentalrpm.com/Member/Rules.cfm.

In some circumstances you can ask us to delete your Personal Information. See Your Rights section above for additional information (California residents, see also the Supplement for California Users below).

In some circumstances We will anonymize your Personal Information (so that it can no longer be associated with you) for research or statistical purposes, in which case We may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you.

9.                   Security

We take your privacy seriously and use reasonable precautions to protect your Personal Information. For example, We encrypt certain communications using industry standards for encrypting such communications. However, We do not guarantee the security of your information.  There is always a risk that information We collect or that you provide may be compromised.  To mitigate this risk, you should (a) use secure usernames and passwords and carefully protect them from disclosure and (b) implement up-to-date security and virus protection on your device.  If you suspect that your device’s security or your information has been compromised, or your password accessed or used by an unauthorized third party, please immediately change your password and/or contact Us to have your password changed. 

10.               Third Party Websites

When you click on a link to any other website or location, you will leave Our Website and go to another site and another entity may collect personal information from you. We have no control over, do not review, and cannot be responsible for, these outside websites or their content. Please be aware that the terms of this Policy do not apply to these outside websites or content, or to any collection of data after you click on links to such outside websites.  If you decide to access any third party links appearing in the Website, you do so at your own risk.

11.               Policy for Children

The Website is intended for and marketed to adults only.  We do not knowingly solicit information from or market to children under the age of 16. If you become aware of any Personal Information that We have collected from children under age 16, please contact Us using the contact information provided above.

12.               Changes to Personal Information

You may change any of the Personal Information you provide to Us when you subscribe to the Website by editing your user profile. You may request deletion of your personal information, but please note that We may be required to keep this information and not delete it (or to keep this information for a certain time, in which case We will comply with your deletion request only after We have fulfilled such requirements). When We delete any information, it will be deleted from the active database, but may remain in Our archives.

13.               Modifications

We may modify this Policy from time to time as the Website and applicable laws change.  If We change Our Policy, We will post a new statement on this website and update the effective date stated at the end of the Policy.  You are encouraged to review this Policy from time-to-time for any updates or changes. If We make any material changes, We will inform you through the Website, by sending a message to the e-mail address associated with your account, or by some other method of communication. 

Please see Our Website Terms of Use for a more detailed legal explanation of Our usages policies.  Changes to the Policy become effective immediately upon notice to you.  Notice may be given by posting the revised Policy on this website or by other means.  Your use of the Website after notice constitutes your acceptance of the revised terms. 

Supplement For California Users

If you are a California resident, this section applies.  Pursuant to the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 and the California Privacy Rights Act of 2020 (collectively, California Privacy Laws), in the sections above We have provided a summary of the Personal Information that We have collected from you, the sources from which We have collected the Personal Information, the business or commercial purpose for which the Personal Information was collected, and the categories of third parties with whom We share your Personal Information.  Under the California Privacy Laws, you may have specific rights. 

IN PROVIDING THE WEBSITE, CONTINENTAL DOES NOT “SELL” OR “SHARE” YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION, AS THOSE TERMS ARE DEFINED UNDER CALIFORNIA PRIVACY LAWS.

Your Rights and Exercising Such Rights

California residents have certain rights, subject to legal limitations, regarding the collection, use, and sharing of Personal Information. California residents may exercise the following rights via emailing Us at privacy@continental.com, or by calling (833) 656-0555.

1.                   Right to Know. You have the right to request information about the categories of Personal Information We have collected about you, the categories of sources from which We collected the Personal Information, the purposes for collecting the Personal Information, the categories of third parties with whom We have shared your Personal Information, and the purpose for which We shared your Personal Information (“Categories Report”). You may also request information about the specific pieces of Personal Information We have collected about you (“Specific Pieces Report”). 

1.                   Right to Correct. You may have the right to request that We correct inaccurate Personal Information that We maintain about you.

2.                   Right to Delete. You have the right to request that We delete Personal Information that We have collected from you.

We will not discriminate against you, in any manner prohibited by applicable law, for exercising these rights.  Notwithstanding the foregoing, the foregoing rights may not apply in all instances, and We may deny your request where We have a legitimate basis to do so.

Verification

In order to exercise your rights, We will need to obtain information to locate you in Our records and/or verify your identity depending on the nature of the request. If you are submitting a request on behalf of a household, We will need to verify each member of the household in the manner set forth above. We will use commercially reasonable verification techniques, designed to balance the need to ensure We are not providing your information to someone pretending to be you, while at the same time not making it too difficult for you to exercise your rights.

Authorized Agents

You may use an authorized agent to exercise your rights on your behalf. If you are making any of the requests above through an authorized agent, We will request written authorization from you and will seek to verify you as described above or We will accept a legal Power of Attorney under the California Probate Code to the authorized agent.

Timing

We will respond to Requests to Delete and Requests to Know within 45 days, unless We need more time, in which case We will notify you and may take up to 90 days total to respond to your request.

Appeal

If We deny your rights request, you may have the right to appeal. To submit an appeal, privacy@continental.com. We will inform you in writing Our response to your appeal

Disclosures of Your Personal Information

In the main body of the Policy above, We disclosed all of the categories of Personal Information that We collect, how it is used, with whom it is shared, and from what sources We receive it.  The chart below provides supplemental information whom We have shared certain categories of Personal Information during the preceding 12 months for a business or commercial purpose related to the Services.

Special Note Regarding Sensitive Personal Information

We only use and disclose your Sensitive Personal Information for the following purposes: (i) performing services or providing goods reasonably expected by an average consumer; (ii) detecting security incidents; (iii) resisting malicious, deceptive, or illegal actions; (iv) ensuring the physical safety of individuals; (v) for short-term, transient use, including non-personalized advertising; (vi) performing or providing internal business services; or (vii) verifying or maintaining the quality or safety of a service or device.  Where required by applicable law, We will obtain your consent prior to collecting or processing your Sensitive Personal Information.

This Version of the Policy is Effective as of October 21, 2022.