Privacy

carsales respects the importance of your privacy and is bound by the Privacy Act (1988) (Cth) (“Privacy Act”) including the Australian Privacy Principles (“APPs”), and applicable privacy regulations. carsales is committed to protecting your privacy when managing your personal information and has policies and procedures to ensure that personal information is handled in accordance with the Privacy Act and the APPs.

Personal information collected by carsales will depend on the circumstances of collection and on the services that we are providing to you and may include (but is not limited to):

• identification details, which may include name, address, birth date and gender;
• account security questions and answers;
• for certain services, images of, or information from, verification documents such as your driver’s licence;
• contact information which may include email address and phone number;
• account profile picture;
• bank account and credit account details;
• user IDs and passwords;
• services provided to you, including saved items and searches;
• business information, such as ABN and licence number;
• information submitted in placing an advertisement, for example vehicle details, pricing, photos and videos;
• information submitted in applying for or requesting a quote for an advertised product such as a loan or insurance, which may include employment details, current living situation, current and previous addresses and residency status;
• your IP address, information about the devices on which you visit the carsales Network, and your activities on those devices or sites (including browser and operating system, time, date, referral information, location, carrier and site interactions);
• third party account details (for example, where you sign in through a social network, we will collect limited personal information from that social network site, including your username, site ID and email address);
• your public social profile information (e.g. name, profile picture);
• records and content of communications with carsales or any other person including records and content using communications services facilitated by carsales (e.g. chat functions, enquiry forms, phone services and online forums);
• if you participate in any surveys we, or a third party service provider acting on our behalf, may conduct from time to time, personal information relating to your survey responses;
• if you are applying for employment with us, personal information that is relevant to such employment including academic and employment history;
• information obtained as a result of your use of our mobile websites or applications such as geo-locations and unique device identifiers;
• if you are using an Android device, advertising-specific device identifiers; and
• if you are using an Apple device, your Advertising Identifier.

carsales does not typically collect sensitive information as defined in the Privacy Act, such as racial or ethnicity information, political opinions or associations, criminal records (except where provided by law enforcement authorities) or health information. However, carsales may collect sensitive information about you:

• where carsales is legally required to do so in order to provide a product or service to you (e.g. if you complete the identity document check process to use the ‘pay through carsales’ service, carsales may be legally obliged to check whether you are a politically exposed person, which may involve collecting information about your political associations); and
• in other situations where we obtain your express consent (e.g. in the course of considering an application for employment).

carsales collects personal information in a number of ways, including:

• directly from you when you provide information to carsales in person, by phone or in writing (whether electronic or otherwise), for example when you create an advertisement on one of our websites; when you enquire about an item on one of our websites; when you subscribe to a newsletter or any alerts; when you purchase goods or services from carsales or a third party via the carsales Network; when you enter a competition or promotion conducted by carsales; or in a contract with your business to provide you with our services;
• directly from you when you communicate with carsales or any other person using carsales’ facilitated communications services;
• from third parties such as dealers, resellers of carsales’ services, retailers and service providers to carsales;
• from operators of linked or served websites, applications and advertising on the carsales Network;
• from social networks where you choose to share that information when creating an account;
• from third party data providers and other entities where you have directed or otherwise consented to the collecting entity (or a service provider on its behalf) sending us data;
• through use of carsales’ proprietary software in which personal information is stored;
• from organisations identified or described under the heading ‘How is personal information shared’, which include carsales’ global group of companies, our service providers and other third parties so that we may provide an enhanced and more relevant user experience, service or product to you.

carsales may also collect personal information about you if you are a CAR Group Limited shareholder. This information may be collected from you directly or from third parties such as CAR Group Limited’s share registry.

carsales will only use the personal information it collects for purposes authorised by law. This includes the purpose for which you provided it, the purposes disclosed in this privacy policy, any related secondary purposes which you would reasonably expect, and for any other purpose you have consented to.

More specifically, your personal information may be used for purposes including:

• to maintain appropriate business records or manage our relationship with you;
• to research, develop and provide carsales’ products and services and by carsales’ outsourced service providers to provide and improve their services;
• to facilitate transactions between you and third party sellers, including third party retailers;
• to verify your identity and bank account details in order to provide carsales’ products and services to you;
• to respond to an enquiry or provide services, products or assistance that you request from us;
• to enhance user experience, for example to pre-populate, customise, and provide shortcuts on our websites;
• to conduct surveys, such as to determine use and satisfaction with carsales Network services or to gauge industry trends;
• to generate statistics in relation to the carsales Network;
• for the purposes of feedback, reviews and ratings;
• to promote and market special offers and other services to you, and to provide you with information that may be of interest to you. If you do not want to receive these communications, please update your preferences in the Member Preferences Centre if you have a carsales account, let us know by clicking here or use the unsubscribe link in any promotional email or SMS;
• for purposes connected with the operation of the carsales Network;
• for staff training and quality assurance;
• to aggregate personal information with our third party partners for the purpose of personalising the advertising you receive from us and them; and
• to conduct competitions and trade promotions, including contacting the winner(s) and publishing winner names.

carsales may disclose personal information to individuals and organisations other than carsales in accordance with the terms of this privacy policy and where such disclosure is authorised by law. The organisations to which we may disclose personal information include:

