Security and Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

I What type of information do we collect ?

Information collected about you

Europcar.co.uk collects personal data that you voluntarily provide. This information is collected when you:

  - Register / Become a Europcar member
  - Make an online reservation
  - Enrol in a Europcar card programme
  - Subscribe to Europcar Newsletter / Email alerts
  - Participate in a survey, contest, or sweepstakes
  - Contact Europcar

We may obtain information from third parties concerning you in deciding whether to rent a vehicle to you.

Europcar Member information
When you register to become a member of Europcar.co.uk, we collect your name, gender, date and place of birth, contact information (including your full name, phone number, email and street addresses) as well as passport and driving licence information. We also ask for your email address, password, and a secret question to retrieve your password.

This enables us to create your Europcar driver ID, which will be a unique and personal number allowing access to your rental profile at time of reservation and rental.

We may also collect information about each driver's car rental preferences, including preferred destinations, preferred vehicle category, frequent flyer programmes and membership numbers, and preferred means of payment. This information is stored in the My Europcar area of the website.

Online Reservation information
Europcar.co.uk collects the full name and contact information for a driver when a reservation is made. Europcar.co.uk will also collect credit card information, including card number, card type, cardholder name, and expiry date, in order to guarantee your reservation or bill you for prepaid reservations. Please view our Security section for additional information on Europcar's commitment to protecting your credit card security.

Enrolment in a Europcar card programme
When you enrol in a Europcar card programme, we collect your personal details, contact information, company contact details, driving licence and passport information, and your ‘Frequent Flyer' membership information. If you would like to benefit from the ‘Ready Service', you will be asked for your insurance and means of payment details.

Surveys, contests, and sweepstakes information
Occasionally, Europcar.co.uk may offer members and site visitors an opportunity to participate in a survey, contest, or sweepstakes. Information collected by Europcar.co.uk when you participate in a survey, contest, or sweepstakes may include your contact information.

Contacting Europcar
Europcar.co.uk collects personal information such as your full name, your Europcar driver ID, email address, and/or contact information whenever you submit a question or suggestion, using the Contact Us section of Europcar.co.uk.

Our partners
Europcar has partnered with reputable third parties to offer Europcar members and site visitors a variety of travel services. All travel services throughout Europcar.co.uk that are provided by a third-party partner are described as such. Although we only work with reputable third parties, our business partners may have different privacy policies and practices than Europcar.co.uk. We encourage you to review our business partners' privacy policies to further understand their procedures for collecting, using, and disclosing your information.

Other information collected

Information is collected automatically every time you visit Europcar.co.uk. Europcar.co.uk collects information about your computer and assigns you a "cookie" (a small, unique identifier text file) when you visit Europcar.co.uk. You do not provide this information-it is collected automatically as a means of supporting your visit to our site.

We use cookies and other technologies to facilitate and track your use of services offered on this website. These technologies may also be used in connection with html email sent by Europcar.

Cookies and other Web technologies

We collect information about your computer for the purpose of assessing the effectiveness of site content and traffic. This data allows us to improve the quality of your visit by streamlining your ability to navigate the site and developing featured programmes and content that will be of interest to our members and site visitors.

Europcar.co.uk uses three types of cookies:

- Session cookies: These are used to track the user's progression through the site in a single visit. These are required for the site to function but are not used in any way to identify you personally. Session cookies are temporary and are automatically deleted once you leave Europcar.co.uk.
- Persistent cookies: These are used to identify the users between visits. They are not required for the site to work but may enhance customer experience. We do not store any personal data in these cookies, just a unique number that identifies customers to us. Persistent cookies remain on your computer hard drive until you delete them.
- Third party cookies: You may have noticed that we carry advertising from third parties on our site. Occasionally they may send you a cookie. We have no control over these.

Your browser or other software you install may permit you to restrict the use of session cookies, persistent cookies or all cookies. If you elect not to permit the use of session cookies, you will not be able to use our websites or certain features of our html email messages. If you elect not to permit the use of persistent cookies only, you may still enjoy the full functionality of our websites and html email; however, if you do so, you will need to re-enter some data when starting a new website session or opening (or re-opening) an html email.

