NADA, AIADA Issue Joint Statement On Data Accessibility

NADA, AIADA Issue Joint Statement On Data Accessibility

NADA and AIADA issued a joint policy statement designed to guide the use and protection of data in dealership management systems. It includes the following provisions:

« Dealers should control access to data stored in dealership management systems.

« Dealers, not dealership management system vendors, should have the sole right and the practical means to authorize third parties to gain access and extract dealer data.

« Dealers expect all parties involved in storing and using dealer data to: respect and comply with the dealerês obligation to safeguard customer information; design systems to operate compatibly with other systems; and refrain from unreasonably impeding dealer-authorized access to data.

“These guidelines operate both to keep dealers in control of the data they need to serve their customers and maintain safeguards to protect that information,” said 2006 NADA Chairman William Bradshaw.

Outgoing AIADA Chairman Don Beyer agreed, stating that, “there needs to be a level of trust between a car dealer and his/her customers which simply cannot be broken.”

In response to the NADA/AIADA joint statement, Reynolds & Reynolds Vice Chairman Finbarr OêNeill said that –the dealerês data is his most vital and critical asset, so there is no quibble that it belongs to the dealer.”

But Reynolds –does not support unmonitored third-party access” to data. –Trust is not enough,” said OêNeil. Reynolds wants third parties to be certified so it can ensure that they get only the data theyêre authorized to have.