• carsales’ global group of companies and their personnel;
• verification of identity service providers;
• the public if you advertise with carsales or use publicly available communications services facilitated by carsales;
• third party sellers to facilitate transactions between you and these third party sellers. Third party sellers may in turn share your information with parties who provide services to them (such as courier or delivery service providers) in order to provide goods and services to you;
• individuals and organisations that advertise with carsales if you submit an enquiry or seek or acquire certain services through carsales - or a third party supplier working with that advertiser to provide those services. Depending on your enquiry or the services being sought or acquired, these may include:
  • private advertisers;
  • licensed car dealers;
  • original equipment manufacturers;
  • car brokers;
  • operators of third party websites, co-branded web sites and applications and advertising served to the carsales Network by third parties;
  • financial service providers;
  • insurance service providers;
  • vehicle inspection service providers;
  • transportation service providers;
  • payment service providers; and
  • outsourced service providers who assist any of the above persons to provide services.
  If you do not want carsales to disclose your personal information to these individuals and organisations, you should not submit an enquiry or acquire those services.
• outsourced service providers who assist carsales to provide its services including:
  • information technology providers;
  • marketing and market research advisers and survey providers;
  • professional advisers;
  • data service providers, who may also disclose your personal information to our third party partners for the purpose of personalising the advertising you receive from us and them;
  • competition and trade promotion providers, and the issuers of gifts; and
  • payment platforms.
• entities to whom you request we send your information;
• resellers of carsales services;
• organisations involved in a sale/transfer of a carsales company or any of its assets, business or shares;
• to assist government or regulatory authorities or police; and
• as we are required by law, for example pursuant to a subpoena or in accordance with unclaimed money legislation.

Where carsales provides information to a third party at your request (for example where you submit an enquiry), you acknowledge that your information will be handled by that third party in accordance with its privacy policy and not in accordance with this privacy policy.

Where carsales discloses your personal information to a data service provider, carsales will take all reasonable steps to ensure those data service providers comply at all times with the Privacy Act and the APPs, or equivalent laws.

carsales strives to maintain accurate and up-to-date records. To facilitate this, please let us know if any of your details change. carsales may verify the accuracy of personal information it holds against information about you held by a third party. You may update certain personal information via the Member Preferences Centre (if you have a carsales account) or by clicking here to contact us by email.

carsales may destroy or de-identify personal information once the information is no longer deemed required by the business.

You generally have a right to access your personal information, subject to a few exceptions provided by law. If you wish to access your personal information please click here. Please remember to provide as much detail as you can as this will help us to find the information. Generally, there will be no charge for this service, however you may be required to verify your identity before any information is released to you. Depending on the volume, type or method of access to the information you request, carsales may charge you some fees, however, these will not be excessive, will be notified in advance, and will not apply to the making of the request. Please note that depending on the volume or nature of the information required, it may take a number of days to fulfil the request.

carsales takes reasonable steps to protect personal information collected from misuse, loss, unauthorised access, modifications or disclosure. Your personal information may be stored in hard copy documents, but is generally stored electronically on the carsales Network systems.

Some of carsales’ service providers are located outside Australia, including in the United States of America, Chile, Mexico, India, South Korea, Brazil, Ireland and Singapore. It may be necessary to disclose your personal information to those service providers for some of the purposes listed above. carsales uses reasonable endeavours to ensure that overseas service providers comply with the Privacy Act and APPs. By providing carsales with your personal information, you consent to the disclosure and transfer of your personal information outside Australia as set out in this privacy policy.

You may deal with carsales anonymously by using a pseudonym, unless carsales is reasonably required or authorised by law to deal only with an identified person, or it is reasonably impracticable for us to respond to you if you have not identified yourself.

If you choose not to provide personal information when requested, carsales may not reasonably be able to provide you with the full range of carsales services.

• You can opt out of the use of your personal information for personalised advertising through third party partners by letting us know here.
• You can opt-out of location tracking from your mobile device by changing the location settings on your mobile device. This may limit your ability to use certain features of our services. For more information, contact your device manufacturer.
  • Android: https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/6179507?hl=en
  • Apple: https://support.apple.com/en-au/HT207092
• You can opt-out of device ad tracking or reset the advertising-specific device identifiers to disassociate the device from remarketing data that was collected and passed before the opt-out. For more information, please contact your device manufacturer.
  • Android: https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/6048248?hl=en
  • Apple: https://support.apple.com/en-au/guide/iphone/iphf60a6a256/io
• Further opt outs for cookie and ID-based marketing can be found in our Cookie Policy.

When accessing the carsales Network from a mobile device, we may request permission to collect your location from your device via the permission system used by your mobile operating system. If you consent to the collection of this information, you can later disable it by changing the location settings on your mobile device. However, this may limit your ability to use certain features of our services.

carsales may utilise Google Maps features and content to collect location and other information. Your use of such Google Map features and content is subject to the Google Maps/Google Earth Additional Terms of Service and the Google Privacy Policy.

Please read our separate Cookie Policy here.

carsales uses Google Analytics to analyse website activity. Details of how Google collects and uses data is available at How Google uses data when you use our partners' sites or apps.

If you have a problem, complaint, want to change your personal information or just wish to enquire about privacy please contact us.

Phone: +61 (03) 9093 8600 (Business Hours AEST/AEDT)

Contact: Nicole Birman

Email: Click here to contact us by email

You can also request deletion or de-identification of your personal information here. Please note that carsales is permitted to retain certain personal information for the purposes notified to you under this policy, including for example to maintain appropriate business records.

carsales treats complaints relating to privacy extremely seriously. If you submit a concern or complaint, we will endeavour to deal with it comprehensively and reach an outcome with which all parties are satisfied. If you are not satisfied with our response to your complaint (after providing us with a reasonable time to respond) or would like further information about privacy in Australia, then we suggest you visit the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner’s website.

This policy may change over time. All changes will be published on this website and will only apply to personal information that has been collected after the date you accept the new privacy policy. If the changes will impact personal information collected prior to the date the changes are made then we will provide 30 days’ written notice to you of the relevant changes, where reasonably possible.

Version 14.0 (August 2024)