Both session and persistent cookies may also be used in connection with html email sent by us.

In addition, certain of our web pages and html email messages incorporate "pixel tags"  that allow us to track the actions of users on our websites and recipients of our email communications.  Pixel tags are used to collect non-personally identifiable data that  helps us to determine popular destinations, average rental prices, quote and conversion rates, click-throughs and other information that can be used to improve our service to our customers.

Computer information
Europcar.co.uk collects certain technical information from your computer each time you request a page during a visit to Europcar.co.uk. This information is collected from your computer's web browser and may include your IP address, operating system, web browser software (e.g., Netscape Navigator or Internet Explorer), screen resolution, and referrer web site.

II. How we use the data we collect

Information collected on Europcar.co.uk may be used to:

  - Register you as a Europcar.co.uk member
  - Get a quote / make an on-line reservation / modify or cancel existing reservation
  - Send email notifications for special promotions
  - Respond to your questions or suggestions
  - Improve the quality of your visit to our site
  
Member registration information
When you register to become a member of Europcar.co.uk, we use your information to create your member account. You will then receive a "Welcome to Europcar.co.uk" email that contains your Europcar driver ID and describes the benefits of using Europcar.co.uk for your car rental needs.

Online Reservation
Information collected when you complete your member profile is used to confirm and process your reservation and rental, prepare your invoice, bill your credit card (when you reserve a prepaid rate) and send you a reservation confirmation email, and provide you with enhanced rental service at your request (Master Rental Agreement).
 

Alerts notification  / On request vehicles & equipment
In the event you have booked a vehicle or equipment that is on request and that happens to be unavailable, Europcar.co.uk may phone you or send you an email notification to inform you of this.

Email notifications
If you chose to receive communications from Europcar.co.uk about special promotions when registering as a Europcar.co.uk member, we may use your email address to send you information about surveys, contests, sweepstakes, promotions, special deals, or other opportunities on Europcar.co.uk and its marketing partners. We will use your email address or telephone number to contact you about changes to your reservation.

Responses to your questions or suggestions
We will use your email address or telephone number to respond when you submit a question or suggestion.

Transfer of data collected
In order to allow us to provide you with effective services, Europcar.co.uk may from time to time transfer data collected to other companies in the EU or outside the EU. Such transfer does not imply any restriction and our privacy policy will be fully applicable. By accepting this Privacy Policy, you hereby authorize Europcar International to proceed with such a transfer.

III. Communication from Europcar.co.uk

Europcar Drivers and Members will receive communications from Europcar.co.uk when they:
 
  - Sign up to become a Europcar.co.uk member
  - Get a quote / Make an online reservation / Modify or Cancel existing reservations
  - Elect to receive Best Deals or other special promotional marketing information
  - Win a contest or sweepstake
  - Contact Europcar with questions/suggestions

Sign up to become a Europcar.co.uk member
When you sign up as a new Europcar.co.uk member, you will receive a "Welcome to Europcar.co.uk" email. This email contains your Europcar driver ID and describes the benefits of using Europcar.co.uk for your car rental needs.

Make an online reservation / Modify or Cancel existing reservation
Each time you make an online reservation through Europcar.co.uk, or modify or cancel a confirmed reservation, you will receive confirmation of your booking details via email. In the event you have booked a vehicle or equipment that is on request and that happens to be unavailable, Europcar.co.uk will send you an email notification to inform you of this.

Elect to receive Best Deals or other special promotional marketing information
As a registered Europcar.co.uk member, you will, if you choose, occasionally receive emails notifying you of special promotions or other travel news. Special promotional emails are intended to inform you of new or unique travel opportunities or special deals that are available on Europcar.co.uk. If you choose to receive our email alerts, we will use your email address to notify you of current rates to destinations you have selected.

As a Europcar customer, you will receive confirmation and / or reminder of your Europcar driver ID via email.

