Privacy Policy

We collect the information reasonably necessary to operate Benchi and your negotiations.

Account information

When you create or use an account, we may collect:

• your email address;
• your name, if provided by you or your sign-in provider; and
• information needed to authenticate and maintain your session.

If you sign in through a third-party provider such as Google, we receive the account information that provider makes available to us based on the permissions shown to you.

Your negotiation brief

When you ask Benchi to negotiate a lease, we collect the information you provide about what you are shopping for, which may include:

• vehicle make, model, trim, configuration, or preferences;
• ZIP code;
• lease term and annual mileage;
• the credit band you select;
• target monthly payment or budget;
• preferred amount due at signing;
• trade-in information;
• information about an existing vehicle or lease;
• incentive eligibility information;
• timing and other shopping preferences; and
• information you provide in free-text fields.

Benchi does not pull your credit report or obtain your credit score as part of the standard negotiation process. When we ask about credit, you select the credit range or category that best describes you.

Benchi also does not need your device’s precise GPS location to find dealerships. Your ZIP code or another location you provide is sufficient.

Your authorizations

Before Benchi begins a negotiation, we keep a record of the authorizations you provide.

That record may include:

• the exact authorization language shown to you;
• whether and when you agreed;
• the version of the applicable Terms of Use;
• the IP address reported by your connection; and
• basic browser or device information reported at that time.

We keep this information so that both you and Benchi have a record of what was authorized, including if there is later a question about a negotiation or payment.

Payment information

Payments are processed by Stripe.

Your full card number and card security code are submitted directly to Stripe and do not pass through or get stored on Benchi’s systems.

Benchi may receive and store limited payment information from Stripe, such as:

• a Stripe customer or payment-method identifier;
• card brand; and
• the last four digits of the card.

We use this information to process authorized charges and show you which payment method was used.

Dealership correspondence

We collect and store communications associated with your negotiation, including:

• emails Alex sends to dealerships;
• dealership replies;
• follow-up negotiations;
• dealership contact information;
• offers and quote details; and
• documents or images attached by dealerships, such as lease worksheets.

These communications may be read and processed automatically using AI.

Technical information

When you use Benchi, our systems and hosting providers may automatically generate ordinary technical information needed to operate and secure the Service, including:

• IP address;
• request timestamps;
• browser and device information;
• session information;
• error information; and
• server and security logs.

We do not use this information to build advertising profiles.

Benchi does not operate an advertising business.

We do not:

• sell your personal information;
• rent your personal information;
• share your personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising;
• use advertising networks to track you across websites;
• use third-party advertising pixels;
• use session-recording or replay software; or
• use your precise device GPS location as part of the standard Service.

We also do not provide dealerships with your identity simply because you started a negotiation.

This is an important part of how Benchi works.

Before you select an offer

Benchi generally keeps your identity private from the dealerships it contacts.

Alex tells dealerships that it is negotiating on behalf of a client and provides the information reasonably necessary to obtain an accurate lease quote, such as:

• the vehicle being requested;
• lease term;
• annual mileage;
• ZIP code or relevant market;
• credit band;
• amount due at signing preference;
• applicable incentive eligibility; and
• other terms that materially affect the quote.

Your name and personal email address are not included in Alex’s ordinary negotiation correspondence.

Free-text information

Information you type into a free-text field is not automatically forwarded verbatim to dealerships.

Benchi may use AI and other logic to identify information that affects the negotiation, restate that information in appropriate negotiation language, and remove personal contact information before including relevant details in dealership communications.

For example, if you type your phone number into a free-text field, Benchi does not send that phone number to dealerships merely because it appeared there.

When you select an offer

If you choose to proceed with an offer, Benchi may provide the selected dealership with the contact information reasonably necessary to introduce you and allow you to complete the transaction.

That may include your:

• name;
• email address; and
• other contact information you have provided and authorized us to share for the handoff.

This disclosure is intentional: after you choose an offer, you and the dealership need to communicate directly to complete the lease.

Dealerships that you do not select do not receive your identity through this handoff process.

If you choose to receive copies of dealership emails

If the Service gives you the option to receive copies of dealership correspondence, Benchi may send those copies in a way designed not to disclose your personal email address to the dealership, such as through blind-copy or separate notification mechanisms.

We use personal information to provide and operate Benchi.

Run your negotiation

This includes:

• understanding what vehicle you want;
• searching available inventory;
• identifying dealerships;
• finding appropriate dealership contacts;
• contacting dealerships;
• negotiating;
• reading and interpreting replies and attachments;
• comparing offers;
• identifying missing or inconsistent information;
• ranking offers; and
• presenting results to you.

Process payments

We use payment-related information to:

• maintain the payment authorization associated with a negotiation;
• charge an earned success fee;
• identify the payment method used;
• handle failed payments; and
• investigate or respond to billing disputes.

