BMW Group South Africa Privacy Statement.
The BMW Group South Africa Privacy Statement (the “Statement”) covers BMW South Africa (Pty) Ltd (Registration Number 1960/000196/07), its holdings companies, its divisions, MINI and BMW Motorrad, and its subsidiaries including BMW Financial Services (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd (Registration Number: 1990/004670/07) and its division, MINI Financial Services. BMW Group SA takes your privacy and the protection of your personal information seriously, and we will only use your personal information in accordance with this Statement and Applicable Laws. You hereby indemnify and hold BMW Group SA harmless from any loss, damages or injury that you may incur or suffer as a result of any unintentional disclosures of your personal information to unauthorised persons or the provision of incorrect or incomplete personal information to BMW Group SA.
This Statement sets out how your personal information will be used by BMW Group SA and applies to any information, including personal and special personal information, that you give to BMW Group SA, or which BMW Group SA may collect from third parties.
It is important that you read this Statement carefully before submitting any personal information to BMW Group SA.
By submitting any personal information to BMW Group SA, you provide consent to the processing of your personal information as set out in this Statement.
The provisions of this Statement are subject to mandatory and unalterable provisions of Applicable Laws.
Please do not submit any personal information to BMW Group SA if you do not agree to any of the provisions of this Statement. If you do not consent to the provisions of this Statement, or parts of the Statement, BMW Group SA may not be able to provide its products and service offerings to you.
Important Terms:
"Applicable Laws" means local, foreign and international laws, regulations, treaties and codes, for example the Financial Intelligence Centre Act 38 of 2001, the National Credit Act 34 of 2005 and the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013.
"BMW Affiliate" means, in relation to BMW Group SA, any company or entity which directly or indirectly controls, is controlled by, or is under common control with BMW Group SA.
"BMW Group SA" or “BMW Group” or "we" or “our”
means BMW (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd (Registration Number 1960/000196/07), its holding companies, its divisions, MINI and BMW Motorrad and its subsidiaries including BMW Financial Services (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd (Registration Number: 1990/004670/07) and its division, MINI Financial Services. Please note that BMW Financial Services (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd (Registration Number: 1990/004670/07) is an authorised Financial Services (FSP no.4623) and Registered Credit Provider NCRCP2341. To obtain more information on these subsidiaries please look at our Legal Notice.
“BMW Group SA Agent” means a non-exclusive commercial agent who operates in its own name, its own account and at its own risk acts as an agent for BMW Group SA.
"Client" or "you" or “your” means any prospective, new or existing client of any BMW Affiliate, BMW Group SA Suppliers and BMW Group SA Agent(s).
“Personal information” means information relating to an identifiable, living natural person and where applicable, an identifiable existing- juristic person as defined by Applicable Laws.
Can this Privacy Statement be amended?
We may amend this Statement from time to time for any of the following reasons:
- to provide for the introduction of new systems, mobile applications, website, methods of operation, services, products, property offerings or facilities;
- to reflect an actual or expected change in market conditions or general financial services or lending practices;
- to comply with changes to any Applicable Laws;
- to ensure that this Statement is clearer and more favourable to you;
- to rectify any mistake that might be discovered from time to time; and/or
- for any other reason which BMW Group SA, in its sole discretion, may deem reasonable or necessary.
Any such amendment will come into effect and become part of any agreement you have with BMW Group SA when notice is given to you of the change by publication on our website. It is your responsibility to check the website often.
Are BMW Group SA Agents or Repair Centres included in this Privacy Statement?
If you purchase a vehicle from an approved BMW Group SA Agent or Repair Centre or otherwise give your information to such entity, you will have a separate relationship with the entity in relation to its use of your personal information. Approved BMW Group SA Agents and Repair Centres are separate legal entities to BMW Group SA. If you have any queries relating to the concerned BMW Group SA Agent or Repair Centres’ use of your personal information, you must contact the relevant entity directly.
How does BMW Group SA handle security and privacy on the website?
We endeavour to keep our website secure at all times. We do however advise you that we cannot guarantee the security of any information provided to us or by us through our website, email, internet or social media. We cannot be held responsible for any loss or unauthorised use, or interception of information transmitted via the internet which is beyond our control.
Third party websites
Our website may contain links to other websites outside of the BMW Group. We are not responsible for the content, privacy or security of other websites.
Cookies
Cookies are information that is used to track visitor use of a website and to compile statistical reports on website activity. If you wish to restrict or block cookies, you can do this through your browser settings.
Social Plugins
We use social plugins of social networks such as Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Google+ and Twitter.
