Privacy Policy
Last updated: 17 September 2026
This policy explains what personal data PAOParts LLC collects through paoparts.com, why we collect it, how long we keep it and what rights you have over it. We only describe what this website actually does.
1. Who is responsible for your data
PAOParts LLC is the controller of the personal data described in this policy. We operate from two offices:
- United States: 522 W. Riverside Ave. Suite N, Spokane, WA 99201, United States
- Germany: Hammer Str. 19, 40219 Düsseldorf, Germany
For any question about this policy or about your data, write to info@paoparts.com. We handle privacy requests in writing so that we have a record of what was asked and what we answered.
2. What we collect, and why
2.1 Quote request (RFQ) form
The main reason we hold personal data is that you asked us for a quotation. When you submit the quote request form we receive:
| Data | Required? |
|---|---|
| Your name | Required |
| Your e-mail address | Required |
| Manufacturer part number(s) you are looking for | Required |
| Quantity | Required |
| Company name, country, city and state, postal code, delivery address | Optional |
| Telephone number | Optional — we reply by e-mail unless you ask otherwise |
| Free-text message | Optional |
| Attachments (up to 5 files: PDF, JPEG, PNG, WebP, GIF, CSV, Excel or Word; max. 8 MB each) | Optional |
We use this data for one purpose: to identify the part you need, to prepare a written quotation, and to answer your request. We do not sell it, rent it or use it to build advertising profiles.
2.2 Technical data recorded with your request
Together with the form submission we store your IP address, your browser user agent, the page you submitted from, the page you originally landed on, the referring website and any campaign parameters in the link you followed. We use this to detect automated spam submissions and to understand which pages generate genuine requests.
2.3 Server logs
Our web server keeps standard access logs (IP address, date and time, requested address, response code, user agent) for security, abuse prevention and troubleshooting.
3. Legal basis for processing
For visitors in the European Union and the United Kingdom, where the GDPR applies to us through our Düsseldorf office, we rely on the following legal bases:
- Steps taken at your request prior to entering into a contract (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR) — handling your quote request and sending you an offer. This is the basis for the RFQ form data.
- Our legitimate interests (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR) — keeping the website secure, preventing spam and fraudulent submissions, and keeping a record of business correspondence.
- Your consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR) — for the analytics and session-recording tools described in section 5. You may withdraw consent at any time; see section 5 for how.
- Legal obligation (Art. 6(1)(c) GDPR) — where commercial, tax or export-control rules require us to keep records of a transaction.
4. Who else sees your data
Your request is stored on our own server and forwarded to the internal sourcing system that our sales team works in, so that a colleague can prepare your offer. Beyond that, your data may be seen by:
- Our hosting and e-mail providers, which operate the server and deliver our replies to you.
- The analytics providers listed in section 5, in respect of website usage data only — never the contents of your quote request.
- Authorities, where we are legally required to disclose information.
Where a supplier needs to be asked about availability, we pass on the part number and quantity. We do not need to pass on your name or contact details to do that, and we do not do so unless you ask us to put you in direct contact.
Some of these providers are established in the United States. Where personal data is transferred outside the European Economic Area, the transfer is covered by the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses or by an adequacy decision.
5. Cookies and analytics
This website does not use advertising cookies and does not run a shopping cart or user account, so it sets no cookies of its own for those purposes. It does load three third-party measurement tools:
| Tool | What it does | Provider information |
|---|---|---|
| Google Analytics 4 | Counts visits and page views and shows us which pages and search terms bring visitors. | Google Privacy Policy |
| Microsoft Clarity | Produces heatmaps and records anonymised playbacks of page interaction so we can find broken layouts and confusing forms. | Microsoft Privacy Statement |
| Yandex Metrica | Provides traffic statistics, click maps and session replay (Webvisor). | Yandex Privacy Policy |
Microsoft Clarity and Yandex Webvisor reconstruct how a page was used. We run both with their default masking settings, which hide the contents of form fields, and we have not switched on any option that would record what you type.
You can stop all three at any time by blocking third-party scripts or cookies in your browser settings, by using your browser's "Do Not Track" or tracking-protection feature, or by installing the Google Analytics opt-out add-on. Blocking them does not affect your ability to browse the catalogue or send a quote request.
6. How long we keep it
- Quote requests and attachments: kept for as long as the enquiry is live and afterwards as part of our commercial correspondence, for up to 3 years from the last contact. Where a request leads to an order, the related records are kept for the retention period required by commercial and tax law (up to 10 years in Germany).
- Server access logs: up to 12 months.
- Analytics data: for the retention period configured inside each provider's own product. We do not keep a separate copy of it.
If you ask us to delete your data earlier, we do so unless we are legally obliged to keep it.
7. Your rights
Because we operate an office in Germany, visitors in the EU and the UK have the following rights under the GDPR. We extend the same handling to every enquirer, wherever they are:
- Access (Art. 15) — ask whether we hold data about you and receive a copy of it.
- Rectification (Art. 16) — have inaccurate or incomplete data corrected.
- Erasure (Art. 17) — ask us to delete your data, where no legal retention duty applies.
- Restriction (Art. 18) — ask us to hold your data without further processing while a dispute is resolved.
- Data portability (Art. 20) — receive the data you gave us in a structured, machine-readable format, or have it sent to another controller.
- Objection (Art. 21) — object to processing based on our legitimate interests.
- Withdraw consent (Art. 7(3)) — withdraw consent for analytics at any time, without affecting processing already carried out.
- Complain to a supervisory authority (Art. 77) — lodge a complaint with the data protection authority of your country. For our German office this is the Landesbeauftragte für Datenschutz und Informationsfreiheit Nordrhein-Westfalen in Düsseldorf.
To exercise any of these rights, write to info@paoparts.com from the e-mail address you used to contact us, or tell us which request the data relates to. We answer within one month. There is no charge, and we will not ask you for identity documents unless we genuinely cannot match the request to an enquiry.
8. Security
The site is served over HTTPS. Quote requests and uploaded files are stored on our server with access restricted to the sales team that needs them. Uploads are limited by file type and size and are stored outside the public web directory, so they are not reachable from the internet.
9. Children
This is a business-to-business supply website. It is not directed at children and we do not knowingly collect data from anyone under 16.
10. Automated decision-making
We do not carry out automated decision-making or profiling with legal or similarly significant effects. An automated check does screen submissions for spam; if a genuine request is caught by that check it still reaches a person, and you can always reach us directly by e-mail.
11. Changes to this policy
If we change how we handle personal data, we update this page and change the date at the top. Material changes affecting an open enquiry are communicated to you by e-mail.
12. Contact
PAOParts LLC
522 W. Riverside Ave. Suite N, Spokane, WA 99201, United States
Hammer Str. 19, 40219 Düsseldorf, Germany
E-mail: info@paoparts.com