Maintain authorization and transaction records

We maintain records of negotiations, authorizations, offers, and payments for purposes such as:

• customer support;
• resolving disputes;
• responding to payment disputes or chargebacks;
• enforcing our Terms;
• maintaining business and accounting records; and
• complying with legal obligations.

Operate and protect Benchi

We may use information to:

• authenticate users;
• prevent fraud and abuse;
• investigate suspicious activity;
• prevent duplicate processing;
• maintain dealership opt-outs;
• troubleshoot errors;
• protect our systems; and
• monitor the reliability of the Service.

Improve Benchi

We may use negotiation activity and outcomes to evaluate and improve how Benchi works, including improving:

• negotiation strategies;
• prompts and instructions;
• offer extraction;
• ranking logic;
• fraud and abuse detection;
• dealership-contact quality; and
• product reliability.

We do not sell this information or use it to create advertising profiles.

Artificial intelligence is central to how Benchi provides the Service.

AI systems may process:

• your negotiation brief;
• information relevant to your requested vehicle;
• dealership emails;
• dealership attachments;
• lease terms;
• offers; and
• the history of an active negotiation.

AI may be used to:

• understand your request;
• draft dealership communications;
• interpret dealership responses;
• extract numbers from quotes and worksheets;
• determine what information is missing;
• compare offers;
• decide what negotiation step to take next; and
• summarize results for you.

AI systems can make mistakes. You should review material offer information before relying on it and review final dealership paperwork before signing.

Benchi uses service providers to perform specific functions on our behalf.

We provide each service provider with information reasonably necessary for its function.

Our current key providers include:

Anthropic

Benchi uses Anthropic’s Claude models for AI processing involved in negotiations.

Depending on the task, information processed may include portions of your negotiation brief, dealership correspondence, offers, and related negotiation context.

Stripe

Stripe processes payments.

Your full payment-card details are provided directly to Stripe rather than to Benchi.

Google

Google may be used for:

• account sign-in when you choose Google as your sign-in provider; and
• converting a location such as your ZIP code into geographic coordinates that help us identify relevant dealerships.

For dealership-location searches, Benchi does not need to provide Google with your name or email address merely to geocode your ZIP code.

MarketCheck

Benchi may use MarketCheck to locate vehicle inventory.

Information sent may include vehicle criteria and the geographic area in which we are searching.

We do not need to provide your name or personal email address to MarketCheck for an inventory search.

Hunter

Benchi may use Hunter or similar business-contact services when we need to identify an appropriate publicly available dealership email address.

The request concerns the dealership, not your personal identity.

Amazon Web Services

Benchi uses Amazon Web Services for infrastructure that may include:

• application hosting;
• data storage;
• databases;
• security;
• logging; and
• sending and receiving Alex’s dealership email.

Vercel

Benchi uses Vercel to host and deliver portions of the Benchi website and application.

Other providers

As Benchi evolves, we may replace a provider or use additional service providers for substantially similar infrastructure, security, communications, data, or operational purposes.

We will update this Privacy Policy if a change materially affects how your personal information is processed.

In addition to the service providers and dealership disclosures described above, we may disclose information when reasonably necessary:

• to comply with applicable law, regulation, subpoena, court order, or other lawful process;
• to investigate fraud, abuse, security incidents, or unlawful activity;
• to protect the rights, property, security, or safety of Benchi, our users, dealerships, or others;
• to establish, exercise, or defend legal claims; or
• as part of a merger, acquisition, financing, reorganization, bankruptcy, sale of assets, or similar business transaction.

If ownership of Benchi changes, information may transfer as part of that transaction subject to applicable law and the commitments in effect at the time.

Benchi itself uses a first-party session cookie to keep you signed in.

The current Benchi session cookie is named:

benchi_session

It is designed to be:

• HttpOnly, which prevents ordinary browser scripts from reading it;
• Secure, so it is transmitted only over encrypted HTTPS connections; and
• limited to the appropriate Benchi domain.

A session may remain valid for up to 30 days, subject to earlier expiration, sign-out, or revocation.

Your browser may also store or cache public vehicle-taxonomy information, such as makes and models, so forms can load more quickly. That catalog information is not personal information about you.

Third-party services you interact with, such as Google during sign-in or Stripe during payment, may use their own cookies or similar technologies on pages or services they operate. Those technologies are controlled by those providers and are subject to their respective privacy practices.

Benchi does not use advertising cookies.

Benchi currently does not use third-party behavioral analytics, advertising pixels, advertising networks, or session-replay tools to monitor how users interact with the Service.

Ordinary application, infrastructure, performance, error, and security logs are not considered advertising analytics and may still be collected as described above.

Because Benchi does not sell personal information or use it for targeted advertising, we do not currently offer a separate “Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information” mechanism.

