City Ford Sydney Privacy Policy
1.1 Introduction
City Ford Sydney is committed to responsible privacy practices and to complying with the Privacy Principles contained in the Privacy Act 1988 (Commonwealth Privacy Act). Where applicable, Ford will handle personal information relying on the related bodies corporate exemption and the employee records exemption in the Privacy Act and any other applicable exemptions in the Privacy Act or other legislation.
1.2 This Privacy Policy sets out our policies on the management of personal information including how we collect personal information, the purposes for which we use this information, and to whom this information is disclosed.
1.3 City Ford Sydney is an independent entity and not related to Ford Motor Company of Australia Pty Limited (Ford Australia). As an Authorised Ford Dealer, we may share your personal information with Ford Australia. Ford Australia will handle your personal information in accordance with its privacy practices, as detailed in Ford Australia's Privacy Policy, which is available from its website at https://www.ford.com.au/privacy/.
1.4 We may change our Privacy Policy from time to time at our discretion. At any time, the latest version of our Privacy Policy is available from our website at www.ford.com.au/privacy or from our Customer Relationship Centre.
1.5 If you drive a Ford Connected Vehicle, please carefully read the Ford Australia Connected Vehicle Terms and Privacy Policy at www.ford.com.au/fordpass.
1.6 If you use the FordPass App, please carefully read the FordPass Terms and Privacy Policy at www.ford.com.au/fordpass.
2. What is personal information?2.1 In this Privacy Policy, "personal information" has the meaning set out in the Privacy Act. Essentially, personal information is information or an opinion about an individual who is reasonably identifiable.
2.2 "Sensitive Information", a sub-set of personal information, is information or an opinion about an individual's racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, political association membership, religious beliefs or affiliations, philosophical beliefs, professional or trade association membership, trade union membership, sexual orientation or practices, or criminal record, and includes health information and genetic information.
3. What types of personal information does City Ford Sydney collect?
3.1 The types of personal information City Ford Sydney collects from you depend on the circumstances in which the information is collected.
3.2 City Ford Sydney may collect contact details including your name, address, email address and phone and fax numbers.
3.3 Where relevant, City Ford Sydney may also collect your driver's licence and registration details, date of birth or age group, occupation, gender, information about your vehicle (including its number plate and vehicle identification number), answers you provide to questions we ask and other information in relation to your dealings with Ford or City Ford Sydney (such as types of vehicle purchased and replaced and repair/service history).
If you are an individual contractor to City Ford Sydney, in addition to the information referred to in section 3.3 we may collect information relevant to your engagement with Ford including qualifications, length of engagement, resume, pay rate and salary, bank details, feedback from supervisors, training records and logs of your usage of Ford equipment (e.g. phones, computers and vehicles). A reference to an individual contractor in this document includes those individuals who perform work for Ford under a "purchased service" arrangement. If you are employed by or contracted to a City Ford Sydney, we may also collect and maintain training records about you.
3.4 When using the City Ford Sydney website, we or our third party service providers may collect web site usage information such as the IP address you are using, the name of your Internet service provider, your browser version, the web site that referred you to us and the next website you go to, the pages you request, the date and time of those requests and the country you are in. Except where you provide it to us via the website, we do not collect personal information such as your name, mailing address, email address or phone number when you are browsing our website.
3.5 We do not generally require customers to disclose any sensitive information (e.g. details of race, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, health information etc.) to us. In limited circumstances, we may require prospective employees, individual contractors and City Ford Sydney personnel to provide us with certain health information. See section 10 of this Privacy Policy for further details..
3.6 If you do provide sensitive information to us for any reason (for example, if you provide us with information about a disability you have), you consent to us collecting that information and to us using and disclosing that information for the purpose for which you disclosed it to us and as permitted by the Privacy Act and other relevant laws.
3.7 Occasionally, sensitive information in relation to an individual's membership of a trade or similar association may be provided to us but we do not actively seek this information. We will only use and disclose that information for the purpose for which you disclosed it to us and as permitted by the Privacy Act and other relevant laws.
3.8 In addition to the types of personal information identified above, Ford may collect personal information as otherwise permitted or required by law.
