Privacy Policy

Personal Information Collection

Two kinds of personal information are requested during registration: personally identifiable information and demographic information. Personally identifiable information is required for registration, but other demographic information is optional and may be given at your discretion. During registration, GAYOT asks for your full name and an e-mail address. Personally identifiable information is not shared with anyone, nor is it sold to anyone. The demographic information gathered includes street address, city, state, zip code, country, phone and fax. The more information you provide us with, and the more accurate it is, the easier it is for us to provide information to you that you will find useful.

In addition to registration we may ask you for personal information at other times, such as when you report a problem with one of our sites or services. Gayot may also occasionally ask members to complete surveys that we use for internal research. Gayot also tracks information about website visitation, on an aggregated basis. GAYOT calculates the aggregate number of visits to a site by all GAYOT members together.

One last area in which we ask for your name is on bulletin boards or forums–places on the site where you can participate in a discussion of a particular subject by posting written comments which are then entirely public. We ask for a name simply so that other people reading a string of comments will be able to determine which comments come from the same person. You may, therefore, provide a nickname or alias, if you prefer, so that your identity is not disclosed. You should be aware that if you do voluntarily disclose personal information (e.g. user name, e-mail address) on the bulletin boards or forums, that information can be collected and used by others and may result in unsolicited messages from other posters or parties. If you choose to participate anonymously, you should remember that you are still legally liable for the material you post, including claims of libel, invasion of privacy and copyright infringement.

Personal Information Utilization

Your personal information is used only for demographic statistics and to display appropriately targeted advertisements. For example, GAYOT does internal research on our members’ demographics, interests, and behavior based on what you tell us when you register and from our server log files. In general, GAYOT automatically gathers certain usage information like the numbers and frequency of visits to GAYOT. This research is compiled and analyzed on an aggregated basis, meaning your personal demographic information is never directly accessed. The collective data helps us determine how often GAYOT members use parts of the site, primarily so that we can improve our site to keep it as interesting and appealing as possible. Gayot may disclose aggregated user statistics so that we may describe our services to prospective partners, advertisers, and other third parties, and for other lawful purposes. By providing this information, you acknowledge that GAYOT may use this profile information to improve or customize the Gayot service or to provide demographic profiling to obtain advertising. Any use of profile information will be conducted in line with the guidelines set forth in this Privacy Statement.

Note that GAYOT will not send you any unsolicited information, including email, unless you have indicated your willingness to receive such information. Upon registration, new members will receive a GAYOT newsletter. Members can unsubscribe to this newsletter at any time.

Framed Sections of Our Site

Gayot Publications maintains relationships with outside service providers for some of the products and services offered through our site. The information these providers make available may be presented in a “framed” format, where the Gayot Publications border will surround the pages served by the service providers, or by directly linking the user to the vendors’ sites. Please be aware that any information you provide on those framed pages is provided directly to those service providers and is subject to their security and privacy policies.

Finance Information

Finance Information is used to transmit to third parties requests for vehicle financing. In the case of Purchase Request Information or Finance Information, we may forward your request information to a dealer or lender through another automotive referral service. Your submission of the request authorizes us to do this. Any Finance Information forwarded in this way becomes subject to the security and privacy policies that are posted on the websites of those referral services. Similarly, Finance Information transmitted to a dealer, manufacturer, lender or fulfillment entity becomes the property of that dealer, manufacturer, lender or fulfillment entity. The information is used to process your purchase request or financing application and to provide you with information about goods and services. Any request to opt out of future dealer, lender, manufacturer or other third-party communications must be made directly to that third party.

Security

GAYOT Publications understands the importance of security for our consumers. We use SSL (Secure Socket Layer) encryption technology to protect personal data such as finance information during transmission.

Personal information collected by GAYOT is stored and maintained in secure operating environments that are not available to the public. Gayot does not sell or rent member information to anyone, although as discussed under the section on “Personal Information Utilization,” certain demographic information is made available to other sites or advertisers on an aggregated basis. When we ask you for personal information, you are sharing that information with Gayot alone, unless it is specifically stated otherwise. We do not share personal information with any third parties unless we have belief that such action is necessary to: either conform to legal requirements, protect the rights of Gayot, or enforce the Gayot Terms of Service. Please be aware that Gayot advertisers or websites that have links on our site may collect personally identifiable information about you when you access their site or use their services. As stated below, the information practices of third-party websites are not covered by this privacy statement.

Third Party Web Sites

GAYOT links to third-party websites. These linked sites are not under the control of Gayot and are not affiliated with Gayot. Gayot cannot be responsible for the contents of any linked site or the contents of any link contained in a linked site.

Third Party Advertising

We use third-party advertising companies to serve some ads when you visit our Web site. These companies may use information (not including your name, address, email address or telephone number) about your visits to this and other Web sites in order to provide advertisements on this site and other sites about goods and services that may be of interest to you.

Third Party Services

GAYOT uses a variety of services hosted by third parties to help us understand the use of our services, such as Google Analytics. These services may collect information sent by your device when performing specific actions, such as a web page request.

Third Party Cookies

In the course of serving advertisements to this site, our third-party advertiser may place or recognize a unique “cookie” on your browser.

Content Disclaimer

GAYOT.com makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of information provided on all of our website. However, GAYOT does not assume, and hereby disclaims, any liability for any loss or damage brought about by errors, omissions, misleading information or the use or reliability of information presented on these websites, even if such errors occurred unintentionally, as a result of negligence or any other cause.

GAYOT Privacy Policy Changes

If GAYOT changes its privacy policy, these changes will be posted here so that you will always know what information GAYOT gathers, how GAYOT might use that information, and whether GAYOT will disclose it to anyone. If GAYOT makes any material change concerning how your personally identifiable information is used, then, in addition to including such revision in this privacy statement, GAYOT will post a notice on the GAYOT site that a change to the privacy policy has taken place. You are expected to review this Agreement periodically to ensure familiarity with the most current version.

Questions

Questions regarding this statement should be directed to the GAYOT site coordinator at: privacy [AT] gayot [DOT] com. If you are interested in exploring privacy issues on the Internet further please see:
• Electronic Frontier Foundation – a civil liberties organization.
• Electronic Privacy Information Center – focuses attention on emerging civil liberties issues.
• Federal Trade Commission – website on privacy protection.

The GAYOT.com website is owned and operated by:
GaultMillau, Inc.
California, USA
Tel.: 310.266.9231