This Privacy Policy explains what The Broker Black LLC, doing business as The Model Black ("The Model Black," "we," "us"), collects on themodelblack.com and our other websites, how we use it, who receives it, and the choices you have. The short version: we collect what it takes to price a car for you and, when you decide to buy, to send your deal to the participating dealership you choose. We do not sell your information. A dealership receives your name, contact details, documents, and application only when your deal is sent to it.
The Model Black is not a licensed motor vehicle dealer or broker and does not act as a broker in any way. Participating dealerships sell and lease every vehicle and complete each purchase directly with you.
When you browse. The pages and cars you view, your device and browser type, and your IP address. Security logs record IP addresses, sign-in attempts, and each time a sensitive record is opened.
Your market. Until you enter a ZIP code, we use the approximate location of your internet connection (the city and region we can tell from your IP address, never your precise location) to choose your market: which specials and cars (including sponsored ones, which are paid placements), taxes, and fees you see. Once you enter a ZIP code, we use that instead. We don't store that approximate location, and we don't send it to dealerships, analytics providers, or advertising companies. We count how often each sponsored special or car is shown and opened in each market, and those counts hold nothing about you.
What you set to price a car. When you use the payment calculator, the ZIP code box, the inventory filters, or the trade-in estimate: your ZIP code, the credit score you enter (your own estimate, never a credit report), your down payment, term, payment or price range, how far you will travel, and your trade-in estimate. Your browser keeps these so every page prices from the same numbers, and we keep a first-party record of them in our own database (section 5).
Your account. Creating an account to see pricing is complimentary. Your account holds your email address (verified with a one-time code), name, phone, street address, and ZIP; how you plan to buy (cash, finance, or lease); the numbers above; the brands you are interested in; how you prefer to be contacted; and, if you add it, your current car (VIN, mileage, whether it is paid off, financed, or leased, the lender, and the payoff). Also the cars you save and the deals you ask us to watch for (the car, the number you want, and any note). If you set up a passkey, we keep its public key and the name of the device it is on, never anything biometric (section 9). If you add a backup phone, we keep that mobile number to text you a security code when you ask for one.
How you buy: how long you usually keep a car, about how many miles you drive a year, how you plan to pay, and whether you'll have a trade-in. You can set these in your account, or tell the Concierge while you're signed in and it saves them there. You can change or clear them any time.
Your membership. If you buy a membership: the level you chose, its term, and your payment status. A membership belongs to your account, not to one car, and covers the members of your household who live at your address. If you link household members to your membership, we keep what it takes to link them, such as their names and email addresses, and that they live at your address.
Requests and conversations. Your name, email, phone, the car, your deal numbers, and your message when you ask a question, join the waiting list, ask for early access, or book a time; and your conversations in the chat on the site, with our AI assistant, with our team, and, after you send a deal, with that dealership's staff.
Instant Specials alerts. When you ask for alerts, your email address, your ZIP code, how far you will go, the kinds of deals and the makes or models you chose, and a record of your sign-up (the words you agreed to, the time, your IP address, and your browser). An address starts receiving alerts only after its owner confirms by email.
When you buy. The purchase steps and your deal workspace collect:
When you upload a document, submit an application, enter your payoff details, approve or decline a change a dealership proposes, or send your deal, we record the time and the IP address you sent it from. The dealership you send your deal to sees them with each item, only to confirm it came from you and to help prevent fraud. No dealership sees them before you send your deal, and dealerships that receive a trade request never see them.
Payments. Membership payments are made on a secure checkout page from our payment processor, Stripe, which opens from your account (or, if online payment is ever unavailable, through a secure payment link we email you), and deposits are paid to the dealership through its own payment page. Card numbers never pass through our websites and are never stored by us. We keep what Stripe reports back about a payment: its amount, date, status, and reference number.
The dealership you choose is the only store that receives your details, and only once your deal is sent to it:
We use these providers to run the site. Each processes information only to provide its service to us:
Mobile notaries and vehicle transporters work for the dealership, not for us.
Browser storage. Your browser keeps your deal profile, your signed-in session, your trade-in numbers, and similar settings so pages remember them, plus a random visitor ID for our first-party record. A cookie remembers an access code if you used one during our preview.
Measurement tags on public pages. On public pages such as the home page, inventory, car pages, and guides, we use Google Analytics and the Meta pixel to measure visits and actions, and SparkBeacon to see traffic and search-engine visits. These providers set their own cookies and can recognize your browser on other sites. What Google and Meta receive is the page you are on and the kind of action, such as viewing a car, using the payment calculator, or sending a request, and for a car you view, the car and its price. Google receives the page's address without anything after the question mark. They never receive your ZIP code, credit score, down payment, term, payment or price range, trade-in value, name, email, phone, anything from an application, or anything else about you personally. When a page's address carries your ZIP code, credit score, down payment, or a payment, price, or trade-in number, no Google, Meta, or SparkBeacon tag loads on that page. The Meta pixel and SparkBeacon also stay off when the address carries lease terms, and on the page you open from any of these. The Meta pixel runs with its automatic reading of buttons and page details turned off. Videos on car pages play from YouTube's privacy-enhanced mode, and YouTube may set cookies when you play one.
