Privacy Policy

Introduction

Last Updated on May 7, 2009.

About Rentalcars.com

Rentalcars.com is owned and operated by Lowestfare.com, which in turn is owned by priceline.com Incorporated (together with its subsidiaries, “Priceline.com”). The following describes the privacy policy (as amended or otherwise changed from time to time, the “Privacy Policy”) applicable to the services available through Rentalcars.com (the “Site”) and also describes certain practices related to the EU Safe Harbor (as defined below). Certain services which you may access on the Site are provided by our third party partners, and protection of your information relating to such services will be governed by the privacy policy of such third party (see “Sharing Your Personal Data-Certain Services,” below). By visiting the Site, you are consenting to the collection, use, disclosure and processing of your personal data described in this Privacy Policy.

On occasion priceline.com may revise this Privacy Policy to reflect changes in the law, our Personal Data collection and use practices, the features of our Site, or advances in technology. If we make revisions that change the way we collect or use your Personal Data, those changes will be posted in this Privacy Policy and the effective date will be noted at the beginning of this Privacy Policy. Therefore, you should review it periodically so that you are up to date on our most current policies and practices. Rentalcars.com will also prominently post such material changes prior to implementing the change.

Our Commitment to Your Privacy

Priceline.com complies with the EU Safe Harbor framework (“EU Safe Harbor”) as set forth by the US Department of Commerce regarding the collection, use and retention of personal data from the European Union (“EU”). In particular, priceline.com adheres to the EU Safe Harbor with respect to personally identifiable data obtained in the US about: (i) customers and visitors to this Site from the European Union (“EU Customer Data”); (ii) suppliers, business partners, customers, and website visitors of our EU affiliates (“EU Affiliate Data”); and (iii) employees of our EU affiliates (“EU Employee Data”). EU Customer Data is handled in accordance with this Privacy Policy, and any questions about such data should be directed to us as specified in the “How to Contact Us” section below. If we cannot answer or resolve such questions directly, the individual concerned may contact TRUSTe.

We process EU Affiliate Data on behalf of, and in accordance with the instructions of, our relevant affiliates in the EU, such as in connection with customer support and other business functions. In addition, in limited circumstances, we may also obtain EU Affiliate Data as necessary or appropriate in connection with litigation, government inquiries, internal inquiries, or similar matters. Questions about EU Affiliate Data should be directed to us as specified in the “How to Contact Us” section below. If we or our EU affiliates cannot answer or resolve such questions directly, the individual concerned may contact the data protection authorities in their home country in the EU for further information. In addition, we maintain internal policies and procedures governing the handling of EU Employee Data.

Priceline.com is a participant in the TRUSTe Privacy Seal Program. TRUSTe is an independent organization whose mission is to advance privacy and trust in the networked world. This Privacy Policy covers the site www.priceline.com. Because we want to demonstrate our commitment to your privacy, we have agreed to disclose our information practices and have our privacy practices reviewed for compliance by TRUSTe.

If you have questions or concerns regarding this statement, you should first click here to contact our Help Center. If you do not receive acknowledgement of your inquiry or your inquiry has not been satisfactorily addressed, you should contact TRUSTe at http://www.truste.org/consumers/watchdog_complaint.php. TRUSTe will then serve as a liaison with us to resolve your concerns.

We value your trust in us and will work hard to earn your confidence so that you can enthusiastically use our services and recommend us to your friends and family.

Information We Collect

We collect personally identifiable information (“Personal Data”) about you that you provide to us while using the Site. Personal Data includes information that can identify you as a specific individual, such as your name, address, phone number, credit card number or e-mail address. We also collect non-personally identifiable information, which may be linked to your Personal Data, including your log-in name, IP address, search preferences related to specific searches, and bids through our priceline.com cookies. Third parties also may collect non-personally identifiable information on our Site as described below. Such third parties may be located outside of the European Economic Area in countries which may not provide for the same level of protection as the laws in your home jurisdiction.