Where applicable law requires us to recognize a legally valid universal privacy or opt-out signal, we will honor that requirement for processing to which the signal applies.

We keep different categories of information for different periods based on why the information exists.

Sessions

Sign-in sessions generally expire after 30 days and may expire sooner if you sign out, revoke the session, or we terminate it for security reasons.

Email-processing records

Short-lived technical records used to prevent an incoming dealership message from being processed more than once may generally be retained for approximately 14 days.

Drafts and temporary processing data

Temporary negotiation plans, intermediate AI output, caches, previews, and similar scratch data may exist for periods ranging from several hours to a few days and may be deleted automatically.

Negotiations and transaction records

Records associated with a completed or stopped negotiation may include:

• your negotiation brief;
• dealership correspondence;
• offers;
• attachments;
• payment records;
• the Terms version associated with the negotiation; and
• your authorization record.

We generally retain transaction and authorization records for up to seven years after the negotiation closes, where reasonably necessary for accounting, legal, fraud-prevention, dispute-resolution, or recordkeeping purposes.

Some underlying information may be deleted earlier when it is no longer reasonably necessary for those purposes.

We may retain information longer when required by law, necessary to resolve an active dispute, or necessary to establish, exercise, or defend legal claims.

Do-not-contact records

If a dealership or other recipient asks Benchi not to contact them again, we may retain the minimum information necessary to honor that request indefinitely.

We intentionally retain that information because deleting it could result in contacting someone who has already asked us not to.

Deletion requests

Even when you request deletion, we may retain limited information where reasonably necessary to:

• document that we honored your request;
• prevent deleted information from being reintroduced;
• maintain a dealership opt-out;
• maintain the authorization supporting a payment;
• prevent fraud or abuse;
• comply with law; or
• establish, exercise, or defend legal claims.

Benchi uses administrative and technical safeguards designed to protect personal information.

Our safeguards may include:

• encryption of stored data;
• encryption of network traffic using HTTPS/TLS;
• access controls;
• restricted access to production information;
• security logging; and
• hashed session tokens.

Session tokens are designed to be stored in hashed form rather than as reusable plaintext credentials.

Full payment-card numbers are handled by Stripe rather than stored by Benchi.

No Internet service or storage system can guarantee absolute security, and we do not claim that Benchi is immune from every possible security incident.

You can contact us to ask:

• what personal information we hold about you;
• for a copy of personal information associated with you;
• to correct inaccurate information;
• to delete personal information; or
• questions about how your information has been used or disclosed.

Send privacy requests to support@benchi.io.

We may need to verify that the request came from you before providing, changing, or deleting information.

We will not require you to create a new Benchi account solely to make a privacy request.

Some information may not be deletable for the reasons explained in the retention section above.

Depending on where you live and whether an applicable privacy law covers Benchi, you may have additional legal rights concerning your personal information.

These rights may include the right to:

• confirm whether we process personal information about you;
• access that information;
• correct inaccurate information;
• delete certain information;
• obtain a portable copy of certain information;
• opt out of the sale of personal information;
• opt out of targeted advertising; or
• opt out of certain forms of profiling that produce legal or similarly significant effects.

Benchi does not currently sell personal information or process it for cross-context behavioral or targeted advertising.

You may submit a privacy request by emailing support@benchi.io.

Please describe the right you want to exercise and provide enough information for us to identify your account. We may ask for information reasonably necessary to verify your identity.

Where applicable law establishes a response deadline, we will respond within that deadline.

Appeals

If applicable state privacy law gives you the right to appeal a decision we make about a privacy request, you may appeal by replying to our decision or emailing support@benchi.io with “Privacy Appeal” in the subject line.

We will review the appeal and respond within the period required by applicable law.

If applicable law requires us to provide information about how to contact a state regulator after an unsuccessful appeal, we will include that information in our response.

If you want Benchi to stop an active negotiation, contact:

support@benchi.io

Stopping a negotiation and deleting personal information are separate requests.

Stopping a negotiation prevents further negotiation activity to the extent reasonably possible. It does not necessarily require us to delete records that we have a legitimate reason or legal obligation to retain.

Benchi is intended for adults who are legally capable of entering into a vehicle lease.

The Service is not intended for anyone under 18, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from people under 18 through the Service.

If you believe someone under 18 has provided personal information to Benchi, contact support@benchi.io so that we can investigate and take appropriate action, including deletion where appropriate.

We may update this Privacy Policy as Benchi changes.

When we update it, we will change the “Last updated” date at the top.

If a change materially affects how we collect, use, or disclose personal information, we may also provide additional notice through the Service, by email, or through another appropriate method.

Questions, privacy requests, deletion requests, or concerns about this Privacy Policy can be sent to:

Benchi

support@benchi.io