Privacy Policy

In this Policy, we talk about how we handle your “personal information”.  This is an important term under Australian privacy laws. It which means 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 it is recorded in a material form or not.

The most common types of personal information include contact details such as name, address, phone number and date of birth. 

Sensitive information is a subset of personal information which is afforded higher levels of protection under Australian privacy laws.  Sensitive information includes information about a person’s racial or ethnic origin, religious beliefs, criminal record and health information.  We rarely solicit sensitive information as part of our business, however, if we do ever collect sensitive information about you, we will always treat it with the utmost respect and ensure that it is protected and used appropriately.

Our customers are at the heart of everything we do at Bargain Car Rentals.  The nature of our business as a car rental provider means that we need to collect, use and disclose personal information about our customers in order to provide them with a range of products, services and benefits.  For example, completing rental bookings, setting up navigation assistance or e-toll tags, and processing fees and charges.

We also collect personal information to assist in identifying ways in which we can serve you better, such as providing our products and services to you more effectively.  We also collect and use your personal information to assist our internal administration and operations including accounting, risk management, record keeping, archiving, systems development and testing, and staff training.

Some of the information we collect is for the purpose of improving our interaction with customers, suppliers, business partners and contractors and their involvement with Bargain Car Rentals.

If we are unable to collect personal information about you, some or all of the following may occur:

1. we may be unable to provide our services, products and benefits to you to the requested standard (or at all);
2. we may be unable to communicate with you;
3. we may be unable to tailor the content of our marketing communications to suit your preferences; and
4. your interactions with us may be deferred or not effective.

Customers who provide personal information about a third party individual need to ensure that those persons are aware of this Privacy Policy, understand it and agree to accept it.

As a vehicle rental provider, we need to collect a variety of personal information from you in order to provide you with our services, products and benefits.  The types of personal information we collect and hold will vary depending on your dealings with us and the products provided to you, or the requests or inquiries you make.

This information may include any or all of the following:

• Contact details: Name, address(es), telephone number(s) and other contact details;
• Personal details: Gender, date of birth and age;
• Financial information: Credit card details, transaction details relating to your use of our products, services or other benefits;
• Loyalty and benefits: Details of your membership to any loyalty or affiliate programs;
• Government-related identifiers: Driver’s licence number and passport number;
• Preferences: Your social media preferences and any other preferences you tell us about;
• Sensitive information: We may collect sensitive information if it is listed on your driver’s licence (for example, any conditions relating to alcohol interlock devices, glasses or corrective lenses, driver aids or vehicle modifications). We may also collect health information about your disability, where required.
• Employment Information: We may collect employment information about you if you work for one of our corporate partners, or hire one of our commercial vehicles.
• CCTV footage:  Some of our sites and shuttle services use CCTV and other footage for security purposes.
• Inferences drawn from other information: This may include a profile relating to your preferences, characteristics, behaviour, attitudes and abilities.

We may collect and hold sensitive information, such as the fact that you are disabled, to allow us to provide our services more effectively to you but only if you provide express consent at the time it is provided.

We may collect personal information you in a number of ways, including:

• Directly: We might collect information directly from you in the following circumstances: during interactions such as reservation requests, pre-check in, service delivery, and other dealings via airport kiosks, phone, internet and in-person visits to our Bargain Car Rentals depot(s).  We may also collect information from you when you register for an account, submit an inquiry or other information to us, participate in our loyalty programs, complete an online form, contact our sales or support team, interact with our social media pages and otherwise engage with us.
• Passively: Some personal information may be obtained by us through your online activity.
• From in-vehicle technologies: GPS tracking technology is installed in some of our vehicles.
• From third parties: From time to time, we may collect personal information about you from third parties, public sources and as otherwise permitted by law.  This might include from our corporate partners, travel agencies, banks, our insurers and debt collectors where necessary.

In regards to phone calls, Bargain Car Rentals has in place a call recording policy which all our staff adhere to.  Sometimes, personal information will be collected via recordings of phone conversations for quality assurance and training purposes.  We will always notify you in advance of this collection.

We always strive to collect Personal Information from you directly.  We will assume that you have consented to us collecting all information that is provided to us in accordance with this Privacy Policy unless you tell us otherwise at the time you provide it to us.

