DealerPulse Australia Pty Ltd (ACN 000 000 000) ("DealerPulse", "we", "us", "our") operates the DealerPulse platform at dealerpulse.com.au — an independent Australian car dealership review and information service.
We are subject to the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) ("Privacy Act") and the Australian Privacy Principles ("APPs") contained in Schedule 1 of that Act. This Privacy Policy sets out how we manage personal information in compliance with our obligations under the Privacy Act.
Our Privacy Officer can be contacted at the details in Section 15 below.
The types of personal information we may collect include:
We only collect sensitive information (such as health information) where you choose to include it voluntarily in a review. We encourage you not to include sensitive information in publicly visible reviews.
We collect personal information:
Where it is lawful and practicable to do so, you may interact with us anonymously or using a pseudonym (for example, by posting a review under a first name and initial). However, we require a valid email address to verify all reviews before publication.
We collect and use personal information for the following primary purposes:
| Purpose | Lawful basis |
|---|---|
| To receive, verify and publish your review | Performance of our service; your consent |
| To operate and maintain dealer accounts and subscriptions | Performance of contract with the dealer |
| To process payments from dealers | Performance of contract; legal obligation |
| To send transactional emails (review confirmation, account notices) | Performance of contract; legitimate interests |
| To send marketing communications where you have opted in | Your consent (you may withdraw at any time) |
| To respond to enquiries and provide customer support | Legitimate interests; performance of contract |
| To detect and prevent fraud, abuse, and fake reviews | Legitimate interests; legal obligation |
| To improve our platform and services | Legitimate interests |
| To comply with applicable laws and regulations | Legal obligation |
| To produce aggregated, de-identified industry reports and analytics | Legitimate interests (non-identifiable data only) |
We will not use your personal information for a purpose other than those described above without your consent, unless required or authorised by law.
We may disclose your personal information to:
We do not sell your personal information to third parties. Where we share aggregated, de-identified automotive industry data with commercial partners (such as OEMs, insurers, or market research firms), this data cannot be used to identify you personally.
Some of our service providers are located outside Australia, including in the United States and European Union. By using our platform, you consent to your personal information being transferred to, stored in, or processed in these countries.
Where we transfer personal information overseas, we take reasonable steps to ensure the overseas recipient does not breach the APPs in relation to that information, including by:
Under APP 8.1, before disclosing personal information to an overseas recipient, we take reasonable steps to ensure that the recipient does not breach the APPs. You should be aware that where we are unable to ensure this, we may still be accountable under the Privacy Act for the overseas recipient's handling of your information.
We may use your personal information to send you marketing communications about DealerPulse services, automotive news, and relevant dealer updates — but only where you have opted in by ticking the marketing consent checkbox when submitting a review or creating an account.
Every marketing email we send will include a clear and functional unsubscribe link. You may also:
We will action opt-out requests within 5 business days, in compliance with the Spam Act 2003 (Cth) and the Do Not Call Register Act 2006 (Cth).
We do not share your opted-in contact details with third parties for their own marketing purposes without your express consent.
We take reasonable steps to protect personal information from misuse, interference, loss, unauthorised access, modification, or disclosure. Our security measures include:
No method of transmission over the internet is 100% secure. While we strive to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee absolute security. If you believe your information has been compromised, please contact us immediately at privacy@dealerpulse.com.au.
In the event of a data breach that is likely to result in serious harm, we will notify the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) and affected individuals as required under the Notifiable Data Breaches (NDB) scheme in Part IIIC of the Privacy Act.
We retain personal information for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, and as required by law.
| Data type | Retention period |
|---|---|
| Reviewer information and reviews | 7 years from submission (or until deletion request) |
| Dealer account information | Duration of subscription + 7 years (for tax and legal obligations) |
| Financial and billing records | 7 years (required by Australian taxation law) |
| Marketing opt-in records | Duration of consent + 3 years (to demonstrate compliance) |
| Server logs and analytics | Up to 26 months |
| Support correspondence | 3 years |
When information is no longer required, we will take reasonable steps to destroy or permanently de-identify it.
Under the Australian Privacy Principles, you have the following rights in relation to your personal information:
You may request access to the personal information we hold about you. We will respond within 30 days. We may charge a reasonable fee to cover our costs of providing access, but will not charge for the request itself.
If you believe personal information we hold about you is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading, you may request correction. We will take reasonable steps to correct it within 30 days.
You may request deletion of your personal information. We will comply unless retention is required by law or for a legitimate business purpose. Note that published reviews may be de-identified rather than deleted, to preserve the integrity of the platform.
Where we process your information based on consent (e.g. marketing), you may withdraw consent at any time. This will not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out prior to withdrawal.
See Section 13 below.
To exercise any of these rights, contact our Privacy Officer at privacy@dealerpulse.com.au. We may require you to verify your identity before actioning a request.
Our platform is not directed at children under 15 years of age. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 15. If you believe we have inadvertently collected information from a child under 15, please contact us and we will delete it promptly.
Users aged 15–17 should obtain parental or guardian consent before submitting personal information to our platform.
If you have a complaint about how we have handled your personal information, please contact our Privacy Officer in the first instance (see Section 15). We will acknowledge your complaint within 5 business days and aim to resolve it within 30 days.
If you are not satisfied with our response, you may lodge a complaint with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC):
If your complaint relates to a dealer's handling of your information via our platform, the dealer is a separate data controller and you should contact them directly. We will assist where we can.
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, technology, legal requirements, or other factors. When we make material changes, we will:
We encourage you to review this policy periodically. Continued use of our platform after the effective date of any change constitutes your acceptance of the updated policy.
Previous versions of this policy are available on request.
DealerPulse Australia Pty Ltd
ABN: 00 000 000 000
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Email: privacy@dealerpulse.com.au
Response time: We aim to respond to all privacy enquiries within 5 business days.