Privacy Policy

Personal Stuff

When you book an appointment or bring your ride in, we'll need:

• Your name and phone number (so we can actually reach you when your car's ready)
• Email address (for appointment reminders and service updates)
• Mailing address (mainly for invoicing and warranty paperwork)
• Payment info (credit card, debit - processed securely, we don't store full numbers)

Vehicle Information

This is the important stuff for us to do our job right:

• Make, model, year, VIN (the basics)
• Current mileage and service history
• Previous winter prep work you've had done
• Any quirks your vehicle has (trust us, every car has 'em)

Website Usage Data

Like most sites, we collect some technical stuff: IP address, browser type, pages you visit, how long you stick around. It helps us figure out if our website's actually useful or if we need to fix something.

We're not fancy corporate types, so here's what we do with your data:

• Service Your Vehicle: Obviously. We need your info to schedule appointments, order the right parts, and keep track of what work we've done on your car.
• Send Reminders: Winter tire season, oil change intervals, that block heater check you've been putting off - we'll give you a heads up.
• Process Payments: Gotta get paid somehow, right? All done securely through our payment processor.
• Improve Our Services: If half our customers are coming in with the same issue, we wanna know about it so we can address it better.
• Legal Stuff: Sometimes we gotta keep records for warranty claims, insurance, or if there's ever a dispute (which we hope there never is).
• Seasonal Offers: We might send you deals on winter prep packages or maintenance specials. You can opt out anytime - no hard feelings.

That's it. We're not analyzing your data to sell you stuff you don't need or tracking your browsing across the internet. We fix cars in Edmonton winters - that's our focus.

Here's something that matters if you're bringing your car to us regularly: we keep detailed service records. Why? Because when you show up in February with a dead battery, we wanna know if we just replaced it last month or if it's actually been three years.

What We Track:

• Every service we've performed on your vehicle
• Parts we've installed (with part numbers and dates)
• Recommendations we made that you might've deferred
• Warranty information on work we've done
• Diagnostic codes and test results

Your Access: You can request a copy of your vehicle's service history anytime. Seriously, just ask. Moving to another province? We'll print everything out for your new mechanic.

Retention: We keep this stuff for about 7 years after your last visit (mainly for warranty and legal reasons). After that, it gets purged unless there's a specific reason to keep it longer.

We're pretty protective of your info, but there are a few situations where we gotta share it:

Parts Suppliers & Manufacturers

Sometimes we need to verify warranty coverage or order specific parts. We'll share your vehicle info (VIN, service history) but not your personal contact details unless absolutely necessary.

Payment Processors

When you pay with a card, that goes through our secure payment processor. They're certified and way better at handling payment security than we'd be.

Legal Requirements

If we get a court order or there's some legal requirement, we'll have to comply. Same if there's a safety recall or something serious where we're legally obligated to share info.

Service Providers

Our appointment scheduling software, email service, website hosting - these folks might have access to your data, but they're contractually obligated to keep it confidential.

What We DON'T Do: Sell your info to marketers, share your data with social media companies, rent out our customer list, or do any of that sketchy stuff. That's a promise.

We're mechanics, not cybersecurity experts, but we take this stuff seriously. Here's what we do:

• Encrypted Connections: Our website uses SSL encryption (that little lock icon in your browser).
• Secure Payment Processing: We never see your full credit card number - it's all handled by certified payment processors.
• Limited Access: Only staff who actually need your info to do their job can access it. The guy rotating your tires doesn't see your payment info.
• Regular Backups: We back up our data regularly and store it securely. Alberta winters are unpredictable, and so are computer systems.
• Paper Records: Physical files are kept in locked cabinets in our office. Old-school, but it works.

Real Talk: No system is 100% secure. We do our best, but if there's ever a data breach, we'll let you know right away and tell you what happened and what we're doing about it. Transparency matters.

Yeah, our website uses cookies. Not the chocolate chip kind, unfortunately.

Essential Cookies

These make the website actually work - like keeping you logged in when you're booking an appointment or remembering what's in your cart if you're scheduling multiple services.

Analytics Cookies

We use basic analytics to see which pages people visit, how long they stay, where they're coming from. Helps us figure out if people are actually finding our winter services page or if it's buried too deep in the menu.

Preference Cookies

If you've told us you prefer email over text for reminders, we'll remember that. Quality of life stuff.

Your Browser Settings: You can block cookies in your browser if you want. Some parts of the site might not work as smoothly, but it's your choice. Most browsers let you delete cookies too whenever you feel like it.

We don't use those creepy tracking cookies that follow you around the internet. That's not our style.

Under Canadian privacy laws (specifically PIPEDA), you've got some rights when it comes to your personal info:

Access Your Info

Wanna know what we have on file about you? Just ask. We'll show you everything we've got - service records, contact info, payment history, all of it.

Correct Errors

If something's wrong (old phone number, wrong VIN, whatever), let us know and we'll fix it. We actually want accurate records anyway.

Opt Out of Marketing

Don't wanna get our seasonal service reminders or special offers? No problem. Click unsubscribe on any email, or tell us when you're in the shop. We'll still send appointment confirmations and stuff directly related to your service, but that's it.

Request Deletion

If you're never coming back, you can ask us to delete your personal info. We'll do it, though we might need to keep some stuff for legal or warranty reasons (like if we just did major work on your car and there's a warranty period).

Port Your Data

Moving to another mechanic? We can give you a copy of all your service records in a usable format. Takes a day or two, but we'll sort it out.

To Exercise These Rights: Call us at (780) 555-0147, email service@frostwardenrealm.info, or stop by the shop. We'll handle it without making it complicated.

We don't keep your info forever. Here's our general approach:

• Active Customers: As long as you're bringing your vehicle to us, we keep everything current and accessible.
• Inactive Customers: If we haven't seen you in 7 years, we'll start purging non-essential personal data. We might keep basic service records a bit longer for liability reasons.
• Payment Records: Tax law requires us to keep these for about 7 years. After that, they're gone.
• Warranty Information: We keep this for as long as any warranty period is active, plus a couple years for safety.
• Marketing Lists: If you haven't opened an email or responded in a couple years, we'll remove you. No point cluttering up our system.

If you want us to delete your stuff sooner, just ask. We'll do what we can within legal limits.

Our services aren't for kids. You gotta be old enough to own a car and hire us to work on it, which means you're probably at least 18 (or have a parent/guardian handling the paperwork).

We don't knowingly collect information from anyone under 18. If somehow a kid's info ended up in our system, let us know and we'll delete it immediately.

That said, if you're teaching your teenager to drive and bringing their car in for winter prep, that's fine - just make sure you're the one providing the info and handling the payments.

Things change. Privacy laws get updated, we might add new services, technology evolves. When we update this policy, we'll do a few things:

• Update the "Last Updated" date at the top of this page
• If it's a major change, we'll send an email to let you know
• Post a notice on our homepage for a while
• Keep old versions available if you wanna see what changed

We're not gonna sneak in sneaky changes without telling anyone. That's not how we operate.

By continuing to use our services after we update the policy, you're agreeing to the new terms. If you don't like the changes, you can always stop using our services (though we hope you don't).

Look, privacy policies can be confusing. If you've got questions, concerns, or you just wanna chat about how we handle your info, reach out:

We'll get back to you within a couple business days. If you've got a formal privacy complaint, we'll work with you to resolve it. If we can't sort it out, you've also got the right to file a complaint with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.

Bottom Line: We're here to keep your vehicle running through Edmonton winters, and part of