Protecting Your Personal Data

To prevent unauthorized access, maintain data accuracy, and ensure correct use of Personal Data, we will employ reasonable and current Internet security methods and technologies. To protect credit card transactions while in transit, Priceline.com currently uses Secure Socket Layer technology to encrypt Personal Data.

If you purchase certain services, such as airline tickets, for other travelers, we will collect the names of the other travelers. You must make sure that you have the right to provide such information. By providing any Personal Data of another traveler, you represent that you have all necessary authority and/or have obtained all necessary consents from such person to enable us to collect, use and disclose such Personal Data as set forth in this Privacy Policy. Personal Data of other travelers is collected only for the purpose of providing such other travelers’ names to the appropriate travel supplier, such as the airline on which travel will occur.

How We Use the Information We Collect

We use Personal Data to provide you with the products and services from our Site, to build features that will make the services available on the Site easier to use, and to contact you about these services. This includes faster purchase requests, better customer support and timely notice of new services and special offers.

From time to time, priceline.com may contact you to request feedback on your experience using the Site, to assist us in improving the Site, or to offer special savings or promotions to you, as a Site user. If you would prefer not to receive notices of special savings or promotions, you may simply opt-out from receiving them by replying to priceline.com using the hyperlink provided in these notices.

Sharing Your Personal Data

Priceline.com does not share your Personal Data, except as disclosed in this statement or unless we receive your consent. Priceline.com may share your Personal Data with its subsidiaries and with third parties as described in the categories below:

Certain Services: In order to provide you with certain services, we may share your Personal Data with our third party partners, or require that you transact directly with a third party partner. Third party partners consist of companies with which priceline.com has contracted in order to provide you with services or products featured on our Site. Below is a list of some of such services:

Priceline.com. This Privacy Policy applies to transactions made on the Lowestfare.com website. Products purchased through the priceline.com website are offered by priceline.com, and the privacy policy of priceline.com governs such transactions. You should evaluate the privacy policy of priceline.com before deciding to use these services. To view priceline.com’s privacy policy, click here.

Lowestfare Cruises. Lowestfare Cruises are offered through National Leisure Group, LLC (“NLG”). When you provide Personal Data in connection with the purchase or booking of a cruise, you are providing such Personal Data to NLG, which holds such Personal Data on our behalf. Our contract with NLG requires NLG to maintain such Personal Data in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

Great Fun® Online Savings Club. After or during the booking process on Rentalcars.com, our partner, Trilegiant Corporation (“Trilegiant”), will offer you an opportunity to join their Great Fun® Online Savings Club. If you join the club, you are authorizing us to provide your Personal Data to Trilegiant, which treats your Personal Data in accordance with the Trilegiant privacy policy and not this Rentacars.com Privacy Policy. For information on how your privacy is protected when using the Great Fun® Online Savings Club service, click here.

We may revise this list from time to time if we decide to offer additional services through these or other third-party partners.

Priceline.com’s Agents: Many of the operations we perform require us to hire other companies to help us with these tasks. For example, priceline.com hires companies to help us handle mail and e-mail (including sending and delivering packages, postal mail and e-mail) analyze the data we collect, market our products and services, handle credit card transactions and provide customer service. The companies we employ to help us with these tasks have access to Personal Data to perform their functions, but may not use it for other purposes. Priceline.com requires all agents to whom Personal Data is disclosed to enter into confidentiality agreements and to agree to act in a manner consistent with the relevant principles articulated in this Policy.

External Service Providers: When you use the priceline.com service to purchase an airline ticket, reserve a hotel room or a rental car or to take advantage of any of our other products and services (including travel insurance and destination attractions), we provide Personal Data to the airline, hotel, car rental agency, travel agency or other involved third-party.

Advertisements, Marketing Material and Other Offers: Unless you tell us that you do not want to receive these offers, priceline.com or those companies that we have a commercial relationship with, may occasionally send advertisements, marketing material or other offers that we think might be of interest to you. If you do not want to receive these advertisements, marketing material or other offers, please click here to unsubscribe.

