Privacy

1. About this policy and who we are

Drive Chat Pty Ltd (ABN 15 169 285 885) (“Drive Chat”, “we”, “us”, “our”) provides managed live chat and AI chatbot services to businesses. This policy explains how we collect, use, share and store personal information, and your rights and choices.

We handle personal information in line with the Australian Privacy Act 1988 and the Australian Privacy Principles, and, where it applies, the UK General Data Protection Regulation.

This policy covers our own website and business, and the live chat and chatbot services we operate on our clients’ websites. It does not cover the websites or services of other organisations we may link to. Please review their privacy policies separately.

2. The two roles we play

We handle personal information in two different roles.

When we collect information about our own website visitors, enquiries to Drive Chat, and the people who manage our client accounts, we decide how that information is used. In privacy law we are the organisation responsible for it (a data controller).

When we operate live chat or a chatbot on a business’s website and handle information from that business’s visitors, we do so on that business’s behalf and on their instructions. In privacy law the business is responsible for that information and we act as their service provider. If you enquired with one of those businesses, that business is responsible for your information, and we help them handle your request.

3. What information we collect

We only collect information that is reasonably necessary for our services. This may include:

– your name and contact details, such as email and phone number;
– the details you choose to share in a chat or form about your enquiry, such as the product or service you are interested in, and your budget or preferences;
– information about your visit to a website, such as IP address, browser type and pages viewed;
– records of your communications with us; and
– business account, contact and billing details.

In our chat services, we only collect what you choose to type into the chat. We do not scrape, buy or otherwise gather extra personal information about you. We do not ask for payment card details, bank or financial details, or health or medical records.

4. How we collect information

We collect personal information:

– when you type it into a chat, form, email or other message;
– when you use our website or services;
– through cookies and analytics tools on our website; and
– through your dealings with the businesses whose chat services we operate.

5. Sensitive information and children

We do not ask for sensitive information, such as health, racial or ethnic, religious or similar information. Occasionally a person may volunteer something sensitive, for example mentioning a relative’s health condition when enquiring about a care service. If this happens, we handle it carefully and remove or de-identify it as soon as it is no longer needed for the enquiry.

Our services are aimed at adults. We do not knowingly seek personal information from children. If a child’s name or age is mentioned in a chat, for example a parent enquiring about childcare, we treat that information carefully and keep it only as long as needed for the enquiry.

6. How and why we use your information

We use personal information to:

– respond to your enquiry and pass it to the relevant business so they can follow up;
– deliver, manage and improve our services;
– analyse and improve our services and AI workflows, using de-identified or aggregated information that does not identify you;
– maintain security and prevent misuse;
– meet our legal and contractual obligations; and
– send service and account messages.

We do not sell or rent your personal information. We only use it for the purpose you gave it for, or for a related purpose you would reasonably expect, unless you agree otherwise or the law allows it.

7. Live chat, AI assistants and how they handle information

Our chat service is delivered in different ways, depending on the service the business has chosen:

– many chats are handled by our trained human agents;
– some chats are handled by an AI assistant; and
– some use a combination of both.

We expect to use AI assistants for more chats over time, although not for every account. Where a conversation is handled by an AI assistant, we will tell you, and you can ask at any time whether you are chatting with a person or an AI assistant.

When AI assistants are used, they are provided by established AI companies, currently including OpenAI (ChatGPT) and Anthropic (Claude), and may include others such as Google (Gemini). We connect to these services through business connections (APIs), not consumer accounts, and we configure them to limit how your information is handled. Under our arrangements with these providers:

– we do not provide your information, and do not permit it to be used, to train their general AI models;
– your information is used to understand your message and generate a response;
– these providers state that they retain it only briefly for security purposes and then delete it, and we enable stricter retention settings where they are available; and
– it is handled under the providers’ data protection terms, and under terms we put in place with them where available.

AI assistants may also help us categorise, prioritise, route, summarise and analyse enquiries so they reach the right team. A person reviews and is responsible for acting on enquiries, and you can ask to deal with a person at any time.

8. Automated decision making

We use AI and software tools to help sort, qualify and route enquiries, for example to understand what you are interested in and pass your enquiry to the right team. A person remains responsible for enquiries, and you can ask to deal with a person at any time.

We do not use these tools to make decisions that have a legal or similarly significant effect on you, such as decisions about credit, employment, insurance or access to an essential service. If this ever changes, we will update this policy to explain the kinds of information used and the decisions involved.

9. Who we share your information with

We may share personal information with:

– the business you enquired with, so they can respond to you;
– our service providers, who help us deliver our services. These fall into categories including our live chat platform, AI processing providers, and reporting and lead management tools. We keep a current list of these providers and can provide it on request;
– professional advisers, and any organisation involved in a sale or restructure of our business; and
– government, law enforcement or regulators, where the law requires or allows it.

