PRIVACY POLICY

Updated 10/17/2025

Mechanic Advisor, LLC and our affiliated companies (collectively, “Company”, “we” or “us”) provides auto-repair solutions and related products and services to consumers, auto-repair shops (each a “Repair Shop”), and other businesses, including:

  • Mechanic Advisor®, which connects consumers with Repair Shops in their area. 

  • Steer® CRM, our customer relationship (CRM) platform and related products and services for Repair Shops, which seamlessly integrate Repair Shop customer data and shop management systems.

  • AutoOps®, our online scheduling tool for Repair Shops and other automotive businesses, which can be integrated with third party platforms, websites, and systems to enable seamless scheduling.

We also provide other mobile applications, tools and technologies, including APIs, software, scripts, plug-ins, services, technologies, and other tools as to enable access to and use of our systems (which may be collectively referred to as “tools”).

This Privacy Policy (the “Policy”) Policy explains how Company collects, uses, discloses, and otherwise processes the personal information described in this Policy, and the privacy rights and choices consumers have regarding their personal information. [If you are a resident of California, please also refer to our California Privacy Notice for information about the categories of personal information we collect and your rights under California privacy laws.]

Scope

Except as otherwise noted below, this Policy applies to the personal data that Company collects, uses, discloses, and otherwise processes, as a controller or business, including related to:

  • Our Sites and Apps: including users of our websites (including www.mechanicadvisor.com, www.autoops.com, and https://steer.io/ )(each a “Site”) and mobile applications (each an “App”), where this Policy is posted, and the services and features we provide through the Sites and Apps.

  • Mechanic Advisor: including the Mechanic Advisor Site (www.mechanicadvisor.com) and related products and services we provide through the Site (collectively, “Mechanic Advisor”).

  • Our platforms and business solutions for Repair Shops and other automotive-industry businesses, including (a) the Steer CRM platform, Site (https://steer.io/), and related products, services, and other tools that enable use of the platform and integrations with shop management systems and customer data by Retail Shops   (“Steer CRM”), and (b) the AutoOps online scheduler solution, Site (www.autoops.com), and related products, services, and other tools, that enable access to and use of the scheduler and integrations with third party websites, platforms and systems (“AutoOps) (Steer CRM and AutoOps may be referred to, individually, as a “Platform” and, together, as the “Platforms”).

  • The information we receive from Retail Shops and other business users of the Platforms, including personal information about their respective personnel, representatives, and authorized users, as well as their customers (each an “End User”), and other personal information we receive from third-party platforms that they have integrated with our Platforms.

  • Emails, texts, and other electronic communications we send, as well as our marketing and advertising campaigns, surveys and research studies we may conduct, and events and promotions we sponsor.

  • Individuals that otherwise communicate or engage with us related to our Platforms, Sites, Apps, and related operations, products, services, and other tools (collectively, the Services),

Not In Scope. This Policy does not apply to the personal data that we collect and process about our current or former employees. In addition, this Policy does not apply to the personal information we process as a processor or service provider on behalf of other businesses, or to the processing of personal information by Repair Shops and business users of our Platforms or by operators of third-party sites, services, and systems that are integrated with our Platforms.

Please read this Policy carefully and contact us with any questions or concerns. Your use of the Platforms and Services, and any dispute over privacy, is subject to this Policy, our Terms & Conditions, and any other written agreement between you and us related to the Platforms or the Services. 

Information We Collect

As further described below, we may collect personal information directly from individuals and from third parties, and we may also derive or automatically collect personal information about individuals as part of the Platforms or related to our Services.

Personal Information We Collect Directly. We collect personal information that you provide to us directly when you interact with the Service. This includes information such as:

  • Contact Details: Name, email address, phone number, and postal code/address.

  • Login Details: Account name, password, and other login data.

  • Transaction Information: Payment details, billing address(es), and records of the services you purchase or inquire about through our Platforms.

  • User Contributions: Information you provide when leaving reviews, contacting support, or posting any publicly viewable content.

