Privacy

Privacy Policy

Autoexpert Consulting Group Pty Ltd trading as “Mechanic Community Australia”(ABN 18 166 747 726) and its related bodies corporate (we, our or us) are committed to protecting your privacy in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Act), the Australian Privacy Principals (APP).

This policy details how we collect, disclose and handle your personal and credit information. By providing us with personal information, you agree to the terms of this policy and any privacy notice and privacy consent provided at the point of collection.

This policy applies to persons using our mechanic community services (Mechanic Community), persons using our mechanic directory services to locate vehicle service and/or repair suppliers, and persons using this website.

Personal information

Personal information is defined under the Act as information or an opinion about an identified individual or an individual who is reasonably identifiable, whether the information or opinion is true or not and whether recorded in a material form or not. Sensitive information is a type of personal information that includes health information, information or an opinion which indicates racial or ethnic origin, membership of a trade union, profession or trade association, political or philosophical opinions, or criminal record.

For the purpose of this policy, personal information may include, but is not limited to the following:

name, address and contact details;
previous addresses;
business information;
profession, position and skills;
current and last known employer, and employment history
information in identification documents (e.g. driver’s licence);
date of birth and gender;
bank account details;
transaction history, for example the purchase and payment of goods and/or services;
your use of the website and our services;
vehicle details, including vehicle registration;
feedback and responses to surveys and/or promotions;
changes to content or preferences; and
information provided on our website, or during communication with us or with a third party through our website.

Collecting, holding and using information

Personal information may be collected from you directly whenever it is reasonable and practical to do so. There are a number of ways that we may collect personal and credit information, including:

by email, telephone or other communication;
in person;
in writing;
when you visit our website;
when you submit an application, submit an online vehicle service and/or repair contact form to a third party supplier through this website, or otherwise use our services;
in the course of supplying goods or services to you; or
when you contribute to any forum, to a chat room, to any other elements of this website that permits user generated content, or provide a review or testimonial.

If you provide us with personal information about another person, you must only do so with their consent and you warrant that the other person is aware of this policy and any applicable privacy notice or privacy consent.

We collect, hold and use personal information so that we can:

identify you and conduct necessary checks;
sell and/or deliver our goods or services to you;
issue, manage and administer goods or services provided to you;
improve our goods or services;
facilitate searches to locate vehicle service and/or repair suppliers;
facilitate vehicle type identification;
manage your marketing preferences;
send to you or provide you with marketing material, which may include third party goods and/or services, including advertisements, polls, surveys, competitions and promotions;
conduct market research;
promote our business, including by advertising;
for our Mechanic Community, send you information about available work positions;
for our Mechanic Community, to enable you to apply for available work positions;
in relation to information provided by our Mechanic Community, create articles regarding vehicle issues, solutions, goods and services;
provide you with articles regarding vehicles;
deal with complaints and address violations of terms and policies;
assess applications;
keep a customer record;
register a security interest (where applicable); and
comply with our legal obligations.

If you do not provide us with your personal information we may not be able to provide you with our goods or services. It may also affect your use of the website.

If we receive unsolicited personal information and we do not consider the personal information is reasonably necessary for, or directly related to, one or more of our functions or activities, then we will delete or destroy the personal information if it is lawful to do so.

DISCLOSURE
We may disclose your personal information to our employees, officers, related bodies corporate and third parties as far as reasonably necessary for the purposes set out above. The third parties to whom we may disclose your personal information include:

third parties to whom you submit an online vehicle service and/or repair contact form to through our website;
for our Mechanic Community, if you receive a work position description email and invitation to apply, and you apply for the position, your resume as entered into our website will be sent to the third party business offering the work position;
manufacturers, suppliers, and contractors used by us, including market research and marketing service providers;
insurers, assessors, and underwriters;
professional advisors and consultants (such as lawyers, accountants, and auditors);
debt collectors;
potential business purchasers under confidentiality agreement;
your potential/actual guarantors and security providers;
government and regulatory authorities, as required by law and/or in the course of providing our goods and services to you;
website hosts; and
third party service providers to whom we outsource some of our functions.

We may also disclose your personal information to a third party where authorised by you or permitted/required to do so by law.

Website, cookies, web analytics and social media

When you visit our website we may collect certain information such as server address, browser type, operating system, website visited immediately before coming to our site, the pages you accessed on the website, how long you visited, the date and time you visited, your geographical location and type of device used. This information is used in an aggregated manner to analyse how people use our site, such that we can improve our service.