You can discontinue your subscription to Europcar.co.uk promotional email services at any time in the "Profile" and "Alerts" pages of the My Europcar section, accessible through the main navigation bar of the Europcar.co.uk website. You can also unsubscribe to the Newsletter or special promotional emails at any time by clicking on the link "unsubscribe" in the email.

Contact Europcar with questions/suggestions
To request assistance, send a query via the Contact Us section and we will respond to you via email or telephone.

IV. Links to other websites

There are several places throughout Europcar.co.uk that may link you to other web sites that do not operate under Europcar.co.uk information privacy practices. When you click through to these web sites, Europcar.co.uk information privacy practices no longer apply. We recommend that you examine the privacy statements for all third party web sites to understand their procedures for collecting, using, and disclosing your information.

V. How we store & protect Personal Information - Data Security

We want our members and site visitors to feel confident about using Europcar.co.uk and making car rental reservations, so we are committed to protecting the information we collect.
 
Europcar.co.uk is a safe and secure online environment. Our systems are configured with data encryption, or scrambling technologies, and industry-standard firewalls. When you send personal information to Europcar.co.uk over the Internet, your data is protected by Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology to ensure safe transmission.

Every credit card transaction you make at Europcar.co.uk is done through our Secure Server Technology. This provides many security features, including:
Authentication: this assures your browser that your data is being sent to the correct computer server, and that the server is secure.
Encryption: this encodes the data, so that it cannot be read by anyone other than the secure server.
Data Integrity: this checks the data being transferred to ensure it has not been altered.
Europcar.co.uk accepts

Link to Verisign certificate.

VI. How to access, update, correct or delete your Personal Information

At any time, you can view and/or update your personal profile, which includes member registration, driver information and car rental preferences information, through the "My Europcar" link, accessible through the main navigation bar of the Europcar.co.uk website. You will be able to change your password, secret question, update or correct phone number, address, email, and driving licence information and update your car rental and travel preferences including insurance, means of payment and frequent traveller membership.

We make reasonable efforts to ensure that the personal data we have about you is as accurate, current and complete as necessary for the purposes for which we use that data.

Under the UK Data Protection Act, you have a right to access, update, correct or delete personal data collected by us. You may correct factual errors in that data by sending a request to us pointing out the error. You should contact our main office in the country in which you reside for information about how to exercise these rights. You will find the address of our headquarters in the "About Europcar Group" section on our website.

As an alternative, you may obtain the information by writing to us at:
Europcar Group
Europcar House
Aldenham Road
Bushey
Watford
WD23 2QQ

To protect your privacy and security, we will take reasonable steps to verify your identity before granting access or making corrections

VII. How can I opt-in to receive promotional emails? - Our Opt-in Policy

As a Europcar member, you may occasionally receive, via email, information about our Products and Services, updates to our Site, customized advertisements and promotions that are targeted to your specific interest, such as special deals, promotions, contests, sweepstakes and other travel opportunities available on Europcar.co.uk and/or sponsored by our travel service providers and advertisers. We send this information directly ourselves, or via third party service providers.

You will be sent these emails about our Site upon your request. You can subscribe in the "Profile" and "Alerts" pages of the My Europcar section, accessible through the main navigation bar of the Europcar.com website or send us an email by clicking here.

At any time, you may decide that you do not want to receive any future marketing or promotional emails from us. In this case, you can unsubscribe in the "Profile" and "Alerts" pages of the My Europcar section, accessible through the main navigation bar of the Europcar.com website or send us an email by clicking here.

In addition, in our emails and other communications, we will include instructions on how to unsubscribe.

Europcar reserves the right to limit membership to those who will accept emails. Members will be notified via email prior to any actions taken

VIII. Changes to the Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy was produced and posted on Europcar.co.uk on 6 April 2006. In the case of changes to the Privacy Policy by Europcar, such changes will be submitted to you and you will be asked to accept the new conditions. Should you refuse to do so we will be unable to provide you with the services available on the site.
Regardless of later updates, we will abide by the information privacy practices described in this Privacy Policy at the time you provided us with your information.

If you have questions about our Privacy Policy, please email us.