Personal Information We Derive or Automatically Collect. When you use access or our Platforms, Sites, or other Services, we automatically collect certain information using cookies, pixels, and other automated technologies, and we may also derive certain information about you based on the personal information we collect from various sources. This includes, for example:

  • Device and Browser Information: We use cookies, log files, pixel tags and other tracking technologies to automatically collect information when users access or use our Services, such as IP address, general location information, domain name, page views, a date/time stamp, browser type, device type, device ID, Internet service provider, referring and exiting URLs, operating system, language, clickstream data, and similar device and usage information.

  • Activities and Usage Data: We also use cookies, pixels, and other tracking technologies to collect activity and usage information about how users interact with and use the Services. For example, we collect information about which pages you visit on our Sites, the information you view, links you click (e.g., for available coupons), and searches you make on the Company directory when using our “Find a Repair Shop” feature, and whether you visit a Repair Shop after using our Services. 

  • Location Data: When you use the Services, we may derive information about your location from your IP address or browser, as well as from other information you provide or make available to us when you use location-based features, such as “Find a Repair Shop.”.

  • Information We Derive: We may also combine or analyze certain personal information we collect directly, automatically, and from other sources, to derive insights about users. For example, when you may need an oil change or maintenance services, and what types of offers and discounts you may be most interested in.

Personal Information from Other Sources. We also receive personal information from other sources, including:

  • Repair Shops: Our Repair Shop and other business customers provide and make available information to us, including personal information about End Users. This may include personal information about a Repair Shop’s End Users, including current or historical customer records, such as name, and contact information (e.g., primary and alternative phone number, email, and address), VIN and vehicle information (e.g., mileage, make, model, year and trim), vehicle diagnostic information, repair or service recommendations, service and repair invoice details (e.g., products provided, services performed, labor costs, products/services declined, invoice amount, and payment type and status), and other service and repair-related information, as well vehicle telematics data (as applicable). Repair Shops and other business customers may also share information about employees, agents, and users of the Platforms (such as name, contact and work-related information). 

  • Third Party Platforms and Providers: We work with third party advertisers, marketing companies, platforms, and data providers, for example, to help us manage advertising and marketing campaigns, enhance our data, and derive insights, as well as provide our Services to business customers. We may collect or receive personal information from these third parties.

How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect for various purposes, including:

  • Platform Operations: To operate our Platforms and provide our Services, including, for example, appointment management (e.g., scheduling and reminders), payment processing, repair orders and invoice management, customer insights and marketing support, customer communications, and other customer relationship management and support.

  • Providing Our Services: To provide and maintain our Services, communicate with individuals about the Services (including End Users, visitors to our Sites, and others), provide troubleshooting and support, respond to inquiries, fulfill orders and requests, and for similar service and support purposes.

  • Improving the Platforms and Services: To enable us and third parties to analyze usage patterns, better understand what information is most relevant, evaluate and improve the Platforms and other Services, and develop new features.

  • Analytics, Marketing and Advertising: To collect analytics about the use of the Services, to derive insights about individuals related to the Platforms and Services, to enable us and third parties (e.g., your Repair Shop) to send you promotional emails and offers, news, surveys, and advertising, subject to your preferences, and to manage and measure marketing and ad campaigns. 

  • Personalization: To enable us and third parties to tailor content, marketing, offers, ads, and service recommendations based on your preferences and past activities, including on and within the Services, the Platforms and across third party sites and services.

  • Security and protection of rights: To protect the Services (including the Platforms) and our business operations; to prevent and detect fraud, unauthorized activities and access, and other misuse; where we believe necessary to investigate, prevent or take action regarding illegal activities, suspected fraud, situations involving potential threats to the safety or legal rights of any person or third party, or violations of our Terms of Use and other written agreements. 

  • Compliance and legal process: To comply with the law and our legal obligations, to respond to legal process, and otherwise related to legal proceedings in which we are involved. 

  • General business and operational support: To consider and implement mergers, acquisitions, reorganizations, bankruptcies, and other business transactions, and related to the administration of our general business, accounting, auditing, compliance, recordkeeping, and legal functions.