Please note that we have no influence on or control over the extent of the data retrieved by the social networks’ interfaces and we can accordingly not to be held responsible or liable for any processing or use of personal information transmitted via these social plugins. For information on the purpose and extent of the data retrieval by the social network concerned, and about the rights and settings possibilities for the protection of your private sphere, please refer to the data protection information provided by the social network in question.
We may collect the following information about you:
- Your name, physical and postal address, contact details, date of birth, place of birth, identity number, passport number, bank details, details about your employment, tax number, VAT number, financial information, and Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment related details;
- Information about your directors and beneficial owner if we are required to do so in terms of Applicable Laws;
- Records of correspondence or enquiries from you or anyone acting on your behalf;
- Details of transactions you or any authorised person carry out with us;
- Details of contracts, sales or leases you or any authorised person carry out with us;
- Your credit history, where you have applied for credit or where we have agreed to provide credit to you;
- Sensitive or special categories of personal information, including biometric information, such as images, fingerprints and voiceprints; and
- Any other information we may require, and which is relevant to the supply of goods or services to you or the provision of goods and or services to BMW Group SA.
If you are under the age of 18 years, please do not provide us with any personal information unless you have the permission from of your parent or legal guardian to do so.
How does BMW Group SA collect information?
You may provide personal information to us either directly or indirectly, by completing an application for our products and services or requesting further information about our products and services, whether in writing, through our website, over the telephone, through BMW Group SA Agent(s) or any other means.
We may receive information about you:
- When you contact us directly, either via our website, web chat service, our Customer Service teams, by email, telephone or via social media, whether to apply for one of our products or services or to make an enquiry or any other request or interaction with a BMW Affiliate;
- From our network of authorised BMW Group SA Agent(s);
- From other BMW Group SA Affiliates or entities within, the BMW Group or our carefully selected business partners who provide products and services under one of our brands;
- From third parties, such as credit bureaus, when we do credit checks or decide whether to enter into an agreement with you;
- Where such personal information is publicly available or is a matter of public record;
- Where we are required to comply with a legal obligation to furnish such personal information; or
- Occasionally from other third parties who may lawfully pass your information on to us.
Telephone calls to us may be recorded and/or monitored for training and quality assessment purposes.
Is my information safe with BMW Group SA?
We continuously implement technical and organisational security measures in order to protect the data we hold against unauthorised access as well as accidental or wilful manipulation, loss or destruction.
It- is also important that you take all necessary and appropriate steps to protect your personal information yourself (for example, by ensuring that all login details, including passwords and access codes are kept secure).
How is my personal information processed?
We take the privacy and protection of your personal information seriously and will only process your personal information in accordance with the Applicable Laws and this Statement.
Accordingly, BMW Group SA will comply with the relevant data privacy principles or conditions relating to the processing (including, but not limited to, the collection, handling, transfer, sharing, correction, storage, archiving and deletion) of your personal information set out in Applicable Laws.
BMW Group SA employees attend regular data protection training. Your personal information will only be processed for purposes set out in this Statement or if we are entitled to do so under Applicable Laws.
Can BMW Group SA retain my information?
We may retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfil the lawful purposes related to our business activities and functions. Such business activities and functions include handling customer complaints and advising customers of technical campaigns. Additionally, we may retain your personal information where a longer retention period is required by the contract concluded with you or as required by applicable laws. If you object to the retention of your information, kindly let us know and we will review your request. Should we not be able to delete your information, for example in instances where we are mandated by applicable laws to retain your personal information, we will inform you accordingly and explain the reasons for the retention.
What rights do I have regarding my personal information?
You have the right to contact relevant credit bureau(x), to have your credit record(s) disclosed and to correct any inaccurate information.
You have a right in certain circumstances to request the destruction or deletion of and, where applicable, to obtain restriction on the processing of personal information held about you. If you wish to exercise this right, please contact us using the contact details set out in our PAIA Manual.
You have a right to object on reasonable grounds to the processing of your personal information where we claim such processing is necessary to pursue our legitimate interests, your legitimate interests or the legitimate interests of a third party to which the information is supplied. We may then stop such processing, unless Applicable Laws provide for such processing.
Can BMW Group SA share my information?