4. How do we collect your personal information?
4.1 City Ford Sydney collects personal information in a number of ways. The most common ways we collect your personal information are:
- directly from you when you contact or deal with us (unless it is unreasonable or impracticable for us to do so) - for example, from:
- your activity and engagement on our website and social media platforms, and through promotional events;
- correspondence and enquiries that you submit to us, including regarding purchasing a vehicle, parts, service or repair, warranty, finance and insurance;
- the contracts you sign with us and the transactions you enter into with us, including regarding purchasing a vehicle, parts, service or repair, warranty, finance and insurance;
- telephone calls and meetings with us
- from third parties, including:
- Ford Australia;
- online vehicle enquiry, sale and service platforms which you browse or engage with, such as CarSales and similar platforms;
- the other entities in the Motus Australia corporate group of which our dealership forms part; and the finance business in the Motus Australia corporate group (ie, AMHA Finance). You can be anonymous or use a pseudonym when dealing with us, unless:
- the use of your true identity is a legal requirement; or
- it is impracticable for us to deal with you on such basis.
5. For what purposes do we collect, use and disclose your personal information?
5.1 The purposes for which we use and disclose your personal information will depend on the circumstances in which we collect it. Whenever practical we endeavour to inform you why we are collecting your personal information, how we intend to use that information and to whom we intend to disclose it at the time we collect your personal information.
5.2 We may use or disclose your personal information:
- for the purposes for which we collected it (and related purposes which would be reasonably expected by you)
- for other purposes to which you have consented; and as otherwise authorised or required by law.
- we believe on reasonable grounds that the overseas recipient is required to deal with your personal information by enforceable laws which are similar to the requirements under the APPs; or
- it is otherwise permitted by law.
5.3 We collect, use and disclose personal information from you or about you where it is reasonably necessary for us to carry out our business functions, activities and services.
5.4 Some of the specific purposes for which we collect, use and disclose personal information are as follows:
- to enable us to properly respond to your request about purchasing a vehicle, parts, service or repair, finance or insurance
- to enable us to arrange for you things like vehicle registration, finance or insurance
- to provide your details to Ford Australia for warranty purposes or to conduct customer satisfaction surveys
- to facilitate your request for a brochure or test drive, to add you to a mailing list or to respond if you request information (including via the City Ford Sydney website or via an email you send to us)
- to record and maintain the details of your purchase of a Ford vehicle for warranty purposes or your purchase of a Ford product or service for administration purposes
- to keep track of the repairs and servicing of your Ford vehicle
- to contact you in the event of a vehicle recall or program or any warranty matters.
- to inform you in the event of a field service action, for example a recall, affecting your Ford vehicle
- to issue service reminders
- to improve our products and services
- to contact you (directly or through our service providers and marketing research agencies) to obtain your feedback and to find out your level of satisfaction with our products, services through surveys
- to verify your identity
- to facilitate your entry and participation in a competition or trade promotion
- to address any issues or complaints that we or you have regarding our relationship
- to contact you regarding the above, including via electronic messaging such as SMS and email, by mail, by phone or in any other lawful manner.
- to collate statistical data, social media analysis and website traffic analysis; and
- for other purposes related to your dealings with us.
5.5 We may also use and disclose your personal information for the purpose of direct marketing to you where:
- you have consented to us doing so; or
- it is otherwise permitted by law.
5.6 Direct marketing involves communicating directly with you for the purpose of promoting goods or services to you and to provide you with special offers from City Ford Sydney. Direct marketing can be delivered by a range of methods including mail, telephone, email or SMS. You can unsubscribe from our direct marketing, or change your contact preferences, by contacting us (see section 15 of this Privacy Policy). If you wish to unsubscribe from direct marketing you have received please contact us directly.
6. What happens if you don't provide personal information?
6.1 Generally, you have no obligation to provide any personal information requested by us. However, if you choose to withhold requested personal information, we may not be able to answer your enquiry, complete the transaction you have entered into, or provide you with the products and services that you or your organisation have contracted us to provide.
6.2 As an example, if we did not collect personal information about your new vehicle purchase, we would be unable to notify you directly of a product recall affecting your vehicle.
