Sustainability
Our customers
At CAR Group, we place our customers at the core of every decision we make and we are dedicated to exceeding their needs so we are always their partner of choice. We do this by developing an end-to-end buy, sell and own digital experience, and leveraging a range of feedback tools designed to analyse customer sentiment. We are committed to creating measurable return on investment for our customers, keeping trust and safety front of mind by keeping their data secure, respecting their privacy, and offering valuable add-ons.
Material topics
– Customer experience
– Cybersecurity and data protection
– Innovation and growth
The following section outlines our approach to addressing these material topics at CAR Group. For a detailed review of our performance in these areas over the past year, please refer to our latest Sustainability Report and Databook.
Customer experience
Our customers are the reason we exist. We are constantly seeking their feedback, analysing their interactions with our platforms, and looking for new and different ways that we can offer additional value to them to ensure that we deliver on our purpose – to make buying and selling a great experience. We achieve this by evolving our existing products and services and investing in new ones, enhancing platform functionality, offering expert advice, remaining focused on trust and safety, and embedding customer feedback into our decision-making processes.
Cybersecurity and data protection
As a leader in digital marketplaces, cybersecurity and data protection are central to our operational integrity and customer trust. We are continuously improving our cyber resilience to minimise risk and protect our customers.
At CAR Group, cybersecurity is business‑centric, enterprisewide, threat‑aware, and risk‑focused. We are driven by our commitment to the security of our customers’ and employees’ data, our information systems, and our services.
Organisations are increasingly vulnerable to cyber threats due to the rise of AI and integration of digital information, third parties and technology in day‑to‑day work. As attacks become more frequent and sophisticated, it is essential that we adapt to the threat landscape and continue to build a more resilient global Group.
Threat intelligence continues to evolve globally and integrate with the entire organisation. It is imperative that we understand the threat landscape and evolving threats, trending events, incidents and data breaches that could impact the information we and third parties hold.
We understand the latest threats from a vast range of global sources including public, private, government, regulatory, industry, and commercial. We use our learnings in a practical way, including by simulating attacks and control testing which provides further education and learning opportunities for CAR Group. This has resulted in providing improved guidance to customers, improving our trust and safety content, and uplifting information and technology controls across our web applications.
Data privacy and protection
As the custodians of the data on our platforms, we recognise that we have a duty to safeguard it and use it responsibly and fairly.
Data is both an opportunity and a responsibility, and it is for this reason that CAR Group has a data governance framework in place comprising permissions, handling, management, communications, security, compliance and monitoring.
This framework is supported by:
– our Data Governance Committee whose approval is required for various scenarios in which data is being utilised across the Group – such as new data collection methods, collection of a new type of data, and third party and international data sharing requests; and
– data privacy champions in each Australian team, and privacy specialists in our international teams, who assist with answering questions and help to identify any issues that may arise.
We provide our members with a high level of control and granularity in respect to the consents they provide and withhold, and the ease of managing these consents online.
CAR Group gathers cookie‑based data relating to onsite behaviour and uses this information to improve the onsite experience by way of tailored content. Similarly, it is used off the network to serve relevant content via social media and digital display. Where markets require it, our cookie policy and cookie pop‑ups on our key websites better inform visitors about how we use cookies. If a visitor is from an EU IP address, express consent is required before they can use the website.
In Australia, carsales has an advertising program based on user onsite behaviour. Visitor data is de‑identified and the program allows advertising clients, such as a vehicle manufacturers, to serve relevant advertisements both on the carsales network and on the wider internet, based on the onsite browsing activity of the user. This data is aggregated into audience segments and is not personally identifiable by the advertiser. The program is controlled through a Customer Data Platform which allows customer data to be marked according to consent and permissions for specific data uses to be managed in an automated fashion.
CAR Group’s member database is not provided to third parties for direct marketing purposes.
Innovation and growth
Innovation is a core driver of our long-term growth and leadership position in digital marketplaces – it is one of the greatest assets we have for the continued growth of our Group.
We continuously invest time and capital into innovation to make buying and selling a great experience and be a clear leader in our industry. We take care to protect the intellectual property created through our team’s hard work with an ‘always on’ mentality, supported by a legal team with expertise in this field.
Our Board and Global Leadership Team regularly discuss innovation and promote the power of innovation across the Group, with a focus not only on technology but all areas of our business.
We view innovation not as a standalone function, but as a mindset embedded across our businesses. We are flexible in our approach to exploring and adopting new and exciting opportunities as they emerge, and we embrace and leverage technologies such as AI to our competitive advantage. However, we do so in a responsible way with appropriate governance measures in place.
Artificial intelligence
AI is a rapidly growing field that is transforming products, businesses and markets.
We have been working with AI and machine learning technology for close to a decade and it has helped us to make buying and selling a great experience in many ways. The recent rise in generative and agentic AI has identified ways in which we can leverage this technology to further improve our customer experience, trust and safety, business process efficiency, and content generation. Our exploration with generative AI has demonstrated both its significant potential as well as its risks, and it is for this reason that we choose to harness its capabilities effectively, responsibly and safely.
Our AI Policy ensures the responsible, ethical, and secure use of AI technologies across our Group operations. Our work in this space is supported by our AI strategy, encompassing six key focus areas ranging from user experience to business processes. Each focus area has associated priority initiatives, and the strategy is underpinned by an AI governance framework, the function of which is to ensure the legal, ethical and responsible development and use of AI. Effective AI governance empowers our Group to maximise the benefits of AI technologies while addressing potential risks such as bias, discrimination, and breaches of privacy.
Our AI strategy and its governance framework have been designed in a way that is both adaptable and scalable, enabling us to keep pace with rapid technological advancements and regulatory changes without stifling innovation.