We may share your personal information with:
- Amongst BMW Affiliates, our agents and sub-contractors, third parties who process personal information on our behalf and BMW Group companies, in South Africa and in other countries;
- Our authorised BMW Group SA Agent(s);
- Our carefully selected business partners, including those who provide products and services under any of our brands;
- Our service providers and agents who perform services on our behalf;
- Any person who has agreed or is considering providing security for your indebtedness, including any surety, guarantor, potential surety or potential guarantor under any finance document who requests such information to evaluate any actual or potential liability under such suretyship or guarantee;
- A prospective buyer or seller of any of our businesses, assets or debt;
- A person who acquires substantially all of the assets of a BMW Affiliate;
- Any person if we are under a duty to disclose or share your personal information in order to comply with any Applicable Laws, or to protect the rights, property or safety of BMW Group SA, its clients or other third parties;
- Other lenders or banks, collection agencies, lawyers, accountants, auditors, regulators and law enforcement agencies, to the extent necessary to protect, preserve or enforce BMW Group SA's rights and interests in respect of any agreement or any finance document or to respond to any legal enquiry or to comply with any regulatory obligation;
- Any other BMW Affiliate and any assignee or potential assignee of BMW Group SA’s rights and/or obligations under any agreement or any person with whom any BMW Affiliate may otherwise consider entering into a contract in relation to a relevant finance document; and
- Your agent or any other person acting on your behalf, an independent financial advisor or an introducer, informing them of the outcome of your application and whether we have agreed to provide you with the product, service or offering you have applied for. We may also disclose information about you and your relationship with BMW Group SA to such person throughout the term of that relationship.
We may disclose your personal information to third parties for any purpose permitted in terms of this Statement and Applicable Laws, including to-
- assess and monitor any of your applications for BMW Group SA' products or services, including the risk involved to comply with Applicable Laws;
- determine which products and services may be of interest to you and/or to send you information about such products and services, unless you object or choose not to receive such communications;
- expedite credit applications;
- make decisions regarding the extension of credit;
- keep your usual contact within BMW Group SA informed of the progress of any new applications for new services and/or products;
- have a better understanding of your circumstances and needs to provide and improve BMW Group SA’s products and services;
- comply with Applicable Laws requiring BMW Group SA and/or any third party to collect personal information;
- identify whether other financial institutions have received payment due to us from you;
- detect and report fraud and criminal activities, to identify the proceeds of unlawful activities and to combat crime;
- use for marketing purposes; and
- make reports to any regulator or supervisory authority, including those in foreign jurisdictions, if BMW Group SA is required to do so in terms of Applicable Laws.
We do not share your personal information with any third parties, except if:
- we are legally permitted or obliged to provide such information for legal or regulatory purposes;
- we are required to do so for purposes of existing or future legal proceedings;
- we are selling one or more of our businesses to someone to whom we may transfer our rights under any agreement we have with you;
- necessary for purposes of preventing fraud, loss, bribery or corruption;
- they perform services and process personal information on our behalf;
- it is required in order to provide or manage any information, products and/or services to you; and
- needed to help us improve the quality of our products and services.
If you do not wish us to disclose this information to third parties, please contact us at the contact details set out herein. Should you elect to not have your information shared with third parties, we may not be able to provide products or services to you if such disclosure is necessary.
Can I share information with BMW Group SA on third Parties?
Where you provide us with the personal information of third parties you should take steps to inform the third party that you need to disclose their details to us and identify us. We will process their personal information in accordance with this Statement. If you give us information on behalf of someone else, you confirm to us that you have their permission to do so and that they are aware of the contents of this Statement and do not have any objection to us processing their information in accordance with this Statement.
Subject to Applicable Laws, we may use your personal information for a variety of purposes, including:
Legal Contractual
- Legal or contractual purposes;
- To manage your credit agreement or other contractual arrangement or relationship;
- To detect and prevent fraud and money laundering and/or in the interest of security and crime prevention;
- To conduct sanction party list and politically exposed person screening against any relevant list which BMW Group SA may in its sole discretion determine;
- To verify your identity;
- To conduct due diligence enquiries on authorised BMW Group SA Agents and Clients for purposes of dealer support, dealer maintenance, vendor management, vendor payments, sanctions screening or for any other purpose BMW Group SA may deem fit; and
- To comply with Applicable Laws, including lawful requests for information received from local or foreign law enforcement, government and tax collection agencies.
Marketing & Data Analytics/Enrichment
- Data analytics and/or enrichment;
- To carry out analysis and customer profiling;
- To identify other products and services which might be of interest to you;
- To assess and deal with complaints and requests;
- To conduct market research and provide you with information about BMW Group SA’s products or services from time to time via email, telephone or other means (for example, events); and
- Where you have unsubscribed from certain direct marketing communications, for the purposes of ensuring that we do not send such direct marketing to you again.
Financial
- To help us recover debts;
- To take credit decisions where you have applied for credit or where we have agreed to provide credit to you;
- To request your consumer credit reports or those of any security provider from one or more credit reporting agency in connection with any agreement between you and a BMW Affiliate and where applicable, on your direction for us to do so;
- To use your credit score or other electronic data-check mechanisms when considering any credit application and when providing you with services and products, and verifying any information provided by you and making whatever enquiries we deem necessary from any source whatsoever to establish your creditworthiness;
- To conduct financial due diligence enquiries on authorised BMW Group SA Agents for purposes of conducting creditworthiness checks or taking a decision to grant credit; and
- To transmit to a registered credit bureau any information concerning your application for credit, our agreement with you, termination and non-compliance with the terms thereof, as well as information about your credit agreement.
