Privacy Policy

Last updated 25 September 2026

Japan Motor Source (ABN 72 687 405 876) helps Australians find, bid on and import vehicles from Japanese auctions. This policy explains what personal information we collect, why, who we share it with, and how you can access or correct it. We handle personal information in line with the Australian Privacy Principles in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).

The short version: we collect what we need to answer your enquiry and import your car, we only share it with the people who need it to do that, and we never sell it.

What we collect

Contact details – your name, email address, mobile number, state or postcode, and how you prefer to be contacted.
What you are looking for – messages you send us, the vehicles and auction lots you ask about or save, your saved searches and alerts, your budget and maximum bids, and inputs to our landed-cost calculator.
Account details – if you create an account, your email address and a securely hashed password. We never see or store your password in plain text.
Import details – if you go ahead with an import, the information needed to quote, contract and complete it: quotes, your signed service agreement (including your name, email and signature record), and import, shipping and compliance documents for your vehicle.
Technical information – your IP address, browser and device type, approximate location, and how you use the site. See Analytics and session recording below.

We do not collect payment card details on this website. You can browse cars and use the calculator without giving us any personal information.

How we use it

To reply to your enquiry and give you advice, quotes and landed-cost estimates.
To bid on your behalf, and to arrange export, shipping, customs, compliance and registration for vehicles you buy through us.
To run your account, saved vehicles and alert emails you have asked for.
To keep records we are required to keep by law, and to resolve disputes.
To protect the site from spam and abuse, and to understand and improve it.

We will only send you marketing emails if you have asked for them, and every one includes a way to unsubscribe. Vehicle alerts can be paused or deleted at any time from your account or from the link in each alert email.

Who we share it with

We share personal information only where it is needed to deliver our service, and never sell it. Depending on how far you go with us, this can include:

Import partners – exporters and auction agents in Japan, shipping and freight companies, customs brokers, and licensed compliance workshops, so they can buy, ship and comply your vehicle.
Government agencies – such as the Department of Infrastructure (vehicle import approvals), the Australian Border Force (customs and GST), and state registration authorities, where the import requires it.
Service providers that run our platform – Supabase (database and accounts, hosted in Sydney), Vercel (website hosting), Amazon Web Services (email delivery via Amazon SES), Firma.dev (electronic signatures), Cloudflare Turnstile (spam protection), and Google and Microsoft (analytics). They process information on our behalf and are not permitted to use it for their own purposes.
Others where the law requires it, or with your consent.

Information sent overseas

Importing a car from Japan means some of your information goes to Japan – usually just your name and the vehicle details, so our partners there can buy and export it. Some of our service providers (including Vercel, Amazon Web Services, Google, Microsoft and Cloudflare) may also process data in the United States or other countries. We take reasonable steps to make sure overseas recipients protect your information consistently with Australian privacy law.

Analytics and session recording

We use Google Analytics and Microsoft Clarity to understand how visitors use this site, so we can improve it. These tools use cookies to record things like the pages you view, how you scroll and click, your device and browser type, and your approximate location. Clarity may record your session so we can see where the site is confusing; text you type into forms is masked and not recorded.

This data is processed by Google and Microsoft on our behalf, may be stored outside Australia, and is not used to identify you personally. You can opt out of Google Analytics with the Google Analytics opt-out add-on, or block cookies in your browser settings. For more detail, see the Microsoft Privacy Statement. We also use strictly necessary cookies to keep you signed in; the site will not work properly if you block those.

How we store and protect it

Your information is stored in secured, access-controlled systems, encrypted in transit, and available only to our team and the providers listed above. We keep it for as long as we need it to provide our service and meet our legal and tax record-keeping obligations, then delete or de-identify it. If we ever have a data breach likely to cause you serious harm, we will tell you and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner as the law requires.

Accessing and correcting your information

You can view and update most of your details in your account. You can also ask us for a copy of the personal information we hold about you, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete your account, by emailing enquiry@japanmotorsource.com.au. We will respond within 30 days. We may need to keep some records, such as signed agreements and import documents, where the law requires it.

Questions and complaints

If you have a question or concern about how we handle your information, email enquiry@japanmotorsource.com.au and we will respond within 30 days. If you are not satisfied with our response, you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as our service changes. The date at the top shows when it was last updated, and significant changes will be highlighted on this page.