In our commitment to improve and market our products/services, we partner with Microsoft Clarity and Microsoft Advertising to capture your website interaction details.  Using first and third-party cookies and other tracking technologies, we collect behavioural metrics, heat-maps, and session replay data.  This helps determine product/service popularity, online activity, site optimisation, and supports fraud/security measures, along with advertising.  For further information on how Microsoft collects and uses your data, refer to the Microsoft Privacy Statement.

We may use and disclose your personal information for a variety of purposes in connection with servicing you as a customer of Bargain Car Rentals and in relation to our business operations. These include:

1. processing and administering your dealings with us as a customer, supplier or contractor;
2. providing you with the products and services you have requested from us;
3. developing processes, products, services and benefits to better meet your needs; and
4. disclosing your information for use by relevant parties in connection with our services, such local councils or road authorities.

We may also use your personal information to offer or provide you with loyalty benefits, discounts or other information about such schemes that may be operated by us or third parties.  This includes:

1. obtaining details about how you acquire and use our products, services and benefits; and
2. rewarding customers through mechanisms such as discounts and special pricing offers.

We will generally only use or disclose your personal information for the purpose for which it was collected (known as the “primary purpose”).  This might be to fulfil a booking request you have made to rent one of our vehicles.  We may, however, also use or disclose personal information for another purpose related to the primary purpose where you would reasonably expect it to be used or disclosed for such related purpose (known as the “secondary purpose”) or with your consent (which may be express or implied).  For example, if you incur a parking fine while driving one of our vehicles, we may need to provide your details to the relevant local council so that they can contact you.

Here are some other examples of when we might need to disclose your personal information:

• Insurance companies: In respect of any claims that may be made in connection with your rental.
• Our Affiliate Program: We provide the opportunity for businesses in the travel or tourism industry to further monetise their traffic and by joining our Affiliate Program, we provide a commission from any booking made through affiliate links.
• Travel agents, brokers and other third parties:  To fulfil booking requests and ensure customers receive services from us.
• Government, regulatory and law enforcement agencies:  In order to meet our legal obligations.

In regards to sensitive information (which includes your health information), we will only ever use or disclosure your sensitive information with your consent, for the primary purpose for which it was collected or for another purpose directly related to the primary purpose where you would reasonably expect it to be used or disclosed for such a directly related purpose.

Unless we notify you otherwise, we will not disclose your Personal Information to any recipients outside Australia.

We collect personal information so that we can provide our customers with useful and relevant information about our products, services and benefits.  Generally, we collect this information directly from you.  In some circumstances, however, we may collect personal information from third parties, including from our service providers and social media platforms such as Facebook.  We use the information we, or our service providers, collect to assist us to determine how we can best engage with our customers about our products and services.  To this end, we, or our service providers, may collect information about your social media preferences and activities so that we can engage with our customers on social media sites.  We may also collect certain demographic information and behavioural information from social media platforms to better serve consumers with more targeted advertising.  If we do not collect this information in the ways described above, we may not be able to let you know about our products and services in the most effective way.

We may use and disclose the information we collect for the purpose of providing you with tailored marketing communications about our goods and services, or to conduct market research.  Typically, we send these communications to your email address or mailing address.  Occasionally, we may also send marketing communications to your social media accounts, including, for example, your Facebook account.

If you do not wish to receive direct marketing information from Bargain Car Rentals, please use the contact details below to opt-out or use the unsubscribe feature on all our electronic marketing communications.  Please note that if you make such a request:

1. we may still need to use your personal information to provide you with the services and products you have requested as a customer; and
2. it may not be possible for us to immediately action a request to cease receiving any or all direct marketing material.  However, we will respond to such requests as soon as practicable and will make all reasonable efforts to promptly action your request to opt out of receiving future direct marketing material.

We will not sell or rent your personal information without your consent.

We collect and hold information for statistical and maintenance purposes that enables us to continually evaluate our website performance.  Some parts of our websites also use “cookies”.  A cookie is a small text file that is placed on your computer’s hard drive by a web page server. Cookies store information about the use of our website and are used to identify new or previous visitors to the website and what pages have been accessed.  Most web browsers are set to accept cookies, but this function can usually be disabled if you wish.  Please note that if you do disable this, not all functionality on our website will be available to you.

We also use Google Analytics features on our website (including Google Remarketing, Google Display Network Impressions Reporting, the Double Click Campaign Manager and Google Analytics Demographics and Interest Reporting), which uses both first party and third-party cookies to record standard internet traffic information.  We, and some third parties (including Google), also use the information to optimise ad selection for groups of individuals based on age, gender, interests and past visits to our site.  The cookies allow us and other third parties (including Google) to evaluate your interactions with ad services on our site and serve targeted advertising on sites across the Internet.  We have enabled Google Analytics for Display Advertising which allows Google and other third parties to advertise to you on our site and across the Internet.