Future Business Transfers: Our business is constantly changing. As part of that process, priceline.com may sell or buy other companies, and Personal Data may be transferred as part of these transactions. It is also possible that priceline.com, or substantially all of its assets, may be acquired by another company, whether by merger, sale of assets or otherwise, and Personal Data may be transferred as part of such a transaction.

Compliance with Law and Other Disclosures: Priceline.com reserves the right to release Personal Data in order to comply with applicable law and when we believe that disclosure is necessary to comply with a judicial proceeding, court order, or legal process served on our the Site. We may also release Personal Data to enforce or apply the terms and conditions applicable to our products and services, protect us or others against fraudulent or inappropriate activities, or otherwise protect the rights, property or safety of priceline.com, our affiliated companies, our customers, or others.

Our Policy Concerning Cookies

To serve you faster and with better quality, we use “cookie” technology and also allow third parties to use cookies on our Site. Cookies are small bits of code, usually stored on a user’s computer hard drive, which enable a web site to “personalize” itself for each user by remembering information about the user’s visit to the web site.

As described in more detail below, priceline.com’s cookies have many benefits to enhance your experience on our web site. The third party cookies used on our site are also designed to improve your web site experience by facilitating the receipt of targeted advertisements while on our site and while you are viewing other, non-priceline.com web sites.

Priceline Cookies (First Party Cookies): We, at priceline.com, use our cookies to reduce the time it takes for you to submit purchase requests. For example, we use a cookie to store a registered user’s e-mail address so that the user does not need to enter their e-mail address each time that they log-in onto priceline.com. We will also use a cookie to keep track of your search criteria while you are engaging priceline.com’s services. Priceline.com cookies are associated with a user’s personal information.

No third party has access to the information we collect through our priceline.com cookies, but if you’d rather we didn’t use priceline.com cookies when you visit us, click here and we will help you turn them off.

Third Party Cookies and Pixels: We also use third-party advertising companies to serve ads while you are visiting our site and permit these companies to place and access their own cookies on your computer in the course of serving advertisements on this site. These companies may use information obtained through their cookie (which does not include your name, address, e-mail address or telephone number) about your visits to our and other web sites, in combination with non-personally identifiable information about your purchases and interests from other online sites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. Other companies’ use of their cookies is subject to their own privacy policies and not ours. Such advertisers do not have access to our cookies.

In addition, we may share web site usage information about visitors to our sites with these companies for the purpose of managing and targeting advertisements and for market research analysis on our site and other sites. For these purposes, we and our third-party advertising companies may place pixel tags (also called clear gifs) on some of the pages you visit on our site. We will then use the non-personally identifiable information that is collected using these pixel tags to serve you relevant advertisements when you are visiting other sites on the Internet. These advertisements may be targeted to specific searches you conducted on priceline.com during earlier browsing sessions.

If you would like more information about the information collection practices of third-party advertising companies and your choices about not having this information used by these companies or opt out of online preference marketing, click here: http://www.networkadvertising.org/consumer/opt_out.asp and here: http://priceline.direct-messaging.com/optout.html. If you wish to block other cookies, including those being served by companies that are not part of the Network Advertising Initiative click here. However, without cookies you may not have access to certain features on our Site, including access to your profile/account and certain personalized content.

You can also delete all cookies that are already on your computer’s hard drive by searching for files with “cookie” in it. This action could affect your subsequent visits to certain web sites, including the priceline.com web site, by requiring that, for example, you enter you login name when you return to that web site.

To learn more about cookies, you can link to the following third-party web sites: http://www.cookiecentral.com, http://www.w3.org/, or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_cookie. These links are provided for your information only. Priceline.com is not affiliated with any of these third-party sites and does not make any representations or warranties about the information they contain.

A Special Note About Children

Persons under the age of 18 are not eligible to use any services on our site.

How to Contact Us

Should you have any questions, concerns or comments, please click here. Rentarcars.com is located c/o Priceline.com Incorporated at 800 Connecticut Avenue, Norwalk, Connecticut 06854.