New Service Hopes to Address the ‘CARFAX Issue’

Pete Tagliapietra said a new service his company, DataTouch, will soon give a collision repairer better control over who gets access to its estimate information – potentially putting an end to estimate resulting in entries on CARFAX or another vehicle history report (CRASH 5/2/22).

This article was originally written and posted by crashnetwork.com on July 11, 2022

Tagliapietra, the founder of NuGen IT who sold that company to OEConnection in 2020, said there are thousands of “data pumps” running on shop computer systems across the industry, scraping estimate data sometimes without a shop’s knowledge or consent. For a 1-time fee, DataTouch can perform an audit of a shop’s computer system, and identify what data pumps are operating on it. “They’re often hidden well enough that unless someone knows what they’re looking for, they’re not going to find them,” Tagliapietra said. The shop then has the option to subscribe to DataTouch’s monthly service, which enables the shop to administer by trading partner which portions of estimate data go to each partner. It also will assist in deleting data pumps that are obsolete or not approved by the shop. “A parts vendor doesn’t need your labor rate information or the customer or insurer name nor probably not even the entire VIN, yet they get all that,” Tagliapietra said. “A CSI provider doesn’t need anything other than the basic customer contact information, yet they get all the estimate line items and subtotals. A remote scanning company doesn’t need anything other than the complete VIN to pull the vehicle ADAS information. Too much of a shop’s information is going to too many third-parties – often without the shop’s knowledge or consent – and that information has significant value to those companies that can get it.” Complete estimate data can reveal a lot about a shop’s business, he said, from what DRP agreements it has, to the labor rates it charges different insurers and where it buys parts and at what price. That’s even aside from the customer’s personal identification information on the estimate, which a growing number of states have mandated businesses take adequate steps to protect. “If I owned a body shop, I wouldn’t want third-parties to know any of this – how I run business and who I do business with – and to be able to use it or sell it without my authorization and in ways that are clearly not in my best interest,” he said. “We can help a shop eliminate the possibility of trading partners sharing repair information to unauthorized entities, including vehicle history reporting companies.”