By using Google Ads Settings (www.google.com/settings/ads), you can opt out of these features at any time and customise your Google Display Network Ads.

Importantly, we do not combine the anonymous information collected through Google Analytics with personally identifiable information.

In addition to Google Analytics, we use a range of web analytics tools (such as web beacons) to help us understand consumer behaviour and use of our website.  In particular, these tools enable us to deliver cookies, count visits and understand usage and campaign effectiveness.  This data helps us to stay connected and relevant to our customers.

If you do not wish to receive any cookies you may set your browser to refuse cookies.  However, this will mean that we will not be able to personalise your website each time you visit.

We take the security of your personal information extremely seriously.  Your personal information is stored by us in a manner that strives to protect it from misuse and loss and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.  Those who work with us are aware of the importance we place on protecting your privacy and their role in helping us to do so.

When the personal information that we collect is no longer required, we will remove or de-identify the personal information as soon as reasonably possible.  We may, however, retain personal information for as long as is necessary to comply with any applicable law, for the prevention of fraud, for insurance and governance purposes, in our IT back-up, for the collection of any monies owed and to resolve disputes.

We store personal information in a combination of secure computer storage facilities and paper-based files and other records.  In so doing, we have taken numerous steps to protect your personal information from misuse, interference and loss, and unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.

Here are some specific examples of the steps we take as a business to protect your information:

Even though Bargain Car Rentals takes all precautions possible to prevent data breaches from occurring, unfortunately, data breaches are becoming more commonplace in Australia and throughout the world, and no business is entirely immune.  Please be assured that we have detailed data breach policies and procedures in place so that we can quickly, effectively and dynamically respond to any data breaches that might occur.

A notifiable data breach scheme, overseen by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, is currently in place in Australia and we are committed to adhering to this scheme as an important step in preventing and managing serious privacy breaches. 

A “data breach” means unauthorised access to, or disclosure, alteration, loss, or destruction of, personal information—or, an action that prevents us from accessing personal information on either a temporary or permanent basis.  An “eligible data breach”, in accordance with privacy laws, occurs when there is a data breach that is likely to result in serious harm to any of the individuals to whom the information relates and we are unable to prevent the likely risk of serious harm with remedial action. 

We, including all our people, take breaches of privacy very seriously.  If we suspect a privacy breach has occurred, our priority is to contain and assess the suspected breach.  In doing so, we will:

1. take any necessary immediate action to contain the breach and reduce the risk of harm; 
2. determine the cause and extent of the breach;
3. consider the types of information involved, including whether the personal information is sensitive in nature; 
4. analyse the nature of the harm that may be caused to affected individuals;
5. consider the person or body that has obtained or may obtain personal information as a result of the breach (if known); and 
6. determine whether the personal information is protected by a security measure. 

If we believe an eligible data breach has occurred we will, as soon as practicable, notify the Commissioner and all affected individuals or, if it is not possible to notify affected individuals, provide public notice of the breach (in a manner that protects the identity of affected individuals).

The use of AI is increasing and we want to be completely transparent about how we might use algorithms, machine learning, and artificial intelligence in relation to personal information – now and in the future.  Bargain Car Rentals may use the personal information we hold about you in automated decision-making systems to increase efficiency, accuracy and consistency of our decisions.  At present, Bargain Car Rentals does not use AI to make decisions – however, this may change in future and we will be sure to let you know when this happens.  One of the ways we do currently use AI in our business is to extract relevant information from a driver’s licence in order for that information to be included in our booking system.

Automated decision-making involves arranging for a computer program make decisions, or assist in making decisions. This can include:

1. making decisions;
2. making interim assessments;
3. recommending decisions to the decision-maker;
4. guiding a decision-maker through facts, legislation and policy;
5. providing preliminary assessments; and
6. automating aspects of the fact-finding process which may influence subsequent decisions. 

In our company, we are committed to transparency, and whilst we strive to implement systems that are unbiased and fair, automated decision-making processes are ‘trained’ using historical data, which can result in unfair treatment or discrimination.  Therefore, if you wish to obtain further information about how personal information is being held or used by our organisation in relation to automated decision-making, we welcome you to get in touch with us using the contact details set out at the end of this Privacy Policy below.