7. To whom do we disclose personal information?
7.1 We may disclose personal information from you or about you where it is reasonably necessary for us to carry out our business functions, activities and services, and in connection with the purposes described in section 5 of this Privacy Policy
7.2 This may include disclosing your personal information to the following types of third parties:
- our contractors (including mailing houses, marketing agencies, insurance providers, website and data hosting providers and other IT suppliers)
- other persons who perform services for, or in connection with, us (including to facilitate the delivery of purchases, to provide roadside assistance, to autoclubs, for electronic direct mailing, for credit card payment authorisation, for trend analysis, for market research, for promotions and for the provision of statistical sales information to industry bodies)
- companies who may use your personal information in order to tailor electronic advertising to you (e.g. on a webpage) in relation to our products and services
- our accountants, insurers (including those that provide extended warranties), lawyers, auditors and other professional advisers
- if you are an individual contractor to City Ford Sydney or a prospective employee, to our medical service providers for any medical assessments or in relation to any health or safety incidents and to HR related service providers (e.g. for background checks, screening or aptitude testing)
- any third parties to whom you have directed or permitted us to disclose your personal information (e.g. referees)
- the entities in the Motus Australia corporate group
- the finance business in the Motus Australia corporate group (ie, AMHA Finance / Liquid Capital) to assist you with your ongoing financing needs
- in the unlikely event that we or our assets may be acquired or considered for acquisition by a third party, that third party and its advisors
- third parties that require the information for law enforcement or to prevent a serious threat to public safety and otherwise as permitted or required by law.
7.3 Where we disclose your personal information to third parties we will use reasonable commercial efforts to ensure that such third parties only use your personal information as reasonably required for the purpose we disclosed it to them and in a manner consistent with the APPs under the Privacy Act, e.g. by (where commercially practical) including suitable privacy and confidentiality clauses in our agreement with a third party service provider to which we disclose your personal information.
7.4 If you post information to certain public parts of our website or to our social media pages, you acknowledge that such information may be available to be viewed by the public. You should use discretion in deciding what information you upload to such sites.
7.5 Your personal information will not be "sold" by City Ford Sydney to any other organisation for that organisation's unrelated independent use. If you have opted in to receive marketing materials from City Ford Sydney, we may share anonymised "hashed" data with social media advertising partners, such as Facebook, so that they can create Custom Audiences and deliver advertisements on our behalf to their members. Members are identifiable when the Social Media partner matches our anonymised data to its anonymised data of its users.
8. Does personal information leave Australia?
8.1 Some of the third parties to whom we disclose personal information may be located outside Australia. For example, we may disclose personal information to our related companies overseas and to our overseas service providers. However, we will only do so where:
- it is necessary to complete the transaction you have entered into; and
- you have provided consent; or
- we believe on reasonable grounds that the overseas recipient is required to deal with your personal information by enforceable laws which are similar to the requirements under the APPs; or
- it is otherwise permitted by law.
8.2 The countries in which these third parties are located will depend on the circumstances. In the ordinary course of business we commonly disclose personal information to parties located in the United States, United Kingdom, South Africa, Bulgaria, India, China, Singapore, and Germany. Except where an exception applies under the Privacy Act, we will take reasonable steps to ensure that such overseas recipients do not breach the Privacy Principles in the Privacy Act in relation to such information.
9. How do we protect personal information?
9.1 City Ford Sydney will take reasonable steps to keep any personal information we hold about you secure. However, except to the extent liability cannot be excluded due to the operation of statute, we exclude all liability (including in negligence) for the consequences of any unauthorised access to, disclosure of, misuse of or loss or corruption of your personal information. Nothing in this Privacy Policy restricts, excludes or modifies or purports to restrict, exclude or modify any statutory consumer rights under any applicable law including the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth). Please notify us immediately if you become aware of any breach of security.
9.2 Your personal information is kept in secure locations, and access to it is restricted to those who have the appropriate authorisation under our policies. Where we share the information with third parties, we ensure they also have appropriate policies and security in place.
9.3 We will retain your personal information whilst it is required for any of our business functions or purposes as outlined in this Privacy Policy, or other lawful purpose in accordance with the Privacy Act.
When the information is no longer required, it is de-identified, deleted, or securely destroyed. As an example, our destruction and de-identification methods may include:
- Paper records being placed in security bins and/or shredded; or
- Electronic records being deleted from all locations, to the best of our ability, or encrypted and/or placed beyond use.
10. What about information you provide in job applications?
10.1 If you submit a job application to City Ford Sydney, we will use the information provided by you to assess your application. City Ford Sydney may disclose the information contained in your application to contracted service providers for purposes such as screening, aptitude testing, medical testing and human resources management activities.
10.2 As part of the application process or (if you are successful in being employed by City Ford Sydney) after you commence employment with City Ford Sydney, you may be required to complete a health questionnaire. You may also be asked to undergo a medical assessment. In that case, you will be asked to give specific consent for City Ford Sydney to disclose your questionnaire to its service providers for the purposes of the medical assessment and for the relevant service providers to disclose the results of the assessment to City Ford Sydney.
