Privacy Policy

Effective as of February 1st, 2008 (Continental United States Only).

This document describes Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc.'s ("Toyota") policy ("Privacy Policy") regarding information received about you during visits to this Web site (the "Site"). The amount and type of information received depends on how you use the Site. These privacy provisions apply solely to Toyota's online information collection activities on this web site and are not applicable to information collection practices Toyota may be engaged in elsewhere, including other Toyota web sites.

By using this Site, you signify your assent to this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to this policy, please do not use this Site. This Privacy Policy may be modified from time to time; the date of the most recent revisions will appear on this page, so please visit us frequently.

No Representation or Warranty

Your confidential use of this Site cannot be guaranteed by Toyota. Toyota shall not be responsible for any harm that you or any person may suffer as a result of a breach of confidentiality in respect to your use of this Site or any information you transmitted to this Site.

Normal Web Site Usage

You can visit the Site to read promotional and other information without telling us who you are and without revealing any personal information (other than, in some cases, your zip code). When you do this, we collect and store the name of your internet service provider, the browser (including available plug-ins and browser functionality) and type of machine you are using, the IP address, the Web site that referred you to us, the pages you request and the date and time of those requests.

We use this information to generate statistics and measure site activity to improve the usefulness of customer visits to the Site. During normal usage, we do not collect or store personally identifiable information such as name, mailing address, e-mail address or phone number.

Collection and Sharing of Personally Identifiable Information

There are instances where Toyota requests information about you in order to complete the program registration process. Depending upon the type of request, the information we collect may include your name, mailing address, e-mail address, phone number (cellular or land line), date of birth and vehicle registration information. Your personal information is collected and stored by Toyota in a manner appropriate to the nature of the data.

Your personal information may be shared with our vendors and business partners to assist us in fulfilling your request. We may also share your personal information with companies affiliated with Toyota, our private distributors, and our authorized dealers and dealer advertising associations.

From time to time, Toyota may request information about you to enable you to participate in promotional activities, such as uploading photographs, creating videos, submitting information and other materials and/or participating in sweepstakes, contests, games, special events, blogs and chats (collectively, "Programs"). Sometimes Programs are made available through the joint efforts of Toyota and an unaffiliated business partner. If you choose to participate, we may use the information you provide in connection with the Programs. For example, we may send you email or text messages related to the Programs or your account activity, or for selection and notification of sweepstakes or contest winners. Your personal information may also be shared with our business partners and may also be used by our business partners if you indicate your interest in receiving communications directly from that company. If you elect to receive communications from our business partner, your information will be used by that company in accordance with its policies and this Privacy Policy will not apply to that company’s use of your information. Sometimes the rules, terms and conditions or disclaimers that apply to a particular Program include information on how we may use the personal information that you provide to us through your participation in the Program. If there is a conflict between the rules, terms and conditions that apply to a particular Program and this Policy, those applying to the particular Program will govern. Please review all of the information about a Program before you provide us with any personal information.

Please remember that uploaded photographs and/or videos may be posted on public areas (with corresponding identification of your name and likeness, and title of the photograph and/or video) and that blogs are public areas on the Site and chat rooms may be public areas on the Site. Please refer to the Program details. Any information posted in these areas can be viewed by other visitors or internet users. You should not post personal information in these areas unless you are comfortable to have third parties viewing and using such information.

Surveys

From time to time we may conduct surveys on the Site. If you decide to participate, you may be asked to provide certain demographic information (such as your gender, date of birth and zip code). We may use the information that you submit, including your responses to the survey questions, for the purposes identified to you prior to your participation in the survey. In some cases, we may publish the results of the survey but will do so only as aggregate information and you will not be individually identified. As we may be conducting certain surveys with our business partners or other third parties, we may also share the results of those surveys with those third parties but will not identify individuals.