Credit Application
In instances where you have applied for credit or where we have agreed to provide credit to you, we may conduct searches at credit bureaus and other third parties. Details of our searches will be kept by the credit bureau and will be available to other businesses that conduct searches with that agency for the purposes of meeting our regulatory obligations, credit assessments, debt recovery, and management of your accounts, prevention of money laundering and fraud and statistical analysis. In instances where you apply for credit, we will tell you, where required by Applicable Laws, if we make a decision about you relating to your credit scoring or eligibility for our products or services based solely on an automated decision-making process. You will be given a reasonable opportunity if permitted by Applicable Laws or a code of conduct to make representations about a decision.
Operational & Customer Service
- To obtain a single view of a customer for all of BMW Group SA;
- To improve your customer experience;
- To help us improve the quality of our products and services;
- To provide you with the services, products or offerings you have requested, and to notify you about important changes to these services, products or offerings;
- To comply with your instructions or requests;
- For operational, marketing, auditing, legal and record-keeping requirements;
- To transfer or process your personal information outside of the Republic of South Africa to such countries that may not offer the same level of data protection as the Republic of South Africa, including for cloud storage purposes and the use of any of our websites. We will however only transfer your personal information across South African borders if the relevant situation requires trans-border processing and will do so only in accordance with Applicable Laws; and
- To record, access and/or monitor your telephone calls and electronic communications to/with BMW Group SA, including all forms of notifications, correspondence received by or sent from BMW Group SA (including its employees, agents or contractors) in order to accurately carry out your instructions and requests, to use as evidence and in the interests of crime prevention and to comply with Applicable Laws.
In circumstances where we wish to protect our legitimate interest, where:
- We have exercised our right to terminate the agreement through a proper legal process as a result of default in respect of any of your obligations under an agreement with us; or
- a court order has been granted in our favour for the return of the vehicle;
- we may enable vehicle tracking (by means of existing in-car functionality) to locate the vehicle. Such vehicle tracking may involve the processing of your personal information, such as your location or address;
- to disclose your personal information to third parties, including other BMW Affiliates, for reasons set out in this Statement or where it is not unlawful to do so;
- to conduct surveys; and
- to improve or evaluate the effectiveness of BMW Group SA’s business, products, services or offerings.
We strive to maintain the integrity and accuracy of your personal information at all times. You are responsible for informing us of any change in your details, such as a change of address. You have a right to ask us to correct any inaccuracies in the information we hold about you.
If your personal information changes at any time or our records appear to be incorrect, please inform us immediately so that we may update or correct our records accordingly. If you fail to keep your information updated, or if your information is incorrect, BMW Group SA may limit the products and services offered to you or elect not to provide any of these to you.
We (and BMW Affiliates) may contact you by post, telephone, e-mail, SMS and other- electronic means, to inform you about services, products and offerings available from BMW Group SA, specific BMW Affiliates, the BMW Group, or selected third parties, which we believe may be of interest to you, unless you have unsubscribed from receiving such communications. We will only send you marketing communications if we are entitled to do so under Applicable Laws.
Your participation is completely voluntary. You may unsubscribe or opt out from receiving such communications from BMW Affiliates by accessing your online customer profile and making use of the “Unsubscribe” option available on the relevant communication or by contacting our Customer Contact Centre at any time.
You may also contact us utilising the contact details set out in this Statement if you have previously asked not to receive marketing communications from us but would now like to hear from us with news on BMW Group vehicles and other associated products and services.
For any queries in connection with this Privacy Statement, please see contact details below:
Information Officer:
Peter Van Binsbergen (BMW Group SA and its divisions) and Stefan Schuett (BMW Financial Services and its divisions)
E-mail address: InformationOfficer@bmw.co.za
Our address:
1 Bavaria Avenue, Ext. 17, Randjespark, Midrand, 1685.
Should you believe that BMW Group SA has utilised your personal information contrary to Applicable Laws, you undertake to first attempt to resolve any concerns with BMW Group SA.
If you are not satisfied with such process, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator, using the contact details listed below:
You may request details of personal information which we hold about you under the Promotion of Access to Information Act 2 of 2000 (“PAIA”). Fees to obtain a copy or a description of personal information held about you are prescribed in terms of PAIA. Confirmation of whether or not we hold personal information about you may be requested free of charge. If you would like to obtain a copy of your personal information held by BMW Group SA, please review our PAIA Manual for the relevant process to follow, and where applicable, the fees to be paid before such information is shared to you.