Disclosures of Personal Information

We may disclose or make available personal information to third parties for the purposes described above, including as follows:

  • Affiliates: To our subsidiaries and affiliates, who may use your information to provide the Services and for other purposes described in this Policy.

  • Service Providers and Processors: To our service providers, processors and others who perform functions on our behalf. These may include, for example, IT service providers, email service providers, analytics providers, consultants, auditors, and legal advisors, who process your information to provide services to us. 

  • Third Parties: To third parties we rely on to operate the Platforms and Services or provide certain functionality, such as payment processors, ISPs, operating systems, and platform operators. We may also share or make available personal information to third party ad companies, marketing partners, analytics providers and other businesses for marketing, advertising, research, analytics, and other commercial purposes; these third parties may combine the information we provide or make available from the Platforms and through the Services with information collected from third party sites and sources, in order to derive insights about you and your preferences, and to reach you with targeted marketing, offers, news and other information that may be of interest to you, on behalf of us and other businesses. You can opt out of certain types of marketing and sharing by us, as set forth below. 

  • Business Transfers: To another company as part of a merger, acquisition, reorganization, spin-off, or sale of all or part of our business or assets, or as part of a bankruptcy, reorganization, or similar transaction. We may also disclose certain personal information to lenders, auditors, investors, and third-party advisors, including attorneys and consultants, prior to the completion of one of these transactions, or in preparation for an IPO, or an investment or financing by another company, such as to enable due diligence or as necessary to plan for the transaction. 

  • For Legal Compliance: To third parties to comply with our legal and compliance obligations, or respond to legal process; including, for example: (i) in response to a subpoena, court order, or other law enforcement or other regulatory requests; (ii) for our internal accounting, auditing, compliance, recordkeeping, and legal functions; and (iii) the names of sweepstakes and contest winners and other disclosures we are required to make under applicable law.

  • For Security and Protection of Rights: To other third parties where we believe doing so is necessary to protect the Platforms or Services, our rights and property, or the rights, property and safety of others; including, for example: (i) to prevent, detect, investigate and respond to fraud, unauthorized activities and access, illegal activities, and misuse of the Platforms and Services; (ii) in situations involving potential threats to the health, safety or legal rights of any person or third party; (iii) to enforce, and detect, investigate and take action in response to violations of our Terms of Use or other written agreements; and (iv) related to litigation and other legal claims or proceedings in which we are involved.

  • As Authorized or Directed by You: To third parties for additional purposes (i) with your consent, or (ii) if you have directed us to share it (e.g., by selecting a shop on our directory and scheduling an appointment with them or clicking a coupon offer from a third party). 

Analytics, Advertising, and Tracking Technologies

We use cookies, pixels and similar technologies (e.g., scripts, SDKs), some of which are provided by third parties, and collect log files, clickstream data, and other user, browsing, device, and activity information (See Section II above for additional information about the types of information collected). You can manage your preferences for most cookies on our Sites, as explained below.

What are Cookies, Pixels and Third-Party Trackers?

  • Cookies: Cookies (also called browser or HTTP cookies) are small files that we transfer to your device through your web browser for record-keeping purposes, when you visit our Site or use our Services. For example, cookies help us recognize you as a user, remember your preferences, and provide a more seamless user experience. They also enable us and third parties to track user behavior and activity on our site and across third party sites and services, which helps us improve our services, tailor content to your interests, and provide and measure targeting advertising.

  • Pixels: Pixels (sometimes called web beacons or clear GIFs) are tiny graphics with a unique identifier, similar in function to cookies. While cookies are stored locally on your device, pixels are embedded invisibly within web pages and online content. We may use these, in connection with our Services to, among other things, track the activities of users, help us manage content and compile usage statistics. We may also use these in HTML e-mails we send, to help us track e-mail response rates, identify when our e-mails are viewed, and track whether our e-mails are forwarded.