Our first-party record. Instead of sending your numbers to Google or Meta, we keep them ourselves. When you use the payment calculator, the ZIP code box, the inventory filters, or the trade-in estimate, we record what you chose (such as your ZIP code, credit score, down payment, term, payment or price range, and trade-in estimate) in our own database, with the page you were on (without anything after the question mark), your browser's random visitor ID, your account if you are signed in, and the time. We do not record your IP address with it. We use it to understand what shoppers look for and to improve our pricing and the site. It is never sold or shared with Google, Meta, a dealership, or anyone else, and we delete it after 24 months.
Never on private pages. No measurement tag or SparkBeacon script loads on the purchase steps and credit application, a co-applicant's own application, your deal workspace, agreement signing, your account, the dealer and staff portals, or any page opened from a private link. Those pages also tell your browser not to pass their address to the next page you visit.
Global Privacy Control. If your browser sends a Global Privacy Control signal, the site loads no Google, Meta, or SparkBeacon tag at all. Our first-party record stays with us and is never shared, so it still keeps the numbers you set.
Because the site collects credit applications, federal law (the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act) governs the financial information in them. We collect it from you to send it to the dealership you choose and the lenders it works with. We share it only with that dealership, which shares it with the lenders it works with, and with the service providers that store and process it for us. We do not share it with anyone for their own marketing, so there is nothing you need to opt out of. We protect it as described in section 9.
We do not sell your personal information, and we do not let dealerships or service providers use it for their own marketing. Some state laws treat measurement tags from advertising companies, such as the Meta pixel and Google Analytics, as "sharing" for targeted advertising. You can opt out with Global Privacy Control, which the site honors automatically, or by asking us (section 11).
We keep payment records as long as tax and accounting law requires. We keep your account while it is open, and your deal records, including applications and documents, for as long as we need them to complete your purchase, answer questions or disputes, and meet our legal and record-keeping obligations. Credit applications follow a fixed schedule: one sent to a dealership, with your signed authorization, is kept 25 months from the day your deal was sent and then deleted; one never sent is deleted 90 days after you submit it; and a co-applicant's application that is withdrawn, removed, or replaced is deleted 30 days later. We keep only a dated note that an application existed, unless the law or an open dispute requires us to hold it longer. We keep each passkey's public key and your backup phone while your account is open, until you remove them. A security code is stored only in scrambled form, and it stops working once it is used or ten minutes after it is sent. We delete our first-party record of the numbers you set after 24 months, and each chat conversation 24 months after its last message. Before a chat message is stored, we remove social security numbers, card numbers, bank account numbers, dates of birth, and driver's license numbers from it. If you ask us to delete your information, we delete your chat conversations too, which removes them from the dealership's portal as well. Once your information is with a dealership or a lender, its own rules apply to its copy. You can ask us to delete your information at any time (section 11).
Credit applications are encrypted (AES-256) before they are stored, with your social security number, date of birth, and license number sealed under a separate key. Documents are kept in private, encrypted storage. Every opening of a credit application or document is logged. You sign in to your account with a one-time code sent to your email. Before you add documents or credit details to a deal, or choose a membership, you confirm it is you with a passkey, using Face ID, Touch ID, or your device's screen lock. Your device checks your face, fingerprint, or screen lock itself: nothing biometric reaches us, and we keep only each passkey's public key. An emailed code alone never unlocks those steps or adds a passkey. If you lose the device your passkey is on, you can set up a new one with a code sent to your email and a security code texted to the backup phone you added; without a backup phone, a person on our team confirms it is you, on a video call or by matching your license to your deal, and keeps a note that the check was done; you then set up a new passkey with a fresh code sent to your email. We email you whenever a passkey or a backup phone is added to your account. Our staff, dealership administrators, and every dealership user who can open documents or credit applications add a second factor, and access is limited by role. No system is perfectly secure; if a breach affects your information, we will tell you as the law requires.
The site is for people 18 and older. We do not knowingly collect information from children.
If you use the dealer portal or the staff portal, we collect your name, work email, phone, role, sign-in activity, and the actions you take, including each time you open a shopper's document or application and the messages you write in a shopper's chat, to run the portal and keep it secure. Your first name and your dealership's name are shown to the shopper with each message you write. If your dealership pays our invoices online, its billing contact's name and email go to Stripe, which sends the invoice and collects the payment.
We may update this Policy. The effective date above shows the latest version.
The Broker Black LLC, doing business as The Model Black. Privacy questions and requests: support@themodelblack.com.