Privacy, terms, and what gets retained.

What this site collects

The enquiry form collects a store name, your name, your role, an email address, a phone number and an optional note. That is all of it. There is no analytics product on this site, no advertising pixel, no session recording and no third-party tag.

What I do with it: read it, reply to it, and keep it to work your enquiry. I do not sell it, rent it, trade it, pass it to a lender, pass it to another store, or add you to a mailing list. Ask me to delete it and I will, and I will confirm when it is done.

The ad archive, and exactly how far it goes

N.J.A.C. 13:45A-26A.10 requires that an advertiser have the vehicle on premises and available at the advertised price during publication, or a record of its sale at that price or less, and retain the advertisements and the executed contracts for 180 days for inspection by the Division of Consumer Affairs.

On a Second Pencil program I retain the advertising side: every creative, its placement dates, the price point it carried, and the inventory snapshot that justified that price, held for not less than 180 days and produced to you on request within two business days.

The executed contracts are the other half of that record and they live in your DMS. They are yours, I do not hold them, and no service on this site covers them. Any vendor offering you “180-day compliance” as one product is offering you half a file.

Regulatory status, stated plainly

Second Pencil is an advertising practice. It is not a licensed motor vehicle dealer, is not a lender or a credit arranger, is not an insurance producer, and does not sell, lease or broker vehicles. It does not take a media rebate from any platform or marketplace and does not resell leads.

It holds no OEM certification and is not an approved vendor under any manufacturer program. Where a service would sit outside an approved-vendor requirement and therefore affect your co-op eligibility, that is stated before the work is quoted, not after it is invoiced.

Under N.J.A.C. 13:45A-26A.3 an advertising agency is deemed an advertiser where its staff prepares and places an advertisement. Media on these programs is billed direct to the dealer’s own accounts and placed by the dealer. You should have your own counsel read that provision rather than rely on this paragraph.

On MAP, and on competing rooftops

Minimum Advertised Price is a unilateral manufacturer policy, not law. Second Pencil maintains a per-rooftop MAP floor sheet as an internal production constraint and checks price-bearing creative against it.

Second Pencil will not take a second rooftop of the same brand competing for the same buyers. Not with a disclosure, not with consent, not with an internal separation of any kind — the second one is declined.

The reason is not MAP. An agency that sets the advertised offers for two dealers competing for the same customer is the hub in a hub-and-spoke arrangement, and that is horizontal price coordination under Section 1 of the Sherman Act, which no manufacturer policy cures. The usual answer — an internal information barrier — separates people. This is a practice of one person, so there is nobody to separate, the barrier would be unauditable, and offering one would mostly be evidence that the arrangement had been contemplated. Declining is the only control that is actually a control.

Where credit data is involved

On the Full Desk tier only, a soft-pull prequalification flow may be operated on the dealer’s behalf. Before any pull runs: permissible purpose under the Fair Credit Reporting Act is confirmed in writing; where the flow constitutes a prescreen, a genuine firm offer of credit is in place; and a service provider agreement satisfying the dealer’s obligations under the FTC Safeguards Rule is executed.

Consumer credit output is accessed only as needed to route and structure the deal, is never retained beyond the engagement, and is never used for any other client or purpose.

Figures on this site

Dealer gross figures are StoneEagleDATA, quarter stated at the point of use. Advertising spend figures are NADA Data 2025. Marketplace subscription figures are from Cars.com public filings, quarter stated. Where a figure is a constructed example — every number in the Ad File and Store Plan specimens — it is labelled as constructed on the same page, above and below.

Nothing on this site is legal advice, and nothing on it creates an attorney-client or any other professional relationship. Regulations and manufacturer policies are revised; check the current text before acting on anything here.

Contact

[LEGAL ENTITY NAME]
[MAILING ADDRESS]
[EMAIL] · [PHONE]