Privacy Policy.

1. Who we are and what this covers

AutoKnerd is a customer-experience coaching platform for car dealerships. Salespeople and service advisors run short, AI-guided practice sessions; managers set a weekly coaching focus; and owners and general managers see where to coach across their stores. This policy explains what personal information we collect, how we use it, who we share it with, and the choices you have.

It applies to our website (autoknerd.com) and the AutoKnerd application. It does not cover a dealership's own privacy practices for content or data it manages.

Two kinds of people use AutoKnerd, and our role differs for each:

• Account holders (dealer principals, general managers, managers, and admins) — we are the controller of their account data.
• Team members (salespeople, service advisors, and other staff) — when a dealership enrolls its team, the dealership directs what is collected, and AutoKnerd acts as a service provider / processor handling that data on the dealership's behalf and instructions.

For limited purposes — security, abuse prevention, legal compliance, and operating our own systems — we may also process some of this data on our own behalf. US state privacy laws use terms like “business” and “service provider”; the exact role for each activity should be confirmed with counsel.

2. Information we collect

a) Account information (leaders and admins). Name, email address, password (stored hashed by our authentication provider, Google Firebase), dealership or organization, role, and billing details. Payments are handled by our payment processor; we do not store full card numbers.

b) Team-member and performance information (collected on the dealership's behalf). Name and role; the responses submitted during practice sessions (roleplay messages and choices); customer-experience and behavior scores, XP, streaks, and progress; and the coaching notes and weekly-focus settings a manager creates.

c) Session and usage data. Session participation and timestamps, device and browser information, IP address, and operational logs generated by our hosting and backend providers.

d) AI-generated content. For practice sessions and coaching reports, we use Google's Gemini AI to run roleplay scenarios and generate summaries. Public product demos run on sample data with a simulated response, so no personal data is sent to the AI for those.

We do not intentionally collect Social Security numbers, government IDs, financial account numbers, precise geolocation, or special-category/sensitive data, and team members should not enter such information into free-text fields.

3. How we use information

• To provide and operate the service (run practice sessions, score them, and generate reports).
• To create and secure accounts, authenticate users, and prevent abuse.
• To process payments and manage subscriptions.
• To provide the AI coaching reports a manager or store requests.
• To support customers and communicate about the service.
• To improve and secure the product (diagnostics and aggregate analytics).
• To comply with law and enforce our terms.

We do not sell personal information, and we do not use dealership or team data to train third-party AI models or for cross-context behavioral advertising.

4. How we share information

We share personal information only as follows:

• With the dealership or organization — for team data. Coaching results and progress go to the dealership that enrolled the team; that is the point of the product.
• With service providers / sub-processors that operate the service under contract — hosting and infrastructure, database, authentication (Google Firebase), payments, and AI (Google Gemini). Each is bound to protect the data and use it only to provide its service to us.
• For legal reasons — to comply with law, respond to lawful requests, or protect rights and safety.
• In a business transfer — as part of a merger, acquisition, or asset sale, subject to this policy.

We do not sell or “share” personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising as those terms are defined under California law.

5. Not directed to children

AutoKnerd is a workplace tool for dealership staff and is not directed to children. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 16. If you believe a minor has provided us personal information, contact us and we will delete it.

6. Data retention

We retain personal information for as long as needed to provide the service and for legitimate business and legal purposes. Account data is kept while an account is active; you may request deletion of your account data by contacting us, and self-service account-deletion tooling is being added. Team and session data is retained on the dealership's instructions; a dealership can request export or deletion of its data.

7. Your choices and rights

Depending on your state (for example, California — CCPA/CPRA, and other US state privacy laws), you may have the right to access, correct, delete, or obtain a copy of your personal information, and to appeal a decision. To exercise a right, contact privacy@autoknerd.com. We will verify your request and respond within the timeframe the law requires, and we will not discriminate against you for exercising a right.

Because we act as a service provider for team data, if you are a team member, please direct requests about your data to the dealership that enrolled you; we will assist them.

8. Security

We implement administrative, technical, and organizational measures to protect personal information, including encryption in transit and at rest, role-based access controls, tenant isolation, and least-privilege access. No method of transmission or storage is 100% secure.

9. International users

AutoKnerd is intended for use in the United States, and data is processed in the United States. We do not currently offer the service to users in the EU or UK; if that changes, this policy will be updated to address GDPR/UK-GDPR.

10. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy. We will post the new effective date and, for material changes, provide additional notice.

11. Contact

AutoKnerd LLC · privacy@autoknerd.com