  • Third Party Cookies and Trackers: When we place cookies from our own domain and web server, these are known as “first-party” cookies. We also allow third-party companies, such as Google and Hubspot, to place cookies on your device to provide additional services, such as analytics, targeted advertising, and other functionality. These are known as “third-party” cookies and are subject to the privacy policies of the third parties who provide them. You can opt your browser out of these cookies on our Sites as set forth below. Some of these providers may also offer you the ability to directly opt out of collection by these tools. For example, you can opt out of Google Analytics tracking by utilizing the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on. In addition, you can use the Digital Advertising Alliance industry opt out tool to opt out of certain collection and use of your online information for targeted advertising purposes, by participating ad companies; for more information, go to www.aboutads.info/choices (website opt out) or www.youradchoices.com/appchoices (mobile opt out tool).

Why Do We Use Cookies, Pixels and Tracking Technologies. These technologies and the information collected may be used to operate, secure and optimize the Services, including:

  • Operations and Security: To operate the Sites, Platforms and Services, enable key features and functionality (e.g., to keep you logged in, detect your language, remember your preferences, and otherwise ensure the Services and content display and load properly and efficiently, and detect and prevent bot activity and malicious traffic.

  • Analyze and Improve Performance: To track and analyze usage trends and performance, understand and improve user experiences, and develop and improve features and functionality. 

  • Enable Certain Features and Functionality: To enable certain features, like user chat, reviews, click to call, reCAPTCHA, “Find a Repair Shop” and other location-based features, and social media sharing and other features.

  • Personalization: To personalize content and experiences based on your activities and settings, as well as your browser and device

  • Targeted Advertising: to measure and deliver targeted ads and content on the Services and across third party sites and services.

Custom Lists and Matching. We may also share or make available certain information (such as name, email address and other contact information) to third parties to help validate and enhance the information we have, so that we can better target ads and content across third party sites, platforms and services (including on behalf of our business customers and partners). In some cases, these third parties may help us to enhance our customer lists with additional demographic or other information, so we can better target advertising and marketing campaigns. You can opt out of this type of targeted advertising campaign by us, by submitting a request to opt out of targeted advertising, as set forth in Section 6. Privacy Choices and Rights, below.

Cookie Preferences for our Sites. You can opt out of targeted advertising as well as most other cookies on any of our Sites, other than those that are necessary for the Sites to function properly and securely. 

  • Cookie Settings Tool: You can review or change your cookie preferences on our Sites by using the Site’s Cookie Setting tool. 

  • Browser Signals: Our Sites recognize Global Privacy Control—or “GPC”—signals. So, if we detect that your browser is transmitting a GPC signal when you come to one of our Sites, we will apply that to opt your browser out of third-party cookies on the Site, other than cookies that are necessary for the Site to function properly and securely. Our websites do not recognize or respond to browser “do not track” signals. 

These opt outs are browser and device specific, which means that you need to opt out or enable GPC for each browser and device you use to access one of our Sites; in addition, if you delete or block cookies, you may need to reapply your cookie preferences. Please note, opting out of cookies does not mean that you will no longer receive online advertising from us. You may continue to receive generic or “contextual” ads from us. 

Browser Settings. You can also control cookie settings directly through your browser or device settings. You can delete cookies or block their use by adjusting your browser’s privacy settings. However, please note that blocking certain cookies may affect the functionality of our website and your ability to use some features. For more detailed information on how to manage cookies, you can visit www.allaboutcookies.org.

Privacy Choices and Rights

We provide individuals with several privacy choices and options, including:

  • Targeted Advertising: You can opt your browser out of targeted advertising via cookies on one of our Sites, by using the Site’s Cookie Setting tool or by setting your browser to transmit GPC signals, as explained above. If you would like to opt out of targeted advertising that is not browser/Site-based (e.g., custom list and matching campaigns), please submit a request as set online or via email as forth below.

  • Opt-Out of Marketing Communications: You can opt out of receiving email and text communications that we send at any time by following the unsubscribe instructions in any email or text we send.

  • Updates and Correction: If you are an End User and you would like to update your contact details or other personal information, you should contact the Repair Shop.

