Privacy Policy

Last updated: 2026-06-03

This site is primarily a content publisher. We don't sell anything and have no user accounts. The only personal data we collect is your email address — and only if you opt in to the weekly digest. This policy is shorter than the one at car-scout.com.au/privacy which covers the research-tool product.

What we collect on carscout.au

• Truncated IP hash — your IP address is hashed with the current date (sha256, then truncated to 16 characters) and stored alongside article visits. We cannot recover the real IP. The hash rolls daily, so we can't link activity across days.
• Approximate geographic location — country, state/region, and city derived from your IP by Vercel's edge headers at the moment of the request. Used to understand which articles resonate where.
• Article path + referrer host — which article you read and which domain (e.g. google.com) sent you. Used for editorial analytics.
• Outbound click events — when you click a link to car-scout.com.au from one of our articles, we record the click anonymously (article ID, timestamp, target URL) so we can measure content effectiveness.
• Email address (only if you subscribe) — see “Newsletter subscribers” below.

Newsletter subscribers

If you opt in via the subscribe form on this site, or by ticking the “Subscribe to news” box when buying a pass on car-scout.com.au, we store:

• Your email address (lowercased)
• The source of the signup (header form, footer form, pass-purchase checkbox, etc.) — for our own analytics on which surfaces work
• Timestamps for sign-up, confirmation, and unsubscribe
• A truncated IP hash (same as above) for anti-abuse rate-limiting

We use this only to send you the weekly Friday digest. We do not share, sell, rent, or trade subscriber lists with anyone, ever. Every digest email includes a one-click unsubscribe link — no login required. Unsubscribing is instant; we keep your row marked “unsubscribed” for 30 days so that if you re-subscribe by mistake we can recognise you, then we delete it entirely.

What we do NOT collect

• Payment details — no products are sold on this site
• Names, phone numbers, or any other identifying information you don't volunteer

Third parties

• Vercel (hosting — US edge) — all request data, geo headers
• Neon (database — US) — visit logs + outbound clicks as described above
• Unsplash (article hero images — global CDN) — receives the image-request headers; they have their own privacy policy
• car-scout.com.au — same operator, separate domain; clicks across are tracked as described
• Google AdSense (advertising) — may set cookies to serve and measure ads; see “Advertising” below

We do not sell or rent your personal information. Advertising cookies are covered in the next section.

Advertising

Car Scout News may display third-party advertising, including through Google AdSense. To serve and measure ads, Google and its advertising partners may use cookies and similar technologies to collect data — for example your approximate location, device information, and your visits to this and other websites — in order to show ads that are more relevant to you.

• Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads based on your visits to this and other sites.
• You can opt out of personalised advertising in Google Ads Settings, or opt out of some third-party vendors at aboutads.info/choices.
• For more detail, see How Google uses information from sites that use its services.

How long we keep it

• Visit logs + outbound clicks: 90 days, then auto-pruned
• Active subscriber emails: until you unsubscribe
• Unsubscribed records: 30 days after unsubscribe, then permanently deleted

Your rights

Under the Australian Privacy Principles you can request access, correction, or deletion of any personal information we hold about you. Email dlkstudiotechnology@gmail.com with “Privacy request” in the subject. We respond within 30 days.

AI-generated content disclosure

Articles on Car Scout News are generated by AI (Anthropic's Claude) grounded in live Australian used-car market data from car-scout.com.au. Each article is fact-checkable against publicly available listing sources (CarsGuide, Drive). We do not generate articles using your personal information.

Children

Car Scout News is not directed at children under 16. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under that age.

Contact

DLK Studio Technology Pty Ltd
Email: dlkstudiotechnology@gmail.com