Privacy Policy

What we collect

• Vote data. When you vote in a head-to-head comparison, we store the vote itself. Votes are anonymous. We do not attach a name, email or account to them, because there are no accounts on Cars Like.
• Basic analytics. We use Vercel Web Analytics, a privacy-first, cookieless analytics tool, to understand which pages are read and how people arrive. It does not use cookies and does not build an advertising profile of you. It records aggregate signals such as page views, referrer, approximate region, device type and browser, without identifying you personally. It is provided by Vercel, our hosting provider.
• Google Analytics.We also use Google Analytics 4 to understand in more detail how the site is used — which pages are read, how people arrive, and roughly where visitors are by region. Unlike the cookieless tool above, Google Analytics sets a small number of first-party cookies (the “_ga” cookies) so it can tell repeat visits apart. We use it for measurement only, not advertising, and have not enabled its ad-personalisation features. The data is handled by Google as our provider under its own terms. You can opt out as described under Cookies below.
• Technical logs. Our host (Vercel) and database (Supabase) keep standard server logs, including IP address, for security, abuse prevention and reliability. These are held by those providers under their own terms.
• Bot protection. To stop automated vote abuse we use Cloudflare Turnstile, which may set a short-lived token to confirm a request is human. It is not used for advertising or tracking.
• Email sign-up. If you subscribe to our email updates, we store the address you give us, along with which page you signed up from, so we can send the updates you asked for. You can unsubscribe at any time, and we will not sell your address or use it for anything else.
• Finance and deal enquiries.If you ask us to connect you with our partners — a finance partner for loan options, or brokers and dealers for a sharper price — we collect what you put in the enquiry form: your name, email, phone number, state, your message and the car you are asking about. We pass these details to the relevant partners only with your consent, given by ticking the consent box on the form, and we may receive a fee if a loan settles or a purchase completes. We do not pass them to anyone else.

Beyond what you actively give us — an email address for updates, or the details you include in a finance or deal enquiry — we do not collect names, phone numbers, payment details or precise location. We do not use your data to advertise to you, and we do not sell your personal information; the only sharing that happens is the partner referrals described above, and only when you ask for them and consent to them. Cars Like takes no payment to rank one car above another.

Some tools may be introduced or expanded over time as the site grows; where a tool is not yet active, nothing is collected through it until it is.

Cookies

Cars Like runs no third-party advertising or cross-site tracking cookies. The main cookies we set are the first-party Google Analytics cookies (the “_ga” cookies) described above, which measure site usage and expire on their own after a set period. Any other storage is limited to what makes the site work, such as remembering a vote you just cast or the Turnstile token described above. You can clear or block cookies in your browser settings, use a private window, or install Google’s official “Google Analytics Opt-out” browser add-on to stop Analytics entirely. We do not currently respond to browser “Do Not Track” signals, as there is no agreed standard for how to treat them.

Why we collect it

Only to run and improve the site: to show comparison results, to prevent vote and bot abuse, to keep the service secure and reliable, to send you the updates you subscribed to, to connect you with our finance and dealer partners when you ask us to, and to understand in aggregate which content is useful. We do not use your data for advertising.

How long we keep it

We keep information only as long as we need it for the purposes above or to meet a legal obligation, then delete or de-identify it. Anonymous votes and aggregate analytics may be kept indefinitely, because they do not identify you.

Who we share it with

We share data only with the service providers that run the site for us: hosting and analytics (Vercel), analytics (Google Analytics), database and storage (Supabase), and bot protection (Cloudflare), and only to the extent they need it to provide that service. If you submit a finance or deal enquiry and tick the consent box, we also pass those enquiry details to the relevant partners — finance, dealer, or both, as you selected — so they can contact you, and we may receive a fee if a loan settles or a purchase completes. Beyond that, we do not sell or share personal information. We may disclose information if required by Australian law.

Where your data is held

The site is hosted in the Sydney region (Vercel), and our database is hosted by Supabase in Singapore. Some processing, such as our analytics (Vercel and Google Analytics) and bot protection (Cloudflare), is based in or routes through the United States. Where data is processed or stored overseas, we rely on providers that offer appropriate protections consistent with the Australian Privacy Principles.

Security

We take reasonable steps to protect the limited information we hold against loss, misuse and unauthorised access, including using reputable hosting and service providers and limiting who can access it. No online service can be completely secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security, but we work to keep what little we hold safe.

If a data breach occurs that is likely to cause you serious harm, we will notify you and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner as required by the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme.

Your choices

You can use Cars Like anonymously or under a pseudonym: you do not need to identify yourself to browse or compare. Because we hold no account and no personal profile, there is usually nothing personal to access, correct or delete. If we do hold information about you, you can ask us to see it, correct it, or delete it, and we will do so unless the law requires us to keep it. For any of this, or a privacy concern, contact us at info@carslike.com.au. You also have the right to complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (oaic.gov.au).

Children

Cars Like is a general-audience motoring site and is not directed at children under 15.

Changes

We may update this policy as the site changes. The “last updated” date above always reflects the current version.

Contact

Untitled Media, info@carslike.com.au.