Additional Privacy Rights Under State Privacy Laws. Depending on where you reside, you may have additional privacy rights under state consumer privacy laws, subject to certain exceptions and restrictions, including:

  • To Correct: The right to correct inaccuracies in your personal data, taking into account the nature and purposes of the processing of the personal data.

  • To Access or Know: The right to confirm whether we are processing their personal data and to obtain certain information about our collect, use, disclosure and processing, as well a copy of their personal data in a portable and, to the extent technically feasible, readily usable format (referred to as a “request to know” under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA)).

  • To Opt-Out: The right to opt out of or limit certain types of processing, including: 

  • To opt out of the “sale” of their personal data. We do not sell, disclose, or make available your personal data to third parties in exchange for monetary consideration. However, disclosing and making certain data via third-party cookies and pixels on our Site (such as IP address and online identifiers, browsing and activity information, and interests), may be considered a ‘sale’ under applicable state privacy laws.

  • To opt out of targeted advertising by us (referred to as “sharing” under the CCPA), including via cookies on our Site and otherwise (such as related to custom list and matching campaigns and other partner sharing). 

  • To opt out of any processing of personal data for purposes of making decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects. However, we do not use your data for profiling purposes or automatic decision-making.

  • To opt out or limit the collection and disclosure of their sensitive personal data. We generally only collect your sensitive personal data with your consent and will only use this information in order to respond to your requests, comply with the law, protect and defend our legal rights, prevent and respond to fraudulent or unauthorized activities, or for security purposes, as permitted by applicable privacy laws.

  • To Delete: The right to request that we delete your personal information. However, to the extent permitted by applicable law, we may retain certain information for legal or business purposes, including fraud detection, compliance with legal obligations, and resolving disputes. 

  • To Appeal: The right to appeal our denial of your privacy rights request, which you can do by contacting us after we have made a decision on your request and communicated it to you.

CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS. If you are a resident of California, please also refer to our California Privacy Notice for additional information about your rights under California privacy laws. 

How to Submit a Privacy Rights Request. You may submit a privacy rights request to us pursuant to state privacy laws by:

You may also submit a request to opt out your browser out of targeted advertising via one of our Sites by setting your browser to transmit GPC signals as explained in Section VI above. In addition, you can opt out of targeted advertising and most other cookies, other than those that are ‘necessary’ for the Site to function properly and securely. To review and adjust your cookie settings on one of our Sites, click the “Cookie Settings” in the footer of our Site.  

We will respond to your request as required under the applicable privacy law(s). We may request information to verify your identity and/or the authorization of any third party submitting a request on your behalf. We will not discriminate against you for submitting a request in relation to any of your rights. 

Children’s Privacy

We do not knowingly collect or solicit personal information from anyone under the age of 13 or from anyone that we know is a minor under 18 years old. If we learn that we have collected personal information from a child under the age of 13, we will take steps to delete that information as soon as possible.  

Third-Party Links and Services

Our Sites and Services may contain links to third-party websites and services. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of those third-party sites. Please review their privacy policies for details about how they collect, use, and share your information.

International Data Transfers

If you are located outside of the United States, please note that your personal information may be transferred to and processed in the United States. We ensure that adequate safeguards are in place to protect your data in accordance with applicable data protection laws.

Data Retention

We retain your personal information only for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected, or as otherwise necessary to meet our legal and compliance obligations, to protect or defend our legal rights and the rights of others, and for security and fraud detection and prevention. When we no longer need your data, we will take steps to securely delete or de-identify it in accordance with applicable laws.

Security

We have implemented safeguards to protect the personal information we maintain. However, no method of electronic storage or transmission is 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Policy from time to time. Any changes will be posted on this page with an updated “Last Updated” date. We encourage you to review this Policy periodically to stay informed about how we are protecting your information. If we make an update to this Policy that materially changes how we treat the personal information we have already collected about you, we will endeavor to notify you, such as by posting notice on our Sites that the Policy has been updated.

Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Policy or our data practices, please contact us at:

Mechanic Advisor, LLC
230 Third Ave
Waltham, MA 01778
Email: privacy@steercrm.com