10.3 If you refuse to provide any of the information requested by City Ford Sydney, or to consent to City Ford Sydney disclosing your questionnaire to its service providers for the purpose of a medical assessment or to the disclosure of the results of your medical assessment to City Ford Sydney, we may be unable to consider your application (or if you have been successful in being employed by City Ford Sydney, we may not be able to consider you for particular roles or positions within City Ford Sydney).
10.4 City Ford Sydney will handle health information in accordance with applicable laws and our Health Information Policy.
11. Is the personal information we hold accurate?
11.1 We endeavour to maintain your personal information as accurately as reasonably possible. We rely on the accuracy of personal information as provided to us directly (from you)
11.2 We encourage you to contact us if the personal information we hold about you is incorrect or to notify us of a change in your personal information. Our contact details are set out in section 15 of this Privacy Policy.
12. Links, cookies and use of the City Ford Sydney website
12.1 The City Ford Sydney website may contain links to other sites. This Privacy Policy applies to the Ford website and not any linked sites. We encourage you to read the privacy policies of each website that collects your personal information.
12.2 City Ford Sydney and its third party service providers and / or advertising partners uses web tracking and storage technology tools such as web beacons, "cookies", "pixel tags" and java code on Ford websites and in emails you have agreed to receive from us to collect or receive information regarding your activities on the site (eg. your IP address, page(s) visited, time of day). The use of such technology is an industry standard, and helps monitor the effectiveness of advertising and how visitors use websites. A "cookie" is a small data element stored by your web browser on your computer system. If selected by you, the Ford websites will store your username and password in a "cookie" to enable you to be automatically logged in when you return.
12.3 We, our third party service providers and / or advertising partners use this technology to generate statistics and measure site activity to improve the usefulness of customer visits.
12.4 Each time you access City Ford Sydney website, City Ford Sydney and its third party service providers and / or advertising partners may deliver certain customised information, including ads, to you based on the data stored in your cookie. Third party advertising partners may show our ads on sites on the Internet and serve these ads based on information they collected about a user's prior visits to our website and other Internet activity. Ford may also use analytics data supplied by third party vendors to inform and optimise our ad campaigns. This practice is commonly referred to as "interest-based advertising".
12.5 Opting out of Interest-Based Advertising: You may learn about how to opt-out of this kind of collection and use of information for your browser or device by managing your settings, and for your social media accounts by managing your preferences in your account settings.
12.6 Opting out from specific advertisers: Facebook: To learn more about how to opt out of Facebook Interest-Based Advertising, go to the Privacy tab on the Facebook website footer, and then select Facebook Ads Controls.
13. How you can access and correct personal information we hold about you
13.1 You may seek access to personal information which City Ford Sydney holds about you by contacting us at the details listed at the end of this Privacy Policy. We will provide access to that information in accordance with the Privacy Act, subject to certain exemptions which may apply. We may require that the person requesting access provide suitable identification and where permitted by law we may charge an administration fee for facilitating access to your personal information
13.2 If you become aware that any personal information we hold about you is incorrect or if you wish to update your information, please contact City Ford Sydney (see section 15 of this Privacy Policy).
13.3 If you wish to access, correct or update personal information held by a Dealer, or unsubscribe from direct marketing from the Dealer, please contact that Dealer directly.
14. Data Breaches
14.1 In Australia, if we suspect that a data breach has occurred, we will undertake an assessment into the circumstances of the suspected breach within 30 days after the suspected breach has occurred.
14.2 Where it is ascertained that a breach has actually occurred and where required by law, we will notify the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner and affected individuals as soon as practicable after becoming aware that a data breach has occurred.
15. Queries, comments and complaints about our handling of personal information
15.1 If you have any questions, concerns or complaints about our collection, use or disclosure of personal information, or if you believe that we have not complied with this Privacy Policy or the Privacy Act, please contact us (see details at the end of this Privacy Policy).
15.2 When contacting us please provide as much detail as possible in relation to your question, concern or complaint.
15.3 City Ford will take any privacy complaint seriously. Specifically, we will investigate your complaint and respond to you with our findings and our proposed action, within 30 days. Any complaint will be assessed by an appropriate person with the aim of resolving any issue in a timely and efficient manner. We request that you cooperate with us during this process and provide us with any relevant information that we may need.
15.4 If you are not satisfied with the outcome of our assessment of your complaint, you may wish to contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.
Changes to our policy
This Privacy Policy was updated in December 2021. We may update it from time to time at our discretion.
Our Contact details are:
City Ford Sydney
Address: 60 O'Riordan St , Alexandria, Sydney, NSW 2015
Phone: (02) 9331 5000