We may also use ‘cookies’. A cookie is a small file our website places on your computer so that it can remember your preferences and improves your experience of our website. You can block placement of cookies in your browser settings. You can also clear cookies from your browser. If you do this, some parts of our website might not work as well.

Third parties may also place cookies on this website, such as Google AdSense a website advertising solution. Third party social media applications, for example Facebook and Twitter, may use cookies enable social media buttons, such as ‘like’ buttons, or plug-ins in this website.

Our website uses Google Analytics which collects information about the use of the website and traffic to the website. We use Google Analytics to promote our goods and services, including by allowing us to provide advertising to you on websites not owned by us. You can choose to opt-out of Google Analytics collecting and using your data by downloading the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on.

Marketing and advertising

We may collect hold and use your personal information to provide you with marketing material and advertise on our website or third party websites. Such marketing material and advertising may:

promote our goods and services; and/or
promote third party goods and/or services, for example in relation to mechanics listed in the mechanic directory on our website, and vehicle related products, goods, parts, accessories and services, including third party business names and branding.

You may opt out of receiving marketing materials from us by contacting us (contact information is provided at the end of this policy), or using an available ‘unsubscribe’ function.

We may disclose your personal information to third party contractors or service providers to whom we outsource marketing or advertising functions.

We may use advertising you place on our website as an example in our marketing material to promote our goods and/or services, however we will only do so with your consent.

Testimonials and reviews

If you provide a testimonial, which may include your personal information, we may use the testimonial in our marketing material to promote our goods and/or services, however we will only do so with your consent.

If you provide us with a testimonial or review, which may contain your personal information, you can remove the review or testimonial. Where you are unable to remove the review of testimonial yourself, you can request that we remove the testimonial or review by contacting us (contact information is provided at the end of this policy).

Article creation

We may use information placed on this website by using any forum, chat room, to any other elements of this website that permits user generated content, including, vehicle type, make and/or model, types of parts, faults information (including fault code and/or descriptions) and image attachments, to create articles that may be posted on the website and/or distributed. If any personal information is included in the article we will only do so with your consent.

Disclosure to overseas recipients

With the exception of members of the Mechanic Community located in New Zealand using our goods and services, who may access your personal information through your use of the website, we do not disclose your personal information to overseas recipients.

Although our Mechanic Community services are provided to mechanics in Australia and New Zealand, and our mechanic directory services to locate vehicle service and/or repair suppliers are provided only for users located in Australia, personal information and other information on the website, including information provided on the mechanic directory to locate vehicle service and/or repair suppliers and any information you contribute to the website, may be accessible to persons located overseas.

Keeping your information secure

We are committed to ensuring that your personal information is secure – both in electronic and hard copy forms.

We take reasonable steps to keep personal information safe and secure. Most of your personal information is securely and safely stored in our electronic database, where we have hard copies we take reasonable steps to keep these safe and secure. Our employees are required to comply with confidentiality obligations and this policy.

Where we disclose personal information to third parties we will take reasonable steps to ensure that they comply with the Act, including the Australian Privacy Principals, and this policy, including where the recipient is located overseas (unless the overseas recipient is subject to a binding legislative regime that is as effective as, or substantially similar to, the Australian privacy regime).

Finally, we take reasonable steps to destroy or permanently de-identify personal information in a secure manner when it is no longer required.

Changes to this policy

Please be aware that we may amend, vary, modify this policy at any time in our sole discretion and all changes will be effective immediately upon our posting an updated version on our website.

How we deal with requests and complaints

You can access and correct personal information we hold about you in certain circumstances. You can also contact us if you have any questions about how we handle your personal information, or if you wish to make a complaint.

You may not identify yourself or use a pseudonym when contacting us, however, we may not be able to assist you with your enquiry.

To protect your privacy and the privacy of others, you will need to provide evidence of your identity before we grant you access to information.

You can contact us by email or write to us at the postal address below. We will get back to you within 30 days.

If you are not satisfied with the response we provide, you may contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner with you query or complaint.

Contact us

Attn: Privacy Officer
Autoexpert Consulting Group
Level 5, 80 Flinders St
Adelaide
5000
South Australia

[email protected]
www.mechanic.com.au

More information

More information about the Act and the APPs is available from the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at http://www.oaic.gov.au