We choose service providers that maintain appropriate security and privacy standards, and we do not permit them to use your information for their own unrelated purposes.

10. Sending information overseas

We and our service providers may store or process personal information outside Australia, including in the United States, the United Kingdom and the Philippines. Our AI providers may also process information in the United States.

When we send personal information overseas, we take reasonable steps, through our arrangements with our providers, to require that it is handled consistently with this policy and applicable privacy law.

11. How long we keep your information

We keep personal information only as long as we need it for the purposes in this policy, or as the law requires. Our standard periods are:

– Chat transcripts and lead records: 13 months from the date of the chat.
– Volunteered sensitive information: removed or de-identified as soon as the enquiry is handled.
– Business account and contact data: for the duration of the relationship and a reasonable period afterwards to meet legal and business needs.
– Billing and financial records: 7 years, as required by law.
– Website analytics: in line with the settings of our analytics tools.
– Marketing consent records: until you withdraw consent, plus a short period to record that withdrawal.

Where AI assistants are used, the AI provider does not keep your chat content beyond a short security period, or does not keep it at all where we have arranged that. The 13 month period above is how long we keep our own copy.

When information is no longer needed, we delete it or de-identify it.

12. Keeping your information secure

We take reasonable steps to protect personal information from loss, misuse, interference, and unauthorised access, use or disclosure. These steps include:

– encryption of information in transit and when stored;
– access controls, multi-factor authentication, and role based access, so staff only access the information they need for their role;
– confidentiality obligations and privacy training for our staff;
– choosing service providers that maintain appropriate security standards; and
– periodic reviews of our security practices.

As with any online service, no method of sending or storing information, including by third-party providers, can be guaranteed to be completely secure. We take reasonable steps to protect your information and maintain processes to respond quickly if a problem occurs.

13. Your privacy rights and choices

You can ask us to:

– access the personal information we hold about you;
– correct it if it is inaccurate, out of date or incomplete; and
– delete it, where we are not required to keep it.

You can also ask us to stop sending you marketing at any time, and withdraw any consent you have given.

How we handle a deletion request: when you make a valid request, we delete the personal information we hold about you in our own systems, and we ask the providers that process information for us to delete it or confirm they no longer hold it, in line with our arrangements with them. Some information may be kept for a limited time where the law requires it, for example financial records, or where it has already been passed to the business you enquired with, who is then responsible for it.

If your enquiry was with one of the businesses whose chat we operate, that business may also hold your information as the organisation responsible for it. We will help direct your request to the right place.

To make a request, use the contact details in section 17. We will respond within a reasonable time, and within 30 days.

14. If you are in the United Kingdom or European Union

If you are in the United Kingdom, or another region with similar data protection rights such as the European Union, additional rights apply to you.

Our lawful bases for processing are:

– consent, when you voluntarily provide your information;
– contract, to respond to your enquiry and provide our services;
– legitimate interests, to operate, secure and improve our services; and
– legal obligation, to comply with the law.

In addition to the rights in section 13, you may request data portability, object to or restrict certain processing, and lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) in the UK, or your local data protection authority.

Where we transfer your information outside the UK or EU, we use recognised safeguards, such as Standard Contractual Clauses and the UK International Data Transfer Addendum, together with data protection terms with our providers.

When we provide services on behalf of a business, that business is the organisation responsible for your information and we act as their service provider.

15. Data breaches

We maintain a process to identify, assess and respond to data breaches. If a breach is likely to result in serious harm to affected individuals, we will notify the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner and affected individuals as required by law, and, where we are acting for a business, we will notify that business without undue delay so they can meet their obligations.

16. Cookies and website analytics

Our website uses cookies and similar tools to help it work, to understand how it is used, and to support our marketing. These include Google Analytics, Google Ads and remarketing, which may collect information including online identifiers. You can manage cookies through your browser settings, although blocking some cookies may affect how the website works.

When we operate chat on another business’s website, that business controls the cookies and tracking on its own site, which are covered by that business’s own privacy policy.

17. Complaints and how to contact us

If you have a question, request or privacy complaint, please contact us first so we can help:

Drive Chat Pty Ltd
ABN 15 169 285 885
Suite 305, 75 Tulip Street, Cheltenham VIC 3192, Australia
Email: [email protected]
Phone: (03) 9556 5495 (within Australia)

If you are not satisfied with our response, you can contact:

– Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC), www.oaic.gov.au
– Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), for UK individuals, www.ico.org.uk

18. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The current version is always available at www.drivechat.com.au/privacy-policy, with its effective date and version. Significant changes will be made clear on that page.

Version 1.0
Effective date: 2 June 2026