Privacy policy

About this policy

This policy explains how Autohaus Australia Pty Ltd (ABN 54 618 813 737), trading as Sell Your Car Australia ("we", "us"), handles personal information. We are a licensed motor dealer (MD 077404) based at 923 Bourke St, Waterloo NSW 2017.

We handle personal information in line with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs). This policy covers information we collect through this website, through our ads on Facebook and Instagram, and by phone and email.

The short version

• We collect what we need to value and buy your car, and to contact you about it.
• We do not sell, rent or trade your personal information.
• We share it only where that is needed to complete a sale or run our business, for example with inspectors, transport companies, payment providers, your lender and the technology providers that run our systems, or where the law requires it. The full list is below.
• Our website uses the Meta Pixel and Google Ads conversion tracking to measure our advertising. You can opt out.
• You can ask to see or correct the information we hold about you at any time.

What we collect

When you ask for a valuation

Through the form on this website or a Meta lead ad form, we collect:

• your name
• your phone number
• your email address (optional on our website)
• your state and postcode
• the make, model, year and kilometres of your car
• the car's registration number (optional)
• whether there is finance owing on the car.

When we call you, we may also ask about the car's condition, history and features, and you may choose to send us photos of it.

If you sell your car to us

To complete the purchase, we also collect:

• your address and photo identification, so we can confirm who owns the car
• your bank account details, so we can pay the deposit and the balance
• your loan details, if the car is under finance, so we can pay out your lender
• vehicle documents, such as the registration papers and service logbook
• the details and signature in your sale agreement
• any other records that motor dealer and other laws require us to keep about the vehicles we buy and who we buy them from.

When you use our website

Like most websites, ours receives technical information such as your IP address, browser and device type, the pages you visit and the site you came from. It also records campaign details from the link you followed, such as UTM tags and the click identifiers Meta and Google add to ad links. If you submit the valuation form, this campaign information and your IP address are sent with your enquiry, so we can tell which ads work and filter out spam. See cookies, Meta Pixel and Google Ads below.

Sensitive information and anonymity

We do not ask for sensitive information, such as health information or racial or ethnic origin. Please leave it out of messages to us.

You can browse this website without telling us who you are. To value and buy your car, though, we need to know who you are and how to contact you.

How we collect it

We collect personal information directly from you:

• through the valuation form on this website
• through Meta lead ad forms on Facebook and Instagram. When you submit one, Meta passes the details you entered to us. Meta's own handling of your information is covered by Meta's privacy policy.
• by phone and email, and in the sale agreement if you sell to us.

With your agreement, we may also collect information from others, such as a payout figure from your lender. We may search public registers, such as the Personal Property Securities Register (PPSR), about the vehicle.

Why we use it

• to value your car and contact you about your enquiry, including calling you with an offer
• to complete the purchase if you accept: the sale agreement, deposit and balance payments, inspection, finance payout, transport and transfer of ownership
• to confirm identity and ownership, and to protect you and us against fraud
• to meet our legal obligations, including motor dealer, tax and record-keeping laws
• to run, secure and improve our website, and to measure which of our ads work.

We only use your information for these purposes, for a related purpose you would reasonably expect, or as the law allows. If we ever send you a marketing message, it will include a simple way to opt out, and we will stop when you ask.

Who we share it with

We do not sell, rent or trade your personal information, and we do not give it to other businesses to use for their own marketing.

Buying your car involves other people. To do that, we may disclose personal information to:

• vehicle inspectors who check the car before the balance is paid
• transport companies that collect the car, which receive your name, address, phone number and the car's details
• banks and payment providers, to pay you
• your lender, to arrange the payout of any finance owing on the car
• state and territory transport authorities, to transfer the registration
• dealerships we sell the car on to, which receive the car's documents, such as the service logbook
• the technology providers that run our business: website hosting and form processing, our customer relationship management (CRM) system, and our email and phone services
• Meta and Google, through the advertising tools described below
• our professional advisers, such as accountants and lawyers, and our insurers
• government agencies, courts and law enforcement, where the law requires or authorises it.

We share only what each of them needs to do their part.

Information sent overseas

Some of our technology providers, including Meta and Google, store or process information outside Australia, including in the United States. When we use providers overseas, we take reasonable steps to make sure they handle personal information in a way that is consistent with the APPs.

Cookies, Meta Pixel and Google Ads

Our website uses two advertising tools and a small amount of browser storage:

• Meta Pixel. Code from Meta Platforms that tells Meta when someone visits a page, taps our phone number or submits the valuation form. Meta uses it to measure how many enquiries our ads produce and to show our ads to people likely to be interested. If you are logged in to Facebook or Instagram, Meta may link this activity to your account.
• Google Ads conversion tracking. Code from Google that records when someone who clicked one of our ads goes on to call us or submit the form, so we can measure our ads.
• Campaign storage. When you arrive, we store the page you landed on and any campaign tags in the link (such as utm_source, fbclid or gclid) in your browser's session storage. It is cleared when you close the tab, and it is only sent to us if you submit the form.

The Meta and Google tools use cookies and similar technologies. When you submit the form, both record that an enquiry was made, and the Meta Pixel also receives the year, make and model of the car.

How to opt out

• Meta: review your ad preferences and Meta's privacy policy.
• Google: manage ad personalisation in My Ad Center, and read how Google uses information from sites that use its services.
• Industry opt-out: Your Online Choices lets you opt out of interest-based advertising from participating companies.
• Your browser: block or delete cookies in your browser settings, or use a content blocker. The valuation form still works without them.

Storage, security and retention

We store personal information in access-controlled electronic systems run by us and our technology providers and, where we hold paper records, at our office. We take reasonable steps to protect it from misuse, interference and loss, and from unauthorised access, change or disclosure. Access is limited to the people who need it to value and buy your car. Our website encrypts form submissions in transit (HTTPS).

We keep personal information for as long as we need it for the purposes above and to meet our legal record-keeping obligations. When we no longer need it, we take reasonable steps to destroy it or de-identify it.

If a data breach is likely to cause you serious harm, we will notify you and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) in line with the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme.

Access and correction

You can ask for access to the personal information we hold about you, and ask us to correct it if it is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading. There is no charge to make a request. Contact us using the details below; we may need to confirm your identity first. We will respond within a reasonable time, usually within 30 days. If we cannot give you access or make a correction, we will tell you why in writing and how to complain.

You can also ask us to stop contacting you at any time. If you decide not to sell, you can ask us to delete your enquiry, and we will, unless the law requires us to keep it.

Complaints

If you are concerned about how we have handled your personal information, please contact us first, in writing if you can. We will look into it and aim to respond within 30 days.

If you are not satisfied with our response, you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner:

• website: oaic.gov.au
• phone: 1300 363 992
• post: GPO Box 5288, Sydney NSW 2001.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time, for example when the law or the way we work changes. The current version is always on this page, with the date it was last updated.

Contact us

For privacy questions, requests and complaints: