Inverness, Ill. — Open Secure Access (OSA), a coalition of companies that believe dealers should control access to the data they own and determine how it is used, has released the finalized version of the Automotive Retail Data Security Guidelines. The guidelines address the access and use of dealer data by dealer-authorized third parties. These guidelines include recommendations to establish the appropriate contractual, physical, electronic, and procedural controls and safeguards to protect against unwarranted disclosure and to enable secure access, transport, storage and use of dealer data. The guidelines can be found on the Open Secure Access Website at http://www.opensecureaccess.com/.

Dealers have the responsibility to protect the data stored in their systems. At the same time, it is critical that dealers are free to direct the use of their data and choose the most powerful tools and partners available to drive the profitability of their businesses. To help dealers make informed decisions about the security of their partners' solutions, OSA worked with a broad cross section of industry participants to create

Automotive Retail Data Security Guidelines and is working to create a certification program to validate adherence to these guidelines by third parties.

"It was very exciting to see such a broad cross section of automotive retail industry participants come together to create the data security guidelines," said Allan Stejskal, president of OSA. "Dealers, OEMs, dealer management system providers, industry trade groups, and retail system providers all participated in the process of drafting and reviewing the guidelines. This was truly an industry-wide effort."

The next step in the process is to develop a certification program using the guidelines as a foundation. OSA expects to have a program in place by early fall. Once in place dealers will have a standard to use to measure their third party provider's compliance with the data security guidelines.