Disclosure for Legal Purposes

Toyota reserves the right to disclose any personally identifiable information or other information we collect through the Site or otherwise if we are required to do so by law or if we reasonably believe that the disclosure is necessary in order to (a) fulfill a government request; (b) conform with the requirements of law or to comply with legal process served on us; (c) protect or defend the legal rights or property of Toyota, the Site or its users, or third party licensors of any material on the Site; or (d) in an emergency to protect the health or safety of the users of the Site or the general public.

We Do Not Seek Information From Children

The Site is not intended for children under the age of 13. Toyota does not knowingly collect personal information from children that young. If you are under the age of 13, please do not submit your email address or any other personal information to us through the Site.

How to Update Your Information

From time to time Toyota collects personally identifiable information in connection with Programs. There may be times when you can access and update the information you provided as part of your participation in a Program. Please see the Forms section of the Site and reference the registration form concerning the specific Program to determine if you are able to access your information and how to do so. Updates may be made upon request by contacting program administrators at: [email protected]

Cookies and Web Beacons

Toyota uses cookies and web beacons (also referred to as Web bugs, pixel tags or clear GIFs) to manage our website and email programs. We do not use cookies or web beacons to collect or store personal information.

A cookie is a small file placed on your computer when you visit a website. Its purpose is to manage your website experience and allow for customization of the web pages presented to you when you return to the site.

Web beacons are small bits of computer code that allow a website owner to track the actions of users on the site and recipients of e-mail communications.

Cookies and web beacons help us understand how consumers use our website and email so we can design better services in the future. Toyota may use cookies and web beacons to measure the effectiveness of our on-line advertising initiatives and determine the correlation between Toyota purchasers and the on-line sites they visit.

We may share this information with other companies to provide email delivery, place advertising on other websites or provide customized web pages when a user returns to our site. Toyota does not control these companies' use of cookies and web beacons. If you would like to opt out of the cookies and web beacons set by these companies, you can do so through the Network Advertising Initiative at http://www.networkadvertising.org/optout_nonppii.asp.

This site includes links to other websites, such as ToyotaFishing.com, MotorTrend.com, Toyota.com/Tundra. These sites are not under our control, even though they may use the Toyota name or logo on their site through an agreement with us. Such other sites do not necessarily follow our privacy policies, and may place their own cookies on your computer. This practice is standard on the Web, and we do not control cookies placed on your computer by third parties whose advertising or links appear on our site. These sites have their own privacy and information security policy and terms and conditions. Visitors should consult the other sites' privacy notices as we have no control over information that is submitted to, or collected by, these third parties.

Information about Phishing Scams

There have been noticeable increases in the number of suspicious e-mails claiming that the e-mail recipient has won a Toyota lottery or other promotion. Sometimes the e-mail claims that the recipient has won a new Toyota Prius. In order to claim the prize, the e-mail asks that personal information (i.e. Full Name, Address, Nationality, Age, Gender, Occupation, Phone/Fax, and/or Country of Residence) be sent to a the Hotmail or Yahoo e-mail address. Samples of these hoax e-mails can be found at the following web site: http://www.hoax-slayer.com/toyota-car-promotions-scam.shtml. Note that these examples of the "phishing" hoax e-mails were not prepared by Toyota, all information and names contained in the hoax e-mails are fictitious, and any similarity to the names of actual people, including Toyota personnel, is entirely coincidental.

This type of e-mail solicitation is known commonly as a “phishing” scam, with the primary objective being to obtain one's personal information. This information can then be utilized to steal a person's identity. For example, a “Toyota Lottery” phishing scam is often sent from Chinese (.cn), German (.de) or British (.co.uk) addresses but can originate from anywhere and look very official even to the most savvy of Internet users. Neither Toyota nor any other reputable business will ever ask you for personal information through an unsolicited e-mail. Recipients of suspicious e-mail like this should delete the message from their in-box and, if possible, update their e-mail filter settings to block e-mails from the e-mail address being used. The Federal Trade Commission (http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/edcams/spam/report.html) and the Antiphishing Workgroup (http://www.antiphishing.org/) are also good sources of information about these types of security threats and how they may be reported to the authorities.