You are always welcome to request that we provide you with access to the personal information we hold about you by contacting us using the details listed at the end of this Privacy Policy.  Generally, we will provide you with access to the information unless applicable laws allow us to refuse, or prevent us from giving you, access to the personal information we hold about you.  We will never unreasonably refuse requests to access personal information.  Where we agree to provide you with access to your personal information, sometimes we may make this conditional on us recovering our reasonable costs of doing so.  No fee will be incurred for requesting access, but if your request for access is accepted, you will be notified of the fee payable (if any) for providing access if you choose to proceed with your access request.

It is important to us that the personal information we hold about you is correct, complete and up-to-date.  You may also lodge a request to correct personal information we hold about you if you believe it is inaccurate, incomplete, irrelevant, misleading or out of date.  There is no fee for doing this.  If your personal details change, such as your address or phone number, please contact us on 1300 729 230 or info@bargaincarrentals.com.au to update your details.

In the first instance, we will ask you to provide some identification, such as your driver’s licence, to ensure that you have the right to access the information.

If you are a resident of the European Union and, for example, use our website to make a booking, there may be some additional security measures we employ to satisfy compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).  The GDPR is an important step forward in encouraging high standards of personal data security.  Australian businesses of any size may need to comply if they have an establishment in the European Union (EU), if they offer goods and services in the EU (irrespective of whether a payment is required), or if they monitor the behaviour of individuals in the EU (where that behaviour takes place in the EU).

Under the GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018 (UK), we may have some additional obligations with respect to the processing of “personal data” collected from residents of the EU and/or United Kingdom (UK).  The meaning of personal data is similar to personal information—however, it is broader as it includes any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural personal. 

Where required, we will take appropriate steps to ensure that the personal data of EU and/or UK residents is:

1. processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner;

1. collected for legitimate purposes;
2. accurate and up to date; 
3. kept for no longer than is necessary for the purposes for which it was collected; and 
4. secure and protected against unauthorised or unlawful processing and against accidental loss, destruction or damage. 

We will comply with all obligations imposed on data importers under the GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018 (UK) with respect to the personal data of EU and UK residents, including the Standard Contractual Clauses, to the extent that they may apply to us and our relationships with third parties.

EU and UK residents have the right to access personal data we hold about them and to request that personal data be corrected, updated, deleted or transferred to another organisation.  EU and UK residents are also able to request that the processing of their personal data be restricted or objected to their personal data being processed.  To make any of these requests, please contact our Privacy Officer.

If you send us an application to be considered for an advertised position (or unsolicited), this information may be used to assess your application or suitability for employment with us.  This information may be disclosed to our related bodies corporate and service providers for purposes such as aptitude and psychological testing or other human resources management activities.

As part of the application process, you may be asked for your consent to the use and disclosure of certain personal information about pre-employment testing.  We may also ask you to consent to the disclosure of your personal information to those people who you nominated to provide references.  A refusal to provide any of this information, or to consent to its proposed disclosure, may affect the success of the application.

This Privacy Policy does not apply to our handling of information about our employees.  Our handling of employee records is exempt from the Australian Privacy Principles in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) if the act or practice is directly related to:

• either a current or former employment relationship between us and the individual; and
• an employee record held by us relating to the individual.

For information about our practices relating to employee records, please contact us at the contact details listed below.

Bargain Car Rentals is committed to upholding its obligations under the Australian Privacy Principles.  The APPs govern the standards, rights and obligations around the collection, use and disclosure of personal information and empowers individuals to have control over how their personal information is used.

If you have any inquiries or complaints about how we handle your personal information in relation to the APPs, or if you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, we welcome you to get in touch with us by contacting our Privacy Officer at:

Attention: Privacy Officer, Bargain Car Rentals

Post: Level 11, 86 Collins St, Hobart TAS 7000

Email: info@bargaincarrentals.com.au

We will endeavour to assess and respond to your query promptly and consistently with our legal obligations. All complaints received will be taken seriously and handled with impartiality and discretion. You can contact us anonymously or by pseudonym if you wish. However, sometimes this won’t be practicable, for example, we may not be able to adequately investigate or resolve a query or complaint if you have contacted us anonymously or by pseudonym.

More information about your rights and our obligations in respect to privacy and information on making a privacy complaint are available from the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at:

Website: www.oaic.gov.au 

Post: GPO Box 5218

Sydney NSW 2001

